Chereads / The Armor Thief / Chapter 8 - The Spirit Turning Skill

Chapter 8 - The Spirit Turning Skill

Fiona was really weak in terms of her physique. When the topic of forcibly absorbing soul power came up, she seldom showed a look of fear. She didn't dare to look Finn in the eye and just stared at the ceiling instead. She said rather uncertainly, "I only absorbed a tiny bit of it forcibly. I didn't feel uncomfortable at all. And after leaving Monolith City, I didn't overdo it again. So, there probably won't be any big problems."

 

"It'll be too late by the time you start feeling uncomfortable!" Finn twisted his neck in annoyance. Since he cared about her well-being, he really disliked Fiona's disobedient behavior.

 

"You're here, right? So, you'll save me even if I'm terribly sick, won't you?" Fiona blinked her eyes with a bit of a pitiful look as she stared at Finn. Meanwhile, she kept twirling the hair that was hanging down her shoulders with her fingers.

 

"I can't do everything. If you absorb too much soul power again, I can't guarantee that I'll be able to save you for sure!" Finn stared at Fiona, trying to scare her a little. Actually, he did have some ways to deal with Fiona's problem.

 

"You heartless guy! Can't you just say something nice?" Fiona gave Finn a sad look and said, "As soon as we meet, all you do is scold me. I worked so hard to find out information for you, and you don't even seem to appreciate it at all!"

 

"Did you find out about that skill?" Finn's eyes immediately lit up with excitement when he heard that.

 

"Of course! Don't you know who I am?" Fiona lifted her fair neck, looking so proud that her chin was almost pointing up to the sky.

 

"I just don't get it. You're a thief, and your skills don't use up a lot of spiritual energy. When you do use up a lot, you could just drink a spiritual energy potion. Why do you need such a fast spiritual energy conversion speed?" Fiona continued, "That skill is called the Spirit Turning Skill. It's a skill based on agility and should be really suitable for you to use. Its effect is to double the speed at which soul power gets turned into spiritual energy. My teacher got it a while ago, but there's only the chant for the first level. My teacher went to the Imperial Library to look for the rest, but couldn't find it. So, I'm not sure if it'll be useful for you or not."

 

"Useful! Useful!" Finn got all excited. He thought to himself that it didn't matter if there was only the first level of the chant. He had an assist device. As long as he used the device to scan that first level of the chant, he wasn't worried about not being able to figure out the rest of it... Actually, skills that can speed up the conversion of soul power into spiritual energy aren't that rare. But most of these skills are meant for spell controllers. Spell controllers need a whole lot more spiritual energy when they use their skills compared to energy users. As an experienced gamer, Finn understood this. Because in all kinds of games, the amount of magic points that spellcasting classes need to use their skills is usually higher than that of physical classes. That's why spellcasting classes usually have a much faster rate of recovering their magic points.

 

In this strange world of the Spellberg Continent, the same rule about the speed of recovering spiritual energy applies. Whether it's a spell controller or an energy user using some special skills, they all need spiritual energy. And spiritual energy doesn't just increase on its own. There are three main ways to get it. One is by recovering it through practicing skills. Another is by drinking spiritual energy potions. And the third is by converting soul power.

 

Recovering spiritual energy through skill practice has no side effects and is the proper way to do it. But the problem is that this way of recovering spiritual energy is pretty slow. And when you're in a fight, it often can't meet your needs. Once you get into a long battle, spirit masters (that's what energy users and spell controllers, who can use soul power, are called) will have to use the other two ways to refill their spiritual energy.

 

Potions are the quickest way to restore spiritual energy in a short time. But spiritual energy potions have some pretty bad side effects. They give a really strong stimulation to the nerves in your brain. So, even spell controllers with strong spiritual power can't use them one after another. That means it's really hard for both energy users and spell controllers to rely on spiritual energy potions to keep casting spells. In other words, they mainly depend on the spiritual energy they get from converting soul power to cast spells. But the speed at which soul power gets turned into spiritual energy is really slow. So, the spell controllers who rely a lot on spiritual energy came up with some skills that can speed up this conversion.

 

Skills that can speed up the conversion of soul power into spiritual energy aren't really a big secret. A lot of big libraries even have the chants for these skills. But there's a requirement for learning these skills. The person learning them has to have really strong spiritual power. Just this one thing basically keeps all the energy users from being able to learn them. However, energy users don't usually need a lot of spiritual energy when they use their skills. So, even if they don't learn these chants to boost the conversion, they still have enough spiritual energy. That's why basically nobody bothers to waste their time learning these skills. But Finn is different!

 

Finn was a thief, and he didn't need much spiritual energy for his skills either. But Finn wasn't satisfied with just being a thief. In fact, after learning the Body Doubling skill, there was a chance for him to develop his strength, agility, and constitution all at once. That meant he could try learning the skills of a warrior or even a barbarian if he wasn't afraid of the trouble. That was actually Finn's main reason for choosing to be a thief in the first place. Since he'd learned more skills, he needed to use them. If he only used the skills of a thief in a battle, his spiritual energy would be enough. But if he used a mix of different skills, Finn thought that the amount of spiritual energy he used would definitely go up a lot. That meant the ways he had now to get spiritual energy might not be enough. That's why he was so eager to learn a skill that could speed up the conversion of soul power into spiritual energy. But he didn't want to waste a bunch of his attribute points on increasing his spiritual power. So, he had a special idea. He wanted to find a skill that could speed up the conversion of soul power into spiritual energy but that he could learn without having to spend attribute points on spiritual power. After he did a favor for Fiona last time, he asked her to help him find out if there was such a skill. And Finn was lucky. Fiona actually did find out some information for him.