Psychic Parasite

Chapter 278: Getting a Bright Companion
The Two-Faced Firefly flew within his arm’s reach, illuminating the area around him. The light it emitted was the brightest among all the Two-Faced Fireflies. Moreover, unlike the others, it had the option to vary light by either focusing it like a beam or spreading it wide.

When it spread it wide, Jyorta could make out things as far as 20 metres away. In the range of 10 metres, he could see things clearly. When it focused its light into a beam, it was as big as his body 30 metres away. Moreover, it was pretty clear. To Jyorta, it was more than enough.

Manipulating just one Two-Faced Firefly expended very less aura, and was less mentally straining. Pursuing efficiency based on the objective at hand, that was the motto they were taught at the military academy, hammering the thought repeatedly into their mind until they subconsciously sought it.

Even the brightest of wisdom failed when incompletely implemented.

Jyorta walked in a hurry while being alert. He retracted his domain after noticing that his soul domain functioned better to detect enemies. Moreover, now that he could see, it was no longer necessary to keep his domain active. Too much information was transmitted through his domain, furthering his mental strain.

To keep things at an optimal state, he retracted his domain. Moreover, he lost some confidence in it when it failed to notice the presence of the silk rope.

’Maybe they have evolved to make psychic energy perfectly pass through their silk. Moreover, the Unranked Skill, Web World is capable of generating silk that can perfectly prevent psychic energy from seeping into it.’ Jyorta thought, renewing his opinion of the Floating Spiders.

In all the Graduation Ceremonies he had witnessed, the Floating Spiders had suffered the most, despite their advantages. They had small bodies, making them fragile. This was why he labelled them as not a threat at Tier 1 and Tier 2.

But, now that he witnessed their hunting methods, his opinion of them changed. ’They are not warriors but hunters. They plan, devise traps, capture and kill their foes. The setting in the Graduation Ceremonies was different, and the time was too little for their advantage to come into effect.’

The Graduation Ceremony was conducted on the 20th every month. The military academy—Madam Mila to be exact—would begin setting up the Graduation Ceremony Battlefield two days prior. After all the Frenzy Beasts were placed inside, they only had a day to get used to the atmosphere.

Having a standoff with the enemy races, marking territories, etc. gave the Floating Spiders less time to set up their advantage. That was why they resorted to small spherical domes, leaving a vast majority of their Tier 1 out in the open, causing them to suffer the greatest of damage each time.

Moreover, the military academy always placed the Floating Spiders in the middle, causing most of the battles to take place within their territory. This was another reason their losses were the highest.

’They aren’t called the strongest Frenzy Beast race for no reason.’ The moment he thought about this line of topic, the image of a certain Frenzy Beast flashed in his mind. It was a Frenzy Beast that left his sister on the verge of death.

Blessed with exceptional danger sense and a mysterious ability, they were a frightening race that had recently emerged. To this day, Marble City had been unable to capture even a single Frenzy Beast from this race.

He had obtained detailed information about them from his sister’s memory fragments. ’If they manage to produce an Ancestor level figure, how strong would they become?’

He immediately rid him of the distracting thoughts, focusing on the issue at hand. The Two-Faced Firefly had almost managed to break free of his hallucination in the short duration he was embroiled in thought.

With a change in thought, his mental state would be accordingly affected, also affecting his aura personification. He quickly returned to the optimal state necessary to use the aura personification, continuing to walk. Soon, he arrived at the end of the path, noticing the layer of web become thick, drooping down three metres from the ceiling.

Contained within seemed to be a lot of things, possibly even eggs. As it was beyond the range of his senses, he couldn’t be bothered to disturb them. But, as he looked forward, Jyorta couldn’t help but frown.

At the end of the path was a flight of stairs that lead to the second layer. But, a layer of web had cordoned it off. Moreover, it was a thick layer, spanning 10 centimetres in width. The silk ropes forming it were each 4 centimetres in diameter. The amount of strength needed to snap them was beyond what he possessed.

In one of the activities the military academy had conducted, they were given a sword and were asked to cut a silk rope—produced from Observer Floating Spiders. There were silk ropes of varying thickness, starting from 0.5 centimetres to 5 centimetres.

Warriors and Espers were ranked separately for the event. Among the Espers, many failed to even cut through the thinnest silk rope—0.5 centimetres.

It was many times tougher than steel with the same dimensions.

Using all the force and technique at his disposal, Jyorta erupted with his strongest slash of the time, barely managing to cut a 0.8-centimetre-thick rope. The highest among the Espers was 1.1 centimetres. It turned out to be the same boy who occupied the room adjacent to his.

For a moment, Jyorta recalled how he had troubled the other party daily in the mornings through his alarms. After a moment of thought, he conveniently brushed it off.

George obtained the highest score among Warriors, managing to cut a 2.8-centimetre-thick silk rope. The event had been held two months ago, so the scores might turn out higher now. But even then, cutting through the silk ropes before him was beyond Jyorta’s physical ability.

’I don’t wish to leave too much traces of corrosion in the absence of Madam Mila.’ Jyorta sighed once. In the times he trained at the entrance of the path, Madam Mila wiped out all traces of his corrosion after he was done, keep it secret from the rest.

That was why he was disappointed when he learned of her absence. It meant he had to clean up after himself, unless he wished to keep the traces for someone else to discover.

Usually, anyone would just attribute it to the Spiked Lizards who stored acids in a sack underneath their tongues that they shot to melt the bones of their prey. But, suppose Laila were to make an investigative sweep, then she might sense the difference. He didn’t wish for his corrosion to be revealed to her.

Using the hallucination, Jyorta made the Two-Faced Firefly dart around, allowing him to inspect his surroundings. Failing to notice any Floating Spider, he observed the silk layer, trying to sense relatively weaker sections.

In the meantime, he noticed the lack of any Ring Worms underground through his soul domain. He then unleashed his domain, spotting several areas there were relatively weaker. But the difference wasn’t big enough to give him an advantage.

Finally, he arrived at the left extreme, watching the spot where all the silk ropes were attached to the wall. The walls were yellow, a sign that they were made by Madam Mila. Jyorta unleashed his two Soul Corneas, flattening them into a long sheet of paper.

Morphed paper thin, he passed a Soul Cornea through the layer of silk, layering it just beside the wall. As for the other Soul Cornea, he layered it on the ground. He intended to cut an L-shaped section, separating its hold from the wall and the ground.

Moreover, since he affected it on the bottom-most corner, it wouldn’t cause any disturbance to the structure, preventing the Floating Spiders from being alerted. Moreover, he also wished to use it during his return.

If he made a commotion and bored through a big hole, then by the time he returned from his exploration, the hole would have been patched up. Suppose he didn’t have enough energy, then his fate would be to wait in the second layer until he ran out of energy and suffered enough damage for the staff to pull him out.

He didn’t wish for something that foolish, hence his decision to affect the corner.

The blue soul connected twenty soul tendrils to his Brain Crystal, siphoning away the psychic energy for the operation. After taking in a deep breath, he furrowed his brows, willing the effect.

The blue face in the blue soul opened its mouth to send a ray of blackish mass into the two Soul Corneas. The two Soul Corneas turned jet-black in response, fully suffused with the effect of corrosion.

Immediately, the silk threads began to corrode, like thermocol coming into contact with a candle flame. The energy expended though was anything but little. With a brief estimate, he noted an 8 percent expenditure of his psychic energy.

But despite the heavy expenditure, the result made him smile. In the span of two seconds, he had managed to finish corroding their contact with the wall and the floor. ’I have become a bit strong.’

Using his stronger psychic arm, he picked up a spindle, using its flat side to push the silk layer. Thankfully, the strength in his psychic arm was enough to move it. Jyorta crouched on all fours, carefully proceeding through the gap.

He made extra sure to avoid coming into contact with any portion of the silk layer, even the speed at which he moved the silk was as slow as possible. Once he crossed to the other side, he gently placed it back, correcting it to ensure it looked the same as before, even using the blue soul to send the related memory fragment to his brain, pulling up the image for cross-reference.

Finished with his careful measures, he heaved a sigh of relief and began to descend the stairs, feeling partly excited. ’The second layer, here I come!’