Psychic Parasite

Chapter 401: Producing Essence of Frenzy
The influx in energy was too much for the River Whale to handle. The tendrils of blood making up the Caterpillar burst one after another as new tendrils emerged, coiling into its form to reinforce it. The body of the River Whale faintly shuddered every time it happened.

When the energy poured into the River Whale’s Brain Crystal, it was swiftly siphoned into its soul that bulged. The bulge soon disappeared as the energy was distributed between all the souls and their respective Heart Crystals.

This way, it avoided suffering from an overload. The two Soul Corneas siphoned the energy at the maximum possible rate, sending it into the blue soul that then poured into his Brain Crystal.

His psychic arms first healed his injuries, stopping the bleeding before covering up the wounds. He didn’t focus on regenerating his arms. For, that would consume most of the Tier 3 Brain Crystal’s energy. Jyorta wasn’t sure of the exact specifics, as he hadn’t ever had to regenerate his limbs before, nor other’s.

So, he didn’t know the exact energy requirements to perform the task. All he knew was that it consumed a lot of energy that he wasn’t willing to part, ’Once I return, the nurses would heal me back to full health anyway.’

That was what he thought, calculating everything based on his requirements. The blue soul suppressed any pain he felt, only transmitting pure information to his brain.

A moment later, Jyorta shuddered, fearing his thoughts. He then sensed his aura, noticing that a lot of foreign aura had settled within his body. It was affecting him, influencing his thoughts while damaging him internally.

It was the reason his behaviour was slipping away from his usual self. Jyorta inspected himself, muttering, ”It’s not important, I’ll treat myself later. I’m running out of time now.”

If he sat down to treat himself, his time within the labyrinth would be finished. Jyorta didn’t wish to see it happen, so he only healed himself enough to stop him from bleeding. Since his fighting style didn’t involve moving his body around much, he could maintain his battle strength. As for his changing emotions, he suppressed them using the face mask—the false persona.

”This is a problem now,” Jyorta frowned, looking at the bleeding River Whale. It had suffered numerous injuries continuously and was repeatedly knocked out. Now, it didn’t even have the strength to get up once again.

Jyorta seeped a psychic arm through its wounds, turning it pale blue to see most of the infused psychic energy be wasted. The healing effect was barely minimal. The River Whale’s Essence of Frenzy counteracted his psychic energy and resisted the healing effect. The River Whale’s abundant Essence of Frenzy acted against it now.

Jyorta gazed behind the dead Wave Controller Lava Turtle, watching the other Lava Turtles escape from the layer as they headed to layer 4. As the area was covered by the mist, they didn’t even bother to check the result of the clash.

”I guess this is what their characters are,” Jyorta muttered, recalling his comprehension sessions where the Lava Turtles appeared. ”No wonder they have a symbiotic relationship with the Hunter Clams on their back. The Lava Turtles would defend their homes against outsiders, but if the strength of the outsiders surpasses the level they could handle, they would swiftly escape. So in times of need, they could only depend on the Hunter Clams residing in their backs.”

He then thought about Ingrained Earth, the Unranked Skill of the Lava Turtles. It was capable of terraforming an area into the wielder’s desire. So, the Lava Turtles were capable of establishing their home anywhere they pleased.

This further showcased their mindset of fleeing when things went south. The strength displayed from Jyorta’s and the Wave Controller Lava Turtle’s clash proved dangerous, so they vacated. ”The Lava Turtles live in a group but prioritise individual survival. They depend on the Hunter Clams because the Hunter Clams are territorial creatures and would even die to protect their homes. In this case, their home is the back of the Lava Turtles. I see, so that’s their nature.”

Once he saw the lacking efficiency of the healing effect, Jyorta retracted his psychic arm. He made a cruel calculation, noting that the energy he would spend to heal the River Whale would be greater than what he could gain through it later.

”Hmm,” Jyorta focused; the blue soul sent a flurry of memory fragments into the River Whale’s soul, causing it to groan and wake up. It activated its Trait, filtering some water before lifting it, using the water to cover its wounds. It applied pressure in this manner, preventing more blood from leaking out.

It then lifted some more water, covering its body as it slowly took flight. The River Whale landed beside the Wave Controller Lava Turtle’s corpse, opening its mouth to suck in the water, pulling its corpse along with it.

The corrosion he had seeped into it had already done its effect and expended itself. So, the River Whale wasn’t affected when it swallowed the Lava Turtle’s corpse. Once it had swallowed the corpse, the River Whale rested for a moment as its body began to digest it.

The Bundle Flea dragged Jyorta as they floated underneath it. Using his Soul Corneas, he continued to siphon energy from its soul. ’My Sync Rate crossed 76 percent now.’

Jyorta was giddy with joy now, having increased his Sync Rate to such staggering levels. The number of Frenzy Beasts he had killed numbered in the thousands; just the Tier 2 Frenzy Beasts alone numbered in the hundreds. The total energy he reaped from them already surpassed a Transformer’s in quantity alone.

The energy possessed by Warriors and Espers differed, with Espers possessing a greater deal of energy. The Nurturing process built up the physique of Warriors, allowing them to fight for long durations without using any energy. They would only expend a little bit of energy to move around.

Similarly, the Nurturing process built up the psychic arms of Espers. So, while using their psychic arms, the Espers only expended a little psychic energy required to move them. The physical strength of the Warriors was permanent. But, the advantage Espers had was the fact that their psychic arms were made from psychic energy.

So, when needed, the Espers could break down their psychic arms into psychic energy. Therefore, the total energy Espers possessed was greater than Warriors.

After the psychic arms were nurtured, they stayed within the brain while their roots were attached to the Brain Crystal. So, when the Esper died, they would retreat into the Brain Crystal. Therefore, consuming a Brain Crystal was more profitable than a Heart Crystal.

Moreover, the difference in energy quantity between the Tiers wasn’t too much. The activation of Skills by Warriors at higher Tiers was stronger because their energy quality was also superior to Warriors at lower Tiers.

By consuming the Heart/Brain Crystals of even Tier 1 Frenzy Beasts, the one that digested them and generated energy was a Tier 2 River Whale. So, it compressed the energy and generated it at Tier 2 level in terms of quality. This way, absorbing energy from it was more beneficial for Jyorta.

It was a simple cause brought by the efficiency of the energy used. Suppose Tier 1 energy was like mist; it possessed a lot of kinetic energy. Suppose Will was a force similar to gravity that tried to move the mist towards a tap—related to a Skill—to unleash the Skill, then the kinetic energy in the mist would resist the Will.

This way, a greater quantity of Will had to be expended to force enough amount of the mist to move into the tap. This counted as a wastage that reduced the efficiency of the energy.

Now, suppose the mist now existed in a water state. This could be considered as the energy at Tier 2 level. When the Will tried to move the water towards the tap, the resistance it faced would be many times lower than with the mist. Moreover, the amount of water in a unit volume was multiple times the amount of mist in the same unit volume.

This led to a stark contrast in efficiency. So, when the tap—a Skill is activated—is opened, the mist flows out of it slowly. But in contrast, the quantity of the gushing water is higher.

While using the Trait of Severability, the efficiency is the greatest when one is either a Transformer or a Sky Controller and is the lowest when one is an Observer or a Line Controller. As all the energy obtained from the Tier 1 Frenzy Beasts was converted to Tier 2 level, despite there being no increase in its quantity, its quality had increased. So, it led to a greater increase in Sync Rate when consumed by the Trait of Severability.

Jyorta took out the Tier 3 Relic, Enhanced Healing Salve, and commanded the River Whale to unleash its psychic arm. The blue soul also sent some memory fragments to further reinforce the order.

Its psychic arm passed through the Relic and activated it, producing the healing salve in it. Its psychic energy fell at a steady rate when the blue soul made it believe its Brain Crystal had already run out of psychic energy.

It then willed for more energy, combusting its body to generate the psychic energy. Its body slowly thinned while the deficiency caused the Essence of Frenzy in it to devour the flesh of the consumed Frenzy Beast carcasses at a faster rate.

The River Whale harmed itself to produce a staggering volume of psychic energy while devouring the Frenzy Beast carcasses in a frenzy. The hill-like carcasses were consumed one after another as the River Whale’s body ballooned and shrunk like a rhythm.

Soon, its muscles failed to maintain themselves under the stress, sporting fracture in its strands while its organs started to fail one after another. Spurred by the false information the blue soul fed it and the mental command Jyorta gave it, the River Whale fell under the impression that it was starving and had to eat a lot to recover its energy. And, the only method to do so was to generate a lot of Essence of Frenzy.

Without its knowledge, its body continued to produce the Essence of Frenzy without pause.