Once he had accumulated what felt like the equivalent of a few [Soul Pearls], Triple-Seven stopped gathering raw Soul Power and focused.
During the World Update, Sora—guided by the Mother Orb—had created hundreds of items for the world. He had observed other orbs and mimicked their techniques in manipulating Soul Power and other energies to forge both simple and complex items. Triple-Seven remembered the "recipes" of many of those items, but without Sora's mastery over the different energies, he wasn't confident he could replicate them perfectly. To make the process easier, he decided to use an actual item as a template.
Holding the energy in his palm, he began to compress it. The Soul Power, once calm, started to rotate. Slowly, it formed a dense violet sphere. As it spun faster under his control, the sphere shrank in size.
'This is the easy part…' Shade thought, watching sweat start to bead on his brother's forehead as Triple-Seven began drawing in Mana and forcing it to merge with the spinning Soul Power.
'Without [Mana Evolution], life sure is hard. While Sora is making this effortlessly, the rest of us are out here struggling,' he thought, thinking of Sora's unmatched control over Mana. Using his fingers to guide the energy, Triple-Seven began infusing strands of Mana into the sphere of Soul Power. At first, the two forces clashed. Mana was either repelled or devoured on contact. But he did not give up, carefully guiding each strand until it was accepted. With every successful fusion, the sphere darkened. Once enough Mana had been absorbed, he began releasing Mental Power around the orb and repeated the process.
Shade watched quietly. After several minutes, he finally relaxed as Triple-Seven succeeded. A fruit appeared in Triple-Seven's hand. Shade took a step forward and inspected it. His eyes moved from the newly created fruit to the original one in Triple-Seven's right hand.
"It looks identical to the original… Did you check it?" he asked.
Triple-Seven looked disappointed as he tossed the newly formed fruit for Shade to catch. Shade confirmed the result and grinned, until Triple-Seven spoke again.
"F-Tier affinity is trash. It cost me ten damn [Soul Pearls] to create one. And I didn't even unlock a [Supreme Skill] after achieving such a feat..."
Shade stared at the fruit in disbelief. "Ten [Soul Pearls]?! This shouldn't have taken more than two! How are we supposed to use this method to reach EX-Tier?"
Triple-Seven shook his head. "My control over [Soul Power] isn't good enough. Too much gets wasted in the process. We need someone from the Soul Power Company to handle this. They're way more efficient at conversion."
Shade raised an eyebrow. "Sora or Alius would be perfect for this. Should we ask them?"
Triple-Seven frowned before shaking his head. "We're meant to support them, not rely on them. I already contacted Twelve. He said he'll send someone in a few hours. Until then, let's keep going. What's your current affinity with [Shadow]?"
Shade glanced at his interface. "I'm level 1 with a basic, classless body… So right now, my [Shadow] affinity is C-Tier. And that's only because my talent level."
Triple-Seven tossed him another [Shadow Fruit]. "Absorb one and see if it makes a difference."
Without waiting for a reply, he sat down and began condensing a new fruit. A few minutes later, he looked up to see Shade shaking his head.
"No change. It didn't improve anything. Pure waste at this level."
Triple-Seven didn't respond. He just nodded and kept working in silence. After half an hour, they had ten. After an hour, twenty.
Triple-Seven stopped condensing fruits and sat up. He materialized five of them in front of him. As the fruits floated in the air, a system notification appeared:
[Would you like to fuse your five Shadow Fruits (F-Tier) into Shadow Fruit (E-Tier)?]
Without hesitation, he selected [Yes].
As soon as he confirmed, the five fruits began to rotate in the air, slowly gaining speed. This time, no Mana or Soul Power was needed. The process was automatic, guided by the system itself. One by one, the fruits lost their shape, dissolving into energy. The essence twisted and compressed into a familiar spherical form before a single fruit materialized—slightly denser, darker, and larger than the five originals.
[You have successfully created: Shadow Fruit (E-Tier)]
Triple-Seven reached out and caught it, inspecting the result.
"No energy loss… but it's still trash," he muttered.
Shade watched silently.
Triple-Seven took another five F-Tier [Shadow Fruits] and repeated the process. After creating another E-Tier fruit, he continued without pause and formed two more.
Another prompt appeared:
[Would you like to fuse your two Shadow Fruits (E-Tier) into Shadow Fruit (D-Tier)?]
The system required only two E-Tier fruits to create a single D-Tier [Shadow Fruit]. He repeated the process and made two.
Once that was done, another notification appeared:
[Would you like to fuse your two Shadow Fruits (D-Tier) into Shadow Fruit (C-Tier)?]
As the final fusion took place, Shade spoke.
"One E-Tier is the fusion of five. Ten for a D-Tier. Twenty for C-Tier, forty for B-Tier, eighty for A-Tier… That's 1,280 to reach EX-Tier affinity?"
Triple-Seven, his face visibly tired, nodded. "To reach EX-Tier, I'd need almost three full days of nonstop copying… and that's just for one person."
Shade grimaced. "All of that for an affinity we lose on death. What a shitty method."
Triple-Seven handed him the C-Tier [Shadow Fruit].
"That's if I'm the one doing it and if my understanding doesn't improve. You know I didn't focus on understanding Soul Power. And who said copying F-Tier fruits was the solution anyway? Let's find out how hard it is to copy a C-Tier fruit."
Before Shade could answer, both of them sensed a powerful aura approaching from the bottom of the mountain.
Moments later, someone materialized in front of them.
"Hi Goldman," he greeted Triple-Seven, then turned to Shade with a grin. "What's up, level one newbie? Need big brother's help to develop your affinity?"
Used to his brother's jokes, Shade pulled out the C-Tier fruit and said, "Get to work. Show us what the Soul Power Company is capable of."
Twelve took the fruit, examining it closely before beginning the process of condensing a copy.
Sensing the changes in the surrounding energy as Triple-Seven continued to manipulate Soul Power, he commented, "So this is why you chose a dungeon for your experiments… You're abusing the dungeon law that makes the system replenish Soul Power reserves endlessly."
Triple-Seven nodded. "I was just absorbing your company's knowledge in the field. It'll help with my research. If you want me to stop using Soul Power, just say the word."
Twelve shook his head. "Keep going. It won't affect me."
While Triple-Seven focused on studying and improving his control over Soul Power, and Twelve worked on replicating the C-Tier [Shadow Fruit], Shade remained still, watching them. But after a few minutes, he got bored.
'With my level 1 and low [Soul Level], there's not much I can do... It'd take me hours just to copy an F-Tier [Shadow Fruit] while it takes two minutes for Triple Seven at level 210 and the same Soul Level...'
Acknowledging this weakness, he sat down and turned his attention to the latest version of the [Soulcraft] skill his brothers had developed. He began condensing [Soul Pearls].
'[Soulcraft] scales mostly with Talent Level and Soul Level, so I can grow stronger without leveling up... This skill is insane,' he thought, as he focused entirely on refining [Soul Pearls], ignoring the skill's aspects tied to mana, body, or mental power.
For hours, the three worked in silence. One created [Shadow Fruits], another improved his understanding of Soul Power, and the last refined and absorbed [Soul Pearls].
Eventually, Twelve stood and held up the result of his efforts. What had started as a fruit the size of an apple was now larger than a watermelon. He tossed it to Shade.
"This is the best I could do in four hours. And I'm not planning to spend a whole month making more of these."
Shade caught it and read the description.
[Shadow Fruit (SS-Tier)]
[Description: Gain SS-tier affinity with the [Shadow] element.]
"Impressive. Triple-Seven would've needed sixteen hours to produce 320 F-Tier fruits. Does that mean you're four times faster?" he asked.
Twelve shook his head. "Creating C-Tier fruits is more difficult, but much faster than F-Tier. Starting from a higher tier saves time."
Shade nodded. "Interesting. Why didn't you copy an S-Tier fruit to make this?"
"Creating C and B-Tier fruits was manageable. Condensing an A-Tier fruit, though, was rough. Very taxing on my soul. I only managed to make three. Wouldn't recommend it for mass production. If I were to continue, I'd rather rely on B-Tier with my current control and Soul Level. Maybe Sora could condense an S or even SS-Tier directly, but without millions in Soul Level and perfect control over every energy type, it's not realistic."
Shade was about to ask more when Triple-Seven interrupted, "Will you two stop yapping already? SS-Tier affinity is more than enough for now. Just absorb it so we can move on to the next phase of our experiments."
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