Psychic Parasite

Chapter 373: Dynamic Brethren Bait
”Come Out!” Jyorta transmitted the shout through his aura, seeping it through the boulder using his psychic energy as the medium. The aura was very weak, unable to alert any Frenzy Beast due to the swathes of auras swirling around in the air.

But, no sooner did he shout did a Two-Faced Firefly fly out from a crevice and land on his shoulder. It was a Tier 2 Two-Faced Firefly. The moment it landed on his shoulder, it flapped its wings in a frenzy for a second before turning still.

It acted as if his shoulder was the same as the crevice it used to sleep at. Jyorta looked at it, noticing a familiar aura waft out of its back.

Aura Induction!

Jyorta had used this peerless technique originating from the Aura path to create a tattoo and engrave it into the aura of the Tier 2 Two-Faced Firefly. Now, he didn’t need to maintain a constant hallucination to control it.

He had already inlaid everything necessary in its tattoo. Now, if he wished to manipulate it into flying in a certain direction, all he needed to do was send a trace of aura into its tattoo, actuating the necessary hallucination.

This saved a lot of Jyorta’s brainpower, decreasing the effort he had to use to maintain his hallucination. Now, even if he wished to activate a different aura personification on it, all he needed was a thought and a bit of aura to act as the signal. The Two-Faced Firefly’s aura would morph to suit his needs and plunge it into the desired effect.

’It is amazing but scary at the same time. I shouldn’t become drunk on this sense of power.’ Jyorta mentally reminded himself, always ensuring his mental state was firm and un-skewed. After he had digested all the knowledge pertaining to Aura Induction, he tried it on a couple of Frenzy Beasts.

And the results proved to be a surprise. Tier 1 Frenzy Beasts were incapable of using their aura, so creating a tattoo for them was pretty much easy. As for the Tier 2 Frenzy Beasts, the difficulty rose exponentially.

Just the creation process of the Tier 2 Two-Faced Firefly took him an hour while the time it took to think and derive its tattoo took two days. This made Jyorta glean that though Aura Induction was amazing, it required a lot of preparations before it could be used.

’That is why Madam Vaika said only Espers can use it.’ Jyorta nodded, taking a step forward as he nudged the Two-Faced Firefly with his aura. It immediately took off to the sky and unleashed light radially, lighting up an entire section of the path.

To use Aura Induction, one needed to understand the properties of the target’s aura and create a tattoo accordingly to the effect he wished to afflict. The amount of thought, planning, and brainpower required were harder to compensate for Warriors.

Jyorta already possessed an advantage because he was an Esper. Moreover, his advantages would further increase as he obtains the memory fragments of various Frenzy Beasts and understands them more. That comprehensive first-person point of experience would allow him to create tattoos easily.

This was an advantage exclusive to him alone. Moreover, Aura Induction could also be used against first-time opponents as a temporary measure. He could unleash a tattoo on it and induce its aura accordingly.

This would render its aura useless in battle while also hindering its Parasite path abilities. In regards to this, Jyorta already stored a couple of tattoos on his body. He was already used to creating and storing the false personas. And since the tattoos weren’t that different, he could come up with this method of use.

Jyorta stared at the Two-Faced Firefly flying up in the air, wondering in thought, ’Did that Two-Faced Firefly from before survive? I still don’t know why it voluntarily acted to save me, even after breaking out of my hallucination.’

It happened when Rhachis Ancestor Parasite had attacked Marble City and the residents were busy reinforcing the City barrier. To rescue the children from the Frenzy Beasts that had escaped the military academy, the students had formed groups and set off in pursuit.

During their battle, Jyorta was in a defenceless state after using his aura beam. At that time, a Spindle Bee had aimed a stinger at him and fired it. But, just before it had fired, the beam of light unleashed by the Two-Faced Firefly caused it to flinch, throwing its mark off a little. If not for that, the stinger would have landed on his head, critically injuring him.

When Madam Mary had arrived at the scene, she only brought the students back to the academy. As for the Tier 1 Two-Faced Firefly that had saved him at the nick of time, either she didn’t notice it or didn’t seem to care.

As he was emotionally affected, Jyorta had forgotten about it, only remembering it once he reached the military academy.

It might very well have died later under the rage-filled attacks of the various residents. After all, Jyorta couldn’t sense its aura signature in the Labyrinth of Frenzy in the past month.

’There’s nothing I can do about it.’ Jyorta sighed, gazing around at the path he had to traverse, frowning a little. The entire path was littered with the Spiked Lizards. They were startled awake by the sudden flash of light, looking around in panic.

They gazed around, soon focusing on the source of the light. Before they could attack it with their tongues, Jyorta pulled it back, commanding it to switch off the lights. He wasn’t afraid of the Spiked Lizards. They could be easily sensed through his domain.

388 centimetres!

That was the current radius of his domain. It spanned a significant volume within which he could sense the presence of every Frenzy Beast. As the Spiked Lizards weren’t specialised in concealment, he could calmly avoid them.

What he was afraid of was stepping foot into a Floating Spider’s trap. The flash of light was to scout their positions.

’They are farther away.’ Jyorta sighed in relief, watching the Two-Faced Firefly land on his shoulder as he stepped forward. Through his domain, he avoided encountering any Spiked Lizards while scouting for their Esper counterparts.

Espers were rarer among them but they appeared occasionally. When he had treaded 80 metres through the path, he came across the first Esper among the Spiked Lizards.

Aura Personification—Hallucination!

The Esper hadn’t even managed to detect the psychic energy in his domain before it fell under the effects of his hallucination. It growled, slowly walking towards Jyorta with its head hung low, unleashing its psychic arm.

Jyorta smiled, fishing out the cup-shaped Relic. He held it in his hand, watching the Spiked Lizard seep its psychic arm into it, activating the Skill in it.

Tier 3 Skill—Enhanced Healing Salve!

The fused Skill within the Tier 3 Relic was activated, producing the healing salve in the cup. From its half-filled height, it rose by a margin before the psychic energy in the Spiked Lizard was fully expended.

’Nice!’ Jyorta smiled, retracting his aura personification of hallucination as he trod past. The Spiked Lizard blinked its degraded eyes in confusion, alarmed at its change in position, unable to remember how it had arrived at a different spot. Then, when it noticed its empty Brain Crystal, it screamed in fright, jumping in panic as it scaled up the walls.

”Ugh,” Jyorta immediately modified his psychic arm barrier to shield from the sound, crouching in place until the ringing sensation in his head calmed down. The screech of the Spiked Lizard made his head spin for a second.

’I shouldn’t underestimate them just because I have become stronger. If I had been in battle now and heard this shout, the situation would have become grave for me.’ He berated himself, correcting his mistakes. With the increase in power came a feeling of arrogance. And before he realised, he had become slightly arrogant. That shout just now served as a good warning to him, a wake-up call at his mistakes.

Jyorta slapped his cheeks, clearing his mind as he trod forward in caution, silent, without alerting anyone. He kept the Tier 3 Relic back in the cuboidal bag.

’When the cup becomes full, the healing salve would possess as much energy as a Developer.’ Jyorta sensed for any other traces of psychic energy, trying to find any and every Esper he could come across.

Using their psychic arms, he could easily generate more healing salve. Suddenly, Jyorta stopped, hearing a thud echo behind him. His expression morphed, turning cautious. He motioned for the Two-Faced Firefly to light up the region without flying beyond an arm’s reach from him.

The moment it lit up the area, a black shadow loomed above it, grabbing it as it flashed past. It was faster than Jyorta could react, also resisting his aura attack as it flashed past. Instantly, the brightened region become pitch black.

’As expected of the Floating Spiders. After seeing it a few times, they have prepared a countermeasure.’ Jyorta frowned, now lacking a source of light. It instantly put him in a difficult situation.

The silk the Floating Spiders weaved couldn’t be sensed through his domain. They seemed to have a property to prevent any psychic energy-based detections, rendering his domain useless against them. Since the silk didn’t possess a soul, the vision of his blue soul also failed to spot it.

”Fine, it leaves me only one way,” Jyorta muttered, fishing out the tube-shaped Relic from the cuboidal bag. He poured energy into it using his psychic arm, activating its Tier 3 Skill.

Tier 3 Skill—Dynamic Brethren Bait!