Psychic Parasite

Chapter 381: Trait
Jyorta observed the Steel Porcupine’s reaction, trying to sense its changes through the fluctuations in its aura. Its presence was churning within, seemingly experiencing an evolution of sorts. Its bulging body began to visibly shrink in size.

Jyorta stared at it in wonder, extending his domain over it. He noticed large spots in it that resisted his psychic energy, almost like Gulvana. They were the congregation of the Essence of Frenzy it had swallowed just now.

The Essence of Frenzy damaged it internally, causing the Steel Porcupine to writhe in pain. But, its own Essence of Frenzy counteracted the foreign counterpart, negating its effects to a certain extent before seeking to swallow it up whole.

As they were all Frenzy Parasites, the Essence of Frenzy stored in them was the most potent. The Essence of Frenzy in its body acted as a digestive fluid that rapidly ate away at the mass it had ingested, converting it into a substance that could develop its body.

It was like watching the effects of the healing salve. As the contents were being digested, the spikes on its back began to grow at a noticeable rate. Jyorta didn’t move forward to attack any other Frenzy Beasts, for the time being, swallowing a portion of the healing salve as he observed the changes in the Steel Porcupine.

His primary objective wasn’t Credits but his development. And, he was inclined to believe the process before him would help in his development. He had too much curiosity vested in the process before him to leave it all behind and hunt Frenzy Beasts.

The Steel Porcupine’s presence continued to evolve. And, spurred by the substance in the Frenzy Parasites it had swallowed, its entire being was slightly changing. The process seemed slow, needing more time to complete.

After a moment of thought, Jyorta unleashed his Soul Cornea into it and repeated the same process he did in the River Whale. He made a circuit using all the souls in the Steel Porcupine. After a momentary hesitation, he dumped in it all the memory fragments he had obtained from the four Frenzy Parasites it had swallowed.

He had swiped them up while they were dying, a reason they died so quickly. On seeing that something different was happening, Jyorta decisively dumped all the related memory fragments into the Steel Porcupine’s soul.

Thoughts clashed in his mind, deducing based on the fluctuation in the Steel Porcupine’s aura. He was trying to create a tattoo for it using this situation. As its presence was constantly changing, he wished to make use of the situation and create a variable beneficial to him.

Jyorta felt pain in his head as he summoned all his Esper power to continuously think through all the variables. He unleashed his aura, forcing the Steel Porcupine to soak it up using the tattoo imbued in it.

He was subtly affecting its presence while deducing a tattoo accordingly, halving the effort required. Still, he dared not do anything too drastic, only following along with the changes that occurred in its body naturally.

The Shoe Fishes began absorbing nutrients from the Steel Porcupine. They had been doing so from the start, but the quantity was negligible. Still, they were the reason it was getting hungry in the first place. After all, there were more than 40 Shoe Fishes stuck to its body.

Now, they had finished invading its nervous system completely. The Steel Porcupine no longer had its individuality. They started to absorb the substance produced by the changes in its body, experiencing a change themselves.

”The ability to cause evolution, a reason new races pop up from time to time,” Jyorta recalled the basic traits of the Frenzy Parasite, observing everything in interest. He had been fascinated by the evolution process even in his previous life.

But, a natural evolution spanned centuries even for simple organisms. Moreover, the conditions had to be drastic to force them to evolve for a chance at survival. Simples celled organisms evolved faster but that was a field he couldn’t delve into. After all, he had only been a university student. That was his plan for the future before he died.

Now, the presence of Frenzy Parasites accelerated the evolution process, giving him such a valuable opportunity. The Steel Porcupine was no longer an individual but was also a congregation of Shoe Fishes.

And, a reaction of sorts had been triggered in them, brought about by the exchange they continued about with the Essence of Frenzy and other substances. The prime catalyst were the four Frenzy Parasite corpses the Steel Porcupine had swallowed.

Aura Induction!

Jyorta maintained it constantly while activating his Unranked Skill to replenish his aura expenditure. He started to engrave the portion of the tattoo that was related to the core of its presence, imbuing the property of hallucination on it.

As for the rest, as they were constantly changing, he was continuously deducing the formula for it. The concept wasn’t hard, but the process was strenuous, especially after the presences of the Shoe Fishes began to mix into the Steel Porcupine. They were fusing into a single entity of sorts.

The moment he discovered the direction of evolution, Jyorta became excited. What he had just started as research for some reason showed a result, even if the direction was different from what he pursued.

Any result of sorts in a research was a cause for happiness. Because through such results, a formula could be derived that would determine the essence of the process, allowing one to determine the formula necessary to achieve the goal.

Through the soul domain, Jyorta noticed faint changes in the Steel Porcupine’s soul. It became a hub of sorts, rapidly exchanging information between the other wisps through the memory fragments.

As to what they hoped to achieve through the constant information transfer, Jyorta was unsure. But, it meant there was an aspect of the soul that he hadn’t discovered yet. The Steel Porcupine seemed to be doing it as a result of its evolution, brought about by the changes he had imbued in it. It had become something natural like breathing to it.

The ball-shaped Steel Porcupine had halved in size now, continuing to shrink. The spikes on its back turned thin and slender like hair, increasing in number slowly. The hair seemed to be covered by a thin transparent layer.

Jyorta perceived it through his sight, watching a phenomenon similar to a cylindrical lens in each hair. The hair continued to thin until becoming as thin as the hair on his head. He could no longer notice the transparent membrane around it, that is unless he looked at it from up close.

Jyorta didn’t wish to take any risks without grasping the situation first hand, so he continued observing from afar. But through the clues he obtained till now, he could get the basic idea, ”The hair is growing from within the skin and through the Shoe Fish’s body. So, they are layered with a portion of their body. This would make them sturdier.”

Jyorta’s mind whirred in thought, watching the changes in the Steel Porcupine begin to slow down. Its evolution continued, but the changes had begun to reduce. A direction of its evolution had already been established.

Using the direction perceived through its presence, Jyorta thought through, soon coming up with a tattoo.

Aura Induction—Hallucination!

He began to use his aura like a string and stitch his with the Steel Porcupine’s, engraving a tattoo on its aura. The process was smooth, the other party unable to even detect his work. Soon, he finished engraving the tattoo in it, one personalised to it.

Unless its presence exceeds his by a large amount, and it was placed in an environment where the surrounding aura damaged its body continuously, it would never be able to destroy his tattoo. That was the frightening aspect of Aura Induction.

The moment he finished engraving the tattoo, the Steel Porcupine’s presence spiked, morphing into a whole new presence. Now, it was no longer a cluster of presences, but a unified whole, a single entity.

All the Shoe Fishes seemed to have fused with its body while still retaining their minds, operating within the Steel Porcupine’s mind as a collective whole. It was like a team of sailors rowing a ship.

The Steel Porcupine’s appearance had drastically changed. Now, it looked no different from a serpent, spanning a length of 60 centimetres and a radius of 2 centimetres. It had become tiny now. Its body was overgrown by hair that wrapped around it, leaving no space empty. They fully coiled around its skin, save for the eyes, nostrils, and the thin line representing its mouth.

Its spikes had disappeared. It seemed to have degraded from its menacing form into a being that wasn’t the least bit threatening. But, as Jyorta sensed its presence, he was shocked. For, its presence was almost on par with his, having entered the realm of Tier 3 in aura.

Thankfully, it was now completely subservient to him, thanks to the tattoo he had imbued in it during evolution. Now, Jyorta had an inkling that no matter what happened, the being before him would stay loyal to him, or his aura to be frank. It was a surprising but frightening result.

”Now, I need to test its strength. Only through a battle can I find out. Is this evolution beneficial or degrading?” Jyorta sent a cue through his aura, motioning for it to return to the River Whale. The Steel Porcupine curled its body and made a light jump, entering the film of water surrounding the River Whale, creating a fluctuation in it as it slithered towards Jyorta.

Jyorta shuddered as his emotions exploded. For, he could sense a familiar presence in the Steel Porcupine just like in the River Whale. It was the one aspect that gave the Frenzy Beasts tremendous power at their disposal.

Trait!