Psychic Parasite

Chapter 385: Rising Sync Rate
The River Whale opened its mouth, sucking the water into it. The water formed a vortex while moving in a stream, grinding all the flesh into bits and pieces. It swallowed them whole, its body bulging to more than twice the size.

A couple of minutes later, it ejected all the water before beginning to swallow up another stream of the flesh piled up in the shallow waters. Jyorta sat on its back, observing the River whale’s digestion process.

Its digestion rate was many times faster than a human Warrior at the same Tier. Frenzy Beasts digested their food while making use of their Essence of Frenzy, so irrespective of the food consumed, they quickly broke them down into nutrients.

The food was converted into psychic energy at a steady stream that gushed into its Brain Crystal. It was at a pace at least ten times his. The River Whale possessed a humongous body, containing a tremendous density of muscle mass.

So, the quantity of Essence of Frenzy it contained was a significant sum. Upon ingestion of the flesh, all its Essence of Frenzy was summoned to its stomach, rapidly eating the flesh, consuming the Essence of Frenzy in them while evolving itself further.

If the Frenzy Beasts didn’t possess such a humongous body, and a massive Quantity of the Essence of Frenzy, its digestion speed wouldn’t exceed a human’s by that much. Jyorta thought, ’Then, how high would a Lava Turtle’s digestion rate be? After all, it is a race with one of the biggest bodies.’

The River Whale and the Bundle Flea munched on the flesh and blood, not even leaving the bones behind. In the meantime, Jyorta finished making the same circuit of souls in the Rigordile, vaporising all its murkiness.

With a command, it too began to gobble up the flesh and blood. Jyorta seeped a Soul Cornea into the River Whale’s soul, siphoning energy at a steady stream. He matched the siphoning rate to its replenishment.

Trait of Severability!

Jyorta felt a mild headache as he activated the Trait, feeling something change in himself. It was a slow process, due to the slow energy supply. But still, he could sense the change. It was a feeling of upgrading himself slowly, but steadily to the peak.

In the intervals of every hour, he would extend his second Soul Cornea into the soul of the Rigordile, siphoning energy from it. Once the reserves in all the Heart Crystals in it were expended, he left it to begin eating once again.

As for the Bundle Flea, the Heart Crystals of the Shoe Fishes had disappeared after the evolution. They seemed to have been consumed by its Essence of Frenzy that had achieved a qualitative change as a result. So, it only possessed a Tier 2 Heart Crystal now. Jyorta occasionally siphoned energy from its soul before leaving it to its devices.

The Rigordile consumed food in large quantities until its stomach visibly bulged. But, the bulge continued to decrease at a visible rate. It wasn’t being digested by it alone. The Shoe Fishes absorbed nutrients from it and digested them on their own.

This way, the quantity of food digested at every moment was significant. After digesting the nutrients, each Shoe Fish replenished a trace quantity of energy in their Heart Crystals. Thanks to the circuit, Jyorta could siphon them as a collective whole.

It was the same in the case of the River Whale.

Energy flowed into the blue soul through the two Soul Corneas. Ten soul tendrils extended from it and connected with his Brain Crystal, sending a steady stream of psychic energy into it.

The effect of the Trait of Severability made his blood absorb psychic energy from his Brain Crystal, carrying it as it coursed through his body. While making its circulations, it came upon the Trait of Severability, the psychic energy in it getting absorbed.

Jyorta’s Sync Rate began to steadily increase. In the meantime, he closed his eyes, working on his tattoos. He didn’t create the sixth tattoo, judging that it would only be a waste of time. Once he used all five tattoos, he would have five Tier 2 beings fighting for him.

Adding onto his own battle strength, he wouldn’t be hard-pressed for survival in any situation. Thanks to the River Whale, he had an advantage in mobility and defence. So, in the off-chance something turned amiss, he could just command it to run away.

Even if there was a chase, he could launch aura beams at his foes while using the tremendous energy stored in it. What he was currently working on was the core use of Aura Induction: creating a tattoo to be inscribed on himself.

The nurse Vaika used that to create her Crimson Desert. Jyorta wished to at least conceptualise it by the time of his graduation. It was a complex subject where he had to consider a lot to establish the groundwork. After all, once he created it, he would be spending tremendous energy and resources on developing it.

Changing it to something else after that would be a waste of all the time and resources he had spent on it. That’s why Jyorta didn’t wish to rush it.

”Parasite, Aura, Mind, and Soul; I have to create a scenario where the development of the four would be the highest.” He then thought through every consideration he had over the past month.

’The Crimson Desert fully focused on pushing development in the Aura path. Madam Vaika didn’t seem interested in the other paths much, or rather, sought to focus on one aspect first and reach its peak.’

He tapped his chin, ’But, I have my advantages in this aspect. Using the memory fragments I obtain, I can create realistic beings without much trouble. All I need to do is comprehend them before creating their characters in the world. But, how will I best make use of my advantages?’

He had one goal, which was to surpass his predecessor. ’Laila has more than a century’s worth of accumulation as an Ancestor. She must have numerous schemes at play. Once the Saturation Point appears in the Mental Realm, it would signify the war between all the races. The world itself will trigger this war, so I don’t have time like Laila to accumulate my advantages to the peak. I should obtain everything possible during the available time.’

Jyorta spent a day in thought, using his Unranked Skill to heal himself from time to time to replenish his body’s needs. After all, he had a consistent stream of psychic energy to rely on. The three Frenzy Beasts had consumed all the Frenzy Beast carcasses in the layer.

Brought about by the severe deficit in energy, their bodies became hungrier as time passed, spurring them to gobble more and more. Their bodies ravenously digested everything they ingested while the Soul Cornea siphoned the energy at an equal pace, always keeping them in a state of hunger.

Jyorta also modified the tattoos he had imbued in the Rigordile and the River Whale into one suitable for them. Now, they were completely under his control. After they finished eating the last piece of flesh, he stopped siphoning energy from their souls, allowing them to stave off their hunger.

Jyorta opened the cuboidal bag, seating himself atop the River Whale’s head, motioning for it to act. The River Whale landed on the shallow water and removed the film of water around it. Tendrils of blood seeped out of the pores on its head and coagulated into a tiny sphere.

The sphere developed into its Caterpillar. Of its six segments, the sixth segment was shaped like a tail while from its third segment grew a pair of arms, shaped like its flippers. The first segment sported three pairs of eyes that were covered by a coral outgrowth—all made from its blood.

Its eyes darted to and fro, fixated on Jyorta as it made a whooshing bow. Jyorta threw it a Tier 1 Heart Crystal, watching it beam in joy. It opened its mouth and shouted, expressing its joy. But no sounds were produced.

The Caterpillar used its flippers to hold the Heart Crystal, taking a deep sniff of it while making an expression of drowning in pleasure. It then opened its mouth and hesitantly licked the Heart Crystal, unwilling to finish it up quickly.

Jyorta put his hand into the cuboidal bag, holding a dozen Heart Crystals as he allowed the Caterpillar to see. The Caterpillar was stupefied for two seconds before it gulped the Heart Crystal held in its flippers.

It drooled, barely controlling itself as it raised its flippers, requesting for more. Jyorta chuckled, giving it another Tier 1 Heart Crystal. He noticed a dense stream of psychic energy surge into the River Whale’s Heart Crystal.

At the same pace it arrived, he siphoned it out, consuming it by using his Trait of Severability. This was his prime objective. Instead of using the Credits to obtain Frenzy Fruits, this was a better alternative. After all, among Frenzy Fruits, a Tier 4 Frenzy Fruit only increased his Sync Rate by 0.1 percent, and he couldn’t consume more than one per day.

But, the Trait of Severability had no such limits. As long as he fed it a constant stream of energy and could endure the resulting pain, he could maintain it for as long as needed. Moreover, as the stream of energy was in the domain of Tier 1 and Tier 2, the pain he felt was only a mild headache.

’I’m about to reach a Sync Rate of 76 percent.’ Jyorta was ecstatic, giving Heart Crystals to the Caterpillar one after another. As layer 3 was devoid of enemies, he could relax and develop himself, making use of all his accumulations.

He didn’t know about the crowd of students that had converged before the White Building, anticipating the final scores of the October Batch.