'Master, that is a Marionette Chanterelle. It takes control of its victim's mind and turns them into a living puppet to propagate while also enhancing their puppet's abilities to better serve their purpose. It grows one stalk every hundred years. This one has eight.'
Skydream spoke in detail about their target as it moved swiftly. They caught up in just a few minutes since the bear was not moving too fast.
With Mental Projection, the bear failed to notice them, but it did turn its head in their direction, its nose twitching as it caught a whiff of a different scent.
Even now, it could not see Skydream carrying Caelum and Celine, but its curiosity made it walk toward them.
Caelum did not waste any time, immediately using Mental Syphon on the bear, although there was a question in the back of his mind.
If the bear was under the control of the mushroom, then whose mental power was he actually syphoning?
The answer did not come easily, and he had no time to waste pondering on it.
As soon as Mental Syphon connected, the bear halted its steps as though realising it had stepped on a trap.
Perhaps it was the mushroom that noticed or perhaps the bear's sensitivity to its own mental power being manipulated by another force made it recognise an enemy in its midst.
But without seeing the enemy itself, it could only remain motionless, anticipating the coming attack. Clearly, its survival instincts had been hampered by the mushroom's control.
As the attack came in a generous package, the bear and the mushroom realised that they should have run away at the first instance of trouble.
First came a wave of cold weakness as an invisible force bore down on the bear, forcing it to the ground.
Though the bear managed to resist it with its mental power combined with the mushroom's as well as the latter's mental defense ability, it did not last long as an invisible stake of mental power shot at them, piercing clean through the barrier and rendering the bear vulnerable.
It was Skydream's Spiritual Shock.
With the bear's mental defense shattered, its mind was greatly injured and the drain on its mental power hastened. Soon, it was left entirely depleted as it crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
Whether it would ever wake up or not was a question that would not be answered, however.
Caelum would not give it the opportunity as he commanded Skydream to freeze the bear along with the mushroom.
By this point, the glow on the mushroom had already diminished greatly, a sign that its power was just as exhausted as the bear's.
And with a crisp crack, Skydream shattered the ice, turning the beast inside into broken fragments.
From its remains rose two soul rings—one yellow, the other a deeper and darker yellow. There was no question which ring belonged to which beast.
The Dropbear was obviously the younger and weaker one with at most three hundred years of cultivation. The mushroom was already eight hundred years old, which Caelum was confident in absorbing.
He sat upon his Void Throne and began absorbing the ring. Skydream remained alert as it kept a close watch over their surroundings.
In this hunt, Caelum had tested out two things that he needed to know.
The first was whether he could fight on his own without any other means of attack other than Mental Syphon and his summons. And the other was whether using his summons to kill soul beasts would still allow him to claim the soul rings for himself.
Both of which have given him positive results.
It did not take long for Caelum to complete his absorption of the soul ring. In just an hour, a new deep yellow ring was added onto the base of his throne, raising it above the ground as though an exalted pedestal.
The soul rings looked more like a heavenly staircase before which subjects knelt to their liege lord.
With the addition of this new soul ring, Caelum felt the barrier keeping him from progressing finally vanished.
The pool of soul power within him seemed to grow bigger, but without a proper reference, he could not be sure by how much.
But even with this, he could feel he was close to hitting another wall.
The innate soul power he had, he finally understood, had not been properly determined by the Spirit Hall deacon.
Regardless, he could always check his current level at any Spirit Hall branch later. And at the same time, he would have to start thinking about their plans from now on.
For now, however, he decided to check his newly acquired ability.
His new ability is called Ruler's Prerogative, and while its name might sound grand, Caelum felt bitter about it.
After all, its effects were wondrous, and not something one would expect from a mere yellow soul ring. This ability could be classified as both an attack and a support based on its use.
When targeting an enemy, Ruler's Prerogative would act like Mental Syphon, but with different effects.
Rather than just mental power, it would drain the enemy's physical attributes. It would transfer the enemy's strength, speed, defense and recovery to Caelum, leaving the enemy gradually weakening over time and him only getting stronger.
The best part is that, paired with Mental Syphon, the effects of the two abilities are compounded, speeding up the drain.
Of course, like most of his abilities, Ruler's Prerogative only works within his Empyrean Domain which currently covers a radius of about 10 metres, with each additional soul ring increasing it by 5 metres.
As for its other use, when Ruler's Prerogative targets an ally, it forms a symbiotic bond between Caelum and the target.
First of all, with the symbiotic bond, the ally target is treated as an extension of Caelum and therefore is able to extend the Empyrean Domain around them with 33% of the main domain's size.
This means that the ally target could leave the range of Caelum's domain and still benefit from Caelum's abilities as they carry a smaller version of his domain.
But the most important thing about this supportive use of Ruler's Prerogative is that, much like the Marionette Chanterelle, it grants the ally target a comprehensive boost to every aspect.
This enhancement stacks multiplicatively with Sovereign Presence, granting a 20% boost to everything, gaining an additional 10% boost for every additional soul ring.
It sounds really impressive, but it comes with its own downside.
Ruler's Prerogative can only be used on one target at a time. This is mostly due to the other half of its supportive effect.
Due to the nature of symbiosis, Caelum cannot easily change the ally target he forms a symbiotic bond with (not including enemies as the ability transforms into a full parasitic attack).
Changing symbiotic partners would cause some damage to both Caelum and his partner as the effect of this ability goes beyond just boosting the ally.
Like the Marionette Chanterelle, Caelum enhances his symbiotic partner while receiving the main benefits of the ability for himself, like a ruler imposing tax on his subjects.
And while his symbiotic partner gains a boost to their overall power, whatever growth or progress they obtain, Caelum would receive a share of it.
This includes cultivation progress, recovery effects from medicine or even the unique effects of natural treasures and the physical and mental strengthening from absorbing soul rings and soul bones.
And since it is a symbiotic relationship, Caelum is not actually stealing it but sharing in it, meaning there would be no loss or diminished effects on his symbiotic partner.
They would be treated as one whole organism.
This was the real purpose of this ability—to take from others as is a Ruler's Prerogative.
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A/N: That's the end of new skills for now. I'll try to speed up the pace to get to the real meat of the plot soon.