Soul Resonance

"Waaah—!!!"

An Evil God Believer let out a piercing scream and charged forward with a spear in hand. But before he had even made it halfway, a whistling warhammer swept across him, sending him flying like a golf ball.

"The third Search Team... finally taken care of."

Duanmu Huai retrieved his warhammer and let out a low breath. Since then, they had continuously run into pursuing Evil God Believers. This was already the third team. He had to admit, those Evil God Believers were truly annoying, though they did provide quite a bit of experience.

"May I ask what exactly we came here to do?"

Following behind Duanmu Huai, Elisa asked uneasily. After that, the Black Knight had come to these ruined remains...

"You'll find out when the time comes."

After wiping out another squad of Evil God Believers, the information Duanmu Huai needed finally appeared before him.

Raise level to 10 to unlock specialization branches.

Specialization branch selection—Super Soldier, Tech Priest, Psyker.

It's here!

Duanmu Huai's eyes widened excitedly at the sight. This was exactly what he wanted!

The Inquisitor class had three specialization branches, each corresponding to different abilities. Super Soldier went without saying; it mainly enhanced melee attack and defense, making it the sort of class that combined tanking with damage output.

Tech Priests, meanwhile, were somewhat unusual. They could manufacture technological creations to fight for them, things like drones and automated turrets. It looked very high-tech. At the same time, they possessed protective and healing abilities. Strictly speaking, a Tech Priest was more like a technological fusion of a Summoner and a Priest, and it was also the earliest specialization route capable of forming a one-person army.

Its only drawback was that building a Mechanical Legion required resources.

The last one was Psyker.

It could be considered a mage-like class. It could deal damage, heal, and fight in melee, making it seem highly versatile. Its power was indeed quite formidable, but... Psykers had their own weakness.

That was the Warp Space Crisis.

According to the setting of Star Sea Online, this world possessed a unique dimensional realm known as Warp Space. It was a mysterious dimension where the Soul Projections of all things resided. Like the Shadows of the real world, anything that existed in the world would leave an imprint of its existence in Warp Space. Psykers drew power from Warp Space to cast all sorts of spells, but... that created a problem.

Countless Demons lurked within Warp Space. When Psykers drew power to cast magic, their Soul Projections would shine in the eyes of the Demons of Warp Space like blazing flames. And those Demons would rush toward the Psykers' Soul Projections like moths to a flame.

Therefore, if a Psyker used magic for too long, it would create the danger of Warp Space Corruption. At that point, not only would all kinds of strange problems arise, but high-ranking Demons might even come over and warmly invite you to become one of them—at which point, most Psykers had no power to refuse.

Even if they refused, they could not escape anyway.

For that reason, players also hated teaming up with Psykers, especially beginners. Many people simply read the Psyker description, thought it looked cool and fun, and chose the class. Then, when they formed parties, they dragged their teammates down horribly.

Just imagine it: you were fighting a boss in a five-man dungeon when a notification suddenly told you that the Psyker in your party had entered Psyker Overheat and triggered a Warp Space Anomaly. Then a whole barrage of DEBUFFs—poison, slow, defense break, and the like—came raining down on your team. At that point, you would probably feel like dying.

Not to mention that if they were unlucky, the Psyker could be corrupted by a Demon and turn into a terrifying enemy. Then... victory and defeat were common in battle. Hero, please start over.

So in the early days, having Psykers run dungeons in parties was a miserable experience. They had to ensure their damage was sufficient while also avoiding overheating and triggering a Warp Space Crisis. Otherwise, they would be cursed as the team's cancer and even kicked out outright.

As a result, Psykers were extremely unpopular at first. Players even joked that there was finally a game where mages were not grandpas, but grandsons.

Because of this, Psyker was initially regarded by many players as the most difficult class, and no one wanted to play it. As for those who had ruined their characters... there was no helping it. They could only spend money to delete the character and start over.

After all, Star Sea Online was set up so that only players who had cleared the main storyline were qualified to create alts and obtain heirlooms. Otherwise, they could only pay to delete their character and start over... damn it, what a money-grubbing game.

However, not long after that, someone discovered the true way to play Psyker. Only then did most players realize in astonishment that grandpa was still grandpa... Those players who had paid to delete their characters and start over wailed like ghosts and howled like wolves, filled with regret.

The one who had uncovered that playstyle was Duanmu Huai. In fact, he had beaten his chest and stamped his feet in regret at the time as well. If he had known about that playstyle sooner, he would not have suffered so badly...

To be honest, from that time onward, Duanmu Huai had always entertained a thought: if everything could start over, could he create a character even stronger than any in the game by combining his discoveries and strategies...

Of course, there was no medicine for regret in this world... but didn't he have one now?

"Choose Psyker."

Duanmu Huai made his decision without hesitation.

Player has acquired Psyker specialization... Please choose a core skill.

Aether Walker, Sky Walker, Soul Walker.

"Soul Walker."

...Player has acquired Soul Walker Core.

Player has acquired special skill... Soul Resonance.

Inquisitorial Power Armor changed to Warp Mode.

The next moment, the heavy pitch-black armor on Duanmu Huai's body began to emit a deep violet radiance, gradually changing shape. Its overall tone remained black, but its edges turned gold. At the same time, the equipment case on his back, which had originally looked incredibly bulky, transformed into a luxurious and exquisite golden Halo.

Seeing this, Elisa's eyes widened in astonishment as she stared at the Black Knight beside her.

At the same time, Duanmu Huai opened his character status window again.

Little Hammer Smashes Your Skull

Class: Inquisitor (LV10), Soul Walker Specialization, Warp Space Heat Consumption -50%

Strength: 12, Melee +6, Space Marine Combat Training LV5, Material Misalignment, Attack Weakness

Agility: 4, Shooting +0, Sicarian Enhancement LV1

Constitution: 6, Resistance +2, Ecclesiarchy Siege Doctrine LV2

Intelligence: 7, Will +2, Combat Psyker Training LV2, Soul Resonance (Special Skill)

Perception: 8, Awareness +4, Adeptus Arbites Assault Tactics LV3

Charisma: 1 (Locked), Communication -3, Intimidation LV2

Many players did not choose Soul Walker when playing Psykers because the special effect of Warp Armor was simply too lame—Warp Armor reduced Warp Space Heat consumption by 50%, but beyond that, it had neither the teleportation ability of Aether Armor nor the defensive power of Sky Armor. To many players, it was a rather unappealing armor mode.

However, the strongest thing was still the core skill...

Duanmu Huai reached out and tapped Soul Resonance. The system description quickly opened.

Soul Resonance: You can sense ancient history, the power of souls, and the great power from the peak of the world. All of it will be at your disposal.

It was only a short sentence, without any explanation of what the ability actually did.

That had also been the case before his transmigration. In the beginning, every player, Duanmu Huai included, had been completely baffled by the Soul Resonance skill and had no idea what it meant. Other skills at least came with a simple description that told players whether they were support, attack, defense, or something else. Soul Resonance alone was utterly incomprehensible.

Players had also tried casting the skill on other things—NPCs, bosses, items, they had tried them all. The result was that it did absolutely nothing.

At first, players thought it was a game bug, or that the Star Sea Online developers had overlooked it. They flooded the forums with reports, but the official response from Star Sea Online was, "All functions are operating normally. There are no bugs." In other words, Soul Resonance did have an effect; the players simply had not discovered it yet.

In truth, this skill was not merely effective. It was extraordinarily powerful.

And its true power was hidden within the ruins!

Duanmu Huai withdrew his gaze and looked at the crumbling ruins before him, his expression turning solemn.

What came next was the important part!

The last chapter for today.