Spiritual Materials

The heartfelt approval from Sergeant William dispelled the last traces of tension in Lin Jie's heart.

"I think the commotion we made was enough to put that Artisan Leader on alert," Lin Jie said. He forced his excited, ragged breathing to steady and calmly assessed the situation. "It must see us as its top threat now, so it won't send out small squads again anytime soon."

"That means we've got a window when we won't be disturbed." William picked up right where he left off. The two tactical minds displayed astonishing rapport. "We can use the time to inspect our spoils."

Their gazes fell on the Gremlin corpses in unison.

These little creatures weren't much in a fight one-on-one, but they were still UMAs. Any part of their bodies could be valuable material for crafting Grotesque Armaments.

The two of them carefully returned to the branch passage that had served as their hunting ground.

Lin Jie put on a pair of leather gloves, then joined William in meticulously "dissecting" and "scavenging" the mechanical monkeys' corpses.

Lin Jie soon discovered that the Gremlins' anatomy was far stranger than he had imagined.

They were neither purely biological nor wholly mechanical, but an uncanny hybrid somewhere in between, steeped in bioengineering and alchemy.

Their bones had a metallic sheen, both hard and lightweight.

Their muscles seemed to be made of countless rubber fibers twisted together.

And what flowed through their bodies wasn't blood, but a dark liquid that smelled of machine oil.

"Their claws are the most valuable part." William expertly used his dagger to remove an entire Gremlin arm, then explained, "These tiny limbs, made of an unknown metal, are incredibly hard and flexible. That lunatic Arthur loves using them to make miniature surgical tools that can be inserted into an enemy's body, or... parts for certain nasty traps."

Lin Jie followed William's example and tried collecting the materials himself.

He also discovered that the crystal lenses inside the Gremlins' heads had lost their glow after death, but still held faint energy waves that could resonate with one another.

He suspected they might be used to make some kind of simple, short-range communication device.

However, after scavenging several Gremlin corpses, Lin Jie sensed that something was off.

The materials were certainly strange, but they seemed to be missing something essential.

From Cartographer Karl's diary, he had learned that the highest-quality materials for Grotesque Armaments were usually the parts of a UMA with the strongest spiritual properties, those that best embodied its core traits.

These claws and crystals were useful, but they felt more like ordinary components than powerful cores.

"What about the things they stole?" Lin Jie's gaze suddenly shifted to the music box, which the Gremlins had completely smashed to pieces.

He walked over and noticed something unusual among the pile of parts, now unrecognizable as a music box.

It had originally been made of silver and brass, but now a greasy sheen coated the scattered brass gears and springs.

Their color was darker than ordinary brass, and they felt faintly as though they were "vibrating" when held.

"Sergeant William, come take a look at this," Lin Jie called.

William walked over, picked up one of the altered gears, and examined it closely in his hand.

His usually stern face once again registered surprise. "This is... spiritual saturation?"

"What does that mean?" Lin Jie asked at once.

"Certain UMAs, especially creatures like Gremlins that have an obsessive fondness for particular objects, can slowly alter the very nature of the places where they dwell or the things they frequently touch. It happens under the influence of their powerful 'collective will' or 'mental field.'"

William explained, "We call this process 'spiritual saturation.' Ordinary objects that have undergone saturation gradually transform into 'spiritual materials' imbued with supernatural power."

"Such materials are often more stable than biological tissue taken directly from a UMA, and easier to shape."

He raised the gear in his hand, his eyes alight. "This music box was the Gremlins' greatest enemy because it made a sound of order. As they took it apart, they poured all their 'hatred' and 'desire to destroy' into its components."

"So these gears and springs are no longer ordinary metal. They're cursed objects that bear the Gremlins' will of 'chaos' and 'destruction.'"

Lin Jie's heart pounded at the significance of the discovery.

He finally understood. For a unique UMA like the Gremlin, the materials from its body were merely second-rate. The real treasures were the industrial objects it had stolen, hoarded, altered, and grown to hate!

A new idea lit up in his mind.

"Quick!" Lin Jie said urgently. "We have to check the alarm clocks they were dismantling, and everything they stole from the surface world to build their nest!"

The two of them immediately returned to the work area where the Gremlin squad had been.

Sure enough, among the scattered remains of the alarm clocks, they found plenty of altered materials that had undergone spiritual saturation, just like the music box components.

Some had become extraordinarily tough, while others gave off faint disruptive fields.

Next, they turned their attention to the Mechanical Shrine, a veritable mountain of junk.

What they had found so far was only an appetizer. This shrine, built from countless pieces of spiritual material, was an enormous treasure trove beyond any price!

"Good heavens..." Even William, usually so composed, couldn't help exclaiming at the sight. "These little things... They're building their doghouse out of a mountain of gold."

Lin Jie reined in his elation and forced himself to stay calm.

They couldn't carry off the entire shrine.

They had to steal a few of the most valuable, highest-quality materials without alerting the Artisan Leader.

He cautiously approached the shrine's outer edge and activated his [Touch of Afterimage].

Lin Jie didn't dare interpret anything too deeply, afraid that doing so might immediately draw the Artisan Leader's attention.

Instead, like an experienced wine taster, he sampled the dense, chaotic spiritual aura emanating from the shrine's tens of thousands of components.

In his perception, most of the materials gave off a muddled, faint aura.

But a few of them shone like beacons in the night, their spiritual auras bright and pure.

"Over there!" Lin Jie pointed precisely to an inconspicuous corner in the shrine's lower-middle section. "I can sense them. There are a few things there... Their spiritual energy is far stronger than the other materials'!"

William trusted his guidance without hesitation.

The two of them crept toward their target once more.

Among the heap of scrap iron and pipes, they cleared away layer after layer of debris and finally found what Lin Jie had sensed.

There was a coil of high-purity rubber tubing that the Gremlins had used as rope. It had turned deep black after being altered.

It had retained the rubber's elasticity, while its surface was covered with a peculiar matte coating that absorbed light.

There were also several brass ingots that the Gremlins had used as "foundation stones" to prop up the base.

Their surfaces were no longer smooth, but covered in tiny runes that the Gremlins had unconsciously carved with their claws.

When Lin Jie held them, he could clearly feel a strange force capable of interfering with the surrounding magnetic field.

This was what they wanted.

Spiritual materials perfectly altered after long exposure to the Gremlins' collective will!