Soul of Searing Steel

Through identification, the System repetitively provided Joshua with important information. In turn, the warrior discovered that the way in which the information was conveyed had extremely similar aspects with his Steel Strength resonance. In the very least, the way the System was linked to him was just like how he was linked to Syndicate. It might be why he could not find the true form of the System, which in turn explains why the System rarely appeared the more powerful he became—his power disturbed the conveyance of the system’s information.

Although it was a mere guess it was an important path of thought. When the System appears next time, Joshua would experiment that particular direction, but now Steel Strength was more important.

It was without question that Steel Strength was a fundamental power, and as a cornerstone of the world it would contain substantial information. As the King of Searing Soul of this generation, each time Joshua arrived at an unfamiliar world he would see that world’s past, which was caused by him touching the information hidden within the Steel Strength of that world. Inversely, Joshua sensed that he now could also place messages he wished to deliver into Steel Strength and direct it to others. It was precisely because the balrog had a little residual Steel Strength on himself that Joshua could deliver those techniques to it across worlds.

Having gained an unexpected inspiration from Syndicate, Joshua promptly began to experiment around the liege’s residence. He activated his own Steel Strength with a tinge of interest and poured all kinds of messages within—it was a curious sensation, as if materializing his own memories and placing them into a chest. Others just have to use energy to connect with him and gain part of Joshua’s memories and sensations.

However, Joshua quickly noticed that if the Steel Strength did not have anything to latch upon such as his own body or a being like Syndicate, it could easily develop unstable undulations in the external world and in turn destroy the information carried within. A solid state must be chosen to store part of the message with stability, a concept which Joshua tested multiple times—he ascertained that matter similar to metals and gems are the most suitable for storing Steel Strength information, with adamantine and diamonds being the best medium.

“That way… isn’t it a little like those Legacy artifacts or weapons placed within caves in cliffs that are stored for a thousand years, waiting for a fated person to come along?”

Simply stating some memories of his preexistence, Joshua kneaded a piece of adamantine without really paying attention. The immeasurably sturdy rare and virtually indestructible metal was molded into a variety of shapes in his hand like plasticine, before being finally shaped into a thumb-sized twenty-face dice which the warrior nonchalantly placed on his desk. “I probably could instruct a variety of Kokyu-Ho with a slap of my hand… Come to think of it, my genetic information could also be placed within.”

But it would be indecent, the warrior thought, shaking his head after considering it seriously.

“That’s enough. Now is time to experiment!”

Having grasped a little application for his newfound ability, Joshua left the hall and started to wander the entire liege’s residence. Just as he walked past a corridor, Black was walking towards him from the opposite direction, an orb on her head.

“Good afternoon, Master!”

“Ding-ring!”

Black and Light who were returning from their training outside greeted him simultaneously. The black dragon girl appeared to very lively thanks to having a companion, with the horns over head appearing to glint much. It was a spirited state she never showed before in the liege’s residence—before this, Black would either sleep, yawn or basically lie down in some random spot and sleep, showing no energy apart from going out for a stroll.

Light appeared spirited as well; its radiant body was flashing. Joshua could guess that it was probably because it did not have to use its own strength to levitate, and that the top the black dragon’s head was definitely a comfortable resting place for it.

“Right, you still don’t seem to understand human language.”

An idea suddenly came to Joshua’s mind as he watched the two joyous beings, therefore reaching out and patting the top of the luminous orb, a pale silver light glinting.

“What a coincidence, time to try it out.”

After the luminous orb made a puffing sound, it shuddered once and quieted. Its pure radiance turned dull while the core inside it also rapidly turned turbid as if undergoing high-speed processing. Still, Joshua did not stop there and reached out again, the same silver light glinting and clapped upon Black who was blinking puzzledly. “You too. Train better.”

The black dragon girls’ body paused abruptly as well. In Black’s mind, huge sheets of principles and methods on how to adjust bloodline ability in order to encourage growth and metamorphosis were appearing out of the blue. Those were things the warrior once pulled the black dragon girl into a room and explained away for a day that she never understood. At present, though Black still did not understand it, she at least remembered it—it would stay there as long as the Steel Strength Joshua kept in her body was not withdrawn or dissipated.

Leaving the Black and Light combo who froze where they were, Joshua went upstairs to the study.

Inside, Ling was holding and frowning at an official document. Joshua could clearly make out the words that those were plans regarding the new eastern city zone. Due to the discovery of some subterranean air bubble and fragile layers, they must delay construction and wait for dwarven professionals to arrive and finishing repairing it—the period of work postponement and profits were probably the reason the youth was troubled.

“What is there to think about? Just transfer two Gold-class knights from the legion over. One will dig, the other will fill the ground—it’ll take about two hours to finish.” Joshua shook his head, heading over and patting Ling’s head. “There must be some champion spirit. You must learn to use extraordinary power when you have it, although what you must do now is rest.”

“Eh, Master?” Ling only reacted when Joshua spoke. However, the warrior’s hand had already touched his head—the black-haired youth could only manage a groan before lying down on the table and sleeping soundly.

This time, Joshua did not use Steel Strength—merely pure strength. Of course, he left a little in the youth’s body, living a little energy that could protect him during dire moments.

Joshua was supremely excited after having learned that unique way of applying Steel Strength. He arrived at the top floor of the liege’s residence where he saw Ying reading a book on the battlements, a sight which pleased him. He truly never thought that the girl would deliberately try studying by herself—when he had specially found a teacher for the girl to instruct her on knowledge regarding being a lady, it ended up futile.

If there was no way she would become a lady, being a literature girl was fine too.

But when Joshua took a better look, he frowned and closed his eyes. Unlike what he thought, the book that Ying was reading so intently was neither some cultured literature nor some historical volume, not even newspaper—it was a dark intrigue novel that was wildly popular around the entire Empire, the contents of which narrates several inspectors solving cases from different layers of society and catching any traces of cultists who were behind the incidents.

It was assuredly a novel with quality, taking most of its materials from the cultist disturbance during the berserker dragon plague a few years ago. Most were adapted from actual events, and the way the three protagonists investigated one huge incident from different angles, as well as how the method was finally revealed was definitely meaningful—it would not be unusual that Ying would like it.

“Well, reading books is not a bad thing.”

Shaking his head, Joshua did not disturb the happily-reading Ying. He merely did the same thing he did with Ling and gave the girl a little self-defense Steel Strength through some distance. Incidentally, he had read that book before when he was bored—he could use the threat of spoilers to force Ying to study attentively in the future.

Just as he went down the stairs and arrived at the second-floor corridors, layers of magical energy ripples appeared. Between breaths, a vivid mana projection appeared beside Joshua.

“Joshua, what were you doing just now?” Zero-Three asked in curiosity once her projection stabilized. “I was just placing observation circles around the liege’s residence and found that you have acted four times, as well as seeing you touch Black, Light and the others… is there anything that requires my assistance?”

“It’s nothing, just giving them a little help.”

Joshua smiled. As he studied Zero-Three’s projection, another idea crossed his mind—if the mana projection was just an extension of the runic crystal core that was Zero-Three’s true form and that there was an information channel linking the two, would that information be thrown back to the other’s body if he gave that projection a little Steel Strength?

“Oh?”

The artificial intelligence girl narrowed her eyes a little at Joshua’s answer, her blue eyes glimmering with a curious light. Watching the warrior’s reaction, Zero-Three appeared able to see something. She approached Joshua, lifted her head to look at him and smiled.

“Since you gave it to them… What about me?”

“Do you plan to give me something?”