Re: Evolution Online

Liam took one more look at his massive debt before he pushed it aside and moved on to other important things. He opened his system interface, hurriedly going through the items available for purchase in the shop.

"Do you have any recipes or weapons or armor or skill related to soul?" He asked the fairy since it was a daunting task to go through the multitude of stuff that was available inside the shop.

Unexpectedly the fairy gave him an instant reply, except that it was not the one that he was looking for. "Nothing like that is currently available." Tilia tersely replied.

"Huh? Are you sure? It doesn't matter even if it is a minor healing technique. I am looking for anything even remotely related to soul at this point."

Tilia shook her head giving a bitter smile. "Lord Liam, do you think it is easy to come across artifacts and skills related to soul? Manipulating one's soul is one of the most sought after paths that many want to step on. It is not that easy."

"There are of course some skills that vaguely mention soul. You can take a look at those. These are nothing special so you don't even have to pay for these."

Liam snorted. This woman. She was acting like she was doing him a favor but in reality, the cost of these was probably just a drop in the bucket when compared to his debt.

"Okay. Thank you?" Liam responded, giving the fairy a knowing look.

Tilia giggled. "Ha Ha Ha. I am just messing with you, Lord Liam. Of course, you have to pay for these as well."

Liam's face twitched but the woman was not all evil. When he looked at the skill books she had shared with him, his eyes widened in surprise. There were a few that genuinely piqued his interest. 

Although they were not directly related to soul manipulation or healing, they contained techniques and knowledge that could indirectly aid his quest to understand and heal his soul.

One book was titled "Astral Echoes," a skill that seemed to involve using one's soul energy to sense and interpret subtle changes in the environment, potentially useful for detecting hidden dangers or tracking elusive entities.

This was a particularly rare skill book that belonged to the class Astral Mage, apparently a class that could not even be unlocked by the human race.

However, Liam thoroughly checked the skill description, making sure that he wouldn't have any problem using the skill book.

The next one he had his eye on "Nature Resonance," a shaman skill. This detailed a method to harmonize one's soul energy with natural forces, potentially allowing for more efficient use of mana and a deeper connection with the world around him.

The skill's potential to create a deeper bond with the natural world could provide insights into the fundamental connections between soul energy and the environment. Such knowledge might be key to understanding how to repair and fortify his soul.

The last one was a skill book "Soul Weaving," a hunter skill. It was essentially a stronger contract bond forming skill that made the connection between a tamed pet and a beast hunter deeper, even for the common-grade beasts.

This essentially allowed them to share equal experience points, instead of the meager percentage that the system automatically allocated for the weaker beasts.

While all three skills had a soul component, they were nothing close to the direct soul healing or manipulation techniques Liam was initially seeking. Yet, each held potential value in his unique situation.

It was not often that one would come across a technique like Soul Splice that instantly sky-rocketed their power level. Nevertheless, Liam nodded with a thank you. He already started making a training plan in his mind with these new skills in his repertoire.

Tilia looked at him enthusiastically learning all the books one after the other and her gaze narrowed in seriousness. "Liam, by now you should know something. Not all system shops are the same."

"Hmmm?"

"You said that you were stranded in a B ranked elven world, right?" Tilia asked.

"Yes."

"The goods and skill books a shop like that can offer you are far different from what you find here. We just don't have that many quality goods that could make an expert like you interested. That is the unfortunate truth."

Liam gave a rueful smile. When a higher-level system shop was available, he did not have access to it. But now that he had access to a system shop, its level was not high enough.

"That's why you shouldn't be too disappointed if you don't find exactly what you're looking for immediately. The inventory here is constantly being updated, and who knows, something more directly beneficial for your soul might appear in the future," Tilia added with a wink.

Liam paused as he knew what exactly the fairy was hinting at. "So you also think that this world has the potential to become a higher rank world?"

Tilia grinned. "I don't think or guess. I know. A unique world like yours is guaranteed to be a C rank at the least and has a high chance to become a B rank."

"Who knows if you feed the tree the right things, it might even end up upgrading this world to an A ranker."

Liam's eyes lit up. A higher-ranked world meant access to better resources, skills, and perhaps the key to healing his soul.

"That's encouraging to hear. But what does it take for a world to rise in rank?" he asked, his mind already calculating the implications.

"It's not just about the strength of its inhabitants," Tilia explained. "It's also about the richness of its resources, the diversity and complexity of its ecosystems, and the level of its overall development."

"More importantly, it is about what the tree eats."

"Do you know what materials are needed to achieve something like this and where I can get them?"

"Bah!" Someone loudly snorted and Liam and Tilia turned to see Eldrin approaching them. "You can't even manage to find a soul-healing pill that works for you on this backwater planet. How are you going to find a treasure to upgrade a world tree?"

"Well, don't look at me like that. Sure, your world is going to become all strong and fancy in a few years but until then, it is still a baby."

"And the resources in a baby planet are extremely limited. At most, you will find what our ancestors found when our world first got newly integrated."

"Don't get me wrong. This should be some pretty powerful stuff and could probably sky-rocket your power and abilities tremendously but it won't help you against your feud with the holy bitch."

Before Liam could say anything, Eldrin quickly added. "Yes. Yes. I know all about your grudge with the stuck-up divine assholes and the whole tutorial scam they tried to pull on you. Just buy a few drinks to any of the civilians and this is all they talk about."

"Their great leader Liam and his vendetta against the holy cows." Eldrin laughed. "Don't worry. Those guys are pretty much assholes to everyone in our sector. They have an uppity attitude that the golden rod in their asses bring out."

"If you run across a few of them, you will know that the priestess who messed with you is not the only intolerable one."

"Anyway, this brings me to what I wanted to talk to you about today." Eldrin clicked his tongue. "You guys dumped all of the administrative work on me and left me to rot but it is my duty to remind you."

Ever since Liam checked out for his honeymoon, Eldrin somehow became a go-to guy for several issues as his experience in dealing with large sects and guilds was vast. He was also a young master of a famous family thriving gloriously for centuries.

The issues that a lower, newly developing world like this was facing were essentially nothing new to him. It was even included in the formal education that he received back in his world when he was younger.

How could a little fox know about all of these intricacies? The little fox did nothing other than eat and sleep or go around on a rampage.

And with Alex tied up on the bed, all of this somehow fell on Eldrin. Unfortunately for him, even the Lan siblings had no interest in helping him as they were busy clearing out the beasts in the vicinity with the other guild members.

Liam's current strength was a wake-up call for everyone as they could finally see what a vast difference was there between them. Even mana-blessed individuals like Lan Deming and Lan Fen couldn't begin to compete with a monster like him.

That combined with the recent incidents where they had been pretty much suppressed for an entire year led to everyone training constantly day and night as if they were on steroids.

This pretty much left all the boring work to Eldrin who was close to having a mental breakdown.