I Hate Systems

The breakthrough process from an Invoker to an Ascender was simple. The Invoker would have to concentrate in their Dreamland, focus on their Invoked Spirit and try to replicate the same effects that transpired when they consumed an Invoker Crystal.

For the majority of people, this wasn't possible, the reason they remained an Invoker for the rest of their life. Once they manage to replicate its effects--obviously through a delicate arrangement of Mental Fragments to almost unleash the effects of a Scroll through the Dreamland's arrangements--to a desirable extent, the hardest part came.

The breakthrough process was said to have ended when the entirety of their soul fused with the Invoked Spirit. This meant that once they began to process, they would have to finish it.

Otherwise, it would result in their soul split into two large chunks, with either incapable of sustaining their lives. They would either remain in a comatose state for the rest of their lives or lose their lives straight away.

The inhibiting factor in this was their Mental Strength. If the soul was considered a water tank, then the Invoked Spirit was another water tank that was partially filled with water.

Using their Mental Strength, they would have to manually transfer the water from one tank to another, scoop after scoop, which was a strenuous process, resulting in most running out of Mental Strength due to the mental strain.

As Mental Strength was consumed in excess for lower effect when one was tense, even if an Invoker prepared and trained himself to possess as much Mental Strength as necessary to complete a successful breakthrough, the stress he faces during the breakthrough would cause him to run empty halfway into the process.

This is the reason the majority of Invokers failed the breakthrough.

But for Compass Carburettor, this wasn't a concern. Not only did he now possess a vast reserve of Mental Strength, he only needed a thought to finish creating the effects of a scroll in his Dreamland that would transfer his soul into his Invoked Spirit.

But, he had one tricky part, which was the fact that the majority of his soul was sealed within the Invoked Spirit. 'I don't need to take it out.'

As it had to be fused into the Invoked Spirit in the first place, he didn't make any unnecessary changes, directly beginning the breakthrough.

In this state, he was able to sense his soul, a formless substance akin to a misty sphere that revolved within itself in soft swirls from time to time. With a thought, a wisp of the soul flew into the Invoked Spirit, settling within it.

At the same time, Compass Carburettor used his powers of Main Character--possible since a large enough self of him had formed after he absorbed his fragments from the double dozen Ascenders--to break the seal within the Invoked Spirit, causing a rush of energy as the soul there directly fused with it.

In a matter of minutes, the souls from both sources fused into the Invoked Spirit, completing the breakthrough, pretty much the fastest this world had ever seen, for it only took a few seconds.

With the breakthrough completed, Compass Carburettor smiled, summoning Anthozoa in his hand. Currently, his true body was the Invoked Spirit in his Dreamland while his external body was just a fleshly housing.

But since the fleshly housing had been transformed into a Mental Fragment construct, Compass Carburettor could behave as if this was his true body, 'Just as when I used my Haggon and Spirit Form long ago to fool my opponents.'

As the Invoked Spirit was a Human Invoked Spirit, creation of tools was its primary ability. And through that, he could create tools--Anthozoa--that he could bring out of the Dreamland and wield freely.

Considering Anthozoa's original nature, it was enough to destroy this power system as even someone powerless could kill an Ascender with its help.

Though, killing unique Ascenders like Peika with Anthozoa alone was impossible. After all, using her unique water, she was always protected.

"But in the same vein, I have two such powers now..." Compass Carburettor muttered, extending his hands to see mist swirling on the left and lightning sparking on the right.

'Hmm?' Compass Carburettor noticed minor differences in the mist after becoming an Ascender. After fully fusing with his soul, the Invoked Spirit became his body and had also become the Main Character System.

This resulted in his powers influencing one another, leading to minor evolution to the mist. Compass Carburettor created a sphere surrounding himself with the mist, smiling as he thought of Duketace, watching a Mental Energy stream gush out of his head.

But strangely, the Mental Energy stream bumped into the misty walls and stopped moving, unable to pass through it. Gradually, it began to curl itself, becoming a sphere of Mental Energy that didn't vanish as it would normally.

'So, it's not just Mental Fragments, but also Mental Energy that can be trapped and maintained within the mist now.' He smiled in response. After all, Mental Fragments were basically the body constructs of a System.

And as Systems were beings of fish in Mental Energy, created and thrived in Mental Energy, they were synonymous with Mental Fragments. And the moment his mist upgraded after fusing into his body, it became capable of trapping Mental Energy.

"This means..." He muttered, snapping his finger to unleash a thin stream of mist that exited the house and rapidly created a dome that covered the entire archipelago. But as it was just a thin layer of mist, none even noticed it existing.

The Mental Energy streams unleashed by the people towards one another weren't interrupted. But the moment anyone from the archipelago thought of someone living beyond, the Mental Energy stream slammed into the misty walls before curling up into a sphere there.

With a snap of his finger, the Mental Energy flowed into his body as after a moment of thought, Compass Carburettor unleashed some more mist. It was a trace amount, that one wouldn't notice while going about in their daily lives.

Only if they saw the horizon would they notice everything beyond a few kilometres masked due to the mist. But nothing in their proximity would be affected, preventing the people from noticing the difference.

And this resulted in rather interesting developments as all the Mental Energy unleashed by the people never met its destination, curling up into balls mid-air before they were absorbed by Compass Carburettor.

'It seems I can harvest a lot of Mental Energy.' Thinking as such, he stared at the sky smiling, for he intended to blanket the entire world with a thin layer of mist and turn it into a Mental Energy farm.