Watching the Puchi's tentacle slowly extending toward him, Norris's heartbeat couldn't stop accelerating.
He couldn't be blamed for being cowardly; two years of survival experience in the Mushroom Garden told him that when the Boss called him over alone so happily, it definitely wasn't for anything good!
Last time, he was electrocuted by a cultivated Pikachu Puchi until his whole body was paralyzed, slumped on the fungal mat unable to move.
Kind-hearted Sister Black dragged him back to the Mushroom House, but he lost quite a few scales from bumping along the way.
What was it this time?
Although afraid, Norris forced himself not to pull his hand back; that would be worse...
The Puchi tentacle slowly approached... slowly... approached...
Norris was already prepared to take a slash to the neck, but this tentacle kept approaching without actually wrapping around, making him increasingly nervous instead!
Thirty seconds later, the sensation of touch finally wound around his wrist.
In the past, although the soul existed within the flesh, physical contact couldn't touch it.
But this time...
[Soul Touch LV1]
Lin Jun's soul turned into countless threads along the contact area, slowly covering the surface of Norris's soul light mass.
Norris, lacking the corresponding perception, was completely unaware of this. He just rolled his eyes nervously, trying to discover from the surroundings what exactly the Boss intended to do.
The wrapping speed wasn't fast, probably because it was only LV1.
Just holding it like this for three minutes, the surface of Norris's soul was completely covered by Lin Jun's soul.
Lin Jun tried getting a Charm Mushroom from the nearby fungal mat and turning the power to the maximum, but Norris remained completely unaffected.
It was like Lin Jun became armor for his mind.
However, the practicality wasn't high because Lin Jun had to concentrate his spirit on Norris to maintain this soul coat.
Once Lin Jun's consciousness moved away, the soul would return to its original state at extreme speed, back to a state of non-interference.
After sending the confused Lizardman away, Lin Jun moved the experiment to the second phase. But Norris was only the harmless beginning; this next part wasn't suitable for him.
...
"I... I can't feel my feet! What are you doing? Stop! Don't touch me anymore—!"
Deep in a cave dotted with fluorescent light, layers of interlaced mycelium covered the entrance, absorbing all sound completely so not a trace could leak outside.
Since he could indeed touch the soul, naturally there were numerous usages!
Destroying, pulling, drilling into...
After consuming about ten precious "human materials," Lin Jun roughly figured out the feasible usages.
Destruction was simplest: collision consumption upon contact. Essentially, hurting the enemy a thousand times meant hurting oneself eight hundred. Fortunately, Lin Jun had the resources to afford it.
The victim wouldn't feel physical pain but would fall into sustained mental distraction, becoming listless and unable to concentrate on casting spells.
As the damage intensified, they would gradually lose control over their body. It wasn't necessarily the touched part; it could be the left hand suddenly unable to move, or the nose no longer feeling breath.
Like Lin Jun, ordinary people's souls possessed self-repair capabilities, but the process was slow. The heavier the damage, the slower the recovery.
And after being damaged to the limit, it would end up like this guy right now.
The Puchi's tentacles wrapped around the man's body, continuously and steadily grinding down his already tattered soul.
He felt no pain, yet felt himself disappearing starting from his limbs, as if his body were turning into an empty shell unrelated to him.
This killer, once known for his cold-bloodedness, now let out child-like wails, incoherent threats, and finally, begging.
His voice became lower and lower, more and more slurred. Finally, only meaningless drool dripped from the corner of his mouth, and the last ray of light in his pupils extinguished.
His soul was thoroughly crushed.
It didn't disappear; it just was no longer in this body.
The shattered soul merged into the world; perhaps it would re-condense in some distant and unknown place.
But regardless, this human-shaped meat lump before him, although still breathing, didn't even have a panel anymore. It could be said to be already dead.
After decomposing this body with a thoroughly shattered soul, sure enough, he didn't absorb any skills.
As for the experiment of trying to turn his own soul into threads to drill deep into others' souls to control them, it failed. This skill didn't have such high-level capabilities.
In short... if a Puchi could hold someone down long enough, even a god could fall.
Of course, this was just theory.
It took Lin Jun a full four minutes to crush that D-Class Personnel's soul.
And a guy who could be continuously wrapped by a Puchi for four minutes, even without using [Soul Touch], Lin Jun could casually deal with.
Could there exist a powerhouse who was incredibly strong but couldn't move and could only let a Puchi hug them?
Lin Jun's vision couldn't help moving to the center of the Divine Tree Dungeon, onto that small sapling...
No, not yet.
Lin Jun still wasn't clear what means that Old Geezer had. Just this [Soul Touch LV1] had a high probability of not threatening it.
Leaving the Old Geezer aside, the output power of this skill was currently a bit low. Just because Lin Jun's soul volume was large enough didn't mean he could insta-kill others; it was likely an issue of the level being too low.
Moreover, regarding causing damage to the soul, the target's physical strength made no difference.
Effectiveness depended entirely on how large the target's soul volume was.
And in this world, the souls of the vast majority of people didn't have much difference in size.
Crushing a LV20 guy and crushing a LV40 guy both required around four minutes.
Additionally, Lin Jun discovered that [Soul Touch] couldn't touch the souls of ordinary flowers, grass, trees, and monsters, as if they didn't count as souls.
As for the Yellow Book, Lin Jun also touched it.
He actually could!
But the tactile sensation was weird; anyway, it was different from a serious soul like Norris.
In terms of defense, although Lin Jun couldn't maintain that "soul coat" to protect others long-term, it was quite effective for urgently isolating or stripping certain mental negative statuses at critical moments.
Even if someone was completely dominated by the Yellow Book’s Charm Control, Lin Jun could wrap their soul in his own, forming a barrier that severed the external mental link and instantly broke the control.
Overall, the effect of this test made Lin Jun quite satisfied.
As the skill level increased, this ability to touch the essence of the soul might really become a hidden trump card for him when dealing with those top-tier existences.
The only problem now was: the growth of the skill required frequent collision consumption.
The D-Class personnel at home seemed not quite enough...
(End of Chapter)
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