Chapter 1009 - 486: The Iron Curtain Rises

Given the continuous nature of Bigby’s Hand itself, this was already a substantial amount. Gauss put away the Magic Storage Ring and moved on to his next task. He needed to grasp the basics of Spiritual Prison.

Before dinner, he had already completed the most grueling step—constructing the spell model deep within his consciousness. The next phase required him to channel Magic Power through that model to manifest the corresponding magical effect. He shifted his gaze toward his creature bag.

Naturally, his practice target wasn’t Hephaestus, who resided in the bag. Rather, it was the myriad of ordinary animals also stored within—sheep, rabbits, birds, and the like. These animals had been living in there for quite some time. They served primarily as portable casting practice materials, though they were occasionally given to Hephaestus as snacks. Gauss checked on them and nodded in satisfaction upon seeing they were safe and sound. Since gaining sentience, Hephaestus had been relatively well-behaved, unlike before when he would frequently sneak a bite. Had they all been eaten, Gauss wouldn’t have the time to hunt for suitable casting materials right now and would have been forced to practice on Hephaestus instead.

Inside the creature bag, the soundly sleeping Hephaestus inexplicably shivered, feeling as though something terrible had just narrowly missed him.

The casting target for Spiritual Prison wasn’t strictly limited to humans or monsters. Wild animals also possessed Spiritual Power. While their spiritual strength was frail compared to intelligent life, they were perfectly suited as entry-level practice subjects. Gauss only needed to cross the initial threshold for Spiritual Prison right now; he had other methods to rapidly level it up later.

A gray rabbit was released from the creature bag. Before the dizzy creature could even process its surroundings, it was firmly pinned in place, locking eyes with a deep, profound gaze. In a mere instant, its panicked consciousness vanished into thin air, swept into a peculiar space by an unseen pulling force.

A moment later, Gauss opened his eyes opposite the gray rabbit, shaking his head in dissatisfaction. "Failed."

The frailty of the gray rabbit’s Spiritual Power was both an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage was that its weak spiritual body had absolutely no chance of resisting, leaving it entirely at his mercy. The downside, however, was that it was far too fragile. Before it could even be properly dragged into the Spiritual Prison, a single moment of inattention caused it to shatter into pieces. Facing the gray rabbit—its eyes rolled back and devoid of any signs of life—Gauss offered a fleeting 0.1-second apology, thanking it for its contribution to his spell studies.

Then, he took out his next animal companion. He repeated the process continuously. By the time he reached his fifth attempt, the expression on his face finally relaxed.

In a boundless, pitch-black void, the spiritual body of a bewildered goat suddenly materialized. It instinctively panicked at the abrupt darkness, yet an irresistible force held it firmly in place. Gauss watched this scene unfold from a god-like, omniscient perspective. Everything within the world of the Spiritual Prison was under his absolute control, and time here moved at a crawl compared to the outside world. A fleeting moment out there equated to several days in here.

With a mere thought, the endless darkness instantly transformed. It morphed into a massive slaughterhouse. Countless butchers surrounded the goat, pinning it down, slitting its throat to drain its blood, chopping off its head and hooves, skinning it, and slicing open its belly to rip out its entrails...

Although the space was completely under his command, Gauss could also utilize the instinctual fear radiating from the target creature to instantaneously manifest its deepest dread. It was exactly like a nightmare. The goat, having been dragged into this space by Gauss, was so terrified it had lost control of its bowels, collapsing limply to the ground.

Now that his practice was successful, Gauss had no desire to further torment his animal friend. With a mental command, he dismissed the spell’s effect, allowing the goat’s spiritual body to return to its physical vessel. If not for Gauss’s Spiritual Power shielding it the entire time, the sheer, unadulterated terror would have been enough to shatter its soul—even without him launching any direct mental attacks.

Gauss tucked it back into the creature bag and glanced at the personal panel of his Adventurer’s Handbook. The Tier-6 Spell known as [Spiritual Prison] had reached the entry stage and now appeared on his interface.

Tier-6 Spell [Spiritual Prison] lv1 (0/10).

A massive battle was on the horizon. Grasping a new spell at this juncture might seem like last-minute cramming, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. One of Gauss’s purple-tier Talents, [Demonic Hour], would drastically accelerate his mastery of it. When killing evil creatures, Demonic Hour granted him a minuscule chance to plunder their power, converting it into corresponding skills and proficiency points for himself.

While the probability of acquiring entirely new skills was relatively low, proficiency points dropped on a regular basis. The odds of receiving these points were exceptionally high for skills with inherently low proficiency levels. His newly mastered [Spiritual Prison] currently sat at rock bottom in terms of proficiency. In the impending war, its proficiency would rapidly soar as Gauss slaughtered masses of monsters, allowing him to quickly bypass the novice stage.

Furthermore, perhaps because his Spiritual Power was robust enough, he could sense that this [Spiritual Prison] was highly compatible with him. It felt as though the spell had been tailor-made for him; he would master it in no time.

He immediately took out two other Tier-6 Spellbooks: [Splendid Light Ball] and [Wind Riding]. After a moment of hesitation, he chose Splendid Light Ball. He intended to capitalize on this final window of time to finish constructing its spell model deep within his consciousness.