Chapter 72: Dexter

"A Totem Ability..."

This was significant.

A Totem Ability was the supernatural power granted through a person’s Patron Spirit. They are generally broad and simple in concept, describing the fundamental phenomenon a Patron Spirit allows its user to manipulate, produce, embody or control.

Everyone possessed a Patron Spirit, but not everyone could actually access what it offered.

For most of humanity, their spiritual energy was just too weak. Their Patron Spirit remained dormant throughout their lives, existing as part of them without ever properly awakening.

Those people were classified as Epsilon.

Rhos himself was slightly higher than this Class.

Those who awakened their Patron Spirit at Delta Class consciously drew upon its traits and developed beyond an ordinary human, but their abilities remained physical and instinctual.

They were nothing compared to the supernatural Totem Abilities wielded by stronger awakened users.

Totem Abilities became accessible once someone possessed enough spiritual energy to support them.

Gamma Class represented the point where those abilities became truly functional and where the creation or awakening of proper Totem Arts became possible.

"So she’s at least Gamma Class"

Which meant Morri already possessed something he didn’t. It bothered him a bit but he didn’t dwell on it.

Comparison was the killer of joy, after all.

Beneath the Totem Ability were three separate techniques.

[Totem Arts: Blood Forging | Red Moon | Bloodstain]

Totem Arts were essentially refined applications of the broader Totem Ability. By manipulating spiritual energy and applying one’s Totem Ability in a particular manner, a user could develop specialized techniques called Totem Arts.

Most of those techniques were created through training and experimentation, while some seemed to emerge almost automatically.

They could be active techniques requiring conscious activation and expenditure of spiritual energy.

They could also be passive and function continuously or under specific conditions without conscious effort.

"Morri already has three Totem Arts at her age?"

That was impressive. Extremely impressive. She was basically a prodigy.

Focusing on the first name, he read it out loud.

"Blood Forging"

The Spirit Archive reacted as more text unfolded beneath the name.

[Totem Art – Blood Forging]

[Blood is a malleable substance capable of shifting between fluid and solid states. Controlled blood can be extended outward, hardened into weapons and barriers, and reshaped at will]

Rhos read the description twice and memories outside the Biome surfaced again. The Wrath had its crimson horns melting and turning into enormous, barbed spears.

His face darkened.

"Yeah, that’s definitely familiar"

He tested the next name by saying it out loud and another section unfolded.

[Totem Art – Red Moon]

[An orb of blood is created from spilled blood and continuously draws exposed blood within its effective vicinity toward itself. Collected blood may be stored and used for various purposes]

Yep, he remembered that too.

Blood had risen from corpses and wounded Rangers in streams, gathering into a giant sphere before the Wrath drank it all.

All hell broke loose after that.

"Red Moon could collect blood and store it for later. Combined with Blood Forging, that means she doesn’t need to rely on whatever blood she can produce herself. The more people bleeding around her, the larger her available supply becomes"

This meant she became more dangerous the longer a bloody fight continued.

Rhos rubbed his chin.

"Blood Forging and Red aren’t similar abilities to the Wrath’s. They are the Wrath’s abilities"

Or at least versions of them.

Well, moving on to the final technique.

[Bloodstain]

[The lingering spiritual blood left upon those responsible for taking a life can be perceived passively]

Rhos’s eyes stopped moving. He read it again to ensure he fully understood it.

Unlike the other two, there was nothing visually spectacular about it. He didn’t have an immediate memory of seeing the Wrath use something like this either.

"Lingering spiritual blood... those responsible for taking a life"

The description wasn’t talking about literal blood. At least, Rhos didn’t think it was.

It sounded more like some kind of spiritual residue left on a person after killing another living being. And Morri could see it passively.

Rhos tilted his head from side to side while thinking about that.

Then, something clicked.

"Oh, that makes sense now"

He thought back to the first time he had summoned her. She attacked him out of nowhere. It wasn’t just once either. There was also that time at the underground facility.

At the time, he assumed she was just feral. But that changed when he saw how different her behaviour had become toward Rune.

According to what Rhos saw, Morri became really protective of the irritating bastard within an absurdly short period of time.

Koa didn’t struggle with her either. Within less than a day, she was willingly eating from her hand and sleeping beside her.

’But the person she’s supposedly connected to has two murder attempts at him’

His eyes narrowed. If Morri could perceive the lingering spiritual blood on people who had taken lives, what did she see when she looked at him?

Rhos’s hands weren’t clean of blood. Not by a long shot. He had killed someone in the past, even before the masked giants. There was a good reason though.

His thoughts returned to when he stabbed Taru’s chest. The former Keeper did not die from the stabbing, but Rhos intended to kill him and he was involved in his death.

Did that count?

Did intent or indirect killing count?

The more he thought about this, the more it raised questions he wasn’t sure he wanted answered.

"What exactly counts as taking a life?"

[Bloodstain does not concern itself with law, morality or justification. When life is deliberately ended through one’s actions, that act leaves a spiritual impression]

After being silent for a while, Neth finally decided to make its presence felt.

"How long does that residue remain?"

[That depends]

[The individual. The death. The relationship between killer and victim. Regret. Revenge. Time. Many variables influence spiritual residue]

Rhos barely heard the end of the explanation, his mind was already drawn by something else.

This deep into the night, someone was knocking on the door.