When an awakened lifeform died, their spirit energy would condense and form an orb.
This orb was referred to as "Spirit Orb" by awakeners.
A Spirit Orb represents the accumulation of a lifeform's awakened history.
As a result, every Spirit Orb was unique and offered different abilities.
In Zold's previous life, Spirit Orbs were one of the most fought-off resources for awakeners since they could directly upgrade a person's strength.
There were two main ways a person could use a Spirit Orb: consume it directly, or turn it into an auxiliary weapon.
Each method had its own advantages and disadvantages.
Consuming the Spirit Orb directly allows the person to absorb the awakened lifeform's skills and spiritual energy, effectively tying them to that power.
However, the problem with this method was compatibility.
If the person was not compatible with the Spirit Orb, consuming it directly could instead harm them and decrease their overall strength, in the worst case, it could even cut off their path.
Moreover, the skills one can obtain from a Spirit Orb were based on both compatibility and luck, making nothing certain.
But if the stars aligned, and the person was both compatible and had good luck, they could even directly obtain the lifeform's strongest ability while directly increasing their spiritual energy.
It must be said that a person could only obtain some of the lifeform's abilities, not all of it, as every person was essentially unique so it was impossible to be fully compatible.
Then, the second method—turning the Spirit Orb into an auxiliary weapon.
In some cases, when the person manages to obtain a strong Spirit Orb but cannot consume it directly, they could instead use it indirectly.
They could use it as a skill, inserting their spiritual energy inside and letting it activate a random ability.
Or alternatively, they could use it as an augment for a weapon, transforming their weapon into an artifact, although this would require a Forger.
The second method was the safest and had the fewest problems.
In fact, its only problem was that using it this way could quickly exhaust the Spirit Orb's power, making it completely unusable when one uses it too often.
There were tradeoffs for each method, but ultimately only the person themselves could make the best decision based on their situation.
Zold held the Pyre Lion's Spirit Orb gently, seeing his reflection on the orb's surface, a slight smile appearing on his expression.
As for his choice, he was going to consume it directly!
He pressed his palm against the orb and directly absorbed the spiritual energy.
Woosh!
A burning, red energy immediately flowed throughout his body.
Soon, it made contact with his own spiritual energy, mixing together.
But astonishingly, there was no rejection between the two!
This signified that his compatibility was significantly high.
When he finished absorbing all of it, his own spiritual energy obtained a faint red hue.
Additionally, he also obtained the Pyre Lion's awakened skills: [Prideful Flame] and [Infernal Claws].
[Prideful Flame — Your pride bleeds into your flames, giving them a destructive and explosive burn. The more prideful you are, the stronger the flames are.]
[Infernal Claws — Strike and tear apart your enemies with a scorched infernal burn.]
'Two skills…'
Zold raised his brows, mildly surprised.
Unlike humans, animals didn't gain any talents upon awakening but instead obtained multiple skills.
That wasn't to say humans didn't gain skills, in fact, when humans awakened, they usually gained a talent and skills related to that talent.
But sometimes there were special cases like him, awakening a talent with no skills.
In his previous life, he had been disappointed to realize that [Limitless Potential] essentially functioned like a passive ability, giving him no skills at all.
However, later on, he realized he had simply been too foolish!
Although he had no innate skills, his talent, [Limitless Potential], allowed him to obtain any skill.
Zold's eyes glinted with a faint red hue.
Just earlier, he said that nobody could be fully compatible with a Spirit Orb.
That was true… except for him!
His talent [Limitless Potential] allowed him to absorb Spirit Orbs without the issue of compatibility, allowing him to maximize the benefits!
Breaking free from restrictions of talent, allowing one to enter every path, and eliminating the issue of compatibility… that was the ability of [Limitless Potential].
'An elemental skill right off the bat. Not bad.'
After absorbing the Spirit Orb, Zold waved his hand and burned the Pyre Lion's corpse.
He turned around and walked away.
'I hope that Gorilla is a Tier III Beast Class.'
The reason he went here was to obtain Spirit Orbs!
Unlike the other regressors, his starting point was at the very bottom.
The only way for him to match them at this stage was to accumulate more skills than them!
Saving people in the Zoo was secondary.
His main objective was to increase his strength before the national lockdown was enforced!
***
In a large, magnificent mansion.
A young woman with long, silky brown hair gracefully walked in the hallway.
Behind her, two beautiful maids followed.
The two of them couldn't help but notice the quiet demeanor of their young lady.
They had known her since she was a child, and they had never seen her act so solemn.
Her every movement was tinted with an unexplainable grace, giving them an illusion that they were following a noble princess.
As Maria walked on the polished marble floors, her reflection glimmered beneath her.
Each of her steps echoed in the silent, expansive mansion, setting up a solemn atmosphere.
Born in the Auburn Family, Maria Auburn was the sole daughter of the Auburn Family.
Unlike her brothers, Maria was pampered by her parents.
This caused her to grow up arrogant and unappreciative of others' efforts.
Before the Ninety Nine Era Ending Calamities, she was a vain and irresponsible person, only caring about her reputation and didn't bother to think about the consequences of her actions.
When Zold had said that he was an unpleasant person before, Maria wanted to say she was an even more unpleasant person.
She shook her head.
But that changed when the calamities arrived.
During the calamities, she learned that actions could have consequences.
If Zold hadn't knocked some sense into her back then, she would've been dead long ago.
'He probably doesn't even remember that time.'
Maria sighed, shaking her head.
Once she arrived at her room's door, she stopped.
"Leave me here, you two."
"As you command."
The two maids bowed and immediately left.
Maria nodded and entered her room, locking the door from behind.
Click!
She gazed at her room, reminiscing on her memories for a moment.
Then, she took her phone and contacted a number.
Buzz!
The other person quickly answered.
[Hello, which one is this?]
Maria was surprised, raising her brows. She answered, "It's me, Maria."
[Oh! It's the Saintess! What do I owe you the pleasure?]
To refer to her as 'the Saintess', this person was undoubtedly part of the fifteen who went back.
"Secret Holder, do you have the Übermensch's number? I need to talk to him."
Maria asked bluntly.
The phone went quiet for a moment.
Knowing the Secret Holder's personality, she was probably already calculating the fee.
But to her surprise, the Secret Holder answered directly,
[Übermensch contacted me a while ago, saying that he wasn't receiving any calls at the moment. But if it's about awakening two talents, he said that it's safe.]
Maria's eyes widened, almost dropping her phone.
"He said so? What's his basis?"
[It's all science lingo…] The Secret Holder sighed, [Basically, he thinks that since we already have them, nobody can take them away unless we die. That is the fundamental law of talents. It also cannot be harmful since it's already integrated in our souls, meaning we're fully intertwined with it. We know everything about its nature.]
Maria was silent for a moment, nodding.
"... I see."
[That'll be 1,000,000 USD!]
The Secret Holder quickly added before the call ended. Afraid Maria won't send the money, she brought out her trump card.
[If Zold reaches out to me, I can't promise that I won't say anything…]
"You! Fine, I'll send the money to you later!"
Maria felt a headache, immediately dropping the call afterwards. Damn Secret Holder! What an insidious woman!
"Haa…"
After a while, she stood up and contacted another number.
Her face was reflected in the mirror on her desk.
Unlike the childish side she usually showed to her peers, Maria wore a cold, expressionless face when handling important business.
"Send me all of your available weapons as soon as possible."