Just as Shawn was about to fire at the third stone-blind barbarian, they suddenly began to scatter. Bang, Shawn shot a barbarian in the thigh. Seeing there was no escape, they immediately knelt to the ground, like ostriches ready for slaughter, but more as a sign of submission.
Stone-blind barbarians are the easiest human sub-species to tame.
——Energy Shift Force Field.
Shawn cast an Energy Shift Force Field on himself to prevent any surprises. After he landed, the stone-blind barbarians became even more terrified, each kneeling on the ground trembling.
"Truly submitted?"
Shawn’s expression was a bit surprised. He pointed to a distant cave and shouted, "Then get back there! Don’t come out again tonight."
They understood.
The surviving stone-blind barbarians fled back into the cave in a rush, as if granted a pardon.
They lack any morale, quick to surrender, and kneel faster than anyone, making them easy for enemies to tame, but undependable in critical moments.
Only in favorable situations do stone-blind barbarians show bravery, sometimes even fighting each other for food.
Bang!
Shawn fired another shot near the Eye Demon’s corpse to ensure it was dead, then slowly approached the target.
He drew a dagger and extracted the central main eye and other eyestalks from the enemy.
The knowledge in his brain began to stir.
Shawn allowed it to flow out. When the knowledge touched the Eye Demon’s corpse, a strange sensation surged in his mind. Shawn’s intuition seemed to see the shadow of the Eye Demon’s soul, and then his spirituality opened wide and devoured the soul’s shadow.
"What happened?" Shawn opened his eyes in astonishment.
——Extraordinary Intelligence!
Shawn felt the growth of primitive magic power within him. After the knowledge in his brain flowed back into his body, he discovered his primitive magic power had at least increased by the limit of one third-ring spell. Without advancing in extraordinary level, his primitive magic power continued to rise, seemingly because his intelligence attribute had been enhanced a bit after devouring the Eye Demon’s soul, just reaching a critical threshold, leading to a noticeable increase in primitive magic power.
"Otherworldly souls possess unique talents. Did I devour the Eye Demon’s talent?"
Shawn was unsure of what had happened.
But as the mysterious knowledge digested the monster’s talent, Shawn seemed to have crossed a certain threshold. His brain became more acute; profound mysterious knowledge was easier to comprehend, and even his memory seemed significantly strengthened.
"Did one of my attributes surpass mortal limits?"
Although the Bizarre Realm does not have attribute divisions like in games, extraordinary power can easily kill tigers and leopards with bare hands, extraordinary agility allows for amazing evasive maneuvers, and extraordinary constitution grants regeneration ability, among others. When an attribute surpasses mortal limits, a qualitative change occurs instantly. Shawn’s primitive magic power increased substantially, a result of his extraordinary attributes’ transmutation, which in other otherworlds would mean additional spell slots for a mage.
"Master. We have seized the enemy’s extraordinary talent." The knowledge spoke, as if seeking credit.
The Bizarre Realm is a world of extreme survival of the fittest.
The order of the real world is the anomaly, while in the Bizarre Realm, enslaving the weak and killing enemies to seize their abilities is the normal ascension path. However, if one fails, they too become the nourishment of others.
The Eye Demon from this Otherworld rebirth now serves as Shawn’s nourishment for ascension. Within the Bizarre Realm, the competition among otherworldly souls is also harsh, particularly between humanoid and monster races.
Because this distant universe is the origin of monster races, they are returning home upon crossing over, with their laws of integration differing from other otherworldly souls. Yet in the eyes of native monsters, the reborn otherworldly souls (monsters) are also freaks due to residual power laws from other worlds.
They hunt monsters to ascend, and hunting otherworldly souls also enables ascension, although they are likewise hunted by both.
Hunting and devouring otherworldly souls is one way to strengthen one’s internal attributes.
It provides an internal bonus equivalent to the Prayer Technique, which enhances the soul’s intrinsic power; the Prayer Technique burns levels and Power of Soul to increase internal attributes.
——The Eye Demon’s eyestalks [Extraordinary Relics].
This is an ascension relic from the monster path, containing the knowledge of a 5th-level spell.
——"Knowledge discovered the 5th-level spell ’Peeping Demon Eye’; you can summon a set of special demon eyes, which are highly covert and capable of flight, excellent at scouting, able to observe the surroundings according to your commands, and transmit all they see to you."
Magic Camera?
Shawn looked at the information interpreted by knowledge, expressing slight regret; he could not yet master this 5th-level spell.
If he could extract this relic, he could summon over a dozen covert flying demon eyes in one go, using them to observe the nearby situation strategically, potentially more effective than a wanderer’s scouting.
What Shawn lacks most now is scouting ability.
Eye Demon’s lair.
Here, Shawn found numerous Extraordinary Relics, likely creatures hunted by the Eye Demon, capable of directly activating the power they contain, akin to unrefined curios.