Some of the strands were a dark yellow that were incredibly tame, while others were a dark or light orange and flailed about wildly, seemingly trying to escape from the foreign consciousness. They writhed and shook as they attempted to escape from Riyald's control.
The orange strand of consciousness was brought into Riyald's grasp before the other strands, where he injected more of his own consciousness until the main strand became a much calmer yellow.
"The first step is to send out your own strands of consciousness to link with the others inside the Cultivators. Once they are linked, carefully extract their consciousness and return it to your grasp. From there, they can be refined into your own Soul Strength.
The color of the foreign consciousness determines how strong the Cultivator's Soul Strength was before they died. If the color is orange or red, you need to commit more of your consciousness to bring it under control.
If the color is black, you need to release your hold on it before it leaves their body, or your strand of consciousness will be taken over and you will lose Soul Strength."
William nodded his head to indicate that he understood.
Riyald channeled some Mana into the strand of consciousness, wrapping it around the yellow substance until it turned the same ethereal blue color of Riyald's consciousness. This process continued for around ten minutes until the entire strand was subdued. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel⸺fire.net
Riyald absorbed the strand back into his head, smiling in satisfaction at the successful Soul Cultivation.
"You couldn't quite see what I did there, but I used my Mana to isolate parts of the consciousness, then engaged in a battle within my own mind to defeat a weakened version of the Cultivator.
This step is very difficult for me, but it might be a bit easier for you since you have the Dream Element. You should be able to wrap the consciousness with Dream Mana, which if powerful enough should place the Cultivator in a deep sleep right from the start of your mental battle."
So this is how I can make use of the Dream Element...I guess it isn't as useless as I thought.
From William's lessons with Riyald, he knew that the Dream Element could be used to invade one's dreams and inspect their memories or influence their decisions, but it wasn't meant for combat. It seemed that now William had another use for the Element that previously went unnoticed.
"Should I begin now, Master?" he asked.
Riyald nodded, "I recommend only using one strand of consciousness until you have better adapted to the situation. Don't underestimate their consciousness, my Soul Strength is dozens of times stronger than yours and even I don't dare to compete with an entire consciousness at once.
If you start to lose control, don't keep fighting and just retreat with your consciousness. You'll lose some Soul Strength, but it's better than being possessed." he warned at the end.
William nodded again. He called his consciousness to his fingertips in one long strand that slithered on the ground like a snake and searched random Cultivators for an existing consciousness.
After a few seconds, William found a prime target. His strand of consciousness poked into the Cultivator's forehead like he saw Riyald do, then pulled back to reveal a dark yellow consciousness.
"Very lucky, a weak one right from the start." Riyald commented.
William nodded and pulled the consciousness back to himself, then did as instructed and wrapped around a part of the yellow consciousness with his Dream Element Mana to isolate it.
William paused. What do I do now?
"Imagine your consciousness merging with that small piece. A battle will automatically begin in your mind." Riyald called out.
He repeated what Riyald said, his mind turning fuzzy as he found himself standing on a flat surface of some kind.
He looked around to see the space stretched as far as the eye could see, but there were no notable features other than the few millimeters of what seemed like water that he was standing in.
This is my mind? Seems...empty.
-I guess you really are brainless.
-I'm kidding. This is your consciousness, not your brain. It's where your Soul Strength and memorized Runes or Arrays are stored.
I'm surprised you can joke. My Runes are here too? I can't see them.
-Of course I can joke, hmph! And you can't see your Runes because your consciousness becomes larger when you upgrade your Mind Talent.
William didn't respond to the System and looked in front of him, where he saw a young man sleeping on the ground just a few dozen meters away.
I guess the Dream Mana really does have such an effect. Interesting.
William calmly walked up to the young Cultivator, then conjured an ethereal sword in his hand. He performed a clean slash, lopping off the Cultivator's head and ending the battle.
His mind was automatically pulled back to the Labyrinth of Tears, where the consciousness was still in his grasp and had faded slightly. William decided to use more Dream Mana and surround a larger portion of the foreign consciousness, then started the next battle immediately.
Just like before, the Cultivator was the same person, sleeping soundly on the ground. William did the same thing as last time, beheading him with a single strike.
Hmm...I believe Master when he said these Cultivators are not to be underestimated, but perhaps I should find the limit now. System, what do you think.
-The System does not know. Unlock a soul-related Talent first.
I need to unlock Talents for you to know about them?
-It depends. In this case, yes.
William nodded. He decided not to tempt fate while the System couldn't provide any warnings, opting to only take a fifth of a consciousness at most while he was still learning the process.
When he was finished with the first consciousness, he absorbed it into his body with a single move. As the consciousness returned to him, William felt as if his pores had slurped a spaghetti noodle.
-Learned a Soul Cultivation Technique: +100 PP
-Learned your first Soul Cultivation Technique: +250 PP
-Used a Soul Cultivation Technique for the first time: +50 PP
-Used a Forbidden Soul Cultivation Technique: -5 Humanity
-Absorbed consciousness: +1 Soul Strength
System, am I going to lose Humanity every time I use this Technique?
-Only if you use a different Forbidden Technique will you receive a penalty, but you will lose one point of Humanity for every ten foreign consciousnesses you erase up to a maximum of twenty points.
So a total loss of 25 Humanity...I don't know what happens when it gets too low, but that should be manageable.
William and Riyald continued using the Forbidden Soul Cultivation Technique to absorb more foreign consciousnesses over the next few hours. William played it safe and didn't attempt any consciousnesses that were orange or deeper, leaving those to Riyald while he moved on to other Cultivators.
He even tried out a few mental battles while not using the Dream Element to put the Cultivators to sleep, testing their strength should he encounter an opponent that doesn't fall asleep when he uses the Dream Element in the future.