"Wait a moment, there is something I don't understand and I would like to clear that doubt before you continue or otherwise it will be harder for me to understand from here on." Bai Zemin hurriedly interjected before Lilith could continue with her explanation.
"Yes?" She looked into his eyes and judging by the slight smile at the corner of her mouth Bai Zemin estimated that she already knew what he was going to ask.
Still, he pointed out, "Lilith, as I understood, the Soul Record plays the role of controlling the mana of the universe and making all living beings somehow adapt to this energy, isn't it? So, how can it be that barbarians can exist and become a relevant race when their organisms are not fit for mana and magic?"
If the only function of the Soul Record that Lilith knew about other than reading, encoding, and decoding the Soul Power of the various existences of the universe was to move and control mana that was already on other worlds or bring said mana to worlds they didn't have, then how were the barbarians supposed to evolve?
Will? This was the first time Bai Zemin had heard of this energy system.
"Let me ask you instead, what happened to the humans who failed in adapting to mana and magic? Did the Soul Record kill them?" Lilith asked rhetorically.
Bai Zemin frowned and thought seriously about the question Lilith had just asked him.
Until now, to Bai Zemin as much as to any other human, those humans who had failed to adapt to mana and turned into zombies as a result were no different from dead humans. However, he had changed his thoughts slightly several minutes ago due to the small wooden pagoda he had obtained.
Even then, Bai Zemin had difficulty associating zombies with anything other than undead. His mentality might be limited by movies and books as well as human legends about zombies, but in reality, it was also because once a human was turned into a zombie, all memories and emotions seemed to be erased as even loved ones became nothing more than food for these zombies; therefore, it was not much different from being dead.
Hearing the reply from Bai Zemin, Lilith smiled slightly and shook her head as she said in a tender voice: "Little brother, even though the zombies have ceased to be human, they are still beings that are alive. Otherwise, do you think one of the most powerful factions in the universe could be composed of dead? Death is when the soul of an existence is completely destroyed, otherwise, as long as there is a soul, there can be no death."
"… Basically, as long as an existence has some Soul Power, no matter how insignificant, then that existence is not really dead." Bai Zemin muttered to himself.
"That's right." Lilith nodded and continued, "When you kill zombies, you get some of the Soul Power of those zombies. So, this means that those zombies were alive before you absorbed their Soul Power… Even then, it is true that humans who turned into zombies after failing in adapting to mana no longer have and will never again have anything to do with the human race as in the past."
"The Soul Record, despite the fact that it may have minor flaws, is a practically perfect and righteous existence; I believe I had mentioned it to you before." Lilith pointed out with gravity on her face. "You think that an existence that was fair for countless years, since the creation of time, would erase a race just because it cannot adjust to mana? The reason why humans turned into zombies is because the human organism of those people failed in adapting to mana, and thus the Soul Record changed the race of those humans to zombies, therefore changing their organism as well such that as they grow stronger, controlling mana and magic won't be a problem."
When a TV set burned out due to power overload, all one had to do was to buy another one if there was no way to repair the old one; even buying a very similar one was possible. Then, when a visitor came to your house they would undoubtedly see a TV set just like the old one, but in reality, that TV set was completely different on the inside as its parts were definitely not created at the same time as those of the old TV set.
The case with zombies was similar; since as humans they failed to evolve, the Soul Record helped them in another way to avoid annihilating these "failed products".
"… Now I understand. Many things became clearer to me. Thank you for the explanation, Lilith." Bai Zemin thought aloud as he stroked his storage ring with his thumb.
"You're welcome," She smiled delightedly and continued, "So, continuing with the barbarians?"
"Ok." He nodded and focused his full attention on her.
"As I said a moment ago, since the barbarians' organism was not capable of adapting to mana and magic, the Soul Record could also turn them into a derivative race. However, such a thing was not necessary since the barbarians' organism is so special that despite not being able to adapt to Mana it does not reject such energy and instead absorbs it and converts it into Will."
"… Wouldn't this 'Will' be a derivative of Mana?" Bai Zemin carefully pointed out.
"Indeed. The power of Will might not be comparable to Mana." Lilith nodded. "However, as the Barbarians evolve, the strength of these existences becomes truly terrifying to the point where several talents among them who achieved astonishing feats throughout the ages have managed to be born. Among these talents, the Barbarian King was by far the most brilliant of all."
"While it is true that barbarians were not capable of casting magic spells, they could use Will to utilize abilities that were actually not much different from magic from the point of view of many. For example, by using Will points to strengthen their legs they could jump or run a lot faster than they should, they could use Will points to roar like beasts and inflict fear on their opponents, and much more. The physical strength of the barbarians was such that even dragons whose physical bodies could be considered perfect dared not underestimate them."
For some reason, Lilith sounded quite respectful when she talked about the barbarians. However, Bai Zemin also noticed a tinge of pity in her voice.
She slowly continued, "When the physical strength of the barbarians reached a certain range, they could even freeze the surroundings using purely physical power so that while they were not able to use magic they could still fly through the skies by freezing…."
Bai Zemin suddenly froze and stopped listening to what Lilith was saying as a flash of surprise glinted in his eyes.
When the physical strength of the barbarians reached a certain range they could freeze the surroundings and do something similar to flying? But… Hadn't he done something similar in Oblon World when his Blood Berserker's Wrath skill activated at the third level of Wrath?
"Lilith." He interrupted.
Lilith looked at him with questioning eyes, to which he responded with another question:
"Just out of curiosity but… The race it shows in my status window is the race I really am, right?… It's not possible for some mistake to occur?"
At this point, Bai Zemin was even starting to doubt his race which didn't make much sense since his parents were definitely just normal humans.
"Your race is your race and that cannot be changed unless you ascend to a Higher Existence and join a faction or create your own. It is absolutely impossible for the Soul Record to make a mistake in reading souls as this is its main strength." Lilith shook her head and said in a serious voice at Bai Zemin's weird question.
Phew… Bai Zemin let out a sigh of relief in his heart.
Although he still didn't understand many things, he doubted that Lilith had the answers to these questions that tormented him since somehow Bai Zemin was sure that only he could one day get to the bottom of all this.
Lilith naturally felt that he was behaving somewhat strangely but she believed that the reason would soon be revealed. Therefore, she continued:
"As I said before, the Barbarian King was the brightest existence among the barbarians. The Barbarian King was an existence that lived in the past, long before most of the leaders of Higher Existences were born and according to the few recordings that remained and were not lost, he managed to become a powerful Eighth Order warrior before he died."
Bai Zemin couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air when he heard what Lilith said at the end.
An Eighth Order existence died?! For God's sake! Could even something as powerful as that be killed? And here he was, being proud just because he could take on beings two Orders above his own!
"How the hell can someone in the Eighth Order even die? Isn't that like the peak of the universe?" Bai Zemin asked in a trembling voice.
Since a Higher Existence did not die with the passage of time, then this could only mean that the Barbarian King had been killed by someone else!
Lilith shook her head and told Bai Zemin not to ask too many questions regarding such things: "Little brother, I'm only telling you this so that you can better understand your situation and tell me what's going on with your UNIQUE skill…. But honestly, for now, you'd better not focus too much on such distant things."
The Higher Existences were also facing their own problems, it was just that Bai Zemin had no way of touching such a tall skyscraper with his hands at present as his wings had only just begun to grow.
Seeing Bai Zemin nod slowly, Lilith smiled softly and continued:
"The Barbarian King was characterized as the only barbarian to manage to comprehend the legendary Anti-Magic Domain. When an existence stepped within a range of 3000 meters around the Barbarian King, that existence would immediately become unable to use any harmful spells or magic skills and even flying would become a hard feat to accomplish as only through constant consumption of Mana could his enemies avoid falling to the ground."
The voice of Lilith was filled with respect and at the same time slight fear as she mentioned about the Anti-Magic Domain, something that Bai Zemin understood very well.
Even if he was a being capable of fighting melee with ferocity and prowess, Bai Zemin knew that if someone with the ability to block his ability to activate magic appeared before him he would probably find himself in extremely serious trouble that could lead to his death.
"Imagine fighting against an Eighth Order existence whose physical body is comparable if not superior to that of a dragon without being able to properly activate magic." Lilith smiled bitterly and shook her head, "The Anti-Magic Domain was one of the most powerful domains in the past and even now it still causes everyone to tremble when someone names it."
The Anti-Magic Domain might seem simple as it did not grant power to the user at all so in the hands of anyone it could be useless as the Anti-Magic Domain would naturally affect the user's skills as well. However, as Lilith had just said, the Barbarian King had been a being whose strength was purely and exclusively centered on his physique; therefore, he was like some kind of apocalypse for his enemies.
The doom of the mages.
Bai Zemin called up the records of his skill 'Magic Break' and as he read them again, he couldn't help but wonder if he could ever learn a Domain as powerful as that.
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