Jon did not dare to ask what manner of creature he had just encountered. He could still feel the sense of trepidation wafting off Ashvattha Rana and the worried gazes that Schwarz Eis sent him as the three of them travelled across the Burning Desert Of Kel.

The three of them did not spend any more than thirty minutes grabbing fragments, Mana Cores and precious Knight Ranked resources scattered across the Sunlit-Inferno Lagoon. Although Jon knew that his greatest reward had been the Wonder Fragment Of Red Lagoon, Jon could not help but glance towards his new Title Fragment, eyeing it with a guarded expression on his face.

'Viridis Benedictus? I understand how I managed to obtain Wanderlust, but what are the requirements to obtain such a Title Fragment? Can a mere interaction alone grant someone a Title Fragment?'

Jon scratched the top of his head, sitting beneath the shade of another stone edifice. After Rana, Eis and himself were all finished within the Wonder Of Fire and Lake, Jon had opened another Violet Door, teleporting himself towards the closest source of shade.

He needed to spend at least half-an-hour in order to regenerate a sufficient amount of spiritual energy, so decided to use the most of his time sorting out the dozens of different fragments that he had obtained from the Sunlit-Inferno Lagoon.

Although Schwarz Eis mentioned that freshly discovered Wonders would often possess an abundance of wealth and concealed within, it would take about a decade for it to reproduce all the fragments and Mana Cores the three of them had taken. Jon was not too concerned himself about taking too many resources, knowing that after the System Introduction ended he would be unable to return to the Sunlit-Inferno Lagoon.

At least with the Wonder Fragment sitting within his Red Archives, he might be able to possess his own method of generating precious resources after returning back to Earth.

Eis had told him that natural Wonders were produced from the integration of the concepts contained within a fragment with the spiritual energy created by a Mana Core. The two would saturate an environment, mutating the natural landscape until it eventually produced a natural Wonder.

The creation of a Wonder through the usage of a Wonder Fragment required additional resources in order for it to manifest.

Jon was not worried about these details for the time being, instead focusing on just how many fragments he had obtained from the Wonder Of Fire and Lake.

After more than fifteen minutes of counting, Jon looked down at his duffel bag, seeing it bulge with just how many gemstone-fragments he had shoved into it. His backpack did the same, albeit filled to the brim with just Mana Cores.

His eyes almost threatened to burst out of their sockets as he counted the sheer number of fragments he had on hand.

'One-hundred-and-seventy-one fragments before stepping into the Dungeon. Three-hundred-and-thirty-seven after exiting the Sunlit-Inferno Lagoon. Not to mention the thirty-nine Mana Cores I have sitting next to them.' Jon stared down at the two bags inside his Fragment Of Library, gulping at the enormous wealth he had stored up.

There were enough Mana Cores to push six uninitiated mortals from the First Initiation all the way through to the Sixth Initiation. Enough fragments to integrate into all of their Mana Cores as well.

Powerful fragments, such as Fragments Of Incineration and Fragments Of Flood sat beside extraordinarily rare fragments, such as a Fragment Of Duality and a Fragment Of Summer.

Fragments Of Stillness had been carelessly placed beside Fragments Of Fire. While Fragments Of Water had been pushed together, Jon obtaining seven of that specific fragment in the span of an hour.

There was literally hundreds of fragments in Jon's possession. Despite how much of an exaggeration he thought it might be, the evidence spoke for itself.

'There are quite a few fragments with concepts that I want to integrate upon reaching Knighthood. [Requiem Of The White Star] could have a Fragment Of Solar integrated into it, while [Envious Is The Beast That Lurks Within] could have a Fragment Of Burden integrated into it increasing the number of debilitating effects it inflicts on targets.'

'Not to mention…'

Jon's eyes glanced towards one particular fragment that he had set aside for himself, one that he had found submerged within the waters of the Sunlit-Inferno Lagoon. Although the temperature of the waters would have been harmful to uninitiated mortals, Jon found them just a tad too hot, courtesy of his Ice Mana Core.

A black-coloured triangular prism sat in his open palm.

Despite its almost ordinary appearance, just holding it in his hands caused shivers to creep down the length of his spine. For a moment Jon thought he could almost see a face within the triangular prism, before feeling his Sea Of Knowledge surge against the growing influence this fragment had over his mind.

Fragment Of "Horror" discovered.

Would you like to integrate this fragment into your Weave Mana Core?

Y/N

The connotations were interesting, to say the least.

'Will it allow me to "weave" horrors or something? Produce waking nightmares or construct pseudo-spiritual constructs?' Jon thought to himself.

"Eis, what do you think of this Fragment Of Horror?" Jon asked his second summoned companion.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The winter demon spirit manifested herself beside him, sitting down within the shade of the ruined stone manse behind them. Looking down at the fragment in Jon's hand, Schwarz Eis shook her head, gazing at the black-coloured gemstone with an expression of interest and intrigue.

"I cannot comment on such a thing. Fragments Of Horror must have been a new concept born within one of the later integrated universes. Perhaps Ashvattha Rana would know more?" She said, plucking the Fragment Of Horror out of Jon's hand, peering into it with no small degree of curiosity on her face.

Jon allowed the winter demon spirit to play with the Fragment Of Horror while he turned his focus inward towards his first summoned companion.

"If I am not mistaken, the Fragment Of Horror was a concept introduced with the introduction of the 32nd integrated universe. Alongside Fragments Of Facelessness, Fragments Of Fecundity and Fragments Of Formlessness."

"It is a Fragment that contains within it concepts related to fear and dread, however, follow a much more… primal sense of the word. Horror is something inherently frightful and disturbing, but Fragments Of Horror tend to evoke a primordial sense of the word."

Jon raised an eyebrow.

"As in a fear of the unknown?" He asked.

The Earthen Treasury Womb nodded.

"Yes, albeit to a degree. The integration of a Fragment Of Horror into a Weave Mana Core might allow you to produce illusory horrors manifested from the images within your mind. However, it is just as likely for you to produce a debilitating Spell-effect that corrupts your targets mind."

"It might even to the opposite, granting them protection against certain types of spiritual energy?" Rana said, causing Jon to nod in satisfaction.

The concept seemed to agree with him, despite his Source not having any degree of affinity towards the fragment. Jon knew that his Source inherently possessed concepts related to "mutations" and "transformations" within, in addition to several others that he had not yet quite understood.

The freeform nature of his Weave Mana Core should allow him to manifest some sort of illusion-construct effect or at least have a higher likelihood of manifesting abilities related to freeform mana manipulation.

Letting Schwarz Eis place the Fragment Of Horror within his hand, Jon accepted the System integration notice, allowing the triangular prism to melt into his flesh. The assimilation of the concepts within the fragment into his Weave Mana Core caused Jon's eye to twitch, Hades-Sagacity Shadow moving without his consent.

In fact… Jon thought that he could feel several different reactions from all across his body.

It happened so quickly that he almost did not catch it but felt his Yaochi-Jade Prana tremble for a moment, Longinus-Lancea Spirit gleaming from the depths of his Sea Of Knowledge.

Jon almost thought that he felt something brush up against his Seir-Glacial Heart and Murmur-Glacial Marrow but was suppressed by the luminous and overbearing presence of his Helel-Testament Pride.

The familiar sight of another effect description appearing just seconds after integration.

[Fragment Of Horror] [The False Weave Of The Yellow King] (Weave, Horror, Mutation, Enhancement, Spell, Debuff)

Effect (Mortal): Transform the mortal nature of one's inner fears into a Hastor-Yellow Horrors. The Hastor-Yellow Horrors are a pseudo-spiritual amalgamation of specific memories, thoughts, emotions, desires, and spiritual energy containing within it the conceptual understanding of fear and horror.

Dramatically increases resistances towards knowledge-related and fear-related damages, afflictions, and debuffs.

Chant, then infuse your fears with the horrifying and inexplicable horrors birthed from the border between truth and madness. Manifest the Hastor-Yellow Horrors into reality, assuming the form of a twisted and malformed version of oneself. Any that gaze upon the Hastor-Yellow Horrors shall become inflicted with an instance of [Thread-Spirit Corruption].

[Thread-Spirit Corruption]: Reduces resistances towards weave-related damages, afflictions, and debuffs. Reduces resistances towards spirit-related damages, afflictions, and debuffs. This effect refreshes upon each glance at the Hastor-Yellow Horrors.

Jon looked down at the effect description of this second last ever Mortal ability, feeling the subtle changes his newest mutation triggered within his Sea Of Knowledge. Although his Fragment Of Mind was not a mutation, it was the metaphysical ocean in which all of his memories, experiences and feelings flowed into, pooling in an enormous imaginary construct filled to the brim with tastes, sensations and thoughts.

With the integration of this Fragment Of Horror and the birth of his Hastor-Yellow Horrors, Jon removed the memories, experiences, thoughts, and emotions related to fear from within his Sea Of Knowledge, manifesting them as a metaphysical mutation.

The experiences related to the Malum Hobgoblin were removed from his Fragment Of Mind and condensed into a single, abstract idea. Memories that Jon had forgotten or suppressed about his parents or emotions were drawn into the Hastor-Yellow Horrors, manifesting into a single commonplace image.

Lifting his head, thought he saw a figure standing off far in the distance, nothing about their appearance discernible despite a small smile marring their face. Staring for a few seconds longer, Jon watched as the smile extended past the limitations of the face, stretching across the horizon, revealing a number of teeth beyond measure.

The moment Jon blinked, the figure disappeared, vanishing amidst the wind-swept dunes.

'For a moment I almost through as though I saw a…' Jon's thoughts trailed off towards the end, causing him to shake his head from side to side, dismissing such notions.

Taking a slow and deep breath, he noticing that Schwarz Eis was still sitting beside him. The winter demon spirit raised an eyebrow as her eyes roamed all over Jon's form, noticing something change within him.

"Another ability with the Mutation Trait?" she asked.

Jon replied with a small nod.

"Yeah. Although this one seems… different from the others. It is born from, well, from the fears and horrors that dwell within my mind." Jon recited the effect description towards his two summoned companions, watching as the White Lady Of The Winter Castle returned to his Sea Of Knowledge, scooping out a handful of water and sipping on it.

Schwarz Eis tapped her lips together thoughtfully, looking down at the clear waters in her hand before turning towards Jon nodding her head at his words.

"Your Fragment Of Mind does possess echoes of fear and nightmares, but not the source. Whatever manner of mutation your Fragment Of Horror birthed, allows it to circumvent the effects of [Mine Is The Sea Of Knowledge]."

"Do you know that this means Jon?" Schwarz Eis asked with a smile.

Jon shook his head, not understanding where she was going with this.

His Fragment Of Summon practically grinned, placing both her hands on each side of his face, squishing them together while enjoying how bewildered his expression had become.

"It means that your Fragment Of Horror possessed an innate advantage over Fragments Of Mind! If you develop [The False Weave Of The Yellow King] into a more offensive ability, it should be able to ignore some of the resistances born from mental constructs!"

"Don't you get it Jon! Regardless of whether it is a Mental Aquascape or a Throne Of Distortion, your Fragment Of Horror should be able to pierce through it and strike the mind directly!"

"This is the power of your mutation! The power of the Hastor-Yellow Horrors!"

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