After Aleks had reached Legendary status, his power had grown. The ability ‘Soul System’ had been enhanced and he had more options than before. He could now not only create new beings from scratch using an existing soul and body, but he could also choose to respecialize instead of creating a new being. The being that was respecialized would retain their appearance and memories, but their would be an initial cost added on at creation which would exceed the cost of creating a new being. The higher the level and class, the greater the cost to respecialize.

There were benefits to respecialization however. The being going through respecialization would retain their memories, personality, appearance, and bloodline. This meant that they could completely integrate into their former identity without any issue. Not only that, but they would become absolutely loyal to Aleks as their souls would be inexplicably tied to his own just like when creating a new being.

Grobak was only a level 40 Intermediate class being so while the penalty was not a trivial one, it wasn’t so high that Aleks couldn’t afford to respecialize him. As a matter of fact, he could afford to respecialize a few beings if he wished to and still have enough ‘Soul Potential’ left over for other purposes as long as their levels weren’t too high.

Begin Soul Purification process?

“Yes.”

Soul Purification process activated…

Grobak who was still being gripped by Aleks began to shake briefly and then his eyes dimmed, seeming almost soulless.

Soul Purification complete, you may now begin respecialization

With Grobak’s soul having been cleansed of the taint of ancestral worship, it could now be marked with Aleks’s unique soul imprint. This was similar to the mark imprinted by either worship of the gods, devil sovereigns, ancestral spirits, and other beings on the level of divinities. Normally, a Legendary being would not be capable of such a thing but Aleks was unique. In most cases, a being would have to be at least a powerful Demigod in order to accept the worship of other lifeforms. At this time, Aleks couldn’t receive the power of faith and worship from his followers but he could still imprint his mark on their souls.

Aleks spent several minutes browsing through the system menus in his mind while Lenia watched on. She couldn’t see what Aleks was doing because he wasn’t wearing his mask and she couldn’t see his eyes clearly from the side. However, she was somewhat clear on what he was doing. She felt some comfort in the fact that this Orc wasn’t a uniquely created being like her but instead someone her master was respecializing. In her mind, this was an important distinction which she could accept.

“Hmm, a High Orc’s bloodline is quite good. It has a double the strength of a normal Orc and they are even somewhat more intelligent. A High Orc still can’t compare with some other races when it comes to magic and magic resistance but their strength is quite high. With this bloodline I expect at least a 10% increase in PHY. ATK. over a Human per level. As his level increases, the disparity between his PHY. ATK. and that of a Human will only become much more apparent. With a suitable weapon, this Grobak will be very powerful. There also seems to be an innate damage reduction due to his superior bloodline which will also add to his PHY. DEF. but only about 5% over a Human.”

Aleks continued to browse the menus, making sure to evaluate both the positives and negatives of the classes available. There weren’t many options for the Orc’s initial class, but he noticed that there was an additional basic class he hadn’t seen before.

“A Barbarian, this wasn’t available to me when I created Lenia. It appears to be a class only available to those who worship ancestral spirits, and since his soul was initially marked by an ancestor spirit and he had that particular class, it is now available for me to choose. It appears to be a good basic class for a pure offensive type and I can class him up to a berserker. The rage ability especially is very good since it will boost his strength by quite a bit. Lenia is more of a balanced type leaning towards defense, but for Grobak I will focus on PHY. ATK. and Vitality. His AGI is also pretty high because of the Berserker class. While Lenia is intended to be a commander who leads from the rear and oversees the entirety of my forces, Grobak will be well suited to be a champion who leads from the front and charges into battle.”

Because Grobak was a level 40 Intermediate class being, the initial cost to respecialize was 3,000 SP. Aleks would then need to pay a cost of 8,000 SP to respecialize Grobak into a level 60 Intermediate class being. While increasing the level of Grobak by 20 levels would also increase the presence and strength of his aura, it wasn’t enough to cause too much suspicion. They might feel the stronger aura, but there are other ways to increase one’s power in the short term and there were also other reasons why a being’s aura might feel weaker than normal.

“Finally, some abilities which will reinforce his strengths. Rage, Increased Rage and a few secondary abilities giving defense against status effects are also a good choice. It seems his personality already has the negative trait, Wrath. I could remove it by paying a cost in SP but it says here that if he can overcome his Wrath then he will no longer suffer a negative status effect when using Rage. He would only get the positive effects but none of the negative ones, this is quite useful so I will keep it. Alright, total cost to respecialize including the abilities is 12,000 ‘Soul Potential’.”

Finalize selection?

“Yes.”

As the system finalized the respecialization, Grobak’s soul was once more filled with ‘Soul Potential’ and his eyes which were once dim had brightened. Taking his hand off of the Orc, Aleks sat down once more and made himself comfortable in the chair. Grobak slowly regained consciousness and soon came out of his initial daze. Once he was aware of his surroundings, he immediately kneeled in front of Aleks. Due to his tall stature and large frame, even while kneeling he was still able to meet Aleks’s gaze head on.

“Master, I am at your service.”

Alek’s calmly observed the Orc and met his gaze which caused the Orc to look slightly down in respect.

“You are only 17 years old Grobak, younger than me. Call me big brother.”

Grobak was somewhat flustered which looked strange due to his large body.

“Master, I can’t!”

“This is an order, no need to call me master. From now on, I am your big brother.”

“Big brother…” Grobak played with the word a bit on his tongue and found it somewhat uncomfortable to say but he didn’t want to disobey his master’s command.

“Good, now let’s display you full status for you to see.”

Aleks took out his mask from within his ‘Soul Realm’ surprising Grobak who had never seen someone pull something out of the air before.

He placed the mask gently on his face and said, “Tower of Babel, show Grobak’s status.”

Numbers, symbols, and letters began fluttering across the mask revealing Grobak’s status. Both Lenia and Grobak carefully looked through the information displayed on the mask with interest.

Name

Grobak

Class

Barbarian

Berserker

Intermediate Rank

Level

30

30

Total Level 60

Vitality

300

750

Total HP 1050

Magic

0

0

0

PHY. ATK

66

99

Total PHY ATK 165

PHY. DEF

32

63

Total PHY DEF 95

Agility

30

45

Total AGI 75

MAG RES

25

50

Total MAG RES 75

Abilities

Rage (When using the rage ability, PHY. ATK. increases by 15% but PHY. DEF. decreased by 5%, Once rage ends ability user becomes fatigued suffering a 5% decrease in PHY. ATK., PHY. DEF., and AGI until short rest)

Flurry of fists (Attack in rapid succession when unarmed ignoring 10% of PHY. DEF., chance to stun)

Ignore Pain (While in Rage, ignores pain from damage taken allowing one to use abilities even when vitality required is insufficient)

Increased Rage (Rage lasts double the amount of time, PHY. ATK. increases by another 10% but PHY. DEF. decreases by an additional 5%)

Whirlwind Strike (Using a Two-handed weapon, swing the weapon in a whirlwind, attacking multiple targets in a radius around the ability user, knock-back effect with each hit)

Fearless (While in Rage, Immune to the effects of fear, stun, intimidation, and confusion)

Fighting stances

Unarmed

Two-Handed

Grobak had never seen anything like this before and didn’t know what to make of everything he was seeing. Although he could understand some of what was being displayed on the mask, much of it was still confusing to him. Of course, Lenia was already accustomed to seeing this and completely understood everything displayed. She was happy to see that she was still much stronger than Grobak.

“Let me explain.”

Aleks noticed Grobak’s confusion and explained simply so that he would understand what he was seeing. He didn’t go into too much detail, only explaining the basics, but it was enough for Grobak to get a feel for how the information displayed showed his strengths and weaknesses.

“Good, now that you understand you can stand up. No need to kneel to me since we are all family here. Lenia shall be my right hand, and you Grobak shall be my left. The two of you are both important for my plans. Lenia, go and see if the proprietress of this boutique has prepared some slaves for us to choose from.”