BXBX NOVEL Chapter 102: 101, Mind Manipulation
“We roughly know what that group of cult traitors wants to do.”
“Do what? Destroy the city, sacrifice to the Evil God, all that stuff?” Gu Hang tried to crack a somewhat poor joke.
“Yes.” Georgette was not joking at all and nodded earnestly, “Those cult traitors always like to do this. The filthy creatures they worship, they just love all this.”
“Alright, so what exactly do they plan to do? Any leads?”
Georgette said, “Not yet, two sisters are still on the investigation. However, we might have figured out the hiding place of the cult traitors’ leader.”
“Oh?” Gu Hang finally became interested, “Is it reliable?”
“It should be reliable, at least worth a try.”
“Then let’s try.” Gu Hang decided on the spot, “What support do you need? I’ll arrange it as quickly as possible, we better act immediately, don’t let them get away.”
“I need you.”
“Huh?”
“A competent Psychic Caster, who can help us achieve a lot of things.”
Gu Hang quickly calculated in his mind.
He was indeed very busy now and couldn’t spare much time, but everything surely had its priorities. Those governmental matters could wait and wouldn’t kill anyone, or at least not too many; if he could take down the cult leader sooner, that would save many more lives.
He had no qualms about participating in combat personally.
Of course, appropriate security measures would still need to be taken.
It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the nuns, but the more forces at his disposal, the better, obviously.
From the Phoenix side, they could probably assign four people to join the operation and keep three for maneuvers outside the city. They shouldn’t reject this request.
Aside from two people handling the food distribution checks in the outer city, Georgette and her team would have nine people participating in the combat.
Counting Gu Hang himself… this lineup was certainly enough.
However, after some thought, Gu Hang decided to bring along that elite marine squad.
That squad had now become his personal guard.
After reclaiming Revival City and receiving lots of gifts before, he instantly upgraded the remaining members to T3 level.
That was the upper limit for now. Their equipment, physical fitness, and combat experience were not sufficient to support a promotion to T2. Perhaps in the future, after more baptism of fire or some special opportunity or technology, their ranking could be further promoted.
But no matter what, 28 T3 level soldiers were the most elite force Gu Hang could field from under his command.
And he himself was described by Georgette as an excellent Psychic Caster.
But he could immediately elevate his own rating by a notch.
After the battles outside the city had quieted down, Gu Hang found that his experience was enough to level up.
With just 200 gifts, he would become an LV4 Psychic Caster as determined by the system.
This level also was what Gu Hang considered his ability to take on a fully armed superhuman such as a star warrior in single combat.
After figuring all this out in his mind, Gu Hang nodded and said, “Okay, then I will join you.”
…
After seeing off Georgette and sending a request to the Phoenix side and getting a response, Gu Hang used the last bit of time before the team assembled to focus on two things.
The first was checking the battle settlement.
[Blood Battle Narrow Victory, 65 points of grace earned]
[Casualties: 427, Enemies Killed: 742, Prisoners Captured: 121]
[Governor’s Infantry Regiment 3rd Battalion: Casualties: 89, Enemies Killed: 266]
[Prisoner Brigade: Casualties: 338, Enemies Killed: 337]
[Phoenix Battle Group (Allies): Casualties: 0, Enemies Killed: 139]
A hard-won battle… This was actually Gu Hang’s first time achieving such a result. Obviously, the gap in strength between the two sides wasn’t large, but the victory, with relatively heavier losses on his side, led to a smaller bonus in divine grace points.
After subtracting the Phoenix’s share of the spoils, what remained was a mere 65 points of divine grace.
As for that unorganized, hastily assembled prisoner brigade, their weapons and equipment were not up to scratch. Apart from being equipped with some crew-served heavy weapons, their level of gear was virtually indistinguishable from that of armed thugs. The enemy had the bonus of brainwashed religious zeal, and although our political commissars fired them up, there was still a gap to be closed.
Despite this, having equal casualties wasn’t something Gu Hang was entirely satisfied with. It showed that their military skills really did leave something to be desired.
Gu Hang felt a bit of a headache.
He had originally thought, considering they were from the Alliance’s regular forces, they wouldn’t be too bad even if they wouldn’t reach T5, right? Maybe he could save some divine grace points and just use them normally.
But looking at it now, it seemed they were a bit too lacking.
It seemed he would still need to invest in them after all.
Seven thousand men, raising them to T5 would also cost 70 points of divine grace, his heart ached!
After checking the battle results, the second thing Gu Hang needed to do was level up.
With 200 points of divine grace spent, Gu Hang felt a warm current, signaling his base attributes were increasing.
At the same time, a screen for selecting talents appeared on his interface.
As usual, he clicked on the [Unique] line first, not expecting to be able to select it.
Without second thoughts, he clicked on [Spirituality].
[Mind Manipulation: Allows you to penetrate the target’s mind, creating illusions, altering memories, and exerting direct control. At the same time, it strengthens your resistance to psychic attacks. Spirituality +1]
Having obtained a new talent, Gu Hang was fully satisfied.
Mental abilities, which he had longed for, were tools commonly used by Psychic Casters and were very frightening.
Moreover, after acquiring the Mind Manipulation spiritual talent, its potential uses extended far beyond just combat.
Of course, Gu Hang also reminded himself that such abilities should not be abused. The order he hoped to establish was certainly not one founded on the manipulation of minds. He would not use this method on his own people.
But when necessary, this technique could be incredibly effective.
After completing the level-up process, his attributes were as follows:
[Hero: Gu Hang (Faction Leader), LV4, Insufficient Experience for Level Up]
[Physique: 9, Spirituality: 18]
[Traits: Psychic Caster, Governor of Rage Owl Star]
[Talents: Protective Spiritual Energy, Telekinetic Control, Mind Manipulation]
Not much was added to his attributes this time, apart from gaining one point in Spirituality from the [Mind Manipulation] talent, none of the Physicality or Spirituality attributes increased from the normal leveling process.
Of course, that did not mean they hadn’t increased. In fact, he could feel his physical condition and spirituality improving.
It was just that the increase wasn’t enough to account for a full attribute point, so it wasn’t reflected on his personal interface.
After all, the higher one went, the more difficult it became to level up, requiring more experience accumulation and more investment of divine grace points. Likewise, the actual difference between each attribute point after leveling also grew bigger and bigger.