Chapter 136: Combat Music

Lei En first noticed the music player.

The player's icon had originally been a simple red musical note, which at first glance resembled a mosquito coil.

After this reboot, the icon became a bit more complex; the note's lines wrapped around twice more on the outer edge, making the whole look like a horn.

"Just listening to a song—what use could it have?"

Curious, Lei En opened the icon and started playback. Immediately, a magnetic male singing voice sounded:

Laugh, you and I, waste our scheming hearts,

Love chases the mirrored blossoms, that beauty;

Fear that luck will turn away in an instant,

For greed, anger, joy, hatred we are enthralled;

……

Lei En, hearing the familiar voice and melody, was instantly stunned.

The music was not in his mind but resonated directly in the room, the source coming from himself, continuously consuming power.

The power was converting into soul energy and circulating; the icon glowed like an Element, like a spell, driving energy to form sound‑wave vibrations that emanated from Lei En's body, eventually becoming tangible sound that others could also hear.

"What…?"

Lei En stared dumbfounded—this phone's mutation was absurdly extreme, wasn't it?

The singing continued:

Ah… ha… unwilling to part with the dazzling mundane world, ah… ha… a lifetime cannot fathom this riddle, swallowing wind, kissing rain, burying the setting sun without hesitation, defying mountains, chasing seas, treading snowy paths yet never despair… the vast sky, endless snow, who will sail together…

As he listened, Lei En gradually sensed a change occurring within himself.

The song seemed to have an inspiring effect, making his blood boil, his internal power surging and continuously rising; the World Tree in his soul vibrated to a strange rhythm, his soul power accelerated, and his consciousness sharpened.

Lei En stood and took a few steps; under the influence of Truth Will, he clearly felt his power had been amplified.

At first it may have increased by less than a tenth, but as the music continued, the amplification grew higher.

When the lyrics reached "ah… ha…", the boost was already around one fifth.

When the singing hit an exhilarating climax, the amplification reached as much as half!

Lei En clenched his fist, the air was crushed, emitting a crisp bursting sound.

"This is a 'Frenzy' Element!"

Lei En was overjoyed; Frenzy is a rare Element and the core ability of a berserker, and he hadn't expected to obtain it in this way.

However, the music's enhancement seemed less pronounced than Frenzy itself.

A first‑level Frenzy can increase a berserker's power by half; at second level it can double; each subsequent level adds another half; if Frenzy advances to the fifth level, becoming the supreme Element 'Blood Frenzy', power spikes threefold!

Still, Lei En was satisfied; the song's inspiration has one advantage over Frenzy—it has no side effects.

After Frenzy ends, the transcendent suffers a period of weakness.

The Frenzy Element also affects mood; over time, without a spirit‑user regularly relieving the psyche, repeated Frenzy makes a person's temper become irritable, loses patience, and when considering problems tends toward simple recklessness, making it easy to "lose control" in battle.

Moreover, the music's inspiration goes beyond Frenzy.

Lei En casually emitted a rainbow‑light beam and discovered that the music also accelerated his casting speed.

This effect is similar to the super magical technique "Fast Casting", though the underlying principle is entirely different.

Fast Casting works through understanding of the spell, whereas this musical inspiration speeds the flow of soul power, like installing a turbocharger on an engine, fully exploiting the efficiency of soul power.

Lei En searched the "Book of Thousand Souls".

He quickly found a similar Element called "Mana Surge".

It is a rare auxiliary spell with four rings that can hasten the flow of all forms of mana, magic, soul power, and energy, achieving faster casting.

The Four‑Ring Mana Surge can shorten casting time by roughly one tenth.

Lei En tried several times; the music's casting‑speed boost was comparable to Mana Surge, also cutting his casting time by a tenth.

At that moment, a song finished and switched to the next one.

Lei En immediately sensed the power rapidly fading, his soul energy calming, and his casting returning to normal speed.

"Hm? Why does it stop? Is it that only this song has the inspiring effect?"

He hurriedly switched the song back.

Sure enough, the sense of power boost and fast casting returned!

"It really only works with this song…"

Lei En felt a bit helpless; recalling that during the Soul Transformation ceremony he had just heard this song, so it wasn't a coincidence.

He set the player to single‑track loop; the song lasts nearly five minutes, and after one play it immediately starts the second from the beginning, giving him a new discovery.

The second loop's amplification stacked with the first, adding another half to his power and another tenth to casting speed. However, the power consumption also surged; at the end of the second loop, the power had drained a full five units!

When it reached the third loop, the amplification was still stacking!

Of course, the soul power consumption had also risen to a staggering level, the power dropping at a visible rate, emptying in less than a minute.

Lei En's remaining power was low, so he promptly paused the music.

"In the first loop, power increased by half and casting sped up by a tenth; in the second loop, power added another half and casting another tenth faster; with this stacking effect, by the sixth loop my power would triple, matching Blood Frenzy, and casting speed would be reduced by more than half!"

Lei En hoped that if he could reach the tenth loop, wouldn't all spells become instant cast!

That seemed a bit far‑fetched.

He thought for a while and decided to name this effect "Combat Music".

In future battles, turning on the music would grant himself both Frenzy and Mana Surge, and the longer he fought, the higher the amplification.

"Hahaha… in my Combat Music, who can defeat me?"

Lei En felt a little smug.

The only drawback of this Combat Music was that it was too loud; once activated, he became like a huge speaker, and the more loops, the louder it got, which felt somewhat embarrassing.

"Hmm, unless it's absolutely necessary, it's better not to use it."

Lei En muttered that if he were forced to play music, he would say it's the effect of "Illusion Sound Technique" used for entertainment when others asked about it.

Anyway, no one understands what is being sung.

The orc shaman in the northern Empire can use battle songs to grant various encouragement effects to orc warriors, so his own combat music isn't particularly strange.

He studied it for a moment longer; if he doesn't play this combat music, playing other songs lacks the enhancement effect, but the volume can be adjusted, like a normal phone's speaker function.

There are over a thousand classic songs in the phone, and when the chance comes, he can play them so people of this world can hear them.

He turned off the player and Lei En looked at the second icon.

This icon had been activated long ago; originally it was software for identifying plants, its symbol composed of a plant's stem and leaves together with a monster's skull, and he had never found the correct usage.

After a reboot, the symbol had completely changed.

In the center was a ferocious monster skull, resembling the legendary Flame Demon, with ram‑like horns, surrounded by vine‑like plants and dotted with a few green leaves.

What surprised Lei En most was that the icon extended an arrow pointing to the adjacent personal library, as if a link had been formed between them.

He was a bit baffled and opened the icon.

In an instant, a faint halo appeared in his view.

Where Lei En looked, the halo pointed in that direction; when an object entered its range, it began scanning immediately.

His gaze swept the room searching for a target, finally landing on a potted plant in the corner.

Beep!

A prompt tone rang in his mind, and beside the halo several lines of text appeared: "Violet, a perennial ornamental plant…"

Lei En skimmed through it quickly; it was all information about that plant. Opening the text, he found its source was a plant encyclopedia in his own library, which happened to contain data on violets.

He understood immediately.

The icon's function was similar to his previous life—it was for plant identification—but there was no internet here, so it couldn't conjure results from nothing; it could identify a target only if relevant data existed in his personal library.

Judging from the skull on the icon, it should also be able to identify various monsters.

"This function is nice; it should come in handy."

Lei En nodded to himself.

His personal library held a vast amount of knowledge, and it would only grow, making it impossible to remember everything; in the future, when encountering monsters or plants, skipping the search step would let him instantly know their information.

Of course, the premise is that the library contains data, and that it must be correct.

Lei En decided to name this icon "Monster Atlas".

The last altered icon was a translation dictionary; like the Monster Atlas, it also had an arrow pointing to the library.

Lei En fumbled a few times and roughly figured out that it had been upgraded into a translator.

It allowed him to comprehend many alien languages contained in the library, including the three major human linguae, seven or eight minor human tongues, four elf languages, Dwarvish, Draconic, ancient Giant language, four rare Orcish tongues, and even Celestial language and Abyssal Language!

Lei En marveled; this was the enhanced "Language Comprehension" spell!

"Language Comprehension" is a Four‑Ring mental spell; it only allows listening, not speaking, and works only for the spell's duration—once it ends, he still can't learn a single word.

This translator not only let Lei En understand foreign languages, but also speak them fluently.

Moreover, when the translator is activated, it conducts high‑efficiency learning, enabling him to master a language in a very short time.

"Whoa, that's pretty impressive!"

Lei En thought that if he had this translator in his previous life, learning English wouldn't have been so painful.

He recalled the cute little girl's slogan: "XXX point‑reading device, tap wherever you don't know, SOEASY, Mom never has to worry about my studies again."

Lei En checked the dozen or so languages he currently possessed; all had abundant dictionaries and data in the library, but the collection wasn't complete. He thought about when to visit a foreign‑language bookstore to gather the remaining tongues.

Later, finding time to study and becoming a language expert would surely be beneficial.

He continued to examine the other phone icons—Soul Eye, Library, Microphone, Gyroscope, Gun Mini‑Game—and they were much the same as before, unchanged.

After staying in the room for almost an hour, Lei En finally left.

He went up to the fifth‑floor office, where Viola was already waiting; seeing him enter, she smiled and asked, "How does it feel, Fourth-level Wizard, sir?"

Lei En looked around and found the office already tidied, even the air filtered.

He sat on the sofa and said, "I can only be considered a Mid‑stage Wizard now; without merging a demon soul, I haven't reached Fourth-level."

"I see. Have you decided which demon soul to merge?"

Lei En shook his head, "Not yet."

Viola's eyes lit up as she pitched, "We also stock a batch of Mid‑stage demon souls, but they're inert, contained in soul stones. Want to take a look?"

Lei En laughed instantly, recalling that a few months earlier, when they first met her, it had been the same.

He considered briefly and asked, "Do you have any demon souls with the Affinity Element of Thunder?"

"Thunder Affinity is a very rare element, worth over two thousand gold, highly sought after. Unless a living creature carries it inland, demon souls with it are usually bought right after extraction," Viola guessed Lei En's intention, clearly unwilling to give up Thunder God's Hammer, thought a moment, and said, "In my memory, Longshande hasn't seen Thunder Affinity for many years."

"If it's Mo Du, or heading south to Thus: Thus: Shengangcheng of the Tuld Trade Confederation, these two major trade cities that receive the first batch of demon souls should have a chance to encounter Thunder Affinity."

Lei En nodded silently.

Mo Du City needs no introduction; it's the Empire's most prosperous trade capital. Thus: Thus: Shengangcheng is slightly lesser, but the chief city of the Tuld Trade Confederation.

The confederation consists of nine cities, covering an area equivalent to two provinces; nominally highly autonomous, but in reality a vassal state of the Empire, located on the Empire's southern coast, each city ruled by a powerful transcendental lord.

Thus: Thus: Shengangcheng's lords are a married couple, both Legendary High‑rank Wizards.

Because of its excellent port, prime location on the golden sea route, the rulers' enlightened policies, and extremely high trade freedom, Thus: Thus: Shengangcheng developed over a few centuries into the Empire's trade city second only to Mo Du.

Lei En pondered for a long time, finding the decision difficult.

He wanted to merge a demon soul immediately to boost his strength, yet he was reluctant to give up Thunder Affinity lightly.

Viola saw his dilemma and comforted, "If you're not in a hurry, wait a few days. I have business contacts in both cities; I can have someone inquire, maybe they'll find Thunder Affinity."

"That works too."

Lei En said no thanks, produced a premium rune book hidden in his clothing, and smiled, "Your business has arrived; hire an Enchanter to modify a few spells for me. I'll cover the cost and guarantee you a huge profit."

Viola took the rune book, gave it a quick appraisal, and exclaimed in surprise, "A top‑grade rune book—where did you get it?"

"A lich in a dwarf fortress." Lei En explained in one sentence, "Can you manage that?"

"Of course." Viola nodded, "Our Violet House has the duke's backing and cooperates with the Wu Shi Ta; we can at least summon three enchantment masters, finish within five days, and the total alchemical materials and cost will come to about a thousand gold."

She flipped through the spells in the rune book while asking, "Which spells do you want to change to?"

Lei En already had an idea in mind and immediately replied, 'Keep "Fireball" and "Counterspell", remove those three necromancy spells, and replace them with "Blink", "Fireball", and "Fireball".'

(End of chapter)