Chapter 584: Bronze Giant

"So fast?"

Lei En was very surprised; after he told the teacher the type of Soul he needed, only four or five days had passed, and there was already a result.

He took the soul stone, glanced at it, and immediately identified it: "Bronze Giant!"

Anxiwodasi's white eyebrows twitched. He had long heard that Lei En's ability to identify Souls was comparable to the world's greatest Soul Appraisers, and now he finally witnessed it firsthand. In Ai Lun E Si's world there are countless Souls, many of them extremely similar, making mistakes easy.

But Lei En identified the Soul correctly with almost no thought; his eyesight was truly remarkable!

"Your luck is good."

Anxiwodasi let out a sigh of admiration, stroked his snow‑white beard, and laughed: "Once the Weizelan procurement notice was released, we received multiple responses the next day. Mid‑stage Legendary Souls are hard for ordinary Wizards to defeat, so most reports concern their whereabouts, and this includes the Bronze Giant."

He pointed at the soul stone and said, "This fellow comes from the Earth Element Plane; I made a trip there, found it fit your requirements, and brought it back for you."

"Thank you, teacher!"

Lei En, moved, performed a solemn bow.

Don't be fooled by the teacher's easy tone; these past few days he certainly was traveling on his behalf. Plane travel is fraught with danger, even for a Holy Soul Wizard, it is not a light matter.

Behind the simple "I brought it back for you" lie a great deal of hardship and risk.

Not to mention, the teacher clearly went beyond the Earth Element Plane; he may have personally inspected every piece of information the Weizelan Wizards gathered, including many extremely dangerous locations, like the Earth Element Plane, far from the Prime Material Plane.

Anxiwodasi nodded and smiled, without taking credit, and asked, "Take a look and see if it's suitable—can it be merged?"

"It can!"

Lei En had already appraised it.

The Bronze Giant's Soul wave frequency is close to his own, so the compatibility will not be below eighty percent, and as the first Soul after a Soul Transformation, it has almost no conflicts.

The teacher truly lives up to being a Thirty-level or higher Holy Soul Wizard; his keen eye is sharp, otherwise he wouldn't have delivered it personally.

Bronze Giants are lower‑tier giants, not very intelligent, unable to wield spells, and they are scarce, yet their strength rivals that of higher‑tier giants; some exceptionally gifted Bronze Giants in close combat are even comparable to Titan Giants!

Their greatest strengths are defense and power.

When Lei En first crossed over and obtained the Golden Ant Soul, he consulted the Book of a Thousand Souls for information on Bronze Giants. Legendary Bronze Giants are one of the two most likely sources to carry the "Steel Body" Element, the other being the Steel Dragon.

An immature Bronze Giant initially possesses the rare Element "Bronze Body"; after decades of forging, the Bronze Body advances to Steel Body, allowing it to ascend to a Legendary Giant.

This Bronze Giant is Mid‑stage Legendary, and its "Steel Body" has reached Level Three!

In addition, it also has a ten‑level "Strength."

The two supreme Elements perfectly match Lei En's needs, and the Giant actually has far more than two; he counted and found exactly twenty, all of them Physical and Melee Elements!

Among the remaining Elements, Lei En values "Blood Frenzy" and "Indestructible Iron Fist" the most.

Although Blood Frenzy is only Level One, stacking it with his own five‑level Blood Frenzy will push the progress bar forward considerably, saving a lot of Soul Power and bringing him a step closer to advancing to "Infinite Frenzy."

"Indestructible Iron Fist" is also a supreme Element.

It only works on the basis of having a "Steel Body"; once activated, both hands become incredibly hard, as if made of the toughest material in the world, almost indestructible, while the power of the fists surges. The higher the Steel Body's level, the stronger the burst.

The Bronze Giant's Steel Body is Level Three, so its Indestructible Iron Fist is also Level Three, boosting punch power by one and a half times and increasing hand hardness.

With a pair of unyielding iron fists, few enemies survive a single punch from a Bronze Giant!

Lei En habitually wields a war hammer, but this does not hinder the Indestructible Iron Fist; when swinging the hammer, the power boost also stacks onto it.

If the hammer slips or he is weapon‑less, he won't be flustered.

His own fists are the best weapons!

The Bronze Giant's other Elements are also solid: Level‑5 "Rapid Recovery", Level‑6 "Self‑Healing", Level‑5 "Enduring Stamina", Level‑3 "Swiftness" and Level‑3 "Energy Absorption"; after merging the Soul, Lei En's physical traits receive some enhancement.

He already possesses the earlier Elements, so they stack to raise the levels.

Only "Energy Absorption" is new to him; it's a rare Physical Element that absorbs energy when the body is hit by spells, regardless of the energy type—elemental, shadow, or arcane—all hostile invading energy is taken in without refusal.

Lei En keenly perceives the huge potential of "Energy Absorption."

His primary magical resistance now comes from the "True Dragon Body"'s Dragon Scale Skin, and the constant "Dragon Power Technique" offers a similar effect; fundamentally they are the same, so they conflict and cannot operate simultaneously.

"Energy Absorption" is different.

It uses the entire body as a container, absorbing invasive destructive energy; only energy exceeding the absorption cap will cause damage.

As expected, raising the level of "Energy Absorption" raises its capacity limit.

Each time a spell hits, the Dragon Scale Skin first negates part of its power, the energy then enters the body and is partially absorbed, so the spell's damage is reduced.

There is also the high‑level resistance from the Blood‑colored Cloak, plus the Rainbow Light Cloak…

Lei En feels that few spells can hurt him.

He immediately decided to prioritize raising "Energy Absorption" into the top three, and he has a hunch that when it reaches Level Five or higher, it may surprise him.

The Bronze Giant's Soul also contains Level‑7 "Heavy Strike", Level‑4 "Power Burst", Level‑3 "Shockwave", Level‑5 "Charge", Level‑4 "Leaping Jump", Level‑5 "Rapid Run", "Heart‑Rending Roar", "Unyielding Will", "Lightning Reflex", "Precision Throw", "Pain Ignorance", and so on.

These are all melee Elements, not particularly rare; many Souls below Legendary also have them.

Lei En already has many of these Elements, but he likes them.

All along, the Souls he has merged have been extremely powerful and unique, leaving him lacking common yet practical melee Elements, such as the almost universal "Heavy Strike" and "Power Burst" among melee transcendents.

After lifting the Blood Soul Curse, he could train to acquire melee Elements himself, but it would consume a great deal of time, and he lacks the time.

Now the Bronze Giant's Soul finally fills that gap.

Lei En carefully examined each of its Elements; even without having seen its former majesty, he can infer that this Bronze Giant is extremely strong, especially in melee—its defense, power, and combat skills are all formidable, making it an unparalleled close‑combat master, comparable to the "King of Land Warfare" Bimon Beast.

Unfortunately, sheer melee strength alone does not make it invincible.

The Bronze Giant's weakness is obvious: it knows no spells, lacks any ranged attacks, and even has no support spells.

Ai Lun E Si is a world ruled by spellcasters.

When a Bronze Giant meets a powerful spellcaster, it becomes a passive target; it cannot strike the enemy nor escape, and no amount of defense or power helps— even if the enemy's spell isn't exceptionally strong, keeping distance can wear it down gradually.

Its sole anti‑spell measure, "Energy Absorption", is insufficient to fully nullify spell power.

That is the tragedy of pure melee.

Without mastering spells, one cannot ascend to the pinnacle of transcendence.

So, Bronze Giants are merely lower‑tier giants; their status within the giant race is about the same as beast‑like monsters such as Mountain Giants and Two‑headed Giants.

Lei En can guess that when the teacher acted against a Bronze Giant, a Nine‑Ring Fireball would instantly slay it, without any effort.

"Pretty satisfied, aren't you?" Anxiwodasi asked with a smile.

"Very satisfied," Lei En nodded, "the Bronze Giant's magic soul matches me perfectly; thank you, teacher, for everything you've done for me."

Anxiwodasi was nonchalant, "As long as you like it."

Seeing Lei En looking a bit impatient, he said, "The coronation ceremony of Sabra is still a few hours away; leave this place in my care, and go do whatever you need to do."

"Alright."

Lei En took the Soul Stone and entered the meditation room next door.

Although this is a garden villa of BrewotzAcademy, its safety is far inferior to his own tower and castle, but with the teacher stationed there, he isn't afraid of any mishap.

He sat down in the quiet meditation room, the sounds cut off outside, allowing his mind to settle.

Half a minute later, he opened the phone interface.

The last time he advanced to Legendary Mid-stage, the energy circle had only one ring left; after Soul Transformation, only a little over twenty energy units were filled. Later, when upgrading Elements, he casually added a few units. The current energy is at 23%, and with the remaining sixty energy units in the Soul Power Pool, the magic soul fusion should have enough to level up.

But before that, he must first fuse the magic soul.

Lei En placed the Soul Stone on his forehead; a few seconds later, the azure giant magic soul was extracted, instantly entering the soul space and appearing at the roots of the World Tree.

The fusion began.

Since this is the first magic soul fusion after Soul Transformation, it is the easiest; unless it carries an Affinity Element, there will be little conflict.

The Bronze Giant's magic soul climbed step by step along the trunk.

Each time it stalled in resistance, Lei En triggered a Soul Power Vibration to force it onward. Because the magic soul's wave frequency was similar and the Bronze Giant's Willpower was weak, after only three vibrations it surpassed the height of four layers of branches, reaching the canopy phase and sprouting a new branch.

Twenty leaves budded on the branch, each with Element runes glittering brightly.

Lei En let out a light sigh.

He looked up at the clock on the wall; this magic soul fusion took less than ten minutes, faced almost no difficulty, and succeeded smoothly.

At the moment the fusion completed, a portion of the newly formed leaves resonated with the Elements already possessed.

Physical Element is stacking!

Lei En, having experienced this before, remained in meditation to observe.

The lowest branch of the World Tree, bearing a magic soul of the three‑leaf "Gold‑eating Ant", which represents the "Steel Body" leaf, trembled lightly; the Element runes on it were changing, becoming more intricate, emitting light and an indescribable sense of hardness.

On the phone interface, the progress bar under the "Steel Body" icon was rapidly advancing.

A Fourth-level Steel Body requires over five hundred energy units to reach Fifth level; the cost‑performance of investing energy is very low, so Lei En barely paid attention to it. Until today, the Fourth-level progress bar had only three units, meaning it was still 97% away from upgrading.

On the magic soul branch of the Bimon Beast, the Steel Body's Element runes advanced in sync.

The identical Physical Elements, once stacked, resonated; the runes displayed on each leaf were the same, treated as a single Element.

Fourth-level Steel Body stacked with Third-level Steel Body!

At this moment, the progress bar surged—5%, 10%, 30%, 50%… accelerating—reaching 99% in just a few minutes. After a one‑second pause, the bar flickered, three leaves vibrated in unison, and Steel Body attained Fifth level!

Lei En felt his body become harder.

His skin reflected a faint metallic sheen, tinged with silvery gray, which quickly subsided back to normal complexion, yet his interior was filled with boundless power.

The Fifth-level Steel Body was not yet finished; the freshly cleared progress bar kept advancing, but stopped after only two or three units.

"Indeed, it can still upgrade beyond Fifth level!"

"But the required energy is too much."

Lei En tapped the Soul Power Pool for a brief test and found that upgrading Steel Body again would need over eight hundred energy units, causing him to shake his head.

Next upgrade, Steel Body should advance to a Legendary Element.

The Book of Thousand Souls does not record what Element Steel Body will evolve into, but Lei En found some related material in the library; the content is sparse, only a few lines, suggesting it is likely the world's strongest defense, the "Golden Sacred Body"!

This is a Legendary Element that exists only in rumors; detailed information is scarce.

Lei En looked at the other Elements.

As Steel Body reached Fifth level, Indestructible Iron Fist also rose to Fifth level; when activated, both hands became unyieldingly firm, and the punch power amplification increased to two and a half times!

There is already an Eleventh-level "Strength" Element; stacking a Tenth-level "Strength" raised the progress bar significantly, but still did not upgrade—78% progress, still short of advancing to Legendary Strength. Fifth-level Blood Frenzy stacked with a First-level Blood Frenzy increased the progress bar by 15%; advancing to Infinite Frenzy remains far away.

Vibration Wave stacked to Fifth level;

Self‑healing stacked to Seventh level, advancing to a new Superlative Element;

Toughness rose to Fifth level, Rapid Recovery to Sixth level; Enduring Stamina at Sixth level;

Energy Absorption is a new Element, still at Third level.

The remaining Elements are of little use; Charge, Leaping, and Sprinting are all at their caps, and stacking cannot enhance them. Unyielding Will is overridden by Truth Will, Precise Throw is only marginally better than nothing, and Ignoring Pain is useless—most enemies cannot even break their own defenses, so how could they feel pain? Only enemies would feel pain, thus this Element is needed.

Second-level Lightning Reflection is decent, slightly speeding up melee reaction time.

However, on the foundation of Seventh-level "Swiftness", the effect is average; in the future there will be the Blue Dragon's "Lightning Triple Strike", faster and better.

Seventh-level Heavy Strike and Fourth-level Strength Burst are both very useful.

The Bronze Giant does not significantly boost power, but it is a very good supplement.

Lei En nodded in satisfaction, glanced at the phone interface, and saw that fusing the Bronze Giant's magic soul raised his Soul Power by over twenty units, reaching 45% energy.

A thought crossed his mind; the remaining energy in the Soul Power Pool was scant when he tapped it.

The energy circle filled clockwise, unit by unit, rapidly turning green until it reached full, exactly depleting the Soul Power Pool.

"This time truly left not a drop behind."

Lei En muttered, then immediately sensed the World Tree trembling, entering a soul ascension state.

He was familiar with soul ascension; after a few minutes the ascension ended, the phone interface flickered for a few seconds, and a second energy circle appeared.

He had risen to Fourteenth-level Wizard, and could fuse another magic soul!

(End of Chapter)