Epic Of The Demonic Sage

Having heard about Bergan, Lucius could guess a bit more about his gift. 

"What about its members?" Lucius questioned.

"Hmm… like I said, as of now they have ten members with Epic ranked gifts and over three hundred with Rare ranked gifts. And these are just their main members. If we consider their extended group which includes those with Uncommon ranked and common ranked gift, the number would probably go over a few thousand." John said.

Lucius felt even more surprised by this, as he couldn't classify them as a mercenary group anymore.

"Are they even a mercenary group at this point? They seem more like a private army." Lucius said.

"Indeed. That is why even aristocrats tread carefully when dealing with Bergan's Band. That is also the reason why the Grantz Kingdom has not chosen to forcefully exterminate them even though the location of their base is known.

If they tried something like that, Bergan would just go on a massacre and start killing people all over the kingdom. This would bring the kingdom more trouble than it's worth, since Bergan hasn't actually done anything like that yet." John replied.

"I see… so he's more of a man who looks for profit and won't do anything that goes against that." Lucius summarized.

"Correct… at least according to my understanding," John stated.

Lucius thought about it a bit more while Kiana got their food ready. They had taken plenty of food from the mansion so they didn't have to hunt for anything so they didn't have any problem.

Soon their dinner was finished, and they went to sleep. Two of the guards still decided to stay up to watch the area, just in case anything approached them.

Though, while the others slept, Lucius was in his soul space. When he appeared there he could feel that there was something different about it.

"Hmm… what's this… it's familiar… yet different…" Lucius said as he looked around.

His soul seemed to be normal, and there was no change in it. Rather, it was the vibe of the area that felt different to him. He didn't attempt to form a hell imprint as he didn't feel comfortable and that combined with his cautious nature, Lucius decided to properly check everything.

After a while, Lucius recognized what it was that felt different.

"Soul fluctuations?" Lucius said.

Every soul would let out certain energy fluctuations that were unique to them. These were like a signature and were called soul fluctuations. 

Lucius sensed the fluctuations and could straightway tell they were not from his soul, they were different.

"They can't be from Kiana, John and the others either. I can't sense the soul fluctuations of someone like that, at least not in my current level of strength. Which means… they're free or wandering souls." Lucius guessed.

He then realized that they may be coming from the bandits that were killed by Kiana.

"Wait, if they're still lingering here after all this time, then that means there is no divine pull to guide them!" Lucius realized.

From the theories Lucius had learned, he knew that most souls would be guided by a mechanism called divine pull. Every religion had its own version and depending on that, that person's souls would be guided to the afterlife.

Though the difference was that there could be delays in the divine pull. For example, if a god's domain only existed in a certain area and the person who prayed to it died out of it, his souls would not be guided by the divine pull of that god and would just wander.

These souls were called wandering souls. They could either be exercised by priests of any god or be taken by some mage that dabbled in the Dark arts. The wandering souls did not have as much of self awareness if one compared them to living humans.

Then there were free souls. They had full awareness about them and their surroundings. The best example of this was none other than Lucius himself when he was traveling through the countless dimension and worlds.

Seeing the soul fluctuations here, Lucius guessed that they must be wandering souls. If they were free souls, they would have the left the area long ago, searching for a place that was more comfortable for them. After all, most souls have a hard time existing under the sun and preferred sheltered places.

Though there were many exceptions to this and it was the very reason why soul studies was a very big field in Lucius's past life. 

"Though if they are wandering souls and they have no divine pull, then… I can make use of them." Lucius said as a smile appeared on his face.

'Let's see if that method still works in this world or not…' Lucius thought before merging with his soul.

The surface of Lucius's soul rippled like the surface of the water as visible waves of energy came out from it. These waves of energy became invisible the moment they left his body and spread around in the area.

Soon, ethereal figures could be seen around the area. They had appeared out of thin air and were barely visible to one's eyes. Even if one observed them, they would look like the distortion in air one would see when they saw something just above hot flames.

These figures were none other than the wandering souls of the bandits that had been killed. They were attracted by the waves that were coming from Lucius's soul and went towards him. In five minutes, over thirty ethereal figures were gathered around Lucius's body, that was sleeping in the tent.

They were very cramped in the tent, with some of them overlapping with each other. Yet they stayed there calmly, no change in them. Even their features could not be seen as they were mostly ethereal outlines.

Seeing that it had worked, Lucius smiled again.

"Perfect…" he muttered to himself.

He observed for a little while more just to see if everything was normal, and then got to the next step.

"Now then… Get over here!"