The secret of his dual affinity had been weighing on him from the moment he discovered its existence. He needed to figure out how to wield both, but without prior information, there was no way to move forward. Taking a deep breath, he decided he had to ask, no matter how stupid or suspicious it made him look.
Ethan laughed a little, scratching his head as he tried to play the question off as unimportant. "Umm, Sansa? Why does the soul have just one Law affinity?"
Sansa nodded, not suspecting a thing. "There's nothing that says the soul can't have two Law affinities. But those cases are incredibly rare, and they hardly ever succeed in breaking through to the Soul Born rank."
Hearing this, Ethan's blood ran cold. He had been this close to a death sentence, remembering his earlier hesitation to even ask. He focused and followed up. "Why does that happen? Are there any proven facts?"
"It's not a big secret, but you won't find this information just lying around," Sansa replied. "In the last ten years, we've had two geniuses like this enter the Order. Only one is still alive, and he's already a Rank 4 ascendant, but I think everything falls back to the soul you see..... The one who died was attempting to break through to Soul Born, and his cause of death was soul-shattering."
"You have to understand, if you aren't attacked with a soul art, the only other way to die from soul shattering is when your soul is trying to hold in more than it can handle—like? Creating two cores."
Ethan nodded, falling silent. He wanted to ask more, but knew it would become suspicious, especially with Alan sitting quietly beside him. Alan was no fool, despite his laid-back demeanor. Deciding he had enough to process, Ethan shifted the topic back. "Alright... I see, so why did you call Spell Structures the universal path?"
Sansa nodded, a proud teacher once more. "Well, I expected this ques—" She paused, feeling a vibration on her wrist.
She smiled gently as both boys watched her stand up. "Unfortunately, boys, your time is up. But, of course, if you want a little more time, I can consider staying for a little more...."
Ethan's head was already swimming with a lot of information. He had a powerful urge to start walking his path immediately; he felt too bare and unsafe. So far, he had almost lost his life twice...
"Thank you for today, Lady Sansa," he said, "but unfortunately, we've run out of resources at this point."
Alan, remembering the mission, handed over the required True Blue Stones. Sansa used her official clearance to transfer their 10-point reward each without question. "Alright then, I'll see you boys whenever," she said, strutting out.
The moment the door closed, Ethan turned to Alan. "Need me to follow you to Henry's? I need to get back and start using my breathing technique."
"We need to go together," Alan said, already heading for the door. He explained as Ethan fell in step behind him. "We need to buy food from the cafeteria, so we don't run out of energy like last time. I also asked Henry about recovery potions; they're 10 points for a low-rank one. They're better than food for instant recovery."
Ethan nodded, reminding him that Alan was far more reliable than he usually let on.
Reaching Henry's store didn't take too long. Alan took charge of the haggling while Ethan browsed the shelves, his mind more focused on gaining strength than on the weapons and artifacts he kept checking out, and once the transaction was complete, Alan tapped Ethan's shoulder to leave.
"You boys should invite a brother the next time you go out," Henry called from behind them. "I need to share in your luck."
They knew he was joking; any single Rank 2 weapon in his store cost thousands of points.
On the walk to the cafeteria, Alan pulled up his soulband and transferred a sum to Ethan. "There were 500 low-rank stones, 127 mid-rank, and 52 high-rank, including the ring. Everything came to a little under 11,000 points. I split it between us equally."
Ethan didn't even hear the explanation. His entire existence was focused on the staggering increase in his wallet by 5,500 points. Transmigration had never felt as good as it did in this moment.
They bought high-protein meals and supplies that would last a while, even if they stayed in their rooms for a long time. The walk back to the rooms was quiet, as each was lost in their own plans for the coming months ahead.
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One year and five months had passed since Ethan first stepped into the world of Ascendants. If anyone saw him now, they would be unable to connect him to the weak young man he had been.
He was shirtless, sitting cross-legged on the floor of his room, which was littered with papers scrawled with complex formulas, intricate diagrams, and countless calculations. Dressed only in his signature black pants, with his eyes closed and breathing in a specific, measured pattern.
He looked wild, the gentle grace he once carried was gone, replaced by a raw, focused intensity. His signature white hair was now a tangled mane, but no one could doubt the palpable aura of power that surrounded him.
The past year had been the worst of his life.
Alan had broken through to the Soul Born rank months ago, having woven five threads of lightning energy into what was called a Forge Core. Now, Alan had two Rank 1 Body Runes and was on the verge of completing his first personal spell structure. He was the talk of every early Rank 2 ascendant in the Order's battle realm, known for his ferocious sword techniques and ingenious use of his runes, always betting points and giving his opponents a run for their money.
Meanwhile, Ethan had been stuck. For over a year, he had labored, on both of his cores. He was no longer a novice, but he remained an Initiate, trapped by the monumental task he had set for himself.
But today was different. After one year, five months, and three days, he was finally ready.
If anyone could see the landscape of his soul, they would scream in terror. Sitting comfortably within his spiritual center were ten gleaming threads.
The first five were a vibrant, gleaming purple—the color of the Illusion energy. The last five were a brilliant, metallic silver—the hue of nascent Creation. To any other ascendant, this sight would be a nightmare. To the ever-cautious Ethan, it was merely the result of another day's work, every variable calculated down to the last deviation.
Most of his first year had been dedicated solely to the Illusion threads. His goal was simple: to find the absolute limit of what his soul could handle. Through Sansa's tutorials and his own relentless research, he had deduced that dual cores were possible, but only if the soul's strength could bear the strain. The continuous creation of Illusion threads was his method of stress-testing his own soul.
He managed to create thirteen threads before his entire being began to shudder violently, forcing him to abort the fourteenth.
The process that followed was agonizing. He had to wait a full week for his body to naturally dissipate the massive amount of compressed energy, thread by thread. During these periods of forced recovery, he drowned himself in library books and completed the Order's mandatory monthly mission. Losing the energy was painful, but re-gathering and compressing it was worse, taking three weeks and two days per thread.
Yet, this brutal process revealed his greatest asset: an abnormal, monstrous Soul Strength. He discovered he didn't even need the True-Blue Stones to stabilize his compression; his soul was strong enough to handle the strain on its own with ease. This discovery gave him the confidence to push further.
Next, he turned his focus, using his breathing technique on his hidden Creation affinity. He began the same grueling process, trying to see how far he could push this second, even more mysterious law.