Am I safe here?
A crucial question was asked; one that could determine Ellis's entire future path.
Fortunately, Aurora didn't leave him hanging and answered immediately.
[This world should probably be free of the Twilight Codex's influence and is safe. However, until you evolve the system at least once, it's still difficult for me to gather detailed information about the world you'll be in or where you might end up.]
Color returned to Ellis's small cheeks as he heaved a sigh of relief. And while he naturally didn't like these ambiguous, uncertain answers, he decided to be satisfied with them—for now. At the very least, it seemed he had some time to figure things out…
So, after thinking everything through once more, he asked his final question, planning to finally wrap up this exhausting Q&A session.
'What about the Pseudo Seed of Evolution? It sounded like a badass name, so… why was it absorbed?'
[The Seed of Evolution is a rare and precious natural treasure, tied to one's state of existence. It helps the soul ascend to a higher tier.]
[But the Pseudo Seed of Evolution is nothing more than a cheap imitation… one given to everyone by the Twilight Codex. Aside from acting as a direct link between the host and the Twilight Codex, it also served as the previous system interface.]
[Through this connection, nothing about the host is hidden from them, and without the Twilight Codex providing feedback when you level up, it's completely useless.]
'Oh, so it's just a knockoff!'
Ellis would have liked to throw out that comment casually, but he couldn't ignore the cold sweat running down his back.
If his impression of the Twilight Codex had been that of a parasite before, then now… it might as well be a devil.
Still, he forced himself to shake off those thoughts and calm down. He needed to focus on something more productive.
It was finally time to open his status window, after all, to see what had changed and what he could actually do now.
[Status]
Name: — (Ellis Miller)
Age: 0 (23)
Race: Human
Physique: **** Physique (Incomplete)
[Attributes]
Constitution: G-
Soul: D- (C+)
Mana: F+
Blank Points: 0
[Abilities]
Ephemeral Soul Genesis (Passive)
[Skills]
Absorption (Passive) Lv.1, Spearmanship (Passive) Lv.1, Knife Mastery Lv.1
The first thing that caught his attention was naturally his name and age, but he didn't dwell on them, as he already had an inkling of why they were like that. Instead, he moved on.
Noticing how the status window had become shorter, Ellis didn't mind… In fact, he found it neater this way.
Obtaining some kind of physique he had only ever read about in novels, even if it was incomplete, felt satisfying too.
The attributes were the most surprising part, though. The shift from numbers to ranks didn't matter much, but the fact that the previous attributes had been reduced to just Constitution and Mana, with Soul now added as the highest no less, caught him off guard.
Did the Pseudo Seed of Evolution have something to do with this? Is that why the system now has a Soul attribute?
Ellis couldn't help but wonder. Still, there was something that nagged at him even more. He could understand why Constitution was so low… he was a fragile baby after all. Mana had always been his strongest suit, even if he still couldn't sense it. But what about Soul… why were there two ranks?
'Aurora, why is the Soul attribute like this? Which one is my attribute—C or D?'
[Even with the elevation, from the **** shard to your ability and your soul, reincarnating is still a taxing action. So, during the process, your soul was damaged. ]
[C+ represents the value of your soul had it been in a perfect state, while the current state is still at D-. ]
Ellis, surprised to learn that his soul was actually injured despite not feeling anything, felt a pang of concern. Worried that this could affect his growth in power, he asked again.
'Then, what kind of effects will my damaged soul have on me now? And how long will it take to recover? Also… why is its value so much higher than the others?'
[During the fusion process with the gray shard, your body was disintegrated. Because of that, all the beneficial energy that was supposed to strengthen your Constitution and Mana was instead concentrated entirely on your Soul.]
[But, even if your body had remained intact, your ability is naturally more attuned to the soul, so your Soul attribute would have still been the highest.]
After giving the first scary piece of information, Aurora didn't pause to consider Ellis's feeling and continued.
[For the current you, Soul is primarily linked to cognition. So normally, if you were to train, your results would be slightly reduced. But, actually, it won't make much difference because of your Ephemeral Soul Genesis ability.]
[As for recovery, it should take only a few years at most. But with your Ephemeral Soul Genesis ability, it becomes even less of a concern.]
'…Why is she saying "a few years" like it's just a couple of days? She makes it sound like that's a short period or something.'