CHAPTER 10 - Contrasted Feelings

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"What the heck" Eroan cursed out at the beyond-belief size of the highest grade of the Spirit Stone.

Currently, Fredric was standing between the two large spirit stones and caught the astonished face of Eroan.

“Why is it not something you expect?” Fredric asked.

“Right, I did not think it would be this big” Eroan replied.

“Well, that was to be expected since regularly rare things that had a great value are always in small quantities. But the Spirit Energies are abundant and inexhaustible and the extreme concentration of Spirit Energies in one area is the result of Spirit Stones.”

Fredric put his hands on one of the Spirit Stones.

“This kind of Spirit Stone to get this big will need 500 years of accumulation of Spirit Energies. That is why it was very rare and not easy to find nor easy to get.”

“Then how big is a 1000-year or 10000-year Spirit Stone.” Eroan asks while he is inspecting the surface of a Spirit Stone.

“There’s no such thing as what you said. A Spirit Stone has time limits and if it exceeds it will be no more” Fredric explained.

“What will happen if it exceeds the time limit?

“It births a new or current species" Eroan was a little astonished at Fredric's answer.

"It could be an intelligent monster, mystical tree, mystical animal, or a sub-human species” Fredric put a little emphasis on the sub-human part as he looked at Eroan.

“Then these Spirit Stones could birth something like what you mentioned.”

Eroan was a little uptight when he heard Fredric respond. It seems that Fredric was guessing suspecting his origin. He was also shocked when he heard that now and he also can’t help but agree with that hypothesis. He began to further examine the Spirit Stone seriously.

Watching Eroan’s serious expression Fredric let out a little laugh.

“That Spirit Stones will not birth to anything since it was already disrupted from its source and origin. It will stay like a stone forever and eventually disperse its accumulated energy as time passes. It will continue to degrade its quality and size, and after a couple of hundred years, it will completely sublimate into thin air.”

Fredric put his hand on the top of Eroan’s shoulder.

“Although our hypothesis could be likely correct the possibility is close to none. Sub-humans are only heard from folktales and legends, their existence still needs proof. It was also theorized that humans come from it so it doesn’t hurt even if you came from one”

Haaa

Eroan exhaled a deep sigh as he confirms his hunch but he still did not let go of the possibility that maybe these two Spirit Stones are his siblings. He further does not want to be experimented on by being a living creature that comes from a Spirit Stone.

He looked at Fredric with uncertainty.

"Haha, rest assured your secret was on me. I will not carelessly spread it."

“So that’s the reason why you are so rock-headed. You exactly come from a rock.”

Isabella who was silent from the start suddenly began to butt in on their conversation.

Sigh

Fredric let out a deep sigh as he already has an idea of what was about to happen next.

“Did you not hear what Fredric said you might likely come from that.” Eroan retorted Isabella back.

“No, I came from my parents, not from stone.”

“Yeah, you are a most likely waste since you were a diluted species” Eroan makes a smug face as he countered Isabella’s response.

“What the f*ck did you say?” Isabella who could not think of a quick counter could only curse out as she started throwing her fists at Eroan.

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Eroan who already anticipated the fight punched Isabella in the mouth. His ability to observe time at different speeds was triggered again.

His punch went straight up to Isabella’s upper lips. However, his punch did not manage to fully connect as Isabella proceed to dodge his punch.

Eroan’s punch drags Isabella’s upper lips upward and eventually reveals her snow-white teeth of Isabella.

Pfft

Eroan could not help but laugh as he witnessed the funny face that her friend makes.

Isabella who is observing the time at normal speed could not help but be annoyed. Her friend Eroan is starting to make fun of her again during their fight.

Isabella throws a punch at Eroan but Eroan easily dodges it

Isabella’s annoyance was already written on her face she did not know what makes Eroan laugh hard during the fight. But one thing was clear when Eroan did this it was very hard to battle against him.

She did not expect that the simple teasing confrontation made her friend treat it like a serious fight. She decides to step back to cool off the fight but she was in disbelief as she tried to move her feet to back off. She finds her feet in the air and was not placed on the floor.

Eroan tripped Isabella’s feet the moment he saw the first changes in Isabella’s footwork. Before Isabella could react, his foot landed already on her face.

Isabella stumbles and landed on the floor. She immediately got up and wipe the blood that drips from her mouth. The footmark Eroan left was still visible on her face when she resolves to take this fight seriously.

Two children decided to take their petty fight to a pressing matter. Simultaneously, two imperceptible auras coming from the two children began to radiate. The atmosphere inside the room becomes so heavy that a normal person will piss on himself the moment they collide with each other.

Eroan and Isabella were about to pounce on each other when an imposing voice was heard.

“Stop!”

The influence that the two children radiate vanishes in the air like nothing.

Fredric stops the fight before it even escalates into a serious matter. He was actually anticipating the fight between the two since Eroan and Isabella often contest in secret. However, he shouldn't overlook the objective today, even if he was curious about their fighting capability, at they should least carry it out after their awakenings.

“You are not here to fight don’t forget our objectives today” Fredric said authoritatively.

“Move in front of the Spirit Stones and sit in a lotus position and calm yourselves down.”

“Yes”

“Aye”

Respectively, Eroan and Isabella follow Fredric’s command and sit in front of the Spirit Stone. Watching the two children calm themselves down he gradually releases his imposing aura.

Actually, he was very pleased when both of them could release such pressure on their opponents that are not to be under on those average fighters. They improve drastically, especially his Duke’s daughter.

Ever since Duke Davidson’s sole daughter was born, her daughter always had this aloof and rational behavior. She always exudes this cold aura that keeps people away from her. That’s why since she was born Isabella spends her time mostly alone.

However, after many years the duke’s daughter took big changes. Ever since they meet Eroan in the forest Fredric felt unfamiliar with Isabella. It was his first time watching Isabella cry. She even initiates and proposed to take Eroan to their group.

When Eroan joined them the cold personality of his lady slowly melts and she starts interacting with other people. The cold and aloof aura of Isabella was nowhere to be seen that’s why when he reported it to his duke, his duke reply was overjoyed. Duke Davidson was curious about Eroan and how he was able to melt the ice barrier that surrounds his daughter.

Fredric reports most of all Isabella’s changes to the duke and the duke’s reply was always optimistic. He even gifted Eroan the highest grade of Spirit Stone as his token of thanks for being a wonderful friend to his daughter.

It’s just that his duke didn’t know that Eroan treats her friend like a punching bag every time he saw an opportunity during their fights.

Fredric began to notice two of them already initiate stable breathing so he decided to guide the two children.

He moves behind the two and sits in between Isabella and Eroan. He puts his two hands on each other back.

“Remember the flow of energy that I will put into you after that you use that technique to start absorbing the energy from Spirit Stones.”

Fredric began to put his Spirit Aura on his hand and the three bodies were gradually enveloped in an orange shade.

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After a couple of minutes, Fredric withdraws his aura in shock he looked at the two of them with an unbelievable gaze. The moment a minute has passed since they started Eroan already grasped the ability to absorb the Spirit Energy. He started at a slow pace at first which is normal but his absorption rate drastically increases.

The moment the second minute has passed his absorption rate was higher than his own. That his aura was already limiting Eroan’s absorption.

Crazy!

Then he looked at the duke’s daughter who give him the most astonishment. Isabella did not start at a normal pace. Although Isabella was the one behind in grasping the ability to absorb energy on the Spirit stone, the moment a couple of minutes passed, she instantly start on a massive absorption that is also greater than his own.

This is crazy, these two children are geniuses! No matter what their talents become as long they are Earth grade and above, they can reach the Mystic Realm.

Fredric has the Spirit Rank of Mystic Grandmaster and his absorption rate was already improved a lot. That it will only take him 8-10 hours to fully absorb this high-grade Spirit Stone. Now, it was telling him that his absorption rate was slower than these two children who haven’t even grasped the System Blessing.

Although the absorption rate of the same rank greatly differs from each other, his was not actually the lowest. He thought that it would take a week for them to finish. That’s why he was so adamant about stopping them from injuring each other before it even starts. However, it seems it will be done soon.

He backed away and observed the two freaks from behind as he anticipates a good outcome.

Two hours later,

Ugh!

Fredric groans as he experiences two polar opposite feelings at the same time.

He looks at the two children that he was observing for the past couple of hours. The two gigantic Spirit Stones were already gone. Eroan and Isabella were already assimilating Spirit Energy into their bodies.

The assimilating process is another thing to take note beside the absorption speed. Even if you have a high absorption rate if you can’t put it all in your body then it was all a waste.

Improving your might in this spirit world is something like a thesis experiment.

You use absorption rate on how fast you read a book, then assimilation on how much you could learn from that book.

Finally, talents act like your tools or funding for your research after you learned something from those books.

Greater talents are equivalent to more tools and funding, while lesser talent was the other way around.

Right now, both Eroan and Isabella’s talents were clearly shown as they began to assimilate the Spirit Energy in their bodies.

Lady Isabella radiates a red aura which is the sign of a God-rank talent but…

Fredric looked at Eroan

Eroan was only radiating a white aura which is a Human-rank talent. Sigh

Fredric releases a deep sigh as the reason for his mixed emotions was the talent between the two was also the polar opposite apart.

He looked back and forth at Isabella and then at Eroan repeatedly after he was content, he releases a deep sigh again.

Sigh… it was unfortunate…

Eroan's future in climbing the Mystic Realm was suddenly faced with a great obstacle.