"Subordinates?"

[Yes, exactly.]

"I've never heard of such a bloodline."

[That's normal; your bloodline is quite unique. But that's not the important part. What's crucial is the effect of your bloodline on your strength.]

"The effect on my strength? What are you talking about?"

[Why do you think the condition for awakening your bloodline is to have a subordinate?] asked the voice.

Tom pondered the question for a moment but couldn't come up with an answer. He genuinely couldn't fathom why such a condition would be necessary for the awakening of a bloodline.

"I don't know," Tom finally replied.

[sigh... I guess they didn't tell you, huh?]

"What are you talking about?"

[Don't worry about it; forget what I just said.]

Tom was sure that whatever the voice was referring to was important, but if it didn't want to discuss it, he had no choice but to let it go.

[Let's get back to what I was saying. The reason your bloodline awakening requires having subordinates...]

The voice paused briefly, as if to build suspense, before finally saying:

[The reason is quite simple, actually. It's because everyone possessing your bloodline is a born leader. You've yourself probably been a leader of a group of people, no matter the kind of work you did.]

This revelation shocked Tom deeply. Yet, as he thought it over, what the voice had just said was the truth. Since childhood, he had always taken on leadership roles, whether with his friends or at school. He had never paid much attention to it, in fact, he had never even realized it.

[And that's precisely where your strength comes from. Those with the ruler's bloodline become stronger as the number of their subordinates increases. You must have felt an immediate increase in strength when this monkey prostrated before you, didn't you?]

If the first revelation shocked Tom, this one left him momentarily petrified before his brain went into overdrive.

He had a multitude of questions he wanted to ask, but there wasn't enough time.

[As I said, we don't have much time, and there's a lot to explain. You'll need to figure out the rest by yourself. Just know this: you will become more powerful as you gain more subordinates. The more subordinates you have and the stronger they are, the stronger you become. So, what you need to do now is ensure you get more subordinates, and with your monkey friend, it should be easier.]

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"The monkey?"

[You'll understand later. That's all for your bloodline. Now, let's move on to the assistance I'm going to provide.]

Tom could hardly keep up with all the information being thrown at him, but he was doing his best to retain as much as he could.

[Your bloodline is impressive, but the help I'm going to offer you is even more impressive,] said the voice, sounding rather proud of itself.

"And what is this assistance?" Tom inquired.

[It would be too lengthy to explain. Just come out of your concentration state.]

"Okay," Tom said, ceasing his meditation and opening his eyes.

He found the monkey standing a few meters in front of him, its back turned to Tom, seemingly inspecting the surroundings for potential threats.

"Now what?" Tom asked.

Just after his question, some kind of floating screen appeared before him.

"Huh... what's this?" Tom thought as he observed the golden screen materializing before him.

[This is the assistance I was talking about,] the voice said before continuing,

[You'll be able to summon this screen whenever you want, and it's only visible to you, so don't worry about others seeing it. It will enable you to do many things; you'll see,] the voice sounded quite excited.

Shortly after, the screen fully manifested, displaying text. Tom focused on the golden-glowing text and read:

[Name: Thomas Black]

He only read the first part of what was written but he suddenly felt irritated.

"Can you change the name 'Thomas' to 'Tom,' please?"

[What's the matter with it? Isn't that your name, if I'm not mistaken?]

"Can you just change it?"

[That would be too much effort,] the voice replied lazily.

Tom was sure it was lying and could do it quite easily, but he also felt that it wouldn't do it no matter what he said. Plus, technically, it was right; it was indeed his name, the one his parents had given him.

However, after the sudden disappearance of his parents, as a sort of rejection of them for leaving him, he had decided to change his name.

He didn't want to change it completely; it would be strange for everyone if he suddenly switched his name. So, he opted to shorten it from Thomas to Tom. Besides, most people already called him that, so nobody noticed the change except maybe Leon and his sisters.

"Now that I think about it, that was quite childish," Tom thought before continuing to read the floating screen.

[Name: Thomas Black

{Astralums}: {Time}; {Deconstruction}

{Number of Subordinates}: 1

{???}: ???

{???}: ???]

That's all the screen showed.

More than anything, what caught his attention were the question marks he saw, so he decided to ask.

"What are these question marks that I see?"

[Don't worry about those question marks for now; those are abilities you won't be able to use anytime soon, so don't concern yourself with them.]

"Okay," Tom replied before now asking what this sort of screen would allow him to do.

"What can it do?" Tom asked.

[Press something on it,] the voice said with excitement.

Tom pressed the screen, but nothing happened. Frustrated, he said, "Nothing happens when I press it."

[Sigh...Then try pressing on something besides your name!] the voice replied, sounding irritated this time.

Tom then pressed {Time}, and the characters changed to:

[Astralum: Time [0/200]

Type: Deviant

Abilities: {Temporal Stasis}]

What caught his attention the most was the "type" of his Astralum; he had never heard of types for Astralums before, and what's more, what was this type?

'What does this type, "Deviant", mean?'

[You don't know what a Deviant is?]

"No."

[Oh my... how did we end up here? This is all their fault.]

"Whose fault?"

[It's no one's fault, forget it.] said the voice before continuing to explain.

[To put it simply, a Deviant-type Astralum is an Astralum that operates under different laws than other Astralums.]