"So it does turn purple," Daz said as he stared at the edge of Hamson's blade.

He'd been training controlling the shovel very acutely with his mind for a few hours and finally, he had gotten around the practising with Reika and Mofolo empowering the weapon.

As he had experienced before on several occasions, Reika merging with Hamson made its already incredibly-sharp blade even more deadly. With only a little bit of effort, he could cut through alien metals even harder than steel as if they were butter.

Mofolo, on the other hand, made the blade dull to the point of being only able to cut iron but it became much more durable in exchange. So much so that Daz had asked for Crusher's help to test if she could snap the shovel in two.

Even trying her best she failed, making Hamson perhaps the strongest shield Daz could get his hands on. It was a very effective means of protection so long as he elongated the blade to its maximum size of over a meter in length and width.

Now he had tried merging both Reika and Mofolo into Hamson at once, hence the purple glow. "I wonder what this blade does?"

He swung it in the air lightly just to see if anything would happen, and, surprisingly, something did happen.

A rift split open and water started gushing out of the crevice which was just floating in the middle of the air. Daz ordered Reika and Mofolo to close the rift if they could and thankfully, Reika seemed to be able to control it and she sealed it up immediately.

Daz went on to experiment with this for about an hour until Reika and Mofolo both claimed to be running low on energy. He allowed the spirits to retreat into Hamson's domain as he thought about his shovel's newfound power.

"How can I use this in combat?" he asked himself. "Can it be used for utility? I did try to drink some and it seems to be saltwater but perhaps that could be an advantage, not a demerit?"

He would have to explore this topic more some other time. Right now he had something else to train that was an absolute priority; his internal energy.

"I need to be able to easily see into the future without fear of consequence. I also need to be able to freely alter the futures I see if they aren't exactly optimal..." He stretched his back then cracked his neck. "Gravital Body it is."

Daz didn't have a bloodline for this power and although he planned to, in the future, create one to best use the ability, for now, what he needed was to use up all of his internal energy and focus on not passing out.

His Crowthorne bloodline could only support the power for 4-seconds when he had experimented with his two bloodlines only a week ago as opposed to the Hamilio bloodline's 32-seconds and the 14-seconds of using it without a bloodline.

Power flowed through the black web of gloomy-feeling veins that made up the bloodline of his mother's family.

His feet slowly raised off the ground as the air around him hummed ever so slightly. 4-seconds later, Daz collapsed onto his knees with his body covered in sweat.

'Don't lose consciousness! Focus! Draw out every bit of internal energy! I need to expand my pool!' Daz chanted repeated in his mind.

For a very brief moment, he seemed to lift off the ground again but instead of a good few centimetres of clearance, he had only raised by mere nanometres.

This time, when he collapsed, his body ached all over and he started dry-heaving. He was thankful that he had chosen to abstain from eating the past few days purely due to being too busy to afford the time for an unnecessary luxury.

He was used to pain so this was nothing, what was challenging, however, was fighting the urge to close his eyes and drift off into peaceful bliss.

'One day I may be fighting for my life and I could run out of internal energy to change the future or control gravity in some way! I cannot afford to continue allowing this tendency to faint to persist! It is a weakness I cannot have!' Daz's mind shook powerfully along with his commanding words.

Time passed and eventually, he could feel some control of his limbs returning to him. From his mental counting just over 3-hours had passed and it was now nearing midnight.

"Damage that doesn't affect my Lifeforce and thus can't be fixed by my Lifeforce Dependancy skill or my halo is rather bothersome," he muttered under his breath before saying, "System, please show me my internal energy, if you wouldn't mind."

Confirmed. Displaying the host's [Internal Energy Tracker].

Daz's Internal Energy Amount 0.01/0.47 [+0.02]

"Ha..." Daz sighed deeply as he struggled to sit up, wobbling his entire body for every inch that he moved. "Two-hundredths of a point... Still, that's two-hundredths of a point more than zero."

He slumped back down and held his hand out to the starry sky above. "I wonder how I compare to Maddy and Rose? Do they feel this much pain when they train their energy? Do they even train? Do they just use their powers and their internal energy increase by thousandths of a point instead?"

Daz smiled sadly. "I miss them... I really don't spend much time with them, do I?"

He was always creating new laws, dealing with disputes and criminal accusations, focusing on restoring civilisation for New Earth or worrying about his inevitable war with the Truthians and the conquest of all North America that was surely soon to follow.

The time he could spend with Madison was limited mostly to a few hours in the late evening and most of the moments he spent with Rose were all about business and helping her with Lyle to create the necessary infrastructure for a solid information network.

"Being a leader with many responsibilities sure is rough..." He closed his eyes and smiled softly. "It's all to make things better for them... For all of us. It'll all be worth it... I guess this is what love is, huh?"

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Daz hadn't ever thought of his feelings this way before but it felt... refreshing and warm... and very, very peculiar.

"What the hell? Something's... merging with me?" Daz jumped up to his feet even if his legs threatened to give out under his weight due to his current condition. He was now on full alert.

'Am I being attacked right now?! I can barely stand straight! If it comes down to it I'll need to-' His thoughts were cut short when a grey screen popped up in front of his eyes. "I'm a fucking paranoid idiot."

He exhaled extremely deeply and toppled over onto his back once more. "For all of the Embers of it to have been..."

Congratulations! The host has successfully gained insight into the [Ember of Love].

The host has entered a new ranking list. The host is now rank #25 on the Ember Insight Ranking list.

Due to being in the top 100 ranks for Ember Insight, the host gained the right to select 3 additional entry-level Embers which the system will provide the host insight into (the host must have a very rudimentary understanding of the Ember's concept for it to be selectable).

"Wait... 25th? Wasn't Crusher 23rd? So in the span of just a day someone else has gained an Ember?" Daz closed his eyes and said, "Fingers crossed they are one of my people. If so then that's a good sign that Mu's demonstrations have paid off."

He lay there for a while just pondering. Eventually, he made a request to the system. "Show me what Embers I can gain from my ranking reward, please, system."

Confirmed. The host has a rudimentary understanding of these entry-level Embers: The Ember of Apathy, The Ember of Hatred, The Ember of Parenthood, The Ember of Endurance, The Ember of Majesty, The Ember of Digging.

"... There really is an Ember for everything, isn't there? I assume you won't give me detailed information on the Embers, will you, system?" Daz asked.

He was met with a distinct lack of grey system screens. "Figured as much. Didn't hurt to try though. I choose the Ember of Digging, the Ember of Endurance and the Ember of Majesty."

In his mind, Daz saw no reason to choose the Ember of Hatred, Apathy or Parenthood. The former two because now that he knew he had a basic understanding of them he was confident that he could earn them on his own, and the latter because it sounded useless.

Both Endurance and Digging sounded useful for combat and the Ember of Majesty, well, if it worked like most other non-combat Embers he'd seen thus far then perhaps he'd be able to absorb the kingliness of others and amplify his own?

The gods knew if there was one thing Daz was lacking as a leader it was a truly majestic and regal aura. There was only so much his throne and ancient peridot could do, after all.

Confirmed. Granting the host the selected Embers.

"Lovely," Daz said as he frowned upon feeling 3 new types of energy flow into him and merge with the lingering energy of the Ember of Love.

A few minutes passed until the process had finally stopped. "Now, I assume they will all be the same but I need to see the Stars of Eternity for peace of mind. System, display all of my Embers to me."

Confirmed. Displaying Embers.

Ember of Love [Entry-level Ember] ✧ The host [Daz] has come to gain some insight into the concept of love, and thus, can draw on the power of its Ember. Mastery

Initial: 1%

Ember of Digging [Entry-level Ember] ✧ The host [Daz] has come to gain some insight into the concept of digging, and thus, can draw on the power of its Ember. Mastery

Initial: 1%

Ember of Endurance [Entry-level Ember] ✧ The host [Daz] has come to gain some insight into the concept of endurance, and thus, can draw on the power of its Ember. Mastery

Initial: 1%

Ember of Majesty [Entry-level Ember] ✧ The host [Daz] has come to gain some insight into the concept of majesty, and thus, can draw on the power of its Ember. Mastery

Initial: 1%

Nodding in pleasure, Daz spoke to himself. "Good... Good... With this, that's one less thing I need to worry about... Still, for me to have tried my hardest for weeks only to get it when I had a random thought... I guess that's just how Embers work. When we return I should include that as part of Mu's showings- Ah, I suppose my and Mu's showings now... That's something else to occupy my potential family-time..."

He slowly rose to his feet. "I still feel sore all over from practising using my internal energy but whatever, I don't need to sleep so it'd be a waste to not train right now."

He waved his hand and created his clone, Beta. "Spar with me. I must train the Ember of Digging and the Ember of Endurance."

Beta nodded. "I'll do so, Original."

And so they fought atop the mall's rooftop from midnight to noon. A full 12-hours had given Daz a lot of insight into the two Embers he had trained, of that, there was no doubt.

He was just about to start going over what he had learned with his clone before the door to the rooftop opened and an annoyed-looking Dalton walked through it.

"The fuck? Two of you? Ah, right... I forgot you had clones... Never seen the buggers before. Anyway, we found a... a spy? Freddy apprehended them. Figured you'd wanna talk to them since you can tell when someone's fibbin' and all that guff," the man said as he squinted at the sun hanging over in the sky.

"A spy? Interesting. Thank you for the help, Beta," Daz said, dismissing his clone. "Lead the way, Dalton."

'I'll just review my findings and gains as we walk. I wonder who Dalton caught? Who do they work for? Emperor Bei? Gǒng? Maybe Adya? That last one seems unlikely but it isn't impossible. Maybe an unknown fourth party? Hmm...' Daz wondered as he began mentally going over his findings regarding his Ember of Digging and Ember of Endurance.