Now left alone with Lin, Ren stole a few worried glances at him, but Lin remained silent, focused on his status window. Despite Ren’s asocial nature, he could somewhat grasp the logic behind Lin’s actions.

Since Lin had approached him first, "breaking up" their small group would require Lin to be the one to walk away—and because he was still there, it could only mean one thing. As long as Ren didn’t bring up what had just happened, they could continue bouncing ideas off each other and experimenting with the other elements in peace.

This one seems more straightforward, Lin thought to himself as he read through all the details regarding the element.

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[Form]

— Allows the user to create tangible matter using Soulex energy, which can range from anything small to large or simple to complex, depending on the level of Soulex energy.

* Range: Limited to the Soulex around you, meaning you can’t form an object far from yourself if your Soulex doesn’t extend to that region.

* Knowledge Requirement: You can only create real-life objects for which you fully understand the mechanics and internal design.

* Energy Drain: Complex structures and large objects may consume significant amounts of Soulex energy.

* Soulex Connection: All objects created will emit Soulex energy and will be bound to your Soulex through [Bind] unless disconnected. As extensions of your Soulex, you can apply certain elements to them and manage the objects via your status window.

Features of Soulex Objects:

* Veil [Object]: Renders the object invisible to the naked eye, visible only through Echo Sight. Normal Echo and Target Echo cannot detect it, as they rely on receiving feedback from surrounding Soulex, which becomes undetectable in the [Veil] state.

* Echo [Object]: Allows you to use Echo to track down objects still connected to you. Provides a brief analysis of the object's state, distance from you, and any Soulex abnormalities within a given range. The more energy injected at creation, the wider the range. (Note: Injecting new Soulex cannot be done remotely. Once your object leaves your Soulex range, you cannot inject more energy.)

* <> [Object] Bind:

* <> Pulse [Object]:

Note: This is an equivalent exchange. Rather than using Soulex as a courier to create objects, the energy itself is transformed into an object. Once created, the object cannot be transformed back into Soulex.

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Interesting, Lin thought as he finished reading through the information. It was fascinating how all the elements of the god system seemed to connect seamlessly with this one, allowing for a wider variety of applications.

He brought his hand forward, imagining an object in his palm. In the next moment, the Soulex around his hand gathered and condensed, and a small object materialized in his grasp. Not much of a sensation, he thought, a slight worry etching itself onto his face.

Ren, who had just finished reading as well, glanced at the object in Lin’s hand with a slightly puzzled expression.

“A pebble?” he asked. Lin simply nodded.

Rolling the pebble between his thumb and index finger, Lin held it forward. At the same time, he quickly activated a normal Echo around the room, observing the scene through Echo Sight. The sight revealed a faint white Soulex around the pebble, subtly rising upward but barely noticeable. Just above it, a small description floated:

[Target 1][6]

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Danger level 6.

Lin thought, recalling the rules under Echo that indicated all objects either created from or directly influenced by Soulex would be listed as a level 6 threat. He took a quick glance around the room, noting the numbers above everyone’s head. Just as before, the limit was still capped at 12 targets, with the additional target being the object in his hand, making 13 total targets with threat levels.

I wonder…

“Maybe it’s equivalent to the emission?” Ren’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Lin turned to look at him, considering the possibility. At the same time, Ren opened his hands, and multiple pebbles suddenly formed in his palms. Additional targets started to pop up on the small map in the status window next to Lin, with the new pebbles, each roughly the size of a small marble, all displaying descriptions above them.

“I made 20 more,” Ren muttered excitedly, casting a normal Echo and looking around, as did Lin.

“This is a bit…” Lin muttered to himself, shaking his head. Instead of the original limit of 12 targets, only two targets had any information about their threat levels above their heads, while the rest showed nothing.

[Target 1][2] ⇐ Ren

[Target 2][2]

[Target 3][?]

...

...

[Target 20][?]

Although these targets were recognized due to their Soulex emissions, there was no further description about them. Meanwhile, all the pebbles in Ren’s hands displayed threat assessment numbers above them — all 20 of them.

[Target 21][6]

[Target 22][6]

...

[Target 40][6]

Even this one, Lin thought, realizing that the pebble in his own hand also had a threat level displayed above it:

[Target 4][6]

The target numbers seemed to shuffle randomly each time Lin deactivated and reactivated Echo. Ren was now labeled as [Target 1] with a danger level of 2, likely due to the Soulex energy he was using to create the pebbles.

The blonde-haired girl, Sera, was the other visible target with a descriptive danger level; everyone else, except for the pebbles, had lost their assigned danger levels. Lin refocused on the palm of his hand, using [Form] to create exactly five more pebbles before glancing back at Ren’s description above him.

[Target 1][?]

I see. He took a quick look at Sera and noticed a similar [?] symbol on her description, indicating that he could no longer view the danger levels of anyone else in the room. However, the pebbles in both his and Ren’s hands—six on Lin’s side and twenty on Ren’s—all displayed danger levels, leading him to two conclusions. Ren, surprisingly, had reached the same insight as he spoke up:

“There’s a one-to-two ratio between Soulex users and Soulex objects,” he said, and Lin nodded in agreement.

If the limit on the number of Soulex users scannable with a normal Echo was 13, then the number of detectable Soulex objects would double, allowing for 26 Soulex objects to be scanned simultaneously.

When Lin created one pebble and Ren created twenty, they collectively scanned 21 Soulex objects, which meant the Soulex user equivalent would be 21 ÷ 2 = 10.5 people. This left two additional slots before reaching the maximum cap of 12 people, which explained why only Ren and Sera’s danger levels were visible.

“And…?” Lin prompted Ren, as if sensing there was more to his discovery. Ren, seeming slightly surprised that Lin was already piecing things together, continued.

“The normal Echo uses danger level to prioritize main targets,” he explained, and Lin nodded, like a teacher confirming a student’s answer.

What Ren had suggested was that the initial targets for a normal scan would reveal only individuals with high danger levels.

Therefore, a person would need to manually set the main targets constantly to fit that particular situation. As demonstrated with the pebbles, a normal scan would prioritize them as the primary targets due to their danger levels of ‘6,’ while ignoring everyone else with a level 1 or level 2 danger level.

This also explained why Ren and Sera, who had a much higher Echo cap than the rest, had shown up in the first few scans, likely because of their high Soulex consumption and their level 2 danger levels.

As for his observations through Echo Sight, there was nothing particularly new. The pebble Lin created from Soulex had a small string attaching it to him, similar to how Echo connected his Soulex to others. When manually activating Echo, his Soulex linked to all the pebbles, including the 20 in Ren’s hands, just as it did with everyone else in the room.

Veil pebble.

Lin thought, finally moving on to the final available feature of [Form].