[Spirit Seed has been fully nurtured]
Emery's mind went blank for a while when those words materialized in his brain. He remained like this for a moment.
When he started to regain consciousness, the first thing that returned was his sight. Opening his heavy eyelids, he realized it was not only the Abbot's palm that was on his back, but also those of his four friends, who had all followed the Abbot's instructions and placed their palms on his body.
As his vision began to clear, muffled voices spoke around him. His head pounded as they chattered relentlessly.
"He's back…!" Exclaimed a voice on his left, that he eventually recognized as his Roman friend. "This is a good thing, right, Abbot?!"
"We thought we lost you just now!" Another person on his right said enthusiastically. From the sheer volume of the voice, he knew it was Thrax.
Aside from them, Chumo and Klea sat in front of him as well, their palms pressed deftly against his chest. His vision was starting to sharpen and return to normal, he saw Chumo's face split into a bright, relieved grin, and Klea's eyes brimming with tears.
Emery parted his chapped lips, about to greet his friends after his momentary slumber, when the Abbot suddenly started to chant words, mantras that were part of the Dao text he had learned. At the same time, he could feel a blend of both warm and cold energies filling his veins, rushing in swiftly and permeating his entire body. The multiple energies gradually flowed into him, containing both his chaotic and nature energy.
When the balance was reached once again, it dawned on him that what he had been waiting for had finally come.
Emery could now feel his Spirit Seed slowly cracking apart, as if it were a cocoon that was peeling off its layers one by one. As it unraveled, it slowly unveiled the glowing stone that was residing inside it, which was now hovering next to its dark core. At the same time, he received multiple notifications which materialized in his mind all at once. The information he received overwhelmed him.
[Spirit Seed has transformed into a Spirit Core of Nature]
[Your Spirit Force level has increased exponentially]
[You have broken through the upper limit of Spirit Force]
Emery felt as though his spirit had been entirely refreshed, his vigor had returned, and with these feelings, followed a powerful level of Spirit Force. There were now two Spirit Cores hovering inside of him, both of which were radiating immense power, but with energies that ultimately opposed one another.
At the same time, the Abbot told everyone to release their hands. The rest of them complied, taking care to lift their palms slowly. He began to speak again with a small smile on his face, keeping his voice controlled.
"Congratulations, Emery. You have succeeded in creating your second core" said The Abbot.
Upon hearing this, his four friends immediately jumped up, quickly asking what had just happened. Emery nervously checked his palm to refer to his stats.
[Emery Ambrose]
[Battle Power: 72 (55)]
[Spirit Force: 535 (395)]
[Spirit Core of Darkness – Stage 5]
[Spirit Core of Nature - Stage 1]
[Fey Bloodline – Rank 3]
[Acolyte Rank: 8]
When they saw his stats, all four of his friends were rendered completely speechless. His crazy amount of Battle Power was no surprise, as he was a half blood, but the sheer level of his Spirit Force was definitely a strange new addition.
They all knew that 500 Spirit Force points was the limit for Rank 8 cultivators. The fact Emery had gone over the 500 point mark, but was still in Rank 8 was definitely out of the ordinary, something worth taking note of. There was also the unusual presence of the two Spirit Cores.
Unfortunately, none of them, not even the Abbot, could provide a concrete answer for him. Emery could only assume the worst, he believed that with the presence of two Spirit Cores residing inside of him, he would need double the Spirit Force requirements to reach Rank 9.
1,000 spirit force? That was the requirement for a magus, if this really was true he already half regretted choosing to keep his natural elements, he could only hope his strength was also going to increase by having two Spirit Cores.
"Does this mean you can now cast your nature spells again?" Klea asked curiously.
Emery blinked. It had not occurred to him before, so he immediately started casting some of the lowest Tier 1 level spells.
[Stone Skin] [Entangled] [Whipsplash]
After casting them, he realized all of the Tier 1 spells worked just fine; in fact, they were actually much stronger and easier to control than before. Now that he did not have to channel the dark core, his nature spells were no longer in a weakened state.
Unfortunately, Emery was not able to cast any higher-level nature spells that exceeded Tier 1. This surely made him nervous, but his biggest concern were his combined spells.
Emery concentrated on his two cores and started casting [Granite skin].
For the spell to work, it apparently would depend so much on the channel that was created with the Dao. He was so happy to see his stone skin turn harden and dark in color, unfortunately, he only managed to keep it active for a few seconds before he felt the balance was broken and the spell returned to the normal stone skin spell.
It was upsetting, but, honestly, it was to be expected. He was sure he would be able to improve with more training.
"Dual spirit core! It really is something!" Julian exclaimed. "This is amazing, Emery."
"Of course he's amazing," said Klea with a teasing smile.
It was at this moment that Chumo said something which surprised him. It appeared that his [Eye of Raven] picked something up and, as soon as Chumo relayed the message to him, Emery was driven to shock.
Once more, he checked the symbol on his palm, eyeing for a different stat.
[Spirit Affinity: Darkness, Plant, Earth, Water]
[Spirit Aptitude: A]
"A!!" He yelped out excitedly.
This was definitely a treat to his eyes. He was now no longer the weakest member of the pack. He wondered if this was the reason why he had an increased absorption rate in the Khaos space before. It must have had something to do with separating his core. Things had immediately turned better for him, he thought as he smiled joyously to himself.
Right after, Fjolnir approached him and said
"Your transformation from before… You are a Fey, aren't you?"