Chapter 128: Affinity

"We'll begin our attack on the ants tomorrow so until then, we will prepare our own things" came Cold Mountain's voice. Hearing it, everyone agreed with his suggestion. So, without any further ado, they dispersed and left in different directions.

Everyone had a different purpose. And Cylius' was the skill library.

...

"How much are the attribute crystal balls?" 

"Two silver. Comes with a manual on how to use it if you buy it" 

"I'll take one" 

After coming into the library, he bought an attribute crystal ball. It wasn't cheap but considering this was an essential item in becoming a mage, he didn't hesitate to buy it.

After all, using a skill of their own attribute would have quite a few advantages while using those of the opposite attribute could even result in some deboosts and disadvantages. So he can't just aimlessly buy skill books of any attribute mindlessly. 

Otherwise, he would lose out on a lot. Knowledge was power and even if it didn't concern him, he had to learn about his affinity. 

"Here's your attribute crystal ball along with the manual on how to use it" handed out the NPC a glistening glass ball along with a paper manual.

After receiving the items, he went to find a quiet location in the library before sitting down. As it wouldn't cause much commotion when used, he just chose to do it here. 

... 

[Manual on how to use Attribute Crystal Balls

Description: Place your hand on the attribute crystal ball before closing your senses. After that, try to concentrate on the attribute crystal ball alone. Depending on what shows up, your affinity and its grade will be revealed. If nothing shows up, it means you have no talent in magic.] 

...

Just like in the real-world, the talent and the affinity of the user were random. So it meant that not everyone would have the same starting line. 

Some would have heaven-defying talent while some would have no talent at all. But he would obviously not be one of those talentless people as he already had 'Inferior Mage Talent' from the beginning. 

He was sure of it. 

So after reading the manual and confirming it several times, he finally got to work. He first placed his hand on the crystal ball.

It was cold to the touch. 

Then, he closed off his vision along with his other senses. And soon, only darkness was there. 

He couldn't feel, hear, or see anything. 

It was just pure darkness. But it didn't stay the same for long. Soon, something showed up in this darkness. 

It was a giant ball of fire. It was very bright and hot as it illuminated the entire surroundings and acted as the torch within the eternal darkness. It shined brightly just like the stars in the sky, reminding him of the dimensional cores he had devoured before. 

It was constantly spewing out fire and seemed dangerous yet also beautiful. 

'...' 

Beautiful? He thought it was beautiful just now.

Has he ever thought about something as beautiful before? 

Yes. He did but it was only one time. It was when he first looked at the void. An eternal void that seemed to engulf everything it touched. He thought it was beautiful then. However, he didn't think of anything as beautiful other than the void. 

Even when he witnessed the majestic power and the holy presence of higher beings, he didn't feel they were beautiful. Nor did he think it was beautiful witnessing the highly advanced genetic technology.

Beauty was defined by oneself and he didn't think of anything as beautiful except the void. 

However, he just thought it was beautiful now. 

And it was in the game at that. If he thought it was beautiful in this 'game' world, it also meant that he will think of it as beautiful in the real-world because his consciousness felt this. And the consciousness connected both the real world and this world.

Now, this was really strange. 

He didn't think of anything as beautiful. Or rather, his rational personality didn't think anything was beautiful. 

It was just the others creating this concept called beauty and pleasure for him. Since he had separated from this concept called 'pleasure' and 'comfort', the world was just blank to him. 

However, when his soul acquired the affinity of dimension, he thought it was beautiful. And that gave the world a color. But it was only dimension. He had affinity for other things but he didn't think of them as anything special. 

So it would mean that his dimension affinity had crossed a certain line for him to favorite it. If so, this would also mean that his fire affinity had crossed that certain line. 

Both in game and in real life because his consciousness existed in both of these worlds. 

What happened to his consciousness in this world would also mean that it had happened to the 'real-world'.

This made him doubt a thing. He had two doubts. 

One, whether the runic mastery of the real-world had reached so far that now, the government was capable of creating something like this. Two, whether this world was really a game world. 

He was mostly inclined to believe that it was the second option as the first one seemed far too impossible. It would at least require a law being for one to achieve that. The human beings didn't even have a sixth-tier among them so how could they possibly have law beings?; not to mention that not even the monsters possessed a law being of their own. 

So a question popped up. Was this a game or was this a real world? 

Just at this moment, something popped up in his mind. It was from the inheritance. It said 'the humans and the monsters were one and still one'. 

At the time, he just passed it off as a reference to the monster universe and the human universe but thinking now, the law existence - Spirit Lord Pyrinas, whom he had got the inheritance from seemed to have left this line as a clue to his inheritor. 

If he was right... 

Just at that moment, his eyes blanked out a moment before returning to normal. 

'Huh? What was I thinking again?' 

His mind blanked out. Every trace of the train of thought just vanished into nothingness, or rather, sealed deep within his mind. 

'I feel like I have missed out on a very crucial thing like the one where I blanked out in the forest...' 

'..'

He felt bitter. How could he forget anything with his mind unless he wanted to himself? 

This was obviously the work of outer force yet he had no power to resist against it. 

Who or what was deleting his memory just like a computer? He felt completely powerless. He couldn't resist this power at all.

No matter how much he tried remembering, nothing would happen and he would remember nothing. 

He was perfectly fine if he checked his consciousness and soul but the blankness had really just made him doubt himself. Doubt himself whether he was hallucinating. 

What a dilemma... 

Right at this moment, just like before, something intervened with his mind making him surprised.