Playing with Elements

The final results of upgrading the talent were astonishing. Leo did say that he also didn't meet the requirements to upgrade it any further. All he knew was that he would need to reach the upper grades of the Transcendent Realm to upgrade it further. For the Mortal Realm, E~grade through B~grades was considered the lower grades while A~grade and S~grade were considered the upper grades. Leo knew that the T~grade and the U~grade were the lower grades of the Transcendent Realm but nothing else about the rest. They would have to be discovered.

The [Desire of Lady Luck] was his only growth type talent so he planned to save the remaining ninety-eight points on the random shuffle or future upgrades. He would do it once he left the Turbulent World as to not waste time.

He used his unrestrained strength and agility to dash towards the old man in mere seconds. Lucien sat there meditating, not noticing Kyren appear almost out of thin air in front of him. Kyren sat down and chose to ignore him because it looked like he was about to make a breakthrough.

…..

Only a couple of minutes later and the old man opened his weary and exhausted eyes to find that he wasn't alone. Because he was a S~grade that was usually surrounded by those weaker than him, he was slightly unsettled by the fact that he didn't feel his presence at all. He was also surprised by what Kyren was doing to pass time.

Around ten small golf-ball-sized orbs of calm and transparent purple flames rolled across his figure. He was trying to gain a better feel for how his aura reacted to his commands and his control was reaching new heights.

'He already discovered and mastered his physical aura? Should I even be surprised anymore…' Lucien slowly stood up and caught Kyren's attention, "Shall we continue void training?"

"Please do."

"Now the void element has another special aspect that no other element can compare to. For every elemental affinity you fuse into your affinity with the void, the stronger your affinity will be. There are many ways to increase your affinity with an element, although they are rare and difficult to obtain. This is the best and easiest method for the void. This ties into the concept that the void is everything and nothing.

However, those who use the void have a much harder time learning or discovering any new elements for some unknown reason. I have two other affinities besides light and darkness which is quite exemplary for a veteran void user such as myself."

"So I can raise my void affinity just by having more elements? What's the difference between fusion and synthesis?"

"Synthesizing is a hard-to-obtain talent that combines two elemental affinities or spells without the aid of an item or contraption. Merging is unique to the void as it allows you to combine other elements to increase its power. This method doesn't create a new affinity. You also can't use the null element."

•>>>>>>>>>>>>>>•

The NPC [Lucien] has offered to impart the ability [Void Merge]. Do you accept?

(Yes/No)

•>>>>>>>>>>>>>>•

(Yes)

He copied Lucien's movements and sat down on his knees. They both reached out their arms and gathered void mana in between their palms. The old man then created four separate orbs of darkness, light, metal, and electricity and willed them to encircle his figure while gradually drawing them in. He was only displaying the technique so he didn't finish it.

Kyren did the same and all nine of his elements that met the requirements appeared around him. He looked towards each orb and a wave of inadequacy washed over him, 'This isn't enough… might as well go all out.' He canceled the procedure and ordered Leo to use his synthesis ability on random combinations of elements until his mana and mental energy got low.

<You're using [Magical Entrepreneur: Magical Synthesis] on the [Null] and [Water] elements… processing… It's a failure.>

<You're using [Magical Entrepreneur: Magical Synthesis] on the [Fire] and [Earth] elements… processing… It's a success! You've discovered the specific-type element [Lava] with a 25% affinity.>

<You're using [Magical Entrepreneur: Magical Synthesis] on the [Fire] and [Wind] elements… processing… It's a success! You've discovered the general-type element [Electricity] with a 25% affinity.>

…..

The elemental orbs around Kyren would clash together in an attempt to form something new making colorful sparks that looked similar to miniature fireworks. He synthesized elements numerous times but the difficulty was developing itself as he was running out of combinations. His likelihood of success was shockingly low even with his incredible luck, mostly due to the already low possibility of success and the fact that the void element indeed intervened with the results. Failure ended up as the result more than he liked to admit.

Any elements he would gain would always start at twenty-five percent so he couldn't use them. Once an affinity reached one hundred percent after practice, then he could wield it. His Elementalist ability wouldn't take effect until it reached a minimum of a hundred so he could only train and meditate with them until then. He didn't care though, all he needed them for was for fusion.

He wouldn't always gain an element. For instance, fusing the fire element with a certain element will result in a special skill that can produce a unique flame. The more favorable results were when he gained a general-type element. General-type affinities were more effective because they could control a variety of things while specific-type elements controlled a very limited amount of things.

Kyren eventually ran out of attempts to synthesize before hitting his near bottomless limit of mana and mental energy. He could only do the same combination every week as a hidden cooldown he discovered halfway through.

He didn't even pay attention to the results and immediately began the merging technique. The old man blankly stared at the tens of colorful spheres excitedly orbiting him. His brain couldn't take anymore of Kyren's weirdness so he consciously chose to view everything he was seeing as remarkably normal. Exhilaration couldn't help but overpower him though, as he was about to bear witness to something else potentially historic. Although the odds were low, merging all of these elements to the void could seriously result in a new era for the entire overworld and he wasn't exaggerating.

'If this boy does gain enough influence over the void to fix the mess Master made and ease the stress I've taken on… Hmmm.'

One after another, each colored ball fused into the purple cloud in Kyren's palms. The results were leagues better than synthesis and more than half actually succeeded. Each element that merged would give him twenty five percent to his base affinity. Sixteen elements successfully fused with his void so his innate affinity skyrocketed from two hundred to six hundred. His weighted affinity was now at fifteen hundred with his elementalist ability, tripling the potency of anything he uses that's void related compared to before.

So many events have occurred recently and Kyren felt a little worn out despite being in top condition. He was now just realizing that he had no recollection of the last time he logged out. It might've been not to long ago but he needed to go back to reality for a bit anyways

"Teacher, do you mind if I take a nap for a bit?"

"S-Sure, as long as you don't take too long. The stuff we've done is only the prep for the actual stuff."

"Could you also guard my body? I'm an extremely heavy sleeper so even if I received a life-threatening wound, I won't wake up."

There seemed to be no other sentient beings present in the Turbulent World so he was more concerned about the environment itself. They've been acting like they were at a summer resort practically this whole time but this world was still incredibly dangerous as it's name clearly entailed. Elemental Calamities and humongous magical storms randomly traversed the surface and atmosphere so they were forced to move every now and then to avoid unnecessary trouble.

"That's quite alright, I've always been a deep sleeper myself." Lucien tended to stay up for extended erupts of time to study despite being only a human in the Mortal Realm

Kyren chose a spot high above the ichor on an emerald green crystal with a low possibility of him falling off. As soon he laid down, he was instantly knocked out cold looking almost lifeless.

"Hehe, boy must've been more exhausted than he let on. That's a relief..."

.....

Tyler disconnected from the helmet and spinal mount and exited. He looked down at his skin and noticed that it was extremely healthy and strong from the LG solutions but a little pale most likely from a lack of sun.

He went on a long jog and sat in the sun in a park for awhile, bathing in its warmth while he checked any missed notifications or messages he received. There were only a few messages from his family and Andrew, but nothing that important.

Once he got home, he cleaned himself up and changed his clothing to accompany the autumn weather.

No one was home currently besides him and Leo so he decided to catch up on some TV. The intergalactic news was still on the super hot topic of AlKo online and it was only getting more sensational with every passing day. Even the anchor who was experiencing the game also was ecstatic about it. There was also rumors of an entire webpage being dedicated to the game and the famous guilds who were gaining unimaginable popularity through it.

Videos and pictures captured by players were being displayed on the screen as the anchor continued to talk. Beautiful sceneries of quaint town, magical horizons, stunning monsters, and many more were captured almost perfectly.

"Ehhh?! Krista?"

One of the slides showed the mysterious and tough beauty in full combat mode as she was prepared to face the army of Imperials and Templars to supposedly defend the players.

<That's indeed her. While I was managing and buying the incriminating evidence you receive on the church daily, I noticed that her popularity has actually turned into near idolization. She's even being used by Monolith as a mascot of some sort for the Lumeria continent and Irona.>

"These results are far better than I expected..."

<Ohh, it seems like Master Andrew and Amelia are returning from their little outing.>

Tyler turned off the TV and arrived in the kitchen. It's mentally felt like months since the last time he saw Andrew.

After a while, the couple walked in with their arms linked while slightly giggling at something.

Tyler locked eyes with his best friend and smirked slightly, "I'm ready..."