More or Less?

Now Xeflia could finally look into further stages now that she was done with everything about the transformation stage which unexpectedly had a lot of things she didn't know about herself so it was a good experience for her as well thankfully. She did have some knowledge in her memories of other stages and what they were though but even still it slowly unlocked as she got stronger as well. So if she wanted to know more about how Astral Keeper's worked then she'd have to seek more information like she was currently doing.

"Almost done then I'm sure I can finally be of some use to Xilo in the future with this."

A Big part of why she agreed to the competition wasn't just because of his teasing or her wants from the reward either. It was to gain knowledge as fast as possible as well to help herself and Xilo at the same time and what better way could she think of motivating herself and even Xilo to push themselves like a competition. Back in the Forest she had grown rapidly fighting and putting herself on the line to gain strength until eventually she had gotten complacent again. But looking back on it she could use that as a reference for today's situation instead.

"Not all Fights are a bad thing."

Was the main thing that came out of her experience from back then. It wasn't like you couldn't better yourself without it but everyone needs some kind of motivation to go along with it whether it be fighting for your life, Not wanting to lose to someone else, Looking up to another person or simply wanted to see how far you could push yourself past your limits. Everything counts whether it was seconds or minutes. Unfortunately at the time she never realized it though. Not until she met Xilo in the forest. She watched a lone boy grow from nothingness to almost the transformation stage in less than three years which was even faster then her time to make it there and seeing that lit a fire deep inside her to not lose out to him especially now that they were travelling together. Alas that wasn't all that motivated her, A small part of her mind that she was unaware of was screaming at her for dear life like she was afraid. But she had no idea where that fear came from or where it even originated from.

"Hooo...haaa.."

Taking a couple deep breaths she cleared her mind from those thoughts and resumed her reading.

The next stage after the Transformation Stage was the Path Stage. This Stage was the first point down people's Astral Path's that let you unlock the first part of their ability from their Astral Ring. Other then that it was a more standard stage that people went on. Past this point only a couple stages give massive changes similar to the Transformation stages while most others will give you the ability to evolve your Astral Ring's ability to its full potential. The Fifth Stage is known as the cosmos stage and doesn't unlock anything except for further strength.

Fortunately even though every stage didn't unlock an evolution guaranteed that didn't mean there still wasn't a chance for people to get one. If they were lucky of course but other then that people would have to wait until they reached the set stage for their abilities to unlock. Sometimes this will make more differences more often or not but it of course depends on one's circumstances or luck so keep that in mind. After the Cosmo's Stage is the Solar Stage which for humans it isn't anything special as well but for Astral Beasts it was a completely different story. In a way the Solar Stage for them was similar to the Transformation Stage for humans.

"Yep, they are definitely two very special stages for either species,"

Since she knew all about the Solar stage she just skipped past it and moved on to the next Seventh Stage or the Star Stage as people called it. This stage was the second guaranteed ability Evolution phase that people would reach if they of course haven't unlocked another ability upgrade beforehand. After the Star Stage is the Crescent Stage which is also another Ability Evolution Stage for people. Then the Eclipse Stage which doesn't give anything for people Astral Ring wise. But unlike all the previous stages this one gives people a bigger reserve of Astral Energy in your body compared to the other stages increases.

After that is the tenth Stage which is the Purifying Stage or otherwise known as the second milestone people hit on their goal towards the top of Astral Keepers. The Purifying Stage is where your Astral Ring evolves into a different form that is dependent on the person and reaches its own second phase in its evolution path also unlocking a potential second ability that comes with it. Astral Rings can give multiple Abilities but only if your lucky and well they do make you stronger it doesn't mean you're invincible either. The more Abilities you unlock the weaker they get after the first one. So think of it like rampaging fire that is slowly having water poured on it every time another new ability is unlocked until eventually it fizzles out and is no more. Of course it wont make the entire Astral Ring useless at that point. But more doesn't always equal better in this scenario.

"So it's bad to have a lot of abilities....hmmmm. Is that really the case? Even if their weak you'd think they would still have some use right?"

Unfortunately reading a little bit further ahead answered the question she had. Apparently after gaining a couple of abilities your First couple ones in that order also started to slowly weaken with each new ability so it was said that most people would want 2 or 3 and if you ever got anymore then that you were going to be way weaker than most in a lot of cases. Unless of course you could supplement that area with other things.

"Well then, Does that make people lucky or unlucky then?"

With a slight laugh to herself she continued to turn the pages only to realize that she was getting nudged by someone beside her. Looking up she turned to see Xilo standing beside her pulling on her shoulder in an attempt to get her attention.

"Yes, what is it?"