CHAPTER 17 - Status Window 2.
On Astralorbis, a world that was a merge of thousands of worlds, there was a thing called affinity.
Every living being or even the dead had a certain elemental affinity in their body, no matter how low it was. It was there since the birth.
Some people inherit the affinities, and some become the start of a generation, but one thing is sure: affinities play a major role in how the future of a person would be.
For example, a young noble who turned out to have awakened two elemental affinities would be hailed as a once-in-a-100-year genius. Everyone would start placing different kinds of hope on those young shoulders.
But that would only happen if the awakened element affinity is high enough to brighten a dark room.
Yes, just having affinities wouldn't mean anything. As said before, everyone has an affinity for many elements in their bodies; it is just so weak that it won't even let them use magic.
So, if the young noble were to awaken two elements, but the affinity percentage is lower than 5%, then he would simply be kicked away with disdain.
10% was acceptable; he could become something at least.
20% was better than before, and the parents, instead of giving the guy a cold shoulder, would at least pass him a smile now and then.
But things change the moment the affinities pass the 30% mark. That was when people would start calling them geniuses.
And when the affinity of both of the elements reaches 50%, it's called the perfect synergy. The best result one could hope for.
It wasn't possible to have two elements with 60% affinity each. That would make the total affinity in a person's body reach 120%, which wasn't possible.
So, for dual elementals, the perfect synergy, or the best of the best geniuses, were the ones with 50% affinity with both elements.
For the tri elementals, it was 30% each; for the quadra, it was 25% each. And then on and on and on.
There has never really been a case of there being someone with more than 5 elemental affinities.
But then there is Alex.
A guy whose affinity section didn't even make sense.
The moment his affinity was shown on the awakening artifact, everyone who saw it was already aware of the fact that all of Alex's elements were higher than 50%, and Alex had more than 5 elemental affinities.
No one could've guessed that Alex had awakened 13 elements, and all of them had 100% affinity, as having 50% affinity wasn't possible in the first place, much less 100%.
'Why is it like that?'
That was why Alex had to ask Sophie, who seemed to know everything, about it.
[I don't really know the exact answer to it, but I can at least tell you for sure that it is all related to your physique.]
'Hmm…'
Alex hummed inwardly, nodding to himself, as he found another thing that would be left unanswered.
'I guess we can't do much about it since even you don't know why it's like that.'
In the end, he just shrugged his shoulders. None of this would bring harm to him, as the more things he had unanswered, the more unpredictable he would become.
There's a saying: Fool yourself first before you try to fool others.
You, yourself, need to believe your bullsh*t before you can make others believe it. So, wasn't it better for him to not know about these things?
They would be an element of surprise for him and his opponent when revealed.
He needed some things that were hard to predict, as he knew almost everything about this novel, even the personalities of the characters—he knew some of their likes and dislikes as well.
With that thought, his attention turned toward the skill section. The other four were pretty much self-explanatory—they were the rating of his power along with the points he could use in his system and inventory, which was a storage with almost infinite space in it.
His skills were the things that were taking all of his focus for now.
'How did they turn heroic?'
This was his first question to Sophie the moment he saw the skills.
Star Sword Art is an art that was the base of the imperial family of Drakathor. Star Sword Art was said to be very ancient and left by their ancestors to give them a path to progress.
This art, however, was only for the knights, as the Drakathor family was a knight family, with his mother, Vannesa Drakathor, being the only exception as she was a magic swordswoman.
This sword art was an art that would give a person a perfect base so that they could make it into a better technique later on.
The best thing about the Star Sword Art was that even though it was a rare ranked skill, it could be learned by those without mana as well, and that was precisely why the children from the imperial family of Drakathor learned this art before anything else.
Later, after awakening mana, they are supposed to improve the art to what they see as the best fit for them.
But Alex was different from others.
He had upgraded the Star Sword Art into Rising Star Sword Art even before he could awaken mana. It was just that before he awakened mana, it drained his stamina; now, it has shifted to his mana.
The thing to question, however, was how it became a heroic-ranked skill.
The difference between a rare-ranked skill and a heroic-ranked skill might be just one level, but one should know that heroic-ranked skills were lineages passed down by emperors and such.
Heroic-ranked skills are comparable to the skills of the heroes in the past.
[Well, the skill you created came out to be stronger than anything you had expected it to be, and just so you know, the skill is strong enough to kill an unawakened person if they tried to use it.
You are only fine because of your physique—something that has been with you since birth.]
Sophie didn't keep him waiting, as she replied to his question without thinking much. As said before, she had prepared herself for many such questions, and that was the reason why she added another line before Alex could say anything.
[And yes, the martial skill of yours is the same. You are just like a monster with no idea of how strong he is.
So, please try to be mindful of the results before you create anything next time. It was fine until now, as you weren't playing with mana, but from now on, it is going to be different.
I am here to prevent you from doing so, but still don't be careless from now on. I don't want to see you getting hurt; even your physique has a limit after all.]
Her words started off smugly as if she were trying to show him that she could answer his question without him even asking, but by the time she reached the end, her tone turned low, filled with worry, causing a soft sigh to escape Alex's lips.
'As you wish, my love.'
Alex nodded in acceptance as he knew that if this world had opportunities, it also had dangers, and as the opportunities could make him reach greater heights, the dangers could make him fall to depths lower than the abyss.
With that being the last thing on the tab, Alex was done, at least with the status window.
But soon, he found his eyes getting heavy, causing his brows to crease into a frown.
'This is unusual...'
He muttered as he tried to keep himself conscious. He didn't understand why he was suddenly feeling sleepy.
[It's alright, Alex; sleep for now. You had used your mana a while ago, and as your mana pool is quite small right now, it took a toll on your body. Now it needs rest, so give it a rest.]
It was then that he heard the soothing voice of Sophie, as if an angel whispering sweet words into his ears, and a warm hand patting his head.
He soon found himself closing his eyes with a smile tugging on his lips.
{He looks so cute when he keeps his mouth shut...}
As Sophie saw him fall asleep, she couldn't help but mutter those words to herself.
*Click*
*Creak*
It was then that the door of Alex's room was pushed open as lightly as it could be, causing Sophie, who was inside the system's space, to smile gently.
{I thought she wouldn't be coming today, but I guess there's no way she wouldn't...}
A silhouette could be seen walking toward Alex with a pair of icy blue eyes shining brightly in the dark room, and soon that figure sat next to Alex's bed, staring at him as he slept without a care of the world.