Level Up Legacy

The mood became rather sour after their meeting with the gatekeeper. Tiara glanced at Arthur, who was walking behind her down the mountain path. He had been silent ever since they left the Temple of Awakening.

"Who was that person the gatekeeper mentioned?" Tiara asked, knowing that this person was the only reason Arthur agreed to travel through the Spirit Realm. She wanted to bring his attention to more positive things other than the danger their friends were facing.

"Hm?" Arthur turned toward her, his golden head unreadable for lack of expression. "Oh. Her name is Gala. She was a friend I made while I was in Alka for half a year."

"When was that?" asked Tiara with surprise. "I didn't know you spent time in Alka."

"I did, but not in this timeline. In order to fix some things, I overwrote the timeline we now live in and transferred all memories using runes. It's what people now refer to as epiphanies."

"…You were the one behind that?" Tiara asked in shock. "Scientists and scholars from our world are still researching what caused them, and here you are just admitting it. But why did you do it?"

"In order to preserve the previous timeline and for the new one to make sense, I had to make some things happen. The memories I chose were transferred to others according to my will."

"That sounds like something a villain would do to manipulate others," Tiara said with a small chuckle. "And what about this friend of yours? Does she remember you?"

"She does and even helped Diana find me," Arthur said with a smile. "Diana said that Gala remained behind during the battle of Runera as the entire city was transferred to our world. It seems she stayed behind to stop my father from obtaining the Isotox."

"Your father?" Tiara asked in confusion. "What is an Isotox?"

"An artifact that separated the two worlds. My father wanted the Isotox to merge the two worlds so I would become the savior. He wanted to be the villain while I became the savior."

"But… you were the one to merge the two worlds in the end."

"I became the exact opposite of what he wanted by doing what he wanted," Arthur said with a little chuckle. "I still wonder what he is doing now, or what he is scheming. I bet it has something to do with me, though."

"Your father is really controlling," Tiara said. "And your friend Gala is here?"

"That seems to be the case. Maybe she ran toward the Spirit Realm when the fight became dire," Arthur said. "I just… miss her a lot. But she can be a handful. She likes to push people's buttons and reveal their true emotions."

"She sounds interesting," Tiara said. "I can't wait to meet her."

"It would have been easy if not for the Spirit Sovereign," Arthur said with a bitter tone. His mood soured again after the topic came up. "I'm sick of others interfering and claiming it's for my own good."

"Maybe it will be for our own good," Tiara said as she raised her necklace. "I obtained this Soulbind and can now learn and grow using it. I never thought that spiritual energy could grow."

"There is one more thing. If your spiritual energy grows, you can use more skills and even have more abilities," Arthur explained. "I found out that a requirement for my runes to empower others is spiritual energy."

"What does that mean?"

"I can give people abilities using my runes, but each rune requires a certain level of spiritual energy. Oren can now use Fire and Shield runes thanks to my runes. I realized that I couldn't give him any more runes a while ago."

"I studied spiritual energy in my mother's library, but the arts of growing it were long lost. I never knew that it had such a function."

"Spiritual energy can help with three main things: growth, spirits, and aura. That's what I came to understand through a crude use of my own spiritual energy."

"Growth, spirits, and aura?" Tiara repeated.

"Growth as in growing stronger than before, either physically or through skills and abilities. People with a higher level of spiritual energy can grow faster and stronger than others through combat. We refer to that as potential."

"…Potential."

"Spirits are self-explanatory. You can make a contract with any spirit inside the Spirit Realm, but stronger spirits require more spiritual energy to agree to a contract."

"Are they different from astral beings?"

"A little, but not entirely," Arthur said as he touched his chin in a pondering pose. "My understanding isn't that great. In Ilios, warriors can make contracts with astral beings even before they reach the astra rank. Do you know how they do that?"

"I heard they have trials and challenges."

"That's precisely it," Arthur said. "These trials and challenges allow spiritual energy to grow through hardships and a rich environment. The astral beings are spirits strong enough to exist on their own in our world."

"And we are only capable of contracting them once we reach the astra rank?" Tiara asked.

"That's precisely the case. Our world is weaker than others. An astra ranker might be just as strong as an infant in other worlds. The threshold of spiritual energy determines everything."

"And what about aura?" Tiara asked.

"Aura is something I'm not very sure about. I once had an art that let me command others to do what I told them, and I believe that was just my aura. As long as you have enough spiritual energy and the knowledge on how to use it, you can command others and they will have no choice but to listen."

"That sounds terrifying," Tiara said with a fearful tone. "Can anyone learn that art?"

"I'm not sure about that yet, because I have yet to encounter someone who knows how to control their spiritual energy to that degree. I even lost the art myself when I merged the two timelines."

"Can you learn it again?"

"Through extensive training and research, maybe," Arthur said. "I did obtain it after a life-and-death battle, but I tried to replicate the feeling for my kingdom of wrath. It's more difficult than I thought it would be."

"Does spiritual energy work against famine?" Tiara asked, her tone a little solemn. Arthur understood that she was worried about fighting against her uncle.

"If utilized in the right manner, then it would be the only thing that works against Nameless and its minions," Arthur answered her with a reassuring tone. "We can work on that as we travel through the Spirit Realm. The gatekeeper was right about one thing… this is the best place to train spiritual energy."

---

Arthur and Tiara did not return to the village after that but headed toward the dragon floating in the distance. According to the gatekeeper, the dragon protected the gate to the Earthen Layer. As long as they passed it without notice—or just defeated it—they could advance.

Defeating the dragon seemed like an impossible task, so Arthur and Tiara began to learn how to hide their spiritual energy. They tried to suppress their spiritual energy at first, but that turned out to be easier said than done.

Their journey took them outside the Waking Glade and then through a white-washed desert. Abyssal spirits appeared here and there as small ethereal elementals that controlled the sand.

Arthur decided to let Tiara take care of them after the first one crumbled from a touch of his chains. It was a great learning experience, but the princess just ran away and smacked the elementals to nothingness.

A yellow sigil dropped, and it entered the necklace on Tiara's neck. Arthur studied it with interest as he saw that after obtaining the sigil and connecting it to her Soulbind, Tiara could store it as spells. It would last ten minutes once activated, but it was a great help in battles.

After defeating the first ethereal monster and obtaining its sigil, Tiara began using it to defeat the others and collect them. Arthur noticed that her spiritual energy was growing every time she defeated an enemy, although it was very minute and unnoticeable.

"It seems these Soulbinds have two main functions," Arthur concluded after Tiara defeated another elemental. "The first is storing sigils, and the second is absorbing scattered spiritual energy from abyssal spirits."

"I feel bad for killing them just for those reasons," Tiara said.

"They would harm other spirits if you didn't," Arthur explained. "These abyssal spirits are ones that refused the peace treaty that lets seekers contract them. Their current goal is to disrupt the rest of the Spirit Realm."

"So, they are just monsters?" Tiara asked.

"That's a valid analogy," Arthur said with a nod. "And just like killing monsters or eating chicken, it lets you grow. You shouldn't feel bad about it."

Tiara seemed to accept his words, although Arthur noticed some hesitation in her strikes. It seemed that being a healer didn't help shape her mindset into becoming a hunter. Nonetheless, she was making progress with her spiritual energy training.

Arthur himself needed to train, but for different reasons. Tiara needed to increase her spiritual energy while Arthur needed to control it. Their training began alongside their journey.