First thing I checked was whether I got a new entry in the book and summoned it in front of me.
I summoned my book and tried to think about the Anomaly we just defeated, waiting to see if the book would flip itself to another page.
Unfortunately, the book stayed still and did not open up, meaning there was no new entry.
Sergei noticed me summoning the book and also realised what I was trying to do.
"Did killing this give you new powers?" He asked.
I shook my head, "Unfortunately not…"
"Is there some kind of requirement before you can gain their powers?"
"From what I believe is the case… It should be something to do with how strong they are. If the Anomaly is too weak, they don't appear in the book. The larger Anomaly that we fought before the one that can combine with other Anomalies was not registered either."
Kris leaned against his sword that he had stabbed into the ground, "I dunno… If I had to guess… Maybe you only can absorb the strongest Anomaly in the rift? Like anything weaker than the strongest being in that rift won't be registered?"
I tapped on the side of my head thoughtfully, "That could also be possible… I'm honestly not sure since I don't know the full details of this ability yet. If we were to run into an Anomaly that is even stronger and that still doesn't record into my book, then it will confirm it."
Avatasia turned to me, "Hmm… That's fine and all, young God. But all of this is tied to a single artefact of yours, is it not? And this singular artefact is part of your power as a God. What about the other Divine abilities that you have yet to awaken that might clue you in on which God you are?"
"As much as I would like to know, I don't know where to start. One of my theories is that it's tied to that meditation thing that you saw me do. Each time I do that, I seem to grow just a little bit stronger so I was thinking that I might need to do more of that until I reach some kind of limit and break through it before I can awaken more abilities."
Sergei gestured to the purple cloud around me, "What about that? How did you awaken this one?"
"That… I kind of felt something inside my body and tried to pull it out which resulted in this ability being awakened. I tried to search for more things inside of me that I could pull out but… Right now it's just empty. That's why I believe it has something to do with me needing some kind of breakthrough first."
Jia Lian raised her hand slightly, "Umm… Mortal God? This is… Basically like those cultivation stories, isn't it?"
I turned to her, "Oh? Are you familiar with this genre? Because I have to admit that while I know of it, I'm not very well read in it."
She hesitated, "Ah… I also know of it… And I did read some stories belonging to this genre before but I read them in passing and never really looked very deeply into it…"
"It doesn't matter. Anything you could suggest would definitely help here since it wouldn't hurt to at least try. Is there anything you know that might help?"
She suddenly looked down and averted her gaze while fiddling with her fingers nervously, "Umm… I… I don't think… I don't think what I know would… Umm… Actually work… It's all just fictional after all…"
I blinked at her, wondering why she would bring it up and then not just say what she knew like that.
"I hate to be the one to say it but… I'm pretty sure everything about what I can do is related to what is arguably something fictional," I pointed out while gesturing at myself. "In fact, everything that I should be able to do would be tied to the myths that revolve around my godly being. So… I think anything you can suggest would help."
Jia Lian looked around and realised that everyone was looking at her in anticipation.
She fumbled with her fingers for a while more before she hid her face in her hands and mumbled something unintelligible into her palms.
"Err… What?" I called out.
"...al culti…"
"Sorry Jia Lian but… I can't hear what you said…"
"Dual cultivation!" She blurted out before going back to hide her face again, her face blushing red up to her ears.
Ah… So she reads those kinds of cultivation stories… No wonder she didn't want to say it.
The others all turned to me, obviously not understanding what 'dual cultivation' was since they probably never touched this genre before.
I cleared my throat, "Ahem… Well… To understand, I would have to first explain what cultivation is and this isn't really the best place to do so… It's a really long and complicated topic so… I think we should save that explanation to after we get back to the chalet."
The others seem to agree and we saved that conversation for later.
But while I said that… I couldn't help but think about what Jia Lian had suggested.
I know that this dual cultivation thing was definitely something that was present in this genre but… I don't know if it would actually work here.
Like… If I understand correctly, the whole idea of dual cultivation comes from the natural energy that is present within two different people and they basically perform something that is intimate to combine their energies together to further strengthen themselves or something like that?
For that idea to work, I suppose you would first have to understand that there are different types of energies and how these different energies are meant to mix together and what effects they would have.
Like right now, I am meditating to absorb what I believe to be Qi energy in the air. But where does this energy come from? Is it just naturally present in the air? What produces them? What are the conditions for them to form?
The fact that I could basically invigorate myself by absorbing the energy made me think that it should be life energy and it most likely came from all the living things around the area.
At least… That's what I believe.
The fact that the same energy is also present in these rifts also mean that these things are also alive as well, which would check out since there have been research done to these creatures and we all know they were basically former living things that died and got mutated by the miasma within the rift.
So since they were once alive, there should be this life energy in the air as well.
What I have yet to test is whether the life energy replenishes itself since that could mean that these Anomalies could also be alive and giving off life energy. But if it doesn't replenish… Then whatever I'm absorbing is remnants of when the rift used to be filled with life.
Hmm? If this is life energy… Then shouldn't I be able to absorb them directly from the sources themselves? Since everything that is alive should contain life energy right? Is the life energy tied to the being's lifeforce? What would happen if I absorbed a lot of life energy?
Would I explode? Or… Would more life put me on the path of immortali--
I didn't even complete my thought when I suddenly felt heat coming from my chest.
I fell to a knee as I felt my strength leave me, prompting Avatasia who was closest to me to kneel down as well to check on me.
She was saying something but I couldn't hear her as the heat coming from my chest was all that I could think about.
I blinked and I was suddenly standing in a different place, more specifically in the middle of a black void.
The heat from my chest seemed to shift and it floated out, turning into some kind of prismatic ball of light that floated away from me.
It stopped just within arms reach and my instinct told me to reach out towards it so that was what I did.
The moment my index finger touched it, tendrils of light seemed to curl around my finger before some of it shot towards the 'ground', filling up the void with light.
I then realised that it was growing into the shape of a tree and soon enough, it took the shape of a sapling with several branches spreading out and leaves appearing at the end.
My finger was still stuck to its trunk and when I tried to pull it out, it detached without any problems and the light tendrils retreated back into the tree.
The tree glowed for a moment before it let out a flash of light and that was the last thing I knew before I was consumed by darkness.