Zen had entered his soul realm quite easily and gone through the entire process once. It wasn't that he didn't make mistakes, but he simply forced himself to stay. Neo on the other hand didn't have enough experience to do that.
Nothing went especially wrong until it came time to absorb.
As he stimulated his life force, the oceans in his soul realm swirled and turned,creating waves and whirlpools, the wind howled slightly, giving off an eerie feeling of something mystical going on.
As he began to absorb Astra, the doors and windows flung open as a golden energy entered into the castle.
However everything went wrong as a black hole suddenly appeared in the sky and began forcefully absorbing all the Astra.
Zen was flung out of the soul realm and woke up, coughing up blood.
He looked to his side and saw Neo still concentrated.
Theia hurriedly flew to his face tapping him gently.
"Are you okay?"
"What was that?" He asked
Theia hesitated, looking at Zen strangely.
"What's wrong? Answer"
"I have no idea"
Zen was a bit disappointed at the answer when he suddenly remembered something: His mutation.
He quickly described his mutation to Theia and she answered saying that it was a possibility.
There was nothing Zen could do, so he just decided to try again to see if there was something he could do.
Theia suddenly stopped him, worriedly looking at him.
"What is it?"
Theia looked like she didn't know how to say it, but after a few seconds, she eventually did.
"Zen.... where's the rest of you?"
"What?"
Theia sighed and floated closer to Zen's chest, placing her hand on it,more specifically, his necklace
"You know how there's usually said to be two sides of things? Yin and Yang?"
Zen nodded
"Zen... you're like this necklace,you have no yang. You're like a walking pile of dark matter,or a black hole. I honestly have no idea how you haven't exploded"
Zen thought for a few seconds.
"So you're saying that this might be the reason,or rather the explanation of my mutation, and the reason for my difficulty in absorbing?"
Theia nodded
"It's either all your Yang energy was sealed, ripped out of you,or....you were never completely human to begin with"
Zen thought for a bit, but it really could be either one. Those people had done so many things to him that he barely even knew what effects they were trying to achieve.
"So what's the solution?"
"Focus on absorbing only the dark or Yin energy. You've spent so long without it that your body's compatibility with yang energy is much lower than with Yin, either that or you were born that way. It should be impossible, but your life force is balanced with just yin energy. Somehow your body is staying in balance out of balance."
"This should also help you since the seven deadly sins is a demon attribute technique so we'll be able to skip a step in mastering the technique. All we can do is hope that your mutation is only targeting yang energy."
Zen nodded and closed his eyes, going back into his soul realm.
He hastily went through all the steps and began absorbing Astra.
This time when his mutation acted up, he forcefully held on to the Astra in a tug of war with his mutation, but didn't pull. After a while, the golden dust fragments seperated into two distinct white and black ones.
The dark Astra flew towards the castle, successfully being absorbed and the white ones towards the sky being absorbed by his mutation.
"Success" Zen said a bit shakily. He had used so much mental energy keeping hold of the energy that he was slightly exhausted. Unfortunately it seemed like this was how it would be done from now on.
Zen sighed and decided to start all over again.
Somewhere along the line, he had pulled too hard and sent himself flying out, coughing up more blood.
Coincidentally, Neo had also finished at this time and quickly tried to help him.
Looks like you encountered a bit of trouble"
Zen coughed a few more times before answering.
"Yeah"
"Success!"
Theia exclaimed happily.
"How'd it go?"
Neo asked
"I need a nap"
Was all Zen said as an answer
Neo nodded in agreement. They both looked dreadfully tired.
Neo said good night as he fell asleep right there. Luckily he didn't snore.
"I've got a surprise for you" Theia said enthusiastically.
"What is it?" Zen asked.
"Seriously,do you have to be so plain all the time? Show a little excitement. Jeez!"
Despite her complaints, Zen got the notification.
[Effect (1) of title: Umbra: The king in night]
[Cultivation speed and efficiency is doubled during night time]
"That's convenient"
He looked at Neo and wondered if he also had title effects, and what his title even was,if he had one.
Theia answered both in the positives, giving Zen something to think about.
"I can't believe it"
Zen suddenly heard Lilith's voice.
"You really are one of them. An Astral"
Zen was confused by her reaction and asked for the reason.
"Oh, you really don't know. Well answer me this, before Aether came to the humans, they considered vampires as myths and legends, right?"
"Yes" Zen answered.
"And when vampires first shown up,humans already had some knowledge about us due to their legends"
Zen once again confirmed it .
"Now, think as hard as you can . Have you ever heard of a legend of a creature called an Astral? And I'm not talking about ghosts and specters"
Zen thought for a while before replying in the negative.
Lilith chuckled.
"It would probably make sense for vampires, being a mythical race to know all the other mythical races, and before now I thought we did, but the way people saw vampires before Aether, that's the way we see astrals. Nothing but folktales and myths"
Zen was suprised. A creature unknown to vampires? That seemed impossible .
"It's true, but you know what's even crazier? The legend says that although there might be hundreds or even thousands of legends which might be them, that name has never been associated with them in those tales"
Zen was confused, something which Lilith noticed and explained.
"What i mean is, although there might or might not actually be legends of these creatures, they have never been recognized for what they really are,or even associated with their true name "
Zen raised a brow
"Then how did the legend start if there isn't even a basis?"
"No one knows. Why else do you think they were only seen as myths by even vampires,werewolves and all the others? No one believed they existed, not even me...until now"
Zen suddenly noticed a small smirk on Theia's face.
"The only explanation is that these creatures were careful, very careful, even moreso than vampires, the literal creatures of the night. And the fact that this legend never even reached the humans should tell you exactly how careful"
Zen suddenly realized what she meant. Just by existing,he was basically a living legend , not among humans, but supernatural creatures.
"Are there others? Or are they extinct?"
Lilith scoffed.
"How the fuck should I know? You're the one who's one of them"
"What else do you know about them?"
Lilith didn't have to think long before answering.
"It was said that their blood could either be a mystical panacea,or the world's deadliest poison. There were also multiple mystical and unpredictable properties of not just their blood, but anything that contained their essence"
Zen suddenly looked at Sable and immediately used read to check her stars, and saw that she was recovering.
"Worried much?"
"Just testing your hypothesis"
Lilith smiled evilly and decided to tell Zen something.
"Fun fact: Vampires only drink human blood "
Zen understood what she meant but still ignored it.
"What else?" Zen asked.
"They were said to be able to control the souls of both the dead and the living, not as some ability or magic, but simply a fact of their biology. My current situation suggests that this one is true "
"Anything else?"
"Oh, this one is really interesting. Unlike vampires or werewolves and other creatures that just found their own planets to inhabit, Astrals were said to inhabit another dimension entirely, and it was only accessible by an Astral. Whenever some nutcase or crazy person ever said that they believed in them and were going to look for the Astral dimension, they were never seen or heard from again."
"Not even you? The queen of vampires?"
Lilith's silence gave him all the answers he needed.
"Anything else?"
Lilith shrugged although Zen couldn't see it.
"Just like every myth,there were thousands of interpretations, and not all of them can be true"
Zen nodded and turned to someone else.
"Theia"
"Don't look at me. She's basically said everything I know. The creator of the system probably didn't want me giving you any spoilers,cus I wasn't programmed with the knowledge of Astrals, only the knowledge that you would become one, and your significance as one"
Zen now had no clues as to these myths among myths, and honestly didn't want to look. He didn't care that he wasn't human anymore, and didn't really feel like he was very human before anyway. He wasn't going to have a whole episode about this, what's done was done and most of the only humans that would probably accept him whether as a human or Astral,were in this dungeon, and he didn't exactly feel very strongly towards them either so nothing much had changed.
Inhuman. That's what the mark he bore was, that's what it was to be a player,to be seen as inhuman by both everyone else and yourself,and Zen still felt as inhuman as before,so perhaps it should've been like this all along.
That thought suddenly triggered another one: His sister,his family. He was going to have to meet them eventually if he planned on finishing the quest, when he did,how would it go?
With that thought, Zen closed his eyes to go to sleep.
*****************
Zen woke up after a while and immediately heard the voice of Theia,who was still on his head.
"Hey there sleepy head. Dream of anything interesting?"
"Yeah actually" Zen answered thinking back to his strange dream.
"What was it about ?"
"I dreamt that I....woke up? And I was in a messy dark room. I got up and looked at a framed picture of... myself as a baby. Then everything suddenly turned blurry"
Theia seemed surprised.
"Dream walking already?"
"Dream walking?"
"Just another myth about you"
"How did the legends of these abilities come around when these things have never been associated with what they are?"
Theia shrugged.
"I don't know... Some drunk In a bar? Or some fake fortune teller. No one really knows"
Zen shook his head and decided to forget about it. The very basis of this legend didn't make sense.
"How long was i asleep"
"Believe it or not,two hours."
Zen was surprised. Two hours was all it took for a full recovery. It seemed Astrals didn't need to sleep as much as humans, but thinking about it, Zen realized that that went for every humanoid creature that wasn't exactly human.
Zen immediately closed his eyes again, not to sleep, but to practice Astra absorption.
He quickly reappeared in his soul realm and smoothly went through the entire process. Difficulty only arose when his mutation acted up.
Zen spent the next couple seconds hours and a considerable amount of blood practicing his control and by the end of it, he noticed results.
[Learned new skill: Absorb]
[Learned new skill : Charge]
"I got it" Theia said before Zen could ask.
[Absorb: A weakened but practical use of regular meditation. Allowing you to semi- passively absorb Astra from the atmosphere. Absorption rate and efficiency is decided by INT and wisdom stat. Warning: Host has to set aside a portion of his consciousness to focus on the meditate state at all times]
[Cost: N/A]
[Charge: Kindle the Astra in your body and attacks, temporarily increasing it's volatility, energy index and damage. Effect is decided by INT and wisdom stat. Warning: This will cause you to burn through your energy much quicker, and increase its unpredictability, and tendency to go wild]
[Cost: N/A]
The first thing Zen did was ask Theia to add his remaining stat points to intelligence. It seemed like it would only get more and more important after this.
He wanted to try absorb first. He looked around once more to make sure they were all asleep.
Zen took a deep breath and activated the skill, making sure to do as the system said and devote part of his willpower to meditate while he stayed mostly awake.
He had already received training on how to separate his consciousness to complete several tasks at once,so he simply did that, and it was effective.
Although it was less than half its previous speed,it was satisfactory.
Zen did a few calculations and his Astra would be fully recovered in about two hours.
"Okay. While we're waiting, I'll teach you how to refine your Astra"
"Refine?"
"Yep. In order for you to use your Astra for a technique such as this,it has to go through a few changes. You already have dark attribute energy,so we can skip a step there. You need to refine your Astra using something called a heart flame. Of course it isn't really a flame but a concentration of your desires. You need to enter your soul realm and create a flame of seven colors, not with your will, but your desires, then you'll need to guide your Astra into the flame and let it be refined by the sinful heart flame. The basis of this technique is to follow your desires, but mastery of it is to perfectly comprehend them ,so there'll be a few strange feelings , but remember,your goal is to control, not be controlled, embrace your desires but don't let them lead you. Constructing the flame itself should be easy since you only have dark attribute energy. Remember, what you want is a flame constantly shifting between seven colors , anything else, and it's a fail.
Zen nodded and closed his eyes.
A few minutes later he opened his eyes and explained what happened.
"What do you mean you couldn't even create the flame?"
Zen shrugged.
"Okay, let's start small. Let's start with a one colored flame. You can create seven sinful heart flames one by one and slowly merge them. Let's start with the pink sin heart flame: Lust, you're a teenager so this one should be easy. What i want you to do is imagine the most soul wrenching, hormone inducing, career ending,taboo smut you can think of. And don't hold back, forget all about control for a second. We just need to get a spark going"
Zen nodded and closed his eyes
A few minutes later he opened his eyes again.
"Nothing? I told you not to hold back"
"He didn't" Lilith said, sounding like she was about to throw up.
"Yeah, I did NOT show him that" His castle's resident otaku quickly defended herself.
Theia examined Zen's blank expressionless face and then looked down at his groin,both of which had no changes whatsoever.
"Hmmm. I guess you're not very lustful at heart... you're an Ace?
Zen shrugged. He'd never thought of such things, and never cared, but looking at his reaction,or rather lack thereof,Theia felt it was probably the case.
Theia decided to move on to the next thing.
"I know, let's try greed. It's the same, but this time, envision all the riches and treasure you could possibly ever want"
Zen nodded and tried again
************
"Oh come on! There has to be something you want? Something that drives you. Sin is an essential gear in the human heart, it regulates desires,everything that drives you towards a goal, and basically everything that makes you who you are. How can we try everything and nothing work?"
Zen shrugged
Theia sighed and seemed to understand now. They had gone through literally every sin and gotten Zero effect.
"You really have no sinful desire huh? Or i guess it's more specific to say you have no emotions. Man,why couldn't we have gotten a Buddhist technique or something?"
She plopped down onto his head with a defeated look
"Well I'm out of ideas"
Zen looked thoughtful. Perhaps he had one.
"Does it have to be mine?"
"Hmm?"
Zen elaborated
"Does it have to be my desire that forms the sinful heart flame? As long as it's in my soul realm and under my will and influence,does it matter?"
Theia looked confused.
"The technique doesn't specify " She answered.
"I smell a loophole" Freya said with a grin.
Zen nodded and continued
"I noticed that whenever I use soul link,or soul bridge as its called now,i can detect the emotions of my target. If that's the case,if I create a soul bridge between a target and myself before I start refining,can I....?"
Theia's eyes lit up as she flew off of Zen's head and in front of his face and answered.
"Yes! Yes that could work!"
Zen looked around at all his sleeping classmates, but Theia suddenly stopped him.
"You shouldn't do that"
Zen raised a brow
"Why?"
"I'm sure you already noticed that the effect of soul bridge is somewhat permanent. Would you prefer for all these people surrounding you and keeping your secret to eventually become a group of hedonistic selfish and all round sinful people.
Zen paused at that.
"On the other hand,you could just lower the output and only give them a few brief moments of exposure. For example do it in a way that it would seem like a wet dream,or just faint glimpses of fortune. However if you do it this way, you'll barely get anything and won't even be able to forge the flames"
Zen realized that she was right. Whether in the long or short run,it wouldn't be advantageous to him.
Theia smiled as she saw he was listening to her.
"Good call"
"That's what I'm here for,big guy"