1839 Symbiotic [More chapters on the way, just got a bit of a late start today... *cough*] Leonel entered the Segmented Cube and didn't disturb Aina. Instead, he went right to Anastasia to see what she might have found out about the inheritance until now. Quite frankly, he was quite curious. It wasn't just about the inheritance itself, but also its method of transferring its benefits. Leonel had only been in contact with a third of the inheritance for a small while, and yet it had permanently altered his heart size and shape without him even noticing. Methods on that level were far beyond Leonel's understanding. Even when it came to the tablet, Leonel could feel the transformation process, and there was even some pain involved, especially when the light and dark halves of his Northern Star Lineage Factor fused into one. For such sweeping changes to occur to him without even taking note of it... it was one part astonishing and another part somewhat scary. What if instead of benefits, the inheritance had been malicious? What if instead of improving the function of his heart, it added a permanent defect to it? Or what if it removed his heart entirely? These latter reasons were why Leonel chose to be cautious. If even his senses were useless in checking and monitoring the changes of this inheritance, then diving head first into it might very well be a mistake that he would never be able to extricate himself from. "Any news?" Leonel stepped into the lab to find a floating little girl. "This inheritance is quite amazing. If what you said about the Silver Empire being a hotbed for demons was true, then this inheritance is probably the reason they were able to do it. Just taking on this inheritance would practically make someone immortal. Just the benefits of slowing your heartbeat alone would extend your life by as much as 10%." Anastasia didn't even look toward Leonel as she spoke, her gaze somewhat vacant. But Leonel was used to this. Unlike he who had to physically use the tools of the lab to get the results he wants, Anastasia was the lab and the lab was her. That vacant look in her was just her exercising her control over her surroundings, and that was made even clearer by the tools and flickering screens in the surroundings. Leonel didn't seem too surprised by Anastasia's words, though, most of these were his guesses already. Plus, even back on Third Dimensional Earth, the benefits of strengthening the heart and lowering one's resting heart rate were well documented. "Anything groundbreaking?" "Everything is about what you would expect. The three parts of the inheritance come together to cause a qualitative change to the body, however the wood part of the inheritance caused the most obvious changes. More valves to the heart, larger sides, more folds in the lungs, more blood vessels, etc. "The fire part of the inheritance allows you to swallow Fire Force and turn it into strength and vitality that support the wood part. "The metal part allows you to transfer this vitality from yourself to other objects, namely metal objects, and if you're clever like the Radix family, metal Crafts. "One part makes you a vessel. Another part strengthens the vessel. The last part allows you to share the strength of your vessel. "No matter how you slice it, it's an auxiliary Lineage Factor designed for the express purpose of support, but what's odd is that it's not obvious at first glance what it's trying to support. The fire part makes sense, but the transfer to metal objects part feels entirely arbitrary." "Why does the fire part make sense?" "Fire has and always will be the foundation of life. It was the first invention. Without its existence, without its warmth, there wouldn't be life as we know it. It could be said that it's even more fundamental in this regard than Life Force." Leonel frowned when he heard this. It sounded like some nonsense you would read in a book, or some legend about a man like Prometheus. But the way he saw it, the root of fire would always be destruction. It was designed to burn, to combust. Warmth came not from fire, but from the stars, and stars were decidedly not flames, they were nuclear reactors that took advantage of the exothermic output of volatile chemical reactions. Life could exist without fire, in fact existence might be better off without it in some respect. But it couldn't make do without stars. If Anastasia had said the same thing about Water Force, he would have tended to believe her a little bit more. But for Fire Force...? One just needed to look at the number one Fire Force in all of existence to understand. How could the embodiment of destruction be the number one Fire Force in all of existence if Fire Force was the representation of life? It didn't compute. "... if I had to guess why metal was chosen, it's likely because its root is Earth Force. Earth Force is a great stabilizing Force and it can ensure balance. This ties in with the transferring of vitality quite well as well, as it won't allow your body to become overloaded with Life Force that you cannot handle. As such, it allows you to offload some of that weight to another vq y y y y 8 object." Leonel's gaze narrowed. 'Metal as a stabilizing force... Hold on, Earth Force isn't necessarily entirely disconnected from life. There are real minerals and metals within the human body that have to reach a certain level to maintain one's health. "Tron, zinc, copper, magnesium, sodium... the list goes on and on. Earth Force is probably even more important to survival and Life Force than Fire Force could ever be? That sort of symbiotic relationship between organic and inorganic..." Leonel's body trembled and he seemed to have comprehended something. His Bronze Aura triggered outside of his control, but the dazed look in his eyes made it clear and obvious that he didn't notice at all. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖 Leonel's aura rose like a gentle tide, a far cry from the sudden burst he had experienced at the Umbra family. Even so, he crossed a major threshold, entering Tier 4.