Chapter 3453 Different Kinds of Talent (Part 2) "I don't know." Solus panted heavily. "I feel weak. As if-" A pillar of violet light burst out of her body and the tower quaked as it broke through to the next level together with its master. "Deep violet? Congratulations, Auntie!" Aran said. "And I thought I was competitive. It's not nice to steal Leria's thunder like that. You should have waited at least a couple of days before hogging the spotlight." "I didn't plan this, you rascal." Solus tried to stand up and almost fainted for it. "It must have happened because, after Elysia's birth, we've stopped traveling so much and spent most of our time over mana geysers. "Lith's recent growth in strength must have further accelerated my healing process." "Big Bro has become stronger? Isn't the bright violet the limit of every Awakened unless they find a way to the white like your friends, Auntie?" Aran asked in confusion. "It is, but Lith's situation is different." She replied. "After Kami rescued him, his life forces rearranged themselves in a form that better channels his powers. On top of that, when he rescued me from the Fringe, we underwent a long fusion. "While we were in that form, the tower further healed the damage to his life force which now allows his body to withstand larger amounts of mana safely." Aran kept staring at her in confusion. "Imagine the old Lith like a wooden carriage with a broken wheel" Solus replied. "The new Lith is a stagecoach with just a damaged wheel. It can travel faster and it's more comfortable." "Big Bro was like a carriage with a broken wheel?" Aran was flabbergasted. "How powerful is he now and why not a DoLorcan?" "Respectively, I don't know and broken DoLoreans have no wheels. They either fly or they don't." Solus sighed. "Gods, why do I still feel like this and where is Lith?" *** Inside the tower, just a few minutes ago. "Excellent job, Leria." Lith said while watching her struggle to keep her mana off the cookies. "Keep up like that and-" Suddenly, the tower started to tremble. It absorbed the sand below with a woosh, creating a vortex around the entrance as the tower sucked in the base materials to expand and rebuild itself. "We'd better leave." A snap of his fingers brought Leria and Abominus to Lith's private apartments. "Why, Uncle Lith? Isn't it safe?" She asked. "I don't know." He shrugged. "I've never been inside while the tower underwent changes. There's no point to it. The tower would waste energy to keep me safe and the final result would be the same. "On top of that, I'm almost certain the restoration process can't harm me due to my bond with Solus but you two might have become food for the tower." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶 "You make excellent points," Leria and Abominus swallowed hard. "Let's go check on Solus." Lith said. "You can use some rest and food." "I know." Leria still had several cookies orbiting around her. The moment fear had broken her focus, hunger had taken over, seizing the food. "You can eat them, you know?" Lith chuckled while checking on Solus' position via their mind link. "Thank the gods you are alright." Solus sighed in relief upon their arrival. "For some reason, I can't get any reading from the tower." "The bright violet is a significant step, Epp- Solus." Menadion said. "Not as much as when you regained your physical body but the gap between the bright blue and the deep violet is significant to an Awakened. "You might end up disconnected from the tower until both your mana reserves are replenished." "What do you mean, you might?" Solus asked. "You don't know?" "No, Solus, I don't." Menadion shook her head. "The tower was never supposed to crumble like I was never supposed to leave your side. I built the tower but now it has outgrown me, just like you." "Don't say that, Mom. I'm sor-" Solus' head wobbled for a second before she lost consciousness, falling on the ground with a plop. "What's wrong with Auntie?" Leria munched furiously in worry. "She's just tired. Like you after Awakening. Lith checked Solus with Invigoration. "Her mana core is almost empty and the tower needs most of the world energy for itself. She'll be up and running-" "Why am I on the ground?" Solus woke up as suddenly as she had passed out. "Sooner than you think." Lith finished the phrase amid the gasps of the others. "It seems it's not a good thing for us to be apart during your breakthroughs. Apparently, I'm your backup energy source. Lay down and rest. He could feel his mana and vitality being slowly siphoned but, for a bright violet core at rest while standing over a mana geyser, it was a negligible amount. "Big Bro is heartless." He nodded. "The starving exercise is the less funny he ever came up with." "But it works." Leria replied. "Once I understood that my mana was stirring from hunger the moment I smelled the cookies, stopping the tendrils was quite straightforward." "It was?" Aran was a bit hurt in his pride. "Big Bro, how can she already do it while it took me days?" "Since we are at it, why do you think Aran felt confident to Awaken while I didn't?" Leria asked. "Is it a matter of talent or just character?" "The answer to your questions is the same." Lith replied. "I've taught you magic for quite a while and I can tell you that you two have a comparable amount of talent. Yet they are two completely different kinds of talent." "What do you mean?" Kamila asked, helping Solus to sit up and handing her a honeyed tea. "I won't sugarcoat it, kids, so please don't take it personally. Okay?" Aran and Leria held hands to steel themselves and nodded for Lith to continue. "Leria is the smarter of you two while Aran is the more intuitive. "It means that he has an easier time learning magic whenever he can feel it or experience it directly It's the reason he was confident about Awakening after the fishing trip. "Aran had no idea what to do but after practicing to control the elemental flow, he gained enough insight on his own mana to Awaken. Leria, instead, needs to understand something in order to learn it. "It's the reason the moment Aran Awakened you knew you could do it and why you are better with exercises like the one with the cookies. Once I explained you the cause and effect of the mana going wild, you found a solution. "Aran, instead, was slumped until he managed to feel his mana stirring from the hunger but the moment he did, he didn't produce tendrils anymore. Each of you is better at some things and worse at others. There's no clear-cut difference." "I see." Aran felt refreshed. "What can we do while we wait for Auntie to recover?" "I need all of my strength and you two are at different levels of your training but there is something you have already in common." Lith replied after pondering for a bit.