Chapter 346: Chapter 346 - Tamer’s Memory Brain Selphira led Ren through the corridors, moving away from the usual student traffic until they reached a small private meeting room. The space was furnished with a dark wooden table, two high-backed chairs, and an unlit fireplace whose embers had long grown cold. The walls were covered with intricate runic patterns that Ren understood through his mana flow, sophisticated privacy enchantments that would ensure their conversation remained completely confidential. "Take a seat," Selphira ordered, her voice maintaining the formality Ren had expected, though he detected an undercurrent of something else... Perhaps curiosity? Concern? Once they were settled, the elderly Ashenway went straight to the point, surprising Ren with her first question. "Can you purify anyone who’s gone abyssal?" Her eyes gleamed as she studied him. "For example, if I were corrupted by such energy, could you cleanse me?" Ren blinked, momentarily thrown off guard by the serious topic. Weren’t they going to talk about his mushroom escaping? About what happened last night? But he quickly focused on the pressing question she’d posed, sensing its importance. "No," he responded honestly, shaking his head. "I couldn’t." Selphira leaned slightly forward. "Explain." Ren organized his thoughts carefully before continuing, remembering the sensations he’d experienced during his encounters with abyssal corruption. "The abyssal energy... from what I’ve been able to observe, I believe it behaves like a parasite to mana. It attaches to it, uses it to amplify its own potency. Someone with more mana naturally seems to have a higher aggregate power when they somehow accept abyssal energy into their body." The mushrooms in his hair pulsed softly as he worked through the logic of information he’d gathered when confronting it those few times. "I believe I could eliminate abyssal energy from someone in the Silver rank if I used all my power... but someone like you?" He looked up at her with genuine concern. "It would be absolutely impossible right now." Selphira sighed, her expression becoming more thoughtful as she processed this limitation. Her eyes seemed to age another decade with the weight of whatever possibilities had just closed before her. "Then... can you teach me the technique?" Ren hesitated, struggling with how to explain something he barely understood himself. The words felt inadequate for the complexity of the process. "It’s something instinctive. I’m not sure I could replicate it in a system different from my own." The elder arched an eyebrow, a flash of something shrewd gleaming in her eyes as she leaned back in her chair. "I too have a ring at my disposal. I can cast light similar to yours. I know you’re using the third ring and its power in some... unique way." Ren’s heart accelerated, but remembering his confession to Han and the trust that moment had built between them, he decided to be honest here as well since they seemed to have already discovered his secret. "My mushroom... it ate the ring without my permission," he admitted, noticing how Selphira tensed slightly. "The form of my mushroom, which is actually more like a giant network, is what helps me configure the light ray. I use the absorbed ring’s power, but I have absolutely no idea how to translate it to mana flow for you, or how to recover it from inside my beast even if we wanted to." The atmosphere in the room shifted abruptly. Ren felt a subtle but threatening change in Selphira’s energy, like an invisible storm had entered the chamber. Every hair on his body stood on end. His survival instincts kicked in immediately, but before he could react, Selphira’s White Serpent materialized instantaneously, coiling around him before he could even blink. "You shouldn’t trust people so easily," Selphira murmured, approaching him while the serpent held him immobile with surprising gentleness despite its firm grip. Her hand extended toward his abdomen, her movements direct yet somehow apologetic. Panic exploded through Ren. "What? I didn’t...!" The touch was subtle but deeply invasive. He felt Selphira’s mana flow into his body, a torrent of powerful, controlled energy that swept through his internal systems like a tsunami. It wasn’t exactly painful, but the sensation of being probed by such overwhelming power left him breathless and vulnerable in a way he’d never experienced. Selphira’s mana navigated through him, searching, analyzing, mapping him in a way that made Ren feel completely exposed. "Fascinating," Selphira murmured, her voice slightly distant as if she were concentrating on something beyond the visible. "Truly unique and... Enormous." The mushrooms in his hair began pulsing erratically, responding to the invasive flow of external energy. The serpent tightened slightly, not painfully, but enough to keep Ren exactly where Selphira wanted him. The elder continued her exploration, her fingers pressing different points on his abdomen with the precision of a master surgeon, each touch sending new waves of mana through his system. The mana penetrated deeper into Ren’s system, navigating through energy lines so intricately interwoven they seemed to form a three-dimensional labyrinth. The complexity was overwhelming, even for someone of her considerable experience. She’d examined countless tamers, studied numerous beasts, but nothing had prepared her for this. A thin trickle of blood began to stream from Selphira’s nose as her eyes opened even wider, straining to comprehend the impossible structure she was investigating. "Impossible," she muttered, her pupils dilating as she tried to follow the patterns. More blood flowed from her eyes, crimson tears running down her weathered cheeks as she forced her perception further. The pressure mounted until a red trickle began to escape from her ears, her body protesting the strain she was putting it under. But Selphira Ashenway hadn’t survived decades as one of the city’s most powerful tamers by surrendering to complication. Her Black Turtle manifested more fully, channeling healing water energy through her system while she clung to the mana filaments within Ren, refusing to let go even as her body paid the price. "Almost... almost..." she whispered, feeling she was finally approaching the core where the ring resided. Ren swallowed with difficulty, feeling completely vulnerable under her scrutiny. The penetration of Selphira’s mana painfully reminded him that, despite all his special knowledge and discoveries, he was still just a first-year student facing perhaps the most powerful tamer in the city. "So here it is," she said finally, her tone suggesting she’d found what she’d been searching for. "The ring... completely integrated. Not simply consumed, but fused into the very structure of your creature." Her voice carried a note of awe that was rare for her. At that precise moment, something changed dramatically. Inside Ren’s body, a presence awakened. The mushroom, until now a passive observer of this intrusion, suddenly expanded its consciousness. What Selphira perceived left her breathless and shaken. Where earlier outside Ren’s body she had seen a small and simple creature, she now beheld an impossible form: a majestic being that seemed to extend infinitely in all directions. It was as if she were looking at an ancient dragon, but one composed entirely of fungal structures interwoven in patterns that defied comprehension. "What are you?" Selphira gasped, a moment before the entity expelled her mana from Ren’s body.