After a while, Mathew goes below the deck of the ship heading towards the Northern Quadrant.
He enters the storage room of the ship and sits on the wooden ground.
“Okay, let’s try this again,” said Mathew.
He begins gathering soul essence from nature and absorbing it into his core.
As the essence was being absorbed, it was also being purified, turning into Light essence.
Mathew stops gathering the soul essence and thinks to himself.
“So the soul essence gathers naturally and turns into Light essence the moment it enters my core.
I don’t know what the difference between Light and soul essence is, but it has to have something to do with being a divine being.”
Mathew then proceeds to summon a clone of himself.
He looks at the clone and orders it to move around the storage room.
The clone obediently does so.
“So the clone still does what I tell him to do, but how exactly did I get this particular ability?
Could it be that I somehow copied that man’s ability?
Nah, it couldn’t be.
But just to be sure, I better test it out.
But how exactly did I copy it?
That’s another question left for me to answer, I guess.”
Mathew stands and starts cleaning up a portion of the storage room to rest since he didn’t have any money to get a room aboard the ship.
After a while, the storage door opens and a young man with green hair and eyes walks in.
Of course, it was Nice.
He walks in and shifts his eyes, looking for Mathew.
“Grey, are you here?”
Mathew hears his call and reveals himself.
Sighting him, Nice smiles and walks up to Mathew.
“Hey, what are you up to down here?” Nice asks.
Mathew turns and goes back to his work.
“As you can see, I’m cleaning this place up so I can stay here for the nights ahead.”
Hearing that, Nice gasps.
“What?
You mean you’re gonna stay here until we arrive at the Northern Quadrant?”
“Yes, I am.
Is there a problem with that?”
Nice shakes his head disapprovingly and grabs his hand.
Mathew, with a stunned expression on his face, asks, “Where are you taking me this time?”
But Nice ignores him and keeps walking upwards.
Eventually, they arrive at a room in the middle section of the ship with four beds and three windows, with silk curtains covering them.
Mathew, still confused, turns to Nice.
“So what are we doing here?”
Nice walks forward and continues, “Well, since we are acquaintances, I can’t let you sleep in a dusty old storage room, so you’re going to stay with us till we get to our destination.”
Mathew raises an eyebrow, thinking everything Nice just said wasn’t true.
“So you’re saying I can stay with you guys until we get to the Northern Quadrant?”
Nice smiles at him.
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Mathew moves around the sort of fancy room.
“Are your party members okay with this?”
Nice waves his hand down.
“If I’m okay with it, they’re okay with it.
And plus, only us guys are staying in here.
The ladies are in the room next door.”
Immediately after that, the door opens and two guys walk in.
One had blue hair and eyes and a slim stature, wearing a brown tunic and carrying a tray filled with food on it, while the other was a young man with white hair and vermilion eyes wearing a black robe.
Of course, the young men were Frank and Quiver.
“Food’s here,” said Frank, who drops the tray on one of the side stools.
He then notices Mathew and immediately rushes to him.
“Hey, Grey, what are you doing here?” Frank asks with an excited voice.
Quiver walks up to them and asks the same question.
Mathew, feeling a bit weird, tries to answer, but Nice steps in instead.
“Grey will be staying with us till we get to the Northern Quadrant since he doesn’t have a room of his own.”
Mathew expected them to be a little annoyed, but instead, Frank immediately takes his arm and pulls him towards one of the four beds, specifically the one by the far right.
“Since you’re staying with us, you’re going to stay in my bed with me.”
Mathew looks at him with a weird expression.
“Huh?”
Before he could speak, he was already on top of Frank’s bed.
Frank sits on the bed with a fruit in his hand.
Taking a bite, he asks, “By the way, Mathew, I know it’s weird, and don’t tell me if you don’t want to, but what’s your ability, and what’s the rank of your co—”
Frank was cut off by a smack on the head from Nice.
“It’s pretty insensitive for you to ask that regardless of whether he wants to tell you or not,” said Nice.
Frank stares at Nice with a pained expression.
“Oh right, but I can tell him mine, right?”
Nice sighs.
“Yeah, do what you want.”
Frank turns back to Mathew.
“I’m of the Awakened Rank, and my ability is pretty simple, really.
I can see the flow of soul essence moving around, and the flow suddenly changes when it starts moving around you as if it’s glad to see you.”
Hearing that, Quiver turns and stares at Mathew, watching him carefully.
Frank smiles and says, “So, you wanna tell me yours?”
Mathew raises his hand.
“I’d rather not, if you don’t mind.”
With a disappointed look, Frank pouts his lips.
“Okay, if you say so.”
Mathew breathes a sigh of relief.
“Thank the constellation they weren’t pushy about knowing my ability and rank.
Even if they did ask, I wouldn’t even know what to tell them since I myself no longer understand my own abilities.
By the way, what’s this gray light floating everywhere in the room?
It almost looks like—”
Mathew widens his eyes in realization, finally realizing that the gray light he’s been seeing is natural soul essence circulating around the room.
“What?
I wasn’t able to see this a moment ago, so what’s different now?”
Suddenly, it hit him.
He remembered what Frank had stated his ability to be.
“Could it be that I managed to copy Frank’s ability?”
Just at that moment, Mathew noticed that the soul essence flowed differently when it came around him, just as Frank had said.
It gets purified, turning into Light essence and entering his core.
He then gets an idea.
Mathew comes close to Frank and places his hand on Frank’s chest.
“What are you doing?” Frank asks.
Mathew raises his eyes and looks straight at Frank.
“Could you use your ability right now?”
Frank, being puzzled by the question, agrees and releases soul essence from his core to activate his ability.
Mathew watched the soul essence that was being released from Frank’s core carefully and noticed some of the essence being released didn’t go into activating Frank’s ability.
Instead, they turned into a golden light and went into Mathew’s Light core, making Frank’s ability automatically activate in Mathew.
Mathew takes his hand off Frank’s chest and lets a tiny grin play on his lips.
Frank, being puzzled, calls out to Mathew.
“Hey, what was that for?” asks Frank.
Still letting a smirk play on his lips, he replies, “It’s nothing, just forget about it.”
Frank, with a confused expression, shrugs and continues with the fruit he was eating, while somewhere close, Quiver, who watched everything, remained silent and thinks to himself:
“This guy is pretty interesting.”