“Do you have a Soul Contract to help guild members and follow the Guild Master?” Ivy asks without hesitation. Without missing a beat, he produces an ethereal sheet of paper with the Guild’s insignia. On the paper where a normal signature line would be there is a unique symbol that I instinctively feel is tied to this man’s soul.
“Thank you!” Ivy adds happily while lounging down on the desk.
“No worries. Now, how can I help you?” He replies cheerfully while snapping the Soul Contract away.
“I’m good to tell him whatever I’m comfortable with right, Ivy?” I ask hesitantly.
“Even more than that. The more information you can give him that’s relevant, the better off you’ll be.” She agrees with confidence.
“My name is Alaina Glace, I used to have a true Trace or blessing or whatever from Vaelorym, and then Ivy here gave me a blessing and became my World Guide. I can currently choose my class, but other than that I have no information. I got grabbed by Vaelorym from my world and my soul got dragged across the multiverse to here.” I rant therapeutically.
“Perfect. I can feel that your soul has the Trace so that’s good news. As for the Traverser aspect you’re welcome to join training courses here, stay in the guild employee lodging, and get guidance for your class and affinities. All of this is free of charge of course. We can’t offer anything that’s super luxurious or specialized as it’s just too expensive that way.” He addes with a small frown.
“Wait, really?! You’re really okay with offering me all of that for free?!” I exclaim with apparent confusion on my face.
“We’re sponsored by other Traversers that went through our systems around the world and operate directly under Vaelorym so it’s the least we could do.” He says to calm my worries.
“Now, let’s start with getting your affinities appraised so we can make an informed opinion of your class and weapon choices. Wait. Are you wanting to get a fighting class and go dungeon delving? You don’t have to at all.” He says while slowly pulling out a plate of shiny metal.
“Vaelorym seemed to be needing me for something so I’m going to become as powerful and capable as possible for my own safety in that scenario.” I respond immediately.
“Perfect. Now, try and imbue some of your mana and soul into this platinum plated aether construct. It’ll assess your energy signatures and give us an accurate estimation of your primary affinities and maybe your secondaries.” He smiles while setting up the metal sheet. He accents his finger with a light blue energy and swirls a small circle around the platinum plate. All of the sides and edges gain the same blue hue as his finger and the circle then dims slightly.
“Now, before we begin with this, there are two other options we’ll go through. First and foremost, as it’s a training method you’ll utilize daily, is the Soulspace. I’m going to have you go to the couch over there and put a hand on my shoulder.” He grunts while standing from behind the desk and patting the nonexistent dust off himself.
We sit down and I hesitantly put a hand on his shoulder and try to concentrate as much as I can.
“To preface this, don’t ever use this method with someone unless you absolutely trust them or you’re confident that you’re at least a couple evolutions above them. If you let someone into your Soulspace that you can’t immediately subjugate or destroy, then they can do a lot of internal damage to your soul. The soul is very fickle to heal so be extremely vigilant. Now, feel the energy circulating through my channels and start to reach for my heart with your own energy. You’ll feel an almost tendril-like construct make contact in your mind. It’ll be me giving your soul permission to materialize a construct in my Soulspace.”
I nod and close my eyes to focus on his energy circulation. Slowly, I feel his energy circulation and reach out with my mind toward the core from where his energy is coming. A small tendril reaches out and into the recesses of my mind. I tentatively accept it and am transported to a grand mountain covered in snow. Inside the mountain face is the entrance to a massive cave system. Inside I see Aeros meditating, and then the world fades away.
“That was my Soulspace. Now judging by what you saw, what do you think my affinities would be?” He asks with a small grin.
“Uh, I’m going to say that the most common elements in your Soulspace are your primary affinities so probably, Earth of some type and maybe Snow?” I ask hesitantly.
“Pretty close actually. Ice and Earth are my two primaries and Air is my secondary.” He responds with a nod and a grin across his face.
“Now that you’ve seen what a Soulspace is supposed to look like, let’s work on building yours from scratch. I can tell that you’ve worked out your own skill entanglement. That’s a good sign. Now, think of someplace picturesque that calms you down, makes you feel peace.” He explains.
I take a deep, calming breath and look internally at my energy pathways. I slowly watch it cycle continually through my system as I try to think of some place calming. Immediately, my mind wanders toward the Sakura Blossom Tree with the small pond. I picture it and try to stabilize that realm into my soul.
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After it stabilizes, I start to explore the surrounding area. The tree is smaller and the blossoms are a different color than I remember them being with the System quiz. Instead of light pink they’re a deep, vibrant crimson that radiates a feeling that I can’t quite place. The pond is a clear liquid that could be water, but I’m not quite sure. The area surrounding the little meditation garden is barren to the point of being devoid of everything.
“Okay. I think I’m done. Hopefully I didn’t mess up.” I say hesitantly.
“Let’s check it out. Enter your Soulspace and then after that you should feel my arm on your shoulder. I’ll send a small pulse of energy through your system. Try and lock onto that signal and get my signature from it. Once you’ve got the signature you’ll then need to allow it to enter your Soulspace. I’ll come in and manifest myself to be standing near you. We can talk in there or we can just look for a couple minutes and then leave if that makes you more comfortable.” He says while teaching me.
“We can talk in there. If I can let you in properly, at least.” I respond as I close my eyes.
I enter my Soulspace and wait for the signal. After a few seconds I feel a small wave of energy come through the area and my body. I grab hold of it mentally and study it for a second. There it is. I check the signature against what I felt in Aeros’ Soulspace and it feels like a match.
Slowly, I allow it in and see him pop into the area next to me.
“Welcome! Please leave your shoes at the door and enjoy any complimentary food and drinks you can find!” I exclaim while gesturing at the tree and pond.
“Thank you! Now, let’s see what we can glean from these.” He accepts graciously.
“What do you feel in the area around you? I have a few theories, but I’d like you to get a feel for recognizing affinities.” He says thoughtfully.
“I had a strange feeling from the blossoms, but everything else seems like stuff I’ve felt before. I’m assuming the tree is Nature of some kind and the pond is Water.” I say while walking under the tree.
“I would agree with those. The reason you haven’t recognized the blossoms is because I believe it to be the Blood affinity. Judging by how strong the color and aura from the blossoms are, it’s probably your primary affinity. I’m not sure which is secondary between Nature and Water though.” He agrees readily.
“I think it’s time that I show you the basic, agreed upon diagram for the different affinities, their interplay between each other, and then we can go from there. I will warn you now, the diagram I’m going to draw for you is only for learning basics. It’s very basic and not everything shown is how it works in nature. That being said, it does a very good job at giving the basic understanding of how everything works together.” He explains quaintly.
He begins to infuse the end of his finger with a pale blue light and then starts to draw two squares that are perpendicularly interposed on top of each other and drawing lines off the edges.
“The cardinal directions are the major affinities.” He clarifies while pointing to the Ice, Earth, Fire, and Water symbols.
“The corners are the basis for advanced affinities and only some examples of the infinite possibilities there are. For example, Air and Water mixed together gives you the Ice affinity.” He says while motioning towards the respective affinities.
“The opposite sides of each other are less compatible than ones that are directly next to each other. That doesn’t mean you can’t physically mix them or have someone with both the Water and Fire affinities, it’s just naturally more rare. Most people are born with anywhere between one to three affinities. You can learn control of others and can still pull off amazing feats with them, but they will be slightly weaker than your inherent affinities.” He illustrates with the floating light show in front of me.
“The entire diagram is known as the Life Table since these affinities all together make up the structure for the Life affinity itself. Nobody is known to be born with the Life affinity naturally, except for a very scant few. There is only one currently alive, inherent holder of the affinity; the head of the church of Vaelorym. The man is an absolute monster when it comes to his energy control, mana conductivity, and spellcasting abilities.” He says wistfully while running his hands through his hair.
“If there is a Life Table, does that mean there is a Death Table as well?” I inquire.
“Indeed there is. There aren’t nearly as many majorly named affinities when it comes to the Death Table. In fact, there’s only four of them. I won’t show you the table as it’s considered to be forbidden knowledge, but you’re one of the few exceptions to that rule. If you are born with one of the affinities on the table or are Tier II class or higher then you get access to the basic knowledge of it. Just picture a diamond with the north face being Corruption, the east face being Blood, the south face being Rot, and the west face being Bone.” He states with a stern face.
“It isn’t necessarily illegal to have that information, but it is restricted as that information isn’t allowed to be studied, dispersed freely, or worked on outside of controlled spaces such as guild training, holy cleansing, and so on. Since you have the Blood affinity, you’ll actually have to get a specially assigned trainer that has the inherent knowledge you’ll need.” He expounds out loud mostly to himself near the end.
“In fact, I think I know just the man for the job.” He says while a suspiciously large grin spreads across his face. He vanishes out of my Soulspace and I follow behind shortly.
“Now, we’ll go onto another method for affinity testing.” He says while pulling out a large crystal orb.
“Think of the three different aspects of your Soulspace that represent your affinities separately. After you have done so, please place your hand upon the crystal. It will show you a triangle of the three affinities with the point going downwards. The top two affinities are indeed your primaries and the secondary is the sole bottom affinity.” He explains sagaciously.
I reach out to the orb and ponder it for a moment as the image of the crystal clear pond, the Sakura tree, and the crimson blossoms come to mind. The glowing triangle appears inside the orb and the information it shows is just as we predicted with the top two being Nature and Blood with Water falling underneath the two.
“As expected. Now that we have it confirmed and recorded, we can engrave you a guild card with your official ranking and get your room and schedule set up for you. Any questions?” He asks after the explanation.
“Would I be able to also do work for the guild so that I can feel like less of a freeloader?” I ask quizzically.
“If you would like it to be arranged as such. We’ll probably have you just work with the filing clerks and learn from them.” He answers while holding his hand to his chin in a thinking pose.
“Perfect! Thank you!” I exclaim gratefully.
“Now, if there isn’t anything else, I have someone very special to introduce you to.” He says with a toothy grin spreading across his face.