Chapter 450 - Disappointed

Date- 28 Mar 2321

Time- 19:49

Location- Sky Blossom City, Dungeon Highway, Barren Lands, Blood Rock Cave Gate Dungeon

"How did Bloodette's involvement in the process of forging my ego gem lead to such a mutation?" Cortney asked, wanting to uncover the reason behind the change in her usual Ethereal spirit into a blood-red Ethereal spirit.

"The answer to that question is in another question, why did your Ethereal spirit turn to blood-red color? Why not green, blue, or even light-red? The Ethereal spirit turned to blood-red color because of the source of the mutation, and that is Bloodette. Then, what in Bloodette influenced the ethereal spirit to turn Blood-red color? Obviously, we can agree that Bloodette's rule affinity is the culprit. Now the question remains how did Bloodette's rule affinity get carried to your ethereal spirit?" Finding a solution to a problem always involves asking the right question. 

"Didn't we agree that the color change was because of the involvement of Bloodette?" Cortney was confused, not understanding the reasoning behind my question. 

"No, you are headed in the wrong direction. We know that Bloodette's involvement caused the mutation because of the innate rune Blood Supreme. 

Through this, we concluded that the mutation point in the process of forging your ego gem was when you fed your ethereal spirit with the soul energy refined by Bloodette and you. 

Clearly the soul energy refined by Bloodette and you is the source through which your ethereal spirit inherited the Blood rule affinity of Bloodette. 

The question is, Why and how did the soul energy refined by Bloodette and you pass on the Bloodette's Blood rule affinity to your ethereal spirit?" I step by step spoke my thought process out loud, hoping that Cortney could understand it. 

"Wow!" Cortney exclaimed in amazement as I contemplated the possibility of soul energy refined by Bloodette and Cortney infecting Cortney's ethereal spirit with Bloodette's Blood rule affinity. 

"What is different about the soul energy refined by Bloodette and you? How could it pass on Bloodette's Blood rule affinity to your ethereal spirit? 

All the question's point to the Blood possession skill of Bloodette, which she used to share her Soul energy manipulation skill with you. Wait! 

Bloodette! When you possess someone with Blood Possession, what can you share with the host?" I enquired Bloodette, who was engrossed in the grimoire network. 

"Huh! Blood Possession is not a sharing skill. It is a skill used to possess bodies. But since my proficiency in the Blood rule is very high, I can use it to partially possess the host to share my abilities, skills, and soul energy." Bloodette explained how she used Blood Possession partially so that she would not end up devouring Cortney in the process of Blood possession. 

"Bloodette, When you possessed Cortney, did you share your soul energy with her?" I finally discovered how the ethereal spirit inherited the Blood rule affinity of Bloodette through the soul energy refined by Bloodette and Cortney. 

"Yes, yes I did." Bloodette nodded in affirmation. 

"That's it! The soul energy refined by Bloodette and you was a mixture of Bloodette's soul energy and your soul energy. So when the Ethereal spirit fed on that refined soul energy, it fed on Bloodette's soul energy which has an affinity to blood rule. No wonder it inherited Bloodette's blood rule affinity. 

But this should not be possible. The mixture of Bloodette's soul energy with your soul energy should be considered as impure soul energy by the ethereal spirit, and it should have rejected the soul energy refined by Bloodette and you. 

And yet somehow, your ethereal spirit did not reject the soul energy refined by Bloodette and you and instead fed on it and gained Bloodette's blood rule affinity. This is nothing short of a miracle!" I narrated what I had deduced to Cortney in great enthusiasm, but my confidence ended when I hit a large bump in my theory.

When Anna and I were discussing about the creation of artificial ego gem, she explained to me that one of the reasons why artificial ego transfer from one card apprentice to another card apprentice is not possible is because the ethereal spirit will consider the soul energy of another card apprentice as impure no matter how many times it is refined. This is why I said that Cortney's Ethereal spirit feeding on the mixed soul energy refined by Bloodette and Cortney was nothing short of a miracle. 

"It's not a miracle, you dummy. It's because of another one of my skills that I comprehended from the Blood rule. This skill allows my blood rule and soul energy to completely morph into the blood rule and soul energy of the Blood I feed or possess. I used this skill while using Blood Possession on Cortney so that her body would not reject my presence. Making my partial possession of Cortney's body a lot easier." Bloodette, whom I distributed from her fun time in the grimoire network earlier, could not help but criticize me after hearing me call her skill a miracle. 

"What? There is such a miraculous meaning of the Blood rule? Your proficiency in that meaning of Blood rule must be very high even to fool Cortney's Ethereal spirit." I expressed my amazement at the wondrous meaning of the Blood rule. 

"Uh, Huh." Bloodette smugly nodded to my amazement. 

"Bloodette, you are my lucky star." Cortney hopped on Bloodette's bed and hugged her expressing her joy. Now that the mystery of the mutation of her Ego gem was solved, Cortney was now finally not worried about the unknown and became genuinely enthusiastic about her mutated ego gem. 

"..." I was not as enthusiastic about the outcome. Because solving the mystery behind Cortney's mutated ego gem did not bring the result I was hoping for. I was hoping that solving the puzzle to Cortney's mutated ego gem would help me understand rule affinity better and deduce a way to gain rule affinity. In the end, it turns out all of it was for naught. 

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