Chapter 355: Seeking Information (3)

Under the heading, there was only a small paragraph which Jonathan mumbled to himself-

"Affinity Deviation is a phenomenon which is related to racial peculiarities. If a person is non-human or has a non-human predecessor within the last five generations, there is a chance for this phenomenon to occur. Be one's affinity be an element or an attribute, but if the person satisfies the condition, then the person might have a chance to have the racial affinity reflecting on the person's innate affinity."

The paragraph fired Jonathan's spirit to heaven and his eyes dashed to the next page. But...

Wait a minute, this is not the continuation.

Upon continuing reading, Jonathan felt something amiss. When observed closely, the contents were found different. After closer investigation, Jonathan found that a page is missing!

And that page was supposed to have the most important information he needed to know!

Unrest hugged Jonathan and he scurried through the book like a madman. His hands danced in the air as he closed and placed the book aside and went for the next book.

Unfortunately, he couldn't find the page as the fifth book was about beasts and monsters. Still, he skimmed over the pages and the result was nothing.

Maybe the librarian knows!

Though he did not see anyone while entering, he was expecting to see someone to whom he could relay his distress.

Thus he stood up with the book in his hand and walked to the front desk.

Lady luck had smiled upon him as he saw a man in his early sixties standing at the desk. He was bald and had very sparse grey hair. His clean-shaved face disclosed wrinkles that came with time. Wearing an outfit similar to a modern-day tuxedo, he stood there with his eyes fixed on the front door.

Upon hearing Jonathan's footsteps, the librarian turned to see Jonathan walking towards him. The man quickly wore a smile on his face and greeted the boy.

"Good afternoon."

Wait, what?

Jonathan was stunned when the man uttered 'afternoon'. He quickly glanced outside and saw the shadows of the trees sticking to their bodies.

Damn! How long have I been reading? Ugh...nevermind.

Pushing his surprise to the back of the head, Jonathan conveyed his findings to the man. The librarian rubbed his chin after hearing Jonathan's request to find the lost page.

Then the man reached for his draw and opened it to take a simple wooden box. When he opened it, several pages that ranged from pale yellow to deep brown could be seen neatly stacked regardless of their source or content.

The man's fingers dug into the box and excavated the stack with almost no noise. Within a few seconds, he picked a page with his index and thumb fingers and extended it to Jonathan.

"Since the page had torn away from the book, the academy regulations does not permit tampering with books, which includes taping a torn page back to it. So I carefully keep them away in my box. After your use, please bring it back."

Jonathan was revealed to the reason why the page was not in the book. He tried to remember the regulation but ended up forgetting.

Oh my, that's the page!

His jaw had dropped when he took the page from the librarian's hand. The deep brown page was so fragile that Jonathan laid it in his palm and he couldn't believe it. The page number was accurate and the contents were what he was looking for.

Surprise had clouded his senses as he forgot that he was gawking at the page. The librarian found it amusing and asked Jonathan to remain seated while reading. Apologising for his naivety, Jonathan walked to the table.

Sitting down with excitement, he carefully placed the page in its appropriate position in the book. It fit miraculously and the flow of information was restored.

"Affinity Deviation occurs when the racial affinity decides to mess with the innate affinity. This event can only occur if the person's racial affinity transferred from the near-predecessors is strong enough to display itself. But, even if a hundred people satisfy this condition, less than 20 people might awaken this state.

The resultant outcome would be a case of hybridisation. The innate affinity will remain as the major force of combat with which damage and defence are possible. It would not exhibit deviation in itself and will remain as normal affinities.

But the presence of racial affinity transferred from generations would cause unpredictable developments. This could be anything. It could be an element or an attribute that is the same as innate affinity, or that compliments the innate affinity or something that counteracts it.

The affinity differs from race to race. The Goblins are bound with the Agility affinity whereas the Dwarves have Defence affinity. While Elves have Vitality affinity, the Orcs display Offence affinity.

In certain rare cases, those with a non-human predecessor can have an element as their racial affinity. This feat might not end up as a good one as sometimes, the racial and innate affinities counteract and nullify themselves.

In the end, it all comes to the ability to manifest the Skill. However, if a person with Affinity Deviation fails to awaken his/her skill to its complete potential due to reasons, the racial affinity would come into play with less power or might remain dormant. This narrows down the success of Skill awakening to a much smaller integer.

To know about Affinity Deviation is to learn by comparison. Take an arrow as an example. The arrow is used to disable an opponent. It can at most, kill the opponent. This is the effect of the raw innate affinity. Fire scorches, Ice freezes, Wind sweeps and so on...

But the story changes when the racial affinity is in action. Then the situation is similar to a poisoned arrow. Not only does it disable the opponent, but poisons the enemy which brings in a lot of pain. The enhancement of poison exponentially increases the lethality of the arrow with which the opponent would succumb to death in time."