GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

"It is not shameful to be surpassed by the realm lord. You are influential for someone like that to owe you money." Soverick was becoming more and more impressed with Hadrick. He realized he shouldn't take Hadrick for granted or he might regret it. He also realized how difficult it will be to catch up to the realm lord. He would have to overtake all the powerful people that the realm lord overtook.

"He was a troublesome child when he was younger. I had to pay for the damages that he caused. He owes me big time. If not for his immortality, I would have owned him forever. Too bad that he has had a lot of time to pay be off."

Soverick shook his head in wonder. He could only imagine how much damage someone will have caused to make them so indebted to Hadrick that it took the powers and longevity of an Origin god to repay it.

"It is also the major reason why he hasn't progressed much, he gets into a lot of trouble and wastes his resources getting out of them. Anyways I have to go. Do you need more life energy?"

"Not for now. I'll call you when I need it." Soverick thought about it before declining. He didn't need it, certainly not enough to bother someone that can call in favors from Origin gods about it. That's why he made a large Vitality Core so that he wouldn't need an external source of vitality. His vitality core will be enough for him, albeit slower.

"Before I go, I have some news for you.

The little transcendent at the family affairs ratted you out to all the heads of departments of the family."

"What?" Soverick faltered in his routine. He expected that the news about his talent would get out eventually but he didn't expect it would be actively broadcasted. He was upset by the breach of trust but he wasn't afraid of coming to harm. He was friends with a big shot of the family after all.

"Is that even allowed?" He asked Hadrick, the big shot.

"He only did it to drum up support for you. He thought it would be a shame if your talents went to waste. It's your fault for being so talented."

Soverick thought about his so-called talent. It was just a result of the special arrangements of the law fragments within his bloodline. He was honestly proud of the creation of his bloodline. The talent is just the side effect of the development of his bloodline, the main treasure is his divine ability. He had been holding up on using it till he acquired a mana body. It was simply too strong for his current body. The divine ability damages his soul every time he uses it. If he didn't have such a powerful soul, one that is capable of healing, he would be screwed. Then again, if his soul wasn't that powerful he wouldn't have been able to create such a powerful divine ability.

So Soverick shrugged. "What had happened as happened. There's no use moping about it. There's nothing to fear anyways since you've promised to protect me."

"What do you take our family for? The Ghastorix people are not a conniving bunch and we don't like betrayers. No one from the family will conspire against you."

"I wasn't referring to threats from the family."

Alright then. Also, we are at war with the gods." Hadrick said nonchalantly.

"What do you mean at war with the gods? How did it happen? Is it against the family?" Soverick was startled. He didn't have any information about any strife brewing between the gods and the Ghastorix family.

"It's just a thing my protector is doing to kill his boredom. The racial council decided to pile on and end the era of the gods." Hadrick explained as if it was a common event.

"Well, that's not good for the gods." Soverick was amused by their predicament. The gods had no chance of winning against just the Ghastorix family. The ancestor of the Ghastorix family doesn't even need to move for legions of Origin gods to set the divine plane aflame. And from what he had heard, Ghastorix himself should be able to take down the gods singlehandedly. No matter how powerful gods get, they cannot reach the level of a world god. That means they can't handle someone that's about to become a world god or may very well be one.

The information about the war made Soverick think about the history of the High Elves. The High elves never had a problem with gods. Their ancestral trees were their gods and also their protectors. Others know their ancestral trees to be called the Life trees, but they are in fact landed gods. Landed gods don't need a divine kingdom and can survive without the divine plane. Anyone foolish enough to covet the authority of the ancestral tree was swiftly eliminated.

The thought of life trees gave Soverick an idea. Hadrick has a unique talent for energy conversion and he began to wonder if he could convert it into a Life tree or another unique life form.

"See, if you can get me some Godhood. I have something to do with it. It is best if it is in the plant or nature domain.

"Okay, bye then," Hadrick said before his presence disappeared.

The ancient tree might still be watching but his lack of presence indicated that Hadrick didn't wish to speak or most of its attention is on something else. Soverick had already resigned himself to the constant spying. So he turned to the problem of his refinement. He had planned to wait a bit before he made more progress on his path of refinement in order to seem normal, but he isn't willing to waste the time pretending to be something he wasn't while the realm lord continued to make progress.

There are two paths necessary for transcendence. The path of the body and the path of the soul. Without reaching the apex in both of them, one will never have the chance to break the limit on individual strength. The beginning of the path of the body is the body forging stage, which is followed by the vitality core stage. The vitality core stage involves acclimating the vitality core to pure mana. The vitality core is supposed to convert mana to vitality, but this transformation is not without wastage. This flaw in the vitality core is why the vitality it produces isn't pure, there is a thin mixture of mana in it. It is considered a flaw in the body system of those that can't utilize mana for metabolism. Their cells had refused to evolve at the body forging stage because they refused to accept mana. But this flaw is the link to reaching the next stage of refinement. The mana within the vitality will increase the chances of the cells making the switch to it.

The vitality stage aims to develop this flaw and increase the percentage of mana in the vitality product. This pumps the body cells full of an increasing amount of mana to force them to adapt to it. Only when the body cells adapt to mana can the next stage in evolution be achieved, the mana body. If the cells refuse to use the mana in the air, in their food, and in their surroundings, maybe they will use it when it is brought right next to them through the blood.

In the process of increasing the flaw, the vitality core is exposed to more and more mana until it crystalizes to form the mana core if the cells of the body allow it. The vitality core is an organ that is acclimated to mana already so it is easy to increase the flaw. What isn't easy to achieve is making the body acclimate to mana and the cells to allow the crystalization. In severe cases, the body cells still won't evolve even when the ratio of mana to vitality is enough to burst them. The cells can't be forced to make the switch, only time and a high percentage of mana in the body can be relied upon. You can force mana on them, but you can force them to use it. That's why progress to the next stage is difficult to determine for those without a royal bloodline. It can be a short while or a long period of years to accomplish. It is as they say, you can force an animal to water, but you can't force it to drink.

For those with a royal bloodline, their cells don't need acclimation. They only need to increase the ratio of mana to vitality in the vitality core to crystalize it. Then they will break through seamlessly. It is another advantage of a royal bloodline. The bloodline will not even need to force the cells to use mana because it has been creating cells that can already use it.