Niara was handed a silver badge by the woman, who then turned around and left. She didn't need to explain anything else; Niara already knew the steps and everything she had to do.
The two of them left the great hall. Niara glanced at Darian, a little awkward, and slowly placed him on her shoulder.
He wasn't entirely physical, so he didn't feel sticky. His current form was just a basic physical manifestation, which, in theory, could evolve and change with time and resources.
He was only a few centimeters long, with a delicate white body. Around him, there were lots of multicolored plumes. The plumes gave off a subtle elemental energy... which, for stronger people, was actually pretty impressive.
His eyes were round and dark, expressive, and he had two tiny antennae on top of his head. To Niara, he looked like a super cute little creature.
Darian had no clue how he'd pulled that off. He just used the power of the two rings on his fists and everything started getting drawn into him. It was impossible to stabilize the elements that kept being added to his body.
Since he didn't have much time, he just gathered the elements around his body and left them in their most basic form... and so, a weird colorful slug was born from the chaos. But at least he knew that, even if it looked underwhelming, he could always change in the future.
Darian could feel Niara's warmth and determination. Even if they were physically apart, their souls were still connected. She walked quickly through the halls, heading straight to the library.
Celestia Academy was huge, and they were only in the outer region. Along the way, they passed a bunch of people.
That's when Darian realized—he was like a beacon in the middle of the night.
Everyone around turned to look at her, staring at the glorious Spiritual Guardian resting on her shoulder. Most just widened their eyes, confused and shocked.
This Spiritual Guardian was... indescribable. It wasn't about his appearance or size. Just looking at him made people feel strange, and they couldn't look away.
But the weird tension didn't last long. As they walked down the corridors, several Celestia Academy Elders appeared with quick steps, watching them silently from afar.
That woman had already spread the word about them.
The news spread fast, and now everyone understood why they'd felt that way seeing him. It was a miracle... or maybe a freak of nature that shouldn't exist.
'Everyone who tries to become a Summoner has to go through some tests,' Niara explained mentally, ignoring the stares.
They're judged based on individual talent. That's something you're born with—each Mannaz is born with a higher or lower level of compatibility, and that never changes. Basically, every person in this universe is born with a body that's more or less suited to the power of a Spiritual Guardian.
She explained that, through the bond between them, the Summoner can receive power from the Spiritual Guardian's ring and use it. That lets the Summoner perform martial arts and fight alongside them. There are also essential support techniques a Summoner can use.
Before her test, she was ranked as the worst possible talent. Her body naturally could barely handle the power of a Spiritual Guardian. Even learning D-rank martial arts, the most basic, would be a struggle.
'Celestia Academy only has martial arts up to B-rank. In the past, there were even S-rank ones,' Niara added with a sigh. 'But all the top academies in the universe got taken over by the Risen. Celestia was only tier 3, but it's the only one left. When the big ones fell, it all happened at once. Only a few B-rank techniques were saved—and even that was pure luck.'
Darian nodded. So those abominations he fought were called Risen. And apparently, some of them are pretty powerful and smart enough to coordinate attacks like that.
'This is our first month. There's a standard training protocol for rookies that everyone has to follow during the last ten days. These are exams where they teach us how to fight properly. It's essential, since we're always under enemy attacks. We don't have enough people, and the newbies have to learn how to fight as fast as possible,' Niara said, clenching her fists.
'To motivate us, they reward the top performers with resources, techniques, and better gear. We've got less time than the others, but if you already have a usable Blessing... and it's a rare healing type... we might stand out a lot.'
Darian looked at her, and she nodded, excited. 'I may not look like it, but I'm the most badass non-Summoner in the universe. Still, against a Spiritual Guardian who can fully use his Blessing and powers, I don't stand a chance. But at the beginning, while everyone's still learning, I can be super helpful.'
Darian's eyes lit up.
That's when they reached a huge door. Niara used her badge, and it opened.
Inside, the ceiling stretched so high and the space was so vast that Darian couldn't see the end. There were endless shelves, but instead of books, they were filled with something else.
Darian knew what it was—he'd read about them before. Jade Slips. Countless of them. Each one stored a ridiculous amount of knowledge, like a flash drive full of compiled files.
The soft sound of wings flapping echoed through the air. An old man appeared before them, looking like a strange mix between a white heron and a human.
He looked at the slug seriously for a few seconds. Then he turned to Niara, sighed, and shook his head. Clearly disappointed by the "waste."
He turned back to the slug and said, "First, find a compatible Blessing. Once you've picked one, go to the D-rank martial arts section and choose something that covers the initial weaknesses of your Blessing."
They both nodded. He added, "You probably won't have enough time to master anything deeply. But because of your potential, you might be able to join a strong group and ride their success. To do that, you can't look weak or unsure. Got it?"
Niara had a confused look. Darian understood. Everyone else had twenty days to practice and train. They had zero.
The old man was showing them a path, since anyone in their situation would be totally screwed and end up dead last.
They'd have to pretend they were tough to deal with. Since everyone was new, mind games mattered more than raw power.
"I'm gonna beat everyone until they can't stand up. Simple as that," Niara said, puffing out her chest.
The old man snorted. That girl definitely wasn't the type to overthink things. But the slug had a sharp look in his eyes and gave the old man a slight nod.
"You two seem like total opposites... but that's good too, if you find some balance. Anyway, don't waste any more time," he finished.
They were left alone and started exploring the library.
Niara already knew what Darian was looking for—after all, he already had a Blessing. So they went to the general knowledge section. Soon enough, he was devouring everything.
First, he wanted to understand his own power better, so he started looking into how to evolve and the power scale of Spiritual Guardians.
Basically, there were nine levels, called the Nine Rings.
The rings were called that because other Spiritual Guardians could sense something small and circular—like a ring—on another guardian's forehead. As you leveled up, a new, larger ring would appear around the previous one, adding to it.
Each ring, when the guardian activated their Blessing and power, would show up as a colored aura around them, making their level obvious. The lowest level was red, then came orange, and then yellow.
Reading that, Darian instantly thought of Rhea. When she flew, a bright yellowish aura surrounded her—that was the power of a three-ring Spiritual Guardian.
That was as far as the info went. Anything more advanced about the rings would probably only be found on Earth, once he got back there.
As for how to evolve and form new rings, the process was pretty simple... at least for the first three levels.
First, you had to lay the foundation of your Blessing. Then, fight, fight, and fight.
The enemies in this universe were called Risen. They carried inside them a power granted by their creator. The Risen weren't born that way—they were actually just regular people from this universe, corrupted by some evil being.
When a Spiritual Guardian beat them, they'd absorb that power and slowly start forming a ring. It was kind of like leveling up.
But that only happened in your original universe, when you were inside your real body. You couldn't form a new ring in spirit form. So, as mentioned before, fight, train, return to your body, and consolidate your gains there.
Then, he looked for info about Blessings.
In short, they were the superpowers of Earth people—and what defined a Spiritual Guardian. They were kind of like magical techniques—there were endless types and abilities, and they could be pretty much anything, totally unpredictable.
The word "Blessing" came from the fact that it was all granted by the Heaven's Will. Both connected universes were blessed, and both sides had gained a lot from it.
The library was filled with countless Blessings left behind by past Spiritual Guardians who reached high levels.
After completing your spiritual root, each person would have a unique compatibility, defined by little variations in shape, power flow speed, and other stuff.
Everyone was different, and all Blessings had the potential to be useful. But those variations also gave strong hints about a person's future. That's why they were sorted into levels: Mortal, Divine, Immortal, and Calamity.
Historically, someone at the Mortal level could reach at most three rings. A Divine-level person could get to six. And the few known people with eight rings were all at the Immortal level.
Those with nine rings were legendary figures from old books. No one knew for sure—or maybe it was purposely hidden—if anyone alive had nine rings today.
The Calamity level, the one that woman had assigned to Darian, was so secretive there wasn't a single entry about it in the entire library. Still, you could imagine the kind of terrifying potential it had.
There was a simple test, done with a crystal, that could tell your level and even suggest which Blessings were the most compatible.
After that, everyone would choose a Blessing from the ones already created and carve it into their soul forever.
Once a Blessing was chosen and made, there was no turning back. You couldn't change it or pick another. But as people leveled up, some really talented folks could add new layers to their Blessing, changing it more or less significantly.
Basically, 90% of people had Blessings that were identical to ones already recorded in the library. If you were a scholar, you could identify a Blessing and its effects easily. Of course, nobody wasted time reading through all the Blessings and memorizing them—it was better to train or you'd end up dying a stupid death.
Still, a rare few could come up with a completely new and secret effect, which could be super useful.
And yeah—technically, you didn't *have* to use a pre-made Blessing.
But creating one from scratch was a long process, and the result was almost always trash. Trying to do that was practically suicide, since evolving and refining a Blessing meant fighting non-stop.
Trying to survive every battle while your Blessing was still forming was a straight shot to a quick, brutal death.
In the past, lots of people sacrificed themselves to create a base of Blessings. That base kept growing, and now there were so many options that it was basically impossible not to find one that worked for you.
After learning all of this, Darian had more questions than answers.
He already came here with a Blessing fully formed—he just needed to learn how to use it.
Where did that thing inside him come from? Who created it? Why did he have it?
"Well, whatever. Looks like my life's meant to be chaos. I'll just have to climb this mountain in ways no one's ever seen before…"
Darian muttered his thoughts, then turned to Niara with a serious look.
She was just waiting while he kept reading nonstop. Niara didn't care about studying or getting into the details; she just followed her instincts and did whatever she wanted without overthinking things.
But Darian had learned from that book that knowledge was the sharpest weapon there was. With the right knowledge, even a mortal could beat an immortal.
He didn't think he was smart enough for that, but... the book had turned out to be an absolute weapon of knowledge, and so far, it hadn't missed.
Since he had that at his fingertips, why not use every bit of knowledge possible to his advantage?
"It's just you and me. That's perfect—we've got nothing to lose, so we can risk everything," Darian said firmly.
"You can count on me."
Her answer, solid and without a second of hesitation, made him swallow all his doubts.