The scroll's calm, ageless voice echoed slightly over the still pond. James wasn't sure he was ready for such a sudden lecture; nevertheless, he asked.
"The three paths of Ascension, you said?"
"That's right. Simply put, it's the paths that sapient beings can take to reach divinity. The letter from the organization that sent you should have mentioned it, I suppose."
Words from the SO organization's note flashed through James' mind.
"It's Knowledge, Supernatural, and Fighter, isn't it?"
The scroll wiggled, its rolled ends bobbing up and down, as if agreeing to his answer.
"Correct, now, why do these paths get classified as such?"
When the scroll asked back, James was taken aback, 'So this scroll's teaching method is this back and forth of questioning? Why can't it just explain it to me in whole?'
Despite thinking so, he just shrugged inwardly and answered, "I don't know, was it because of their role in a fight? Ah, but then you did say that it was a path to divinity. What kind of divine being only fights…"
Seemingly pleased with its pupil's attentive answer, the scroll continually bobbed up and down. Now it began to circle the tree in the middle of the pond slowly, like a wizened old man.
'The hell? This scroll's way too humane, even though it's just a scroll.'
"So? Did I guess right?"
"It's close, but not quite. For one, it was true that in a fight, each path would have a distinctly different role. But you already know that these paths don't just represent fighting, right?"
The scroll turned to see James' silent nod before continuing, "There are a few fundamental differences between the three paths; first, the approximate perceived location of the core. Now, where do you think the core is perceived for each path?"
'Eugh, I hate this kind of teaching method. In fact, I never finished college because of how much back and forth was needed to defend my thesis. Damned thesis.'
Feeling the silent pressure exerted by the burning floating scroll before him, James eventually caved in.
"For the Knowledge path, there's no doubt it's in the head or brain. As for the Supernatural and Fighter paths, my best bet is somewhere in the torso."
Content with James' answer, the scroll quietly floated to his back, pushing him closer to the edge of the pond.
The scroll's purplish-red flame touched him directly, yet he felt no pain. In fact, it felt warm, like a thick blanket in the middle of winter.
Then, his attention was pulled to his reflection in the water.
'Hmm? I'm pretty sure I reincarnated as a teen, though?'
With James' attention focused on the reflection of his wrinkled young adult face, the scroll let out a small flicker of flame that softly fell on the water's surface, leaving a small ripple.
When the ripple disappeared, an image of three humanoid figures appeared.
The first humanoid had a small sphere in its head, the second on its chest, and the third in its stomach area.
"Now, for the knowledge path, you're correct, it's in the head, you get full marks for that. Next, which one do you think is the supernatural and which one is the fighter path?"
Seeing the hint, James calmly pointed at the second figure. "Supernatural," he said, then pointed to the third, "Fighter."
"Correct, I suppose all the time you spent reading those fantasy webnovels wasn't in vain, huh?"
James sighed, "What was that jab for? I thought you were a serious teacher type?"
When it heard James' retort, it just shook itself up and down, spattering fiery embers around it.
'The hell? Is that how it laughs?'
"Anyway, now I know that the first difference is their core locations. What about the rest? And what relevance does learning about this have to do with my unique ability?"
"Nuh-uh, not core locations, it's 'perceived' locations, okay?"
Hearing the scroll's correction, James was confused. 'Is there even any difference between perceived location and its actual location?'
"Alright then, you asked what learning about the core's perceived location has to do with your unique ability? For one, it helps you understand that these core locations are perceived, and not the actual location of your core."
Following its words, the picture in the pond changed; now it showed the image of a humanoid and a glowing white ball connected by a string.
The scroll continued, creating a ring of fire in the middle of the string: "This is where the actual location of the core is. Do you know where that is?"
It didn't take long for James to connect the dots: the humanoid figure, the string, and the glowing white ball.
How could he not? He had just literally experienced becoming that glowing ball of light not even five minutes ago.
"If we assume that the humanoid was the physical body, and the ball of light is the soul, then with the middle of the string being circled," he remembered how he had used the same string to return to his body.
"It's in the body-soul connection?"
Then he noticed, 'Hmm? That's this place, no? This scroll previously mentioned that it would meet me in the middle between soul and body.'
"This place is my core?!"
"Not yet, this place is not your core. First, you have no core yet, and second, no, this whole place won't become your core entirely. At least not at the start."
James crouched down to touch the image in the water.
"That so?" he continued to tap the image, causing a ripple on the pond, but despite doing so, he failed to make the image disappear.
"Speaking of which, you have been saying things like core this and core that, but what actually is the core? And what does it do?"
The scroll seemed to laugh again at James' question. Its fiery embers sparked all over the pond.
"Excellent question. Given your origin and educational background, a metaphor from your world would be the most effective. You understand electricity quite a bit, don't you?"
James blinked. 'What's with the weirdly specific reference?'
"More or less, I never graduated, though, so don't expect much."
"Huh, I know about that. Why do you think my speech is so informal? My 'English', as you said it, is limited by the vocabulary you have amassed through all the years of your previous life."
He expected as much; throughout their entire exchange, he found that the scroll's manner of speaking was way too casual for something that felt ancient.
'Well, it already said how my foreign language vocabulary was full of curse words. So this… thing? Creature…? Whatever this being is, the fact that it can read my memory shouldn't be much of a surprise.'
The scroll, noticing James was lost in thought, decided to bring him back to the topic before he could stray too far.
"Anyway, let's go back to the topic in question, shall we? Now, to explain what a core is, we need to start from the resources used by all three paths of Ascension."
Turning his attention back to the scroll, James saw it throw another ember into the pond, changing the image on it.
Now, the image shows three figures, first a normal, small white rabbit. The second figure was also rabbit-shaped, albeit with monstrous features like claws and horns.
And the third and last figure shows the image of a young boy in his teens, with black hair, brown eyes, lean build, smooth caramel skin, complete with his average-looking features.
'Hey, isn't that just me? Now this scroll even used me as part of its example…'
"You see, this universe is flooded with a raw, chaotic, and powerful energy source. There's no official name for this energy on this planet currently, but planewalkers from beyond call it N-Energy."
Following the scroll's words, the image shows noticeable changes. First, lines were pointing to the small rabbit, above the lines, it shows the word N-Energy on it.
"This energy was like an automated power grid, providing nearly endless energy, but without precaution, it causes dangerous mutations."
Next, the image shows how the originally cute and lovely rabbit turned into its monstrous counterpart. Similar to the one beside it.
"Eugh, that's grotesque. Next time, can you please censor it?"
The scroll just silently turned once before continuing.
"What about humans and other sapient beings? Surprisingly enough, N-Energy pretty much does nothing to creatures born naturally capable of complex thinking."
"Okay, okay, now I understand, N-Energy causes mutation to animals and causes no harm to sapient creatures. But you haven't answered what the core is. What's its function? Why is it important to… what was it again?"
James tapped his finger rhythmically on the image inside the pond, trying to remember.
"I believe it was written on that note. Uhhh what was the name again?"
Seeing James act like an impatient little kid, the scroll simply shook its burning form left and right, spraying embers all over the place.
"I believe the word you are looking for is Ascender. That's the term used for those who walked the paths of ascension."