"Most of my enemies would be Gods now, so the difference in Elental Masteries will beco a big problem if I don't do anything about them."
Stats could be increased with ranks.
Demigods would do this, but their Elental Masteries were lacking compared to Gods, who had Stats and Elental Masteries.
Just because Neo could hit harder than Stage-2 Gods didn't an he should ignore his Elental Masteries.
He wanted to make his foundation as firm as possible.
Or else it would co back to bite him in the future when he fought even stronger enemies.
"Are you worried about your elental masteries?" Zera's voice rang from behind.
He turned around and noticed her walking towards him.
"You should rest. Why are you here?"
"It's boring to do nothing."
She stood before him.
Her injuries had healed sowhat. Her hand had been reattached firmly, and the hole in her stomach was closing slowly.
"Want my help?" she asked.
"It's okay," Neo replied. He needed to create his own World before he could start pushing his elental masteries higher.
"You know from Savant we need the help of the World to increase our masteries?" she asked. "Tartarus doesn't do that. That's why everyone here is only peak Expert unless they ca from the outside."
"That's why I didn't see many Gods among the Grand Expedition," Neo comnted.
He looked at Zera with a complicated expression.
For the inhabitants of Tartarus, they couldn't go beyond Expert as the World didn't help them.
The people who ca from outside were in a similar position. Tartarus cut all communication from outside, and they couldn't receive their World's help to go beyond Savant.
This problem was not lethal for Awakeners/Demigods.
They could rank up their Traits.
But Gods needed to increase their Elental Masteries to rank up.
In other words, Zera had been a Stage-3 God when she arrived in this world.
Had she been sowhere else, she might've reached higher stages.
"You don't have that problem, do you?" Zera asked him.
"….?"
"You gave a connection to Elizabeth. That's sothing only a World can do."
She stepped closer, looking at him with a mischievous smile.
Suddenly, the world around them warped.
'Shit! This is a Sanctuary!'
Neo beca alert.
Each Sanctuary was unique and was a subdinsion of its own.
In other words, Zera had just kidnapped him.
"Are you thinking of fighting—"
"No, it's nothing like that," she said. "I deployed the Sanctuary to make sure Tartarus couldn't hear us."
Neo nodded. The World could hear them since they were near its Core. Nonetheless, he didn't drop his guard.
"Why did you pull here?"
"You are a World's Avatar, right?"
"….?"
"Don't act oblivious. Worlds can manifest a body and put their consciousness inside it. That's how most Worlds interact with their inhabitants."
Neo frowned.
She didn't know about Heavenbreakers?
Or maybe she knew, but eting a Heavenbreaker was so rare that she believed Neo was an Avatar as it was more plausible?
"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. What's that got to do with you deploying your Sanctuary?"
"You don't need to act. You being a World's Avatar explains how you didn't realize Tartarus wasn't allowing us to absorb its energy. Because you had your own power source, and you never bothered to absorb Tartarus' energy."
"As I asked before, why does that matter?"
Zera stared at Neo silently.
Despite her carefree smile, he could tell countless thoughts were moving inside her head.
She was planning sothing. The fact that she didn't react upon seeing Elizabeth—the twin sister of Julie—didn't bode well either.
He would've escaped with Elizabeth long ago. But he hadn't sensed even a bit of malicious intent from Zera.
"I just wanted to know why people from other worlds ca here and wanted to take down Tartarus. It makes sense if your goal is to devour Tartarus and increase your strength."
What….?
Neo was stunned when he heard Worlds could be devoured to grow stronger.
In hindsight, it made sense. He had not thought about it as it was too outlandish of a theory to even co up with.
The most he could've thought of was devouring Sacred Treasures.
"If you are a World, you can increase your Elental Masteries yourself. I'll help you with that."
"….?"
Zera spread her hands as if showing him the World around her.
"A World's support will help us a lot against Tartarus. You must be quite a weak World if your masteries aren't Supre, let alone beyond it, but that can change with a little bit of training."
Neo remained quiet.
He knew how to increase his masteries.
But the Savant rank and Supre rank were still confusing for him.
If a Stage-3 God like Zera explained about those ranks, he would have an easier ti comprehending it.
"Let's start right now. We don't have ti to waste," Zera said.
She raised five fingers.
"The masteries most people know are Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Savant, Supre. If you go beyond Supre, you beco the God of that elent.
"Now, my question: what do you think makes Gods different from Awakeners?" she questioned.
"Their [World]?" he guessed.
"Correct. Each God has a World that is created with their understanding of their Elent.
"Simply put, we, the Gods, copy the actual Worlds and try to create our World using our Elents.
"To do that, we need to reach Supre Mastery first."
She curled her fingers and kept only one finger up.
"Apprentice mastery and Adept mastery are collectively responsible for [Comprehension].
"Awakeners at those masteries increase their understanding of the elents and learn how they work."
Then, she raised another finger.
"Expert Mastery is where you apply your own [Interpretation] to the elent.
"A Water that drowns, a Fire that lights the way. These are Concepts one can learn.
"By applying your personal interpretation of the elent to the knowledge of the elent you've learned, you create Concepts.
"This is why Expert mastery stage is called [Interpretation]."
Lastly, she raised her third finger.
"Savant Mastery and Supre Mastery are the stage of [Implentation].
"Those at these masteries learn to manifest their Interpretation and form a World with it.
"The Worlds help you at these stages. Think of it as the World giving you training wheels to help you learn to ride a bicycle," she said.
Neo noticed sothing in her words.
"Training wheels? You know what they are?"
Zera stared at him as if wondering why he was asking such an obvious question.
It took her a mont to realize she had forgotten sothing important to tell Neo.
"I'm from Earth too."
"You… what?"
Neo had a weird expression on his face.
Maybe he was thinking too much, but why was everyone from Earth a heavenly genius?
No matter when Zera was born, she couldn't be older than 3000 years.
She reached Stage-3 in those few years. It was fast, considering most awakeners on Earth had no one to guide them which slowed their progress as they had to learn everything by themselves.
"I think you are misunderstanding sothing, Neo. I'm ol… long-lived," she said, correcting her words just as she was about to call herself old. "I'm a Witch.
"I've been reincarnating since long before the Apocalypse ca to Earth, and I had powers since as long as I can rember.
"This is why I reached Stage-3 in my current life so quickly."
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