Beyond Demonic

Mateus ended up consuming the Water Spirit Stone. Whilst holding it in his hand, he accepted the prompt to consume it and the crystal simply vanished into nothingness. There was no funky lightshow nor any additional stimulus for him to perceive.

At least not until another prompt manifested somewhere within him.

[Affinities:

Name: Water Affinity

Quality: Mediocre

Generic Description: Neither good nor bad, this level of affinity provides one with enough talent to reach the peak of the Mortal Realm.

Generic Effect: Cultivation of one's base remains unimpeded until Level 30. Cultivation of one's Understanding remains unimpeded until the level of 25% Rudimentary Understanding. Mortal Grade Water-type Abilities and Skills are 100% more potent as well as twice as easy to learn and improve.]

"Um, ok?" Mateus commented absentmindedly as he placed his hand on the mirror to the side of the gems on the table.

The results of Mateus' assessment read, "Water Affinity Detected… Quality: Mediocre… Talent: Passable."

'Aw shit, now I might just get accepted into this fucking place,' Mateus pinched his nose in frustration. He wasn't sure what would be a more favorable outcome, considering he'd only been conscious in this new and strange world for a sparse couple of minutes. However…

He looked at the other gems on the table and narrowed his eyes in madness, 'If there's a chance I'll be enlisted into this fucking place.' He grabbed another crystal, 'I might as well make the most of what I can with what I have,' and consumed it; along with all the other crystals in sight…

[!Alert!

Major Shift In Status Detected

!Status!

...

Energy: 30 → 330

Affinities:

Lesser Elements: Water; New: Fire, Earth, Wind, Wood, Metal

Quality: Mediocre

Phenom Elements: New: Ice, Lightning, Light, Darkness, Life, Death

Quality: Mediocre

Origin Elements: New: Space, Time, Yin, and Yang

Quality: Mediocre]

"Great, now I can objectively say I'm Mediocre at just about everything," Mateus rolled his eyes as he placed his hands back on the appraisal mirror.

"Multiple Affinity Detected… Types: All Lesser Elements, All Phenom Elements, All Greater Elements… Quality: All Mediocre… Talent: Beyond Demonic."

"What the fuck? Demonic? Why?!" Mateus glared at the mirror.

How could his Talent change if the extent of his Affinity, regardless of its type, remained Mediocre? And Demonic? Was the mirror imply he was now aligned with evil forces? Nothing was making sense to Mateus…

"Affinity for all Lesser, Phenom, and Greater Elements in one person? You truly are Beyond Demonic in every sense of the ideal," Mateus nearly hit the ceiling from how harshly he jumped at being startled.

Turning around, Mateus found a man who had, at some point, managed to situate himself behind his person without his knowledge.

Instead of clearing Mateus' overt shock and confusion, the man asked, "You do know of the three ideals, don't you?"

"N—" Mateus choked as he forced himself to stop from responding with a standard, "No." He didn't know who the man was nor why his body was reacting so intensely to the man's presence, but he felt his instincts scream at him to not offend the man no matter what. "I… do not know," Mateus carefully said.

"God, Demon, and Devil..." The man took on a despondent look as he recited. "To be Godlike is to enforce the positive of all the Elements. To mend the Earth with Wood and Water, to be the spark of Lightning and provide Life and Light, to govern all of Space and Yang…"

"Conversely, to be Devilish is to dominate over the negative of all the Elements. To be unseen like the Wind, untouchable like Fire, and serve a sole purpose like weapons of Metal. To be cold like Ice, bring Darkness and Death. To control Yin and Time..."

"To be Demonic," the man paused and smiled, the single action being enough to chill all of Mateus' blood. "Well… You do the math," the man chuckled. "Normally though," the man continued, "Godlike, Devilish, or Demonic, a person is partially representative of the ideal."

"You—" he gave Mateus a pat on the shoulder, "—my good little seedling, are fully representative of your ideal. Beyond the norm, and like a true demon, you have Affinity for every element regardless of alignment."

"Regardless of their poor Mediocre quality, I'll first give up my title of Sect Guardian before I let your Affinities get in the way of making you one of our Sect's next generation's pillars!"

"Sect Guardian? Our Sect? Wait..." Mateus muttered to himself.

"That's right! I, the Ephemeral Slipstream Sect's Sect Guardian Monte, will be taking you as my personal disciple!" Monte posed.

"So… I passed?"

"Yes!" Monte changed his pose.

"Ok, so now what?"

"Now..." Monte's face considerably darkened as he held his pose, "You should continue to take the Sect's entrance assessment..."

"Even though I passed?"

"Uh, yeah… The assessment will go on to evaluate other aspects of your cultivation that, honestly, I should have waited for you to complete to better understand how to highlight your strengths and hide your weaknesses. Your versatility with Elemental Affinities is unheard of in our Sect's history and no matter what the results of the rest of your assessment, you'll still be my personal disciple. However… I seriously need to know more than what you have Affinity for, to be your mentor."

"I see," Mateus narrowed his eyes as he watched sweat rather comedically build on Monte's forehead as he tried to save face.

"The time for the Affinity Assessment is now over," the same omnipresent voice from before Monte's appearance called. "Those who have received a Talent rating of Passable or above may now step out of the room to start the next assessment."

"Well, I better get going, then..." Mateus said. Though, it was only after Monte nodded that he actually dared to leave.