Authority

Lina then said, "Hopefully, Gen already got the silver orb."

And Raja said, "I don't think so. We were pretty fast here."

Lina's body then went back to normal, and she said, "Couldn't we keep the transformation going so we could get to them faster?"

And Raja said, "No way. It's tough to maintain such a transformation at the influence level. I was only succeeding because those four were believing in your transformation."

"I know that at the influence level, your strength is based on the number of people who see you using your essence, but does four people missing make that much difference? If it were about twenty people or more, I would understand, but I can't understand why four people make such a difference."

The two then started heading toward the silver orb, and Raja said, "Yeah, four normal people wouldn't make that much difference, but we were fighting four awakened ones, and that changed everything."

"Does it? What does the fact that they are awakened change?"

"Well, as you said, when you are at the Influence level, your strength depends a lot on how many people are watching you use your essence, but that's actually not right."

"It's not right?"

"Yeah. We use the number of people to simplify, but actually, what determines a person's strength level at the Influence level is how much Authority they can accumulate."

"Authority? What do you mean? What is Authority?"

"It's not complicated. Let me explain it to you. Every person in this world has Authority over it. Let's put a value on it to make it easier."

"A normal person would have a value of one Authority over the world. A red diamond adventurer, or a person with half an essence, has an authority between two and one hundred, depending on how close he is to awakening his essence. Still, an awakened person has an authority that goes from the value of one hundred when he has just awakened his essence to total Authority, which would be when the person's essence reaches the level of a king. So it can be said that the authority value is based on how far a person has advanced on the path of their essence."

Lina then said, "Hm, I see. So that's why them being awakened makes a difference."

And Raja said, "Yes.", and then they continued towards the silver orb.

As they got closer, they saw Briny sitting on the ground, and Gen was standing in front of the silver orb.

They then came to Briny's side, and Raja asked, "Hey Briny, how's it going?"

Briny then turned and said, "Are you guys done there?"

And Lina said, "Yeah. It took us even longer than I expected. Seeing you dealing with them, I thought they were weak, but their group was well organized, and all of them were awakened."

"Yeah, that's true."

Raja then said, "Well, how is it going?"

And Briny said, "Well, it looks like he ran into some kind of problem."

"Problem? What kind of problem?"

"He's been standing there watching the silver orb for quite a while now."

"I see, that's strange. I thought he had already figured out how to get the silver orb. How did things get that way?"

"Let me explain ..."

While Lina and Raja were fighting against the other group, Gen and Briny were going towards the silver orb.

Briny then said, "Weren't you going to explain to me what's going on?"

And Gen said, "Oh, I'm sorry. It's true. Well, it's like this. Everything that you saw just now is a work of Raja's essence."

"Raja's essence?"

"Yes."

"And what is his essence?"

"The essence of the mirage."

"I see. So that voice I heard was his?"

"Yes. Raja can use his essence to become invisible. He must have been standing right next to us at the time he spoke."

"I get it, but what about the Raja who the other group kidnapped?"

"He was an illusion that Raja made."

"He was an illusion? How is that possible? That man was touching him."

"I understand your confusion, but it is possible because Raja is on the level of influence. So through what people believe, he can turn his illusions into reality."

"Wow, that's a pretty powerful essence then."

"Well, yes and no."

"What do you mean yes and no? I'm not seeing any disadvantage in that essence."

"It's not apparent upfront, but the weakness of his essence is knowing what his essence is."

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"For example. Let's say I throw a knife at you. What do you do?"

"I dodge it."

"Exactly, but what if before I throw the knife, I prove to you that it is an illusion? What do you do?"

Briny then thought for a while and said, "In that case, there would be no need to dodge the knife."

And Gen said, "Exactly. It's the same with Raja's essence. Once you know that the things he's doing are illusions, it loses almost all its power."

"I see. Interesting, but doesn't it create problems for him when his opponent finds out in the middle of a fight?"

"Yes, but it's very difficult for anyone to find out what Raja's essence is. He always makes a point of doing some kind of staging to make his illusion seem more real. Sometimes even I, who know his essence, am left wondering if what I'm seeing is really an illusion."

"Hm, got it."

They then arrived in front of the silver orb, and Gen said, "I'd better get started as soon as possible."

And Briny said, "What's the rush, Gen? We have time until they finish fighting."

"Not necessarily."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know how to get the silver orb."

"What do you mean you don't know? You did it just now."

"I wasn't paying attention when I did it, so I don't know how it was that I fixed the wrong moves."

"Got it. Then you really better start trying now."

"Yes.", and then Gen went towards the silver orb and started mimicking its movements.

Gen then concentrated on the silver orb's movements and focused on just mimicking them at first. He then spent some time doing this and thought, 'It seems to follow the same pattern as the other one. It always has one wrong move every five moves. Let's try to fix that wrong move now. I already did it once unconsciously, so I should be able to do it willingly.'

He then kept imitating the orb, and every once in a while he would make a different move from it, and then he would think, 'Damn!', 'That's not it.', 'Wrong again.', and so on.

This went on, up to a point where he heard Briny say, "Gen. Do you have a moment?"

And Gen said, "What is it, Briny?"

"Are you making any progress?"

Gen was silent for a while and then said, "That depends on what you consider progress."

And Briny said, "The answer is no then?"

"Yeah. I'm not getting any movement fixed. The same thing happened with the other silver orb, and then all of a sudden, I picked it up without even understanding how I did it."

"Well, you may not know how you did it, Gen, but I saw you fixing the moves in the other room, and I can tell you're doing it wrong the way right now."

"I know I'm doing it wrong. The orb isn't getting any reaction."

"That's not what I meant. What I meant was that you are using the wrong way to get the movements fixed."

"Wrong way? What do you mean?"

"In the other room, when you got the silver orb, you didn't seem to be imitating the orb."

"I wasn't imitating it? Then how did I get it?"

"Well, it looked like the orb was imitating you."

"The orb was imitating me? You're kidding, right?"

"Well, I wish I was, but that's what happened."

"Explain that to me better, please."

"Well, it started with you imitating it, but as time went on, you started imitating it faster and faster, to a point where you were moving at the same time, and then you started moving before it so that it looked like it was imitating you."

Gen then said, "The orb has to imitate me ..."