What was that thing at the center?
It turned out to be the shard of ice that had fused with Karen's soul when they collided earlier.
Could this be what had changed Karen's talents? It looked like a chunk of ice, so it made perfect sense that it would produce ice talents.
Besides, all these talent cores surrounded the shard. They must have been connected somehow.
Forget it. No point dwelling on what type of talents they were. At least these dazzling talent cores were enough to make anyone drool.
First, he'd see exactly what talents he had. Karen continued inspecting them.
Frost Barrier: Increases the effectiveness of all your ice-based defensive spells.
Elemental Focus: Increases the hit chance of your ice-based spells and reduces the chance of being interrupted while casting them.
Bone-Chilling Cold: Your ice-based spells have a very small chance to freeze their target on impact.
Piercing Ice: Increases the damage of your ice-based spells.
Extreme Cold Extension: Increases the casting range of your ice-based spells.
Frost Energy Conduction: Reduces the mana cost of your ice-based spells.
Rapid Cooling: Removes the effects of casting ice-based spells from your body. Usable once per day.
Extreme Cold Winds: Increases the damage and area of effect of Blizzard.
Icy Bloodline: When activated, briefly increases the haste of your ice-based spells, speeding up their casting. Usable once every three hours.
Arcane Meditation: Harmonizes your body with the elements around you, increasing your mana regeneration rate in combat.
Presence of Mind: While your mind still holds the pattern of a non-channeled spell with a cast time under ten seconds, you can draw on the mana within your body to cast it instantly. Usable once per day.
The sheer number of talents made Karen's head spin. Most were related to ice spells; the last two were Arcane talents, probably ones he'd been born with.
There were too many talents. He'd need time to sort them out and get familiar with them, but there was something more important to deal with first.
"System, are you there?" Karen asked in his mind.
"Hello, host. Welcome back," the system replied.
"Thank you very much for helping me during this time. From now on, we're one, so I hope we can continue working well together."
"Assisting the host is this system's primary mission. If the host is unable to act, this system can temporarily take control of the body until the host resumes control," the system explained mechanically.
"You don't have to pretend, Drew. I know you have a mind of your own. What's happened during this time couldn't have been done by passively following a program.
"I said we're one. You don't have to hide anything from me. Since you've been using the name Drew this whole time, can I call you Drew?"
Drew didn't reply. Karen wasn't impatient; he waited calmly. They were going to be companions for life, and if they didn't sort this out now, any resentment that built up later could become a problem.
If a married couple fell out, they could spend some time apart to cool down, or even get divorced and never see each other again.
But the two of them couldn't do that. They had already fused into one.
When Drew still hadn't replied after a long time, Karen didn't rush him. He began checking his talents one by one, getting familiar with them.
He had made up his mind: until they resolved this issue, he would stay in seclusion.
Drew's silence, however, also answered the question in its own way.
The system had indeed developed a personality. Under normal circumstances, it would have responded right away.
Only a system with its own thoughts would take so long to answer.
"Fine. I did awaken a personality. You can call me Drew."
"All right, Drew. From now on, we're one. I need your help, but you can also share your opinions, and I'll take them into account. After all, we're both working toward what's best for us," Karen said cheerfully.
With that most important matter settled, there were still plenty of other things to take care of.
After reaching an agreement with Drew on a few things, Karen opened the array in the cultivation room.
Karen walked out of the cultivation room, and the staff waiting outside immediately notified President Pierre and Nelson.
As soon as President Pierre arrived, he sensed Karen's aura.
"Master Drew, have you advanced to senior mage?"
"Yes, President Pierre. I've just advanced. I'll be counting on your guidance from now on."
"Of course, of course. After advancing to senior rank, your control over magic improves.
"Your alchemy will improve significantly as well. Congratulations!
"Why does your aura feel different from everyone else's now that you've advanced?
"It feels so much stronger. What talent did you awaken?" President Pierre asked.
"Ice talents."
"Which ones, specifically?"
"Extreme Cold Extension, Frost Energy Conduction, and Icy Bloodline." He had considered saying he'd awakened all the ice talents, but decided to be more modest and only mention three.
"No wonder you seem so powerful. You awakened three talents, and they're all potent ones," President Pierre exclaimed in amazement.
"President, are talents ranked by strength?" Karen asked curiously.
"Of course. There are countless talents, each with different effects, so naturally some are stronger than others.
"When most people advance to senior rank, they only get one talent. The more fortunate ones get two.
"Three makes you a genius. The current record is six talents.
"Talents are divided into different categories. The main ones are combat and support.
"Combat talents mostly increase damage or enhance spell effects.
"These are all considered potent talents, since they can affect your fighting strength.
"Then there are support talents. Mine, for example, increases the chance of success during the final solidification stage.
"Practical support talents like that are also considered potent. But some people get talents that are, frankly, pretty pitiful.
"Some improve the visual effects of spells, while others enhance the functions of cantrips. Those are rather useless and count as weak talents.
"You have three talents, which puts you among the geniuses.
"On top of that, they all affect combat, so they're potent talents. And they can stack, working together on a single spell.
"Talents that can be used together like a set are even rarer.
"Honestly, with talents like these, making a career out of alchemy is a bit of a waste.
"At least you've already reached the pinnacle of the master alchemist rank.
"You could set alchemy aside and focus on combat magic," President Pierre said regretfully.
He felt that Drew probably wouldn't be staying at the Alchemist Association much longer. With such excellent talents and alchemy already at its peak, anyone would make the same decision.
After hearing President Pierre's explanation, Karen knew he'd reported the right number of talents.
But when he thought about the record being only six, and counted his own talents—one, two, three, four, five, six, seven... Fine, he didn't want to count anymore. The gap was just too huge.
And all of his talents were extremely practical spells.
Karen agreed with President Pierre's advice.
He'd always intended to focus on combat; he'd just been unable to break through. Now it was time to shift his focus to combat.
But Karen had his own plans.
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