Mental Power

Yawning, Jin got down from the carriage, entered Baron Mansla's residence through the back door, and met Mansla in the study.

"What exactly did you do last night?" Mansla did not look particularly friendly. His triangular eyes fixed on Jin; if not for his prematurely balding head, perhaps he would have seemed even more imposing.

"I just dealt with a few minor troubles." Jin found himself a seat and sat down, making Mansla's expression even less friendly.

"Minor troubles? Do you know how great a price I paid this time just to treat the night-watch priests to drinks?" Mansla slammed his hand heavily onto the table, anger appearing on his face for the first time.

But Mansla quickly reined in his anger and calmly said, "Jin, you need to understand. You are strong, and you have indeed made my business in the city much safer, but you are not irreplaceable."

"What I need is stability. Do not stir up any more trouble." The mark on the back of Mansla's hand flickered in and out of sight.

Jin scratched his cheek, yawned, and said, "Don't worry. There definitely won't be any major commotion. I guarantee it."

"If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving. I'm still sleepy." Jin waved his hand and walked out.

Watching Jin leave, Mansla's expression darkened again.

"Master, are we truly not going to deal with Jin?" The old man in white gloves and servant's attire stood behind Mansla and asked softly.

"Forget it." Mansla concealed the mark on the back of his hand and took a stack of documents from the drawer.

Ten years ago, Jin had come to Roa from elsewhere. Later, in order to compete with the other families, Mansla had risked everything and formed a partnership with Jin, only then stabilizing his smuggling business.

It was not as though Mansla had never considered getting rid of Jin. He had had people investigate Jin's past, but they had found nothing useful.

He knew very well that Jin's identity was far more than merely that of a powerful Variant.

This was precisely the time when he needed vast amounts of resources. Better not stir up too much trouble. Mansla lifted a cup engraved with a floating city, took a sip of water, and thought silently.

Adam felt that he had recovered faster than expected. By the afternoon, he was nearly fully recovered.

Sitting on the bed, Adam stretched out his hand, clenched it into a fist, then released it. Everything seemed to have become different.

Adam could feel every change in his body's movements far more clearly. In a daze, he could even sense how his life force flowed within him.

It was as though his will followed the flow of blood, clearly reaching every corner of his body, multiplying his control over it.

Only when Adam adjusted the Soul Weight again did this complete control over his body gradually fade, but other changes took place.

His senses—sight, smell, hearing, and the like—weakened, but something else surged forth. Born from his soul and changing with his thoughts, a miraculous power revealed itself, and a brand-new sense came into being.

"Mental power." Adam used his will to command this power. The wooden picture on the bedside cabinet slowly floated under Adam's mental power, then settled steadily back onto the cabinet.

"According to Adel's notes, only by gathering all one's senses and entering meditation can one uncover mental power. This is the first step toward becoming a sorcerer. When I adjusted the weight toward the soul, mental power emerged on its own. By that reasoning, my talent as a sorcerer should be quite good."

"And it can be used for more than just strengthening mental power." Adam recalled last night's battle. At the time, he had instinctively used it to strengthen his presence, causing that presence to become tangible enough to actually stir the wind and rustle the leaves.

If presence was still connected to mental power, then Adam blinked.

Though none of his movements had changed, at that moment even the dust around him seemed to dance, as if it had turned into sprites. The brightness of the light seemed to rise by several degrees, and his hair, messy from sleep, had become a work of art in its disarray.

Simply lying quietly on the bed could draw every gaze, perhaps even win the affection of all things.

"Affinity—or rather, charm—can also be influenced by Soul Weight." Adam's voice had clearly not changed, yet it seemed to hold a kind of magic that made people feel comfortable all over and willing to listen.

And this charm had no mental power mixed into it. It was as though it had been inborn.

Adam had already possessed extremely strong affinity, but now it had reached an inhuman level. If he walked out of some church, then the first person to see him would absolutely not think him human, but rather an angel of God descended into the mortal world.

He got out of bed and pushed open the skylight. Several birds flew in and quietly landed on Adam's hand. Pair after pair of eyes looked at Adam, and Adam seemed able to read the birds' emotions from them.

Adam could even sense the birds' ignorant souls. Their souls were unlike those of humans; after drawing near Adam, they had been affected by something.

Adam thought for a moment, then extended a thread of mental power to touch the birds and make contact with their ignorant souls, transmitting an image of a route and Jin's appearance to them.

Under Adam's command, the other birds flew outside as well, perching on the eaves and watching the passersby with their eyes.

Adam gradually restrained his charm, but he did not shift the weight back toward his body. Instead, he continued favoring his soul. In this state, Adam's thoughts became much more active.

"Weight is not merely a proportional distribution. It involves changes to something deeper at its core. I have only encountered mental power for the first time, yet controlling and using it is incredibly easy. That should not be normal."

"Did adjusting the weight enhance even my talent?" Though Adam phrased it as a question, he was almost certain. As his mental power strengthened, so too did his intuition, and his intuition gave this conjecture an affirmative answer.

At that moment, his intuition stirred slightly. Adam concealed his unusual state and turned to look at the door. Three seconds later, the door was pushed open, and Lina's little head poked in from outside.

Adam smiled and waved at her. Only then did the little girl happily run over, leap up, and pounce directly onto Adam.

"Adam, play with me."

"Sure."

"Adam, you've become prettier!"

"Have I? Lina is very pretty too." Adam narrowed his eyes. Though he tried his best to restrain it, the changes had already occurred. Whether he shifted the weight toward his soul or his body, his temperament changed.

It seemed that, like perception, charm was not merely a manifestation of the soul.

The little bird soared through the sky, flapping its tiny wings. Before long, it followed the route in its mind and landed on a wooden house. Jin had just stepped down from a carriage when he suddenly looked up and saw the little bird fly over and stop before his feet.

"Nesser's aura." Jin crouched down to look at the bird and smiled. He reached out to catch it, but it did not dodge. Instead, it hopped directly onto Jin's hand and tilted its head as it looked at him.

In that instant, Jin even felt that if birds had expressions, then this bird's expression at that moment would surely be Adam's calm-faced look.

"He mastered the basic use of mental power so quickly? What astonishing talent." Jin stood up and entered the house, rummaging through a cabinet until he found half a loaf of bread. He pinched it apart bit by bit into fine crumbs and placed them on the table.

"Perhaps I should find him a sorcerer teacher." Jin scratched his face. He was not particularly familiar with the use of mental power, and even in close combat he was merely decent. His extraordinary abilities mainly came from awakening abilities formed by excavating the power of his bloodline.

Strictly speaking, Jin was actually a bloodline sorcerer.

"But there aren't many sorcerers in Roa." Jin had lived in Roa for ten years and understood the place fairly well.

Most of Roa's sorcerers served the garrison, while a small number accepted the patronage of nobles. As far as Jin knew, Mansla had ties to a certain sorcerer, but had still failed to retain him under patronage.

These sorcerers were essentially under the church's supervision. Once they were discovered researching some forbidden matter, priests would charge straight to their doors. Even taking on a disciple required all manner of investigation and testing.

"But it cannot be ruled out that some powerful sorcerers have kept their heads down." Jin seemed to recall something. He had once vaguely sensed an enormous mental power quietly sweeping over the entire city before rapidly vanishing again.

Roa was not as simple as it seemed. There were quite a few formidable people here.

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