Having successfully convinced Bellows of the exam's legitimacy and sent him off to the next test, Manus did not leave in a hurry.
"What a... strange experience."
Manus reflected on that brief, unusual experience just now.
He had long known that he could use other people's memories as vessels for his existence, but this was the first time he had learned that even thoughts could serve as such vessels.
But the problem was... if merely thinking of him allowed him to incorporate that thought into the system, then surely quite a few people thought of him over the course of a day.
Not to mention anything else, as long as someone walking down the road knew him and consciously saw him, they would inevitably think of him briefly and uncontrollably. That was human instinct.
Yet at the time, Manus had not felt a new vessel appearing in his system at all.
Strictly speaking, there were already quite a few members in Manus's Soul System, but certainly not enough for him to overlook such an obvious change as an additional target.
"So it requires consciously and proactively recalling me? That isn't right either."
Manus did not think he had fallen so low that Bellows would be the first person in all this time to actively recall him.
"What exactly is the difference between the two?"
He had no clues. There was too little information, and even Bellows himself probably could not explain what had just happened...
"No matter what, I suppose it's an unexpected bonus."
It was not the first time he had been unable to figure out Soul Magic, and Manus took it well. Though he did not understand the exact circumstances, the abilities brought by the Soul System were even more... broad-ranging than he had imagined.
Overall, it was