Saturday morning.
"...Because I was overly immersed in the ocean of open cheating and couldn't pull myself out until Ren reminded me, and I finally realized I was only working hard to digest the potion."
After hearing yesterday that Chika had advanced to Sequence 8, Telepathist, Kaguya casually asked a question, only to receive that kind of response.
She looked at Chika, who had her head lowered like a child who'd been caught misbehaving, and didn't know what to say.
"Then, if Ren hadn't reminded you, would you have just kept fooling around and been unable to pull yourself out?"
Kaguya had no doubt that Chika was fully capable of doing that.
"Ren reminded you that the Sequence path is extremely dangerous, and that you must never treat the acting lightly. Once you lose the awareness that you're acting and become absorbed in the role, you'll lose control."
Kaguya's tone unconsciously became stern.
"Ugh… I'm sorry."
Facing her friend's reprimand, Chika lowered her head and pouted, letting out a small animal-like whimper, like a child admitting fault.
"Honestly..."
Seeing her like this, Kaguya's strict demeanor quickly softened.
This girl had clearly made a mistake, but no one could bring themselves to scold her harshly.
Especially when she admitted her mistake so sincerely, there was a strange sense of helplessness that caused even rising anger to melt away.
"If all the playing around you did before was your acting, then now that you've advanced to Sequence 8, does that mean your acting has to change again?"
ASakuya suddenly asked.
"Yes. But the approach to acting needs to change a little. My earlier Spectator acting had a huge problem—I didn't follow the orthodox style of the pathway, which led me to make a big mistake."
Chika nodded slightly and explained the acting error she had made during her Spectator phase.
"As a Spectator, I shouldn't have drawn so much attention to myself. I should've observed people from an objective standpoint, analyzing their behavior, expressions, habits, and the emotions they unintentionally revealed. That kind of acting requires more time spent watching others and understanding that I'm just an audience member, not the main character."
"My earlier approach was completely backward, which is why I lost myself in the pleasure of using my powers."
Chika tapped her head in frustration.
After realizing her mistake, she had already reflected on the reasons behind it.
But it was difficult for her to adapt to being a Beyonder so quickly. After all, she had been a normal person for so long. The moment she gained power, she couldn't help but want to experiment with it.
She understood that this came down to her lack of self-control.
That was why she was reflecting deeply now. She would take her acting seriously moving forward and wouldn't let her impulses derail her again.
"The Telepathist's ability is more specialized and penetrating than the Spectator's. It doesn't just observe surface behavior but can also read the... inner colors that lie beneath?"
Chika tilted her head and looked at Ren, unsure how to describe it.
"Everyone's inner being is made up of the spiritual body, astral body, mental body, and etheric body."
Ren picked up the explanation, taking the opportunity to give Chika a basic lesson in mysticism.
"Humans, animals, even plants all have spiritual bodies. That's the meaning behind 'all things have spirits.' But whether they can be perceived or used is another story. Each Sequence pathway interacts with these layers differently, and their powers are tied to these four components."
"The spiritual body refers to a person's soul or core spirit."
"The astral body is an external projection of the spiritual body. It's how the spiritual body interacts with the spiritual world or the stars. These two are closely connected. If your astral body suffers serious damage, your spiritual body will be affected too. It can even lead to death."
"Of course, the kind of 'death' I mean isn't physical, but rather something like becoming comatose."
"Also, the colors shown by the astral body represent emotional states."
"That's why both the spiritual and astral bodies are extremely important."
"The mental body is the next outer layer. It relates to cognitive functions—your thoughts, insight, and analytical capabilities."
"The outermost layer is the etheric body. It connects directly with the physical body. By reading the etheric body, you can perceive the physical condition of someone—its colors reflect physical health."
"The so-called aura, or spiritual vision, allows someone to interpret this hidden information."
"In other words, Chika, now that you've become a Sequence 8 Telepathist, you have a more advanced ability to 'read.' That includes spiritual vision, the emotional colors of the astral body, and the physical condition via the etheric body. It makes it much harder for people to hide their true feelings or state of health from you."
"Of course, in exchange, Sequence 8 Telepathist doesn't offer much improvement in terms of personal combat capability."
"Both Spectator and Telepathist mainly enhance mental faculties and observation. Telepathist greatly boosts those, but Chika's actual combat ability is still about the same as Sonoko's."
The early stages of the Spectator pathway barely offered any boosts to physical strength or combat prowess.
But in Ren's view, even with her current physical condition, Chika's power as a Spectator was already bordering on overpowered.
Its lack of early combat ability was simply to build the foundation for what would later become a truly abnormal power level… or rather, the mid-stage.
Even now, the Spectator pathway was already showing signs of being broken.
Especially in the mid-Sequence phase, where simple imagination could manipulate reality. It was downright absurd.
Not a single one of the five pathways tied to the Chaos Sea was easy to deal with. Not one.
"Specializing in reading minds, but no boost to personal combat... Still, knowing how disgusting the Spectator's abilities become in the mid-Sequences, I don't think the early weakness is much of an issue."
Sakuya didn't think there was a problem at all. Especially since the mid-stage Spectator could become like a slippery loach, impossible to catch and endlessly irritating.
"Agreed."
The others nodded in understanding.
"???"
However, Hinagiku and the Miyano sisters, who had joined the team later, looked confused.
"Actually..."
Maria, noticing their puzzled expressions, smiled and began to explain.
Once they heard about the mid-Sequence abilities of the Spectator pathway, the three finally understood why Sakuya had reacted that way. Even if it didn't boost physical stats, its auxiliary and evasion abilities were overwhelming.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)