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Affinity transfer
🕑 Added 2022-09-09 10:00:05 +0000 UTCSeth was sitting on the roof of a tall building looking towards the royal palace.
“One week to charm that girl completely…”
With a simple thought, a small note disappeared from his hand, and he continued to wait in the same spot. Not even half an hour later, a carriage left the royal palace, heading for the middle ring.
Seth chuckled as he followed the carriage on the rooftops of the buildings. As it was passing by a dark alley, a person covered by a cloak sneaked out of the carriage and ran into the alley. Seth rushed towards a small fountain in the center of the marketplace and waited there patiently.
Ten minutes later, the same cloaked person appeared in front of him and removed her cloak to reveal a pretty face with long golden hair and sparkling blue eyes. Her cheeks were a little red, probably from running all the way here, but she looked quite happy.
Seth smiled at her and grabbed her hand to kiss it. “Princess, it’s good to see you again. I didn’t get the chance to thank you properly.”
Henrietta blushed and nodded before saying: “No need. I’ve searched for you, but couldn’t find a single clue about you, no matter how much I looked.”
“Hehe, I’ll tell you about it over lunch. Will the princess join me?” said Seth as he extended one arm for her to grab onto.
Henrietta nodded and covered her head again before grabbing hold of his arm. Seth took her to a nearby restaurant and asked for a private table. After their food and drinks arrived, Seth told the server they were not to be disturbed and turned to Henrietta.
“You can remove your cloak now, princess.”
Henrietta removed her cloak and blushed again before asking: “You said you’ll tell me why I couldn’t find you.”
Seth chuckled at her timid display and summoned a small destruction orb, stunning the princess, before saying: “Because you didn’t search in the right place. I am a teacher at the academy and my name is Seth. A pleasure to meet you.”
“The destruction ascended?” asked Henrietta with her mouth forming an O shape. She has heard talks about there being a new type of energy and she was even entertaining the idea of going to the academy to see if she had any destruction affinity herself.
Seth nodded and said with a bow: “Yes. I must apologize for lying to you the last time we met. That girl I had you save was not a childhood friend, but someone I wanted in my class.”
Henrietta smiled wryly before saying: “And the fact that you were attacked before hiding inside my room was also a lie, wasn’t it?”
Seth was surprised she figured it out, but still nodded before asking: “How did you know?”
“There were no talks about any intruders the next day, which was quite suspicious. The fact that father agreed to my request to free that girl was also bizarre since he wouldn’t have agreed so quickly if there was a previous break-in attempt in the prison.”
Seth chuckled and said: “I guess it was quite sloppy of me. Once again, I apologize for lying to you, princess. I just wanted that girl in my class badly, but why did you still agree to this meeting if that was the case?”
Henrietta blushed again and lowered her head as she said: “I was curious. Who you were and why you did it. And, and… I couldn’t forget your face ever since that night.”
Seth chuckled when he saw her face getting as red as a tomato and said: “I am honored the princess hasn’t forgotten me.”
Henrietta quickly looked to change the subject and asked: “Why did you want to meet so suddenly after such a long time? Also, call me Henrietta, please.”
“What makes you think there is a reason I wanted to meet?”
Henrietta looked up at his eyes and didn’t answer, making Seth smile wryly before saying: “I hoped you would persuade your father for something else.”
Henrietta nodded, to Seth’s surprise, before saying: “I can do that, but this time I want a trade.”
Nodding, Seth asked: “Sure. What can I help you with?”
“I want to become an ascended.” Replied Henrietta with a serious look.
Seth frowned and said: “I’m sorry to have to tell you, princess, but you have no affinity for any energy…”
Henrietta’s face looked somewhat downcast as she muttered: “So destruction is a bust as well…”, she immediately perked back up before saying: “I read in the royal library that there are more energies than the ones the academy knows. Maybe I have an affinity for one that was just not discovered yet.”
Seth was surprised at her will to become an ascended, but he knew she was indeed one of the unfortunate humans born without an affinity, just like his parents were. Sighing, Seth shook his head and said: “I am sorry, but you have no affinity for any type of energy. There is indeed an almost infinite amount of energies out there, all of them forming the building blocks of the world, but not all humans have one…”
Henrietta didn’t doubt his words, and she lowered her head again, trying to hold in the tears that were threatening to spill out of her eyes.
“Why do you want to become an ascended so much?”
Henrietta clutched the hem of her dress under the table and said: “Because remaining like this, I will only end up a chip father uses to draw more nobles to his side. I don’t want to get married off to some random noble and be his plaything… if I ascend, I will have the power to take control of my life.”
Seth sighed and shook his head. “The ascended might have more strength than the usual person, but they still answer to the royal family. Even if you ascend, nothing will change…”
Henrietta bit her lip and said: “But at least I’ll be able to run away. I am too weak now. If I run as I am right now, I will either be brought back by father’s men or just die in some random corner of the world, killed by bandits or beasts.”
‘System, how hard would it be for her to form a source?’
<A minimum of ten years>
‘How is the thing I asked you to do? She would be a decent test subject.’
<After millions of simulations, the rate of success is around 45%, increased to 70% with a life-death ascended assisting. >
Seth remained silent for a moment, thinking if he should try it, before finally asking: “Henrietta, if there was a way for you to gain the affinity you want, what would you risk for it?”
“Is there a way for me to do that?” asked Henrietta with renewed hope.
Sighing, Seth said: “There is indeed a way for you to gain an affinity, but the chance of success is around 45%.”
Henrietta looked up and asked: “What if I fail?”
“You will die.”, replied Seth in a flat tone.
Henrietta nodded and said without a second thought: “I’ll do it. Who knows how long father will wait until finally sending me off to some bastard noble son. When do we start? What do I have to do?”
Seth nodded as well and said: “Whenever you want and you don’t have to do anything. I will be the one doing everything.”
“Alright. Let’s start.”
Seth smiled wryly and said: “Alright. Come with me.”
Henrietta agreed, and Seth walked with her toward the academy. After reaching there, Seth picked up Caitlin from the dormitory and took the two girls to the assassin inn in the outer ring. It was already evening by the time they reached there.
After renting a room and asking not to get disturbed, Seth led the puzzled girls inside. Looking at the princess, Seth wasted no time before using time energy to freeze her brain.
Caitlin watched Seth catch the girl before falling and asked hesitantly: “Teacher, what are we doing here?”
Seth placed the unconscious Henrietta on the bed before turning toward Caitlin with a serious look. “I will need you to use your energy to keep her alive, no matter what.” He then threw her a crate with vials of energy: “If you remain out of energy, drink a vial. Ignore the damage to your source until it reaches critical condition. If the operation is successful, I’ll agree to a request from you.”
Caitlin was getting scared, but still nodded when she saw his serious expression.
“Also, you will not mention what you’re about to see here to another soul. Understood?”
Seeing her nod again, Seth took a deep breath and started undressing Henrietta. When Seth undressed as well, Caitlin blushed and wanted to say something, but stopped as she saw Seth’s body changing.
Slowly, he looked no different from the girl passed out on the bed, making Caitlin freeze with her mouth open. She did not know what was happening until Seth’s words broke her out of her stupor.
“Stop gawking like an idiot and moved to her side. Maintain a thread of life energy passing through her body at all times, but don’t activate it until I tell you so.”
Hearing Seth speak in a woman’s voice was quite disturbing for Caitlin, but she did as she was told.
‘System, start changing my internal organs as well while maintaining my affinities and trying to keep them as close as you can to Henrietta’s.’
Seth ignored the pain that was coming from his entire body as he used the system to look over Henrietta’s body. Once the system was done, it was time to start the procedure.
‘System, stop the perfect body control function.’
<Affirmative, function placed on hold.>
Nodding, Seth started with her skin as he extended his time energy over her entire body to keep it in stasis. To Caitlin’s horror, she saw how Seth’s and Henrietta’s skin started getting swapped between the two. He was using space energy to replace her skin with his. The procedure took ten minutes and when he was done, Seth said to Caitlin: “Start healing her skin.”
He also reactivated his perfect body control for a moment to heal himself and change the new skin’s affinity. Caitlin didn’t waste a single moment and started doing as she was told, focusing her life energy on her skin.
After five minutes, Caitlin was done and nodded toward Seth. Being done with the skin, he started progressively changing her muscles, bones, tendons, and so on, taking it slowly, one part at a time.
Eight hours later, he was only left with the internal organs, and Caitlin had already chugged through three vials. Because of the low concentration of life-death energy inside those vials, she was barely getting any back. With changing the organs being the hardest part, they both took a slight break of about 15 minutes.
Seth slowly started with her reproductive organs before making his way up to her pancreas, intestines, kidneys, and so on. For the organs he housed his sources into, he had to change his body to contain a replica before performing the swap with that, which messed up all his sources.
Six more hours later, he had finished everything besides the brain. Since she didn’t have a divinity, he chose to not touch it and risk messing with her memories. With the rest of the body changed, it was enough.
Heaving a deep sigh, Seth nodded toward Caitlin with a small smile before changing his body back.
“Good work. She’s fine now.”
Caitlin didn’t understand exactly what she did, but still smiled before resting next to Henrietta and closing her eyes. Having to keep her energy under control for so long was exhausting.
‘Report.’
<All damage to host sources at around 20%. Host sources have also lost 50% of their progress into the second shell. >
<Her affinities have changed to the same affinities as host.>
<Danger: Subject not covered by a divinity, cultivating over four sources will bring forth a world tribulation.>
<Caitlin source damage at 42%>
‘That’s fine.’ Replied Seth with a sigh before laying down as well and retracting his time energy that froze her brain.
Seth was exhausted from the procedure and fell asleep immediately as well. Like this, all three of them remained sleeping inside the room.
