"You may be free, but you still need to take a bath". Jazzlyn continued to lesture Astrea who had a deadpan look on his face.
Jazzlyn was the only one who could lesture him and get away with it. The lesture had been going on for minutes now and Astrea was getting tired.
"Aren't you done?". Astrea cut in, a bit irritated, if he wanted to shut up and listen to someone run their mouth. He would had enrolled in a school.
Jazzlyn sent a glare his way before continuing. "What are you supposed to do?"
"I would, if you would gave me space". Astrea retorted, the words carrying a tone of casual impatience.
Jazzlyn expression froze, the maids who were just returning from the bathroom where the went to prepare Astrea's bath.
They stifled a gasp. The Astrea they knew only spoke in formal, stiff pronouncements, like reciting an outdated treaty.
Even under pressure, his response would be "This servant acknowledges the query."
To hear him use common, dismissive slang was a level of emotional spontaneity they hadn't witnessed from him since he was seven.
That wasn't all.
Sometimes Astrea acted as if the service staff were ghosts, he would literally walk through conversations, ignore direct questions, and never acknowledge a verbal command, staring straight ahead with blank, distant eyes.
Astrea stared at the dumbstruck people in front of him, his brow tightening in confusion.
"What?".
Jazzlyn snapped out of her daze, her grey eyes sharpened, as it seems to peirce through his flesh and gaze directly into his soul. She continued to stare at him like that for a while, tension tightening over the room.
A cold sweat dripped down Astrea's spine. 'Did I do something wrong?'. Astrea wondered.
But then alarm surged through him. What if she knew that he wasn't the real Astrea?.
The thought sanked into his consciousness. His heart beat froze, his breath seized.
Jazzlyn seems to have noticed this changes as her brows tightened, her hands trembling as if holding herself from stricking at him.
Before Astrea could become a victim of another panic attack. Something happened.
『 Your trait [Epiphany (S)] has been activated 』
Astrea felt a cold mental rush, instantly calming his nerves, plunging his mind into an hyperactive state.
Astrea's question at the moment was, what if she knew that he wasn't the original Astrea? Or if she assumed that he was being controlled?.
But thanks to his trait...
'If I really am some type of skinwalker, or if I was mind controlling Astrea, why would I act differently from his normal attitude'.
If he really was an infiltrator or a skin walker, his priority would have been to act like the original Astrea not to get caught.
By acting different, he was directly exposing himself.
As the realization filled his mind. Astrea calmed down instantly, the panic attack receding instantly.
His tightened brow relaxed as he addressed the room. The tension was at it's peak.
"So are y'all gonna give me space? Or what?". Astrea said, feigning impatience.
Jazzlyn slightly haunched back straighten, the tension dying rapidly.
"Excuse me". With that she turned around and left, the two maids following behind her.
Immediately the door shut, sweat burst through Astrea's skin, soaking his clothes.
"Thank goodness". For a moment Astrea thought that he was going to die. That she was going to capture him and torture him.
But his false confidence in the end saved the day.
'What was that'. Astrea's restless mind wondered back to the message he had received before his mind settled down.
'Something about a trait'.
Astrea also remembered that before he fainted he had seen a strange cyan interface across his face.
If he wasn't hit in the head with a piece of farm equipment, that was the system.
'status'. As a avid novel reader, he knew the magic words.
---------- 『 Status 』 ----------
Name: Astrea Bathel
Rank: Dormant
Degree: —
Degree Ability: —
Spirit Seed: [0/99]
Traits:[ Materialistic (A)], [Epiphany (S)], [Serenity (-F)]
Strength: 8(10) / Agility: 9(10) / Stamina: 7(10) / Vitality: 13(10) / Essence: 5(0)
---------- 『 』 ----------
Astrea's gaze scanned the interface, from the story he already had knowledge of how it works.
But by staring intensely at it, another window popped up.
---------- 『 』 ----------
Degree description: Degree is the established term for an Aspect of reality that an individual possesses.
---------- 『 』 ----------
Astrea wasn't surprised, he already knew what Degree entailed from the novel. It could also be considered an element, but a bit more specialized.
Two individual could have a Degree, fire weaver and the way they use it would be vastly different.
One could use it to create fire construct, and the other could use it to empower themselves.
Astrea's eyes wondered down to the next.
---------- 『 』 ----------
Degree Ability: This is the specialized, unique function or classification of the main Degree and individual possess.
---------- 『 』 ----------
That was the same a Degree, just like how two people may have Fire Weaver Degree, they way they use it would be vastly different.
Like one could have fire control, while the other fire creation.
Meaning the former could only control fire he sees, or feels. While the other can create it.
---------- 『 』 ----------
Spirit Seeds: Spirit seeds is an individual's condensed spirit. A total of 99 Spirit Seeds from slain enemies is needed for an individual to advance to the next realm of power
---------- 『 』 ----------
Astrea's gaze wandered to the next.
---------- 『 』 ----------
Traits: These are the biological/ or supernatural attributes of an individual
---------- 『 』 ----------
Astrea ignored the rest and rested on a particular one.
---------- 『 』 ----------
Epiphany(S): The individual has heightened receptivity to Insight.
They interpret things on a deeper, often subconscious, level, which occasionally boils over into a transformative realization.
---------- 『 』 ----------
'So this was what helped me'. Astrea still vividly remembered the moment when The cold mental wave surged through his head, giving way for solutions to his problems.
Bang! Bang!
After two consecutive knocks Jazzlyn voice filtered in.
"Young Astrea!".
"I'm going, I'm going". Astrea muttered, entering the door at the corner of the large room, only to enter another large room.
From the utensils, Astrea could draw conclusions that this was a bathroom. An exaggerated bathroom.
The bathtub Astrea expected was absent, instead in was a pool, filled to the brim with pink foam, with steam curling upwards.
"...Huh". Astrea was at loss for words.