One month later.
"Haa!" Anna shouted while punching Noel in the face.
Noel hurriedly raised his left hand to catch it, but Anna poured more Spiritual Energy that Noel saw at the last minute, causing the imbalance between their Spiritual Energy.
The Spiritual Energy burst out, producing a shock wave that knocked Noel's back.
However, Noel skillfully redirected the shock wave only on his upper body while his lower body remained on the ground. As soon as he was about to fall, he used his other hand to touch the ground, supporting his entire body so as to not fall to the ground. At the same time, he kicked Anna's ankle from the left side.
Anna tried to jump, but that was when Noel's ice appeared once again. She almost tripped because of this ice. In fact, she had suffered a lot from this Frost Control Ability and remembered that the first time she fell from his trick was when she tackled him.
The trick worked because Noel chose such a time to execute it, causing Anna to be unable to leave the ground. In the end, she had to use her own Spiritual Energy to block it.
The clash of their Spiritual Energy lasted for a second as Noel tried to manipulate his own Spiritual Energy to outsmart her.
However, Anna kept matching the amount of his Spiritual Energy whenever he increased it. Hence, Noel chose an unorthodox strategy to catch her off guard.
Instead of increasing the Spiritual Energy to overwhelm her, he decreased his own Spiritual Energy.
The result was obvious. Anna ended up knocking him back even though he was the one to attack.
"!!!" Anna widened her eyes in shock, never expecting Noel to lose deliberately. But she soon understood why he did it.
Noel used the momentum that knocked his foot back to spin his body and deliver another kick at her stomach.
"Kh." Anna caught both shoes, stopping them at the last second. Unfortunately for her, his shoes had been covered with a layer of ice… specifically, only on the bottom's surface.
That was why when Anna caught it, Noel simply had to release the ice to leave Anna's grip.
"!!!" She was confused when she lost the feeling of resistance from Noel, but it turned out Noel had pulled his feet once more and increased the amount of Spiritual Energy before launching another kick.
The kick shattered the ice, and Noel's Spiritual Energy burst out, knocking her back.
"Ouch… Are you insane?" Anna waved both hands down as if trying to make the numb sensation disappear. "If that's someone else, their ribs would have been broken!"
"I did it only because my opponent was you." Noel shrugged. "You are the only one who can make me feel safe to try a lot of things, after all."
"Eh?" Anna was slightly flustered by his statement, but as one would expect from Noel, he actually took advantage of that split-second gap to approach Anna and punch her.
However, it seemed that Noel had influenced Anna to the point where she could apply some of his tricks.
When Noel's fist was about to reach her, she suddenly spun her body while grabbing his arm before using his momentum to throw him away.
"Wha—" Noel was shocked as he flew upside down, staring at Anna, who stuck out her tongue.
He realized he had been tricked. Anna only acted flustered because she knew he would charge at her.
"Tsk." Noel clicked his tongue.
Anna smirked at Noel's frustrated face. "Do you think I'll let you beat me up all the time? I already know all your tricks."
Noel shouted back, "Then I'm going to prepare more tricks that you don't know yet."
"Sure. I'm looking forward to stealing it and using it against you!" Anna didn't seem to be scared. Instead, she had gotten used to this since Noel had been tricking her from her previous life to the current one.
Noel landed on the ground after twisting his Spiritual Energy to spin his body. Before he could rush to her again, Old Ru stopped them.
"That's enough. You two have been able to fight at Spirit Practitioner Level. There are still Spirit Wielder and Spirit Grandmaster Levels, but I don't think it will take too long before you master them. So, I'm going to give you one last lesson," said Old Ru while waving his hands to both of them.
They nodded and walked to Old Ru, wondering what she had to say.
"To be honest, I don't really want to teach you this, considering it's not that useful, especially to Noel. But I think you should know about it." Old Ru glanced at Anna before pointing at his stomach. "This place is my Spirit Seal. Both of you should have leveled up your connection to the Spirit Link, right?"
"Yes." Noel and Anna nodded without hesitation. Noel only achieved it with Heisk, not Ardagan though.
"Now that you have reached this level, you should be able to feel the Spirit Link in your body…"
Noel and Anna furrowed their eyebrows before shutting their eyes. Now that their Spiritual Energy sensitivity had increased so much, they could sense veins coming out of the Spirit Seal.
The Spirit Seal looked like a tree that spread its roots in their bodies. This was the connection that Old Ru was talking about.
"I think I can sense it." Noel and Anna answered at the same time.
"Those links are connected to your entire body… Try to use your Spiritual Energy to make a connection with it." Old Ru continued.
"Understood." Noel and Anna hurriedly infused their Spiritual Energy, matching the amount with the Spirit Seal. As expected, they could actually connect with it.
"Just like how you are connected to other objects, once you connect with the veins, you will be able to reinforce your body and make you even stronger." Old Ru explained.
Anna widened her eyes because she saw that the Spirit Veins began to glow, making her understand what the trick was. This was the ability she showed to Noel before coming here. She didn't know the principle and only tried to replicate it with what she could. But to think it would be related to the Spirit Link, it was no wonder why someone would get a surge of strength when they used this.
It was clear from Anna's reaction that she was already aware of this ability. So, Old Ru ignored the reaction of someone who was in her second life and moved to Noel.
"There is one fatal problem for you, Noel. From what I can see, you haven't made the Spirit Link with your second spirit, right?"
"Yes." Noel nodded.
"Second spirit?" Anna looked surprised.
"Why are you so surprised? You should have figured out something like this, right?"
"I mean, I thought you had twin spirits. In that case, when you made a Spirit Link, shouldn't you have done it with both spirits at the same time?" Anna sighed.
"…" Noel paused for a moment. It didn't seem he was planning to hide it, but he also didn't want to easily reveal his secret. So, he said, "The two spirits in my body are different."
Old Ru shifted the conversation back. "In any case, the fatal problem is that I haven't experienced this method with two Spirits. Each Spirit has its own unique Spirit Link, and in your case, the moment you create a Spirit Link with your second spirit, the Spirit will definitely create all the veins like that."
"When that happens, their veins will be interlinked. Those two are different spirits and each spirit has its own unique Spiritual Energy and element. So, if we look at the theory, it's possible that the energy from both Spirit Links would cause a reaction and make your body explode."
"In addition, controlling two different levels of energy inside your body is easier said than done. It's like splitting your brain into two… that's not including the fight against multiple opponents."
Noel fell silent, imagining this that Old Ru said. Of course, the spirits should have known about this better, so he asked inwardly, "Ardagan, Heisk. What do you think?"
"Everything he said makes sense. We haven't tried it, but there is a possibility it will happen." Heisk replied.
"Does that mean it's not possible for me to use this?"
"Currently, not. However, there is a method that you might want to try in the future." Ardagan reassured him that there might be a method.
"In the future, not now?"
"Yes. The method requires Heisk to at least become a humanoid rank spirit. Although our energy levels won't be the same, there shouldn't be a huge gap. Once that happens, you should be able to maintain both Spirit Links. Of course, it will require a lot of practice, but it should be possible."
"Now that I think about it, what will I receive from you when we form a Spirit Link?" Noel asked, curious.
"Unfortunately, it's better not to tell you about it right now because there are probably three things that might come to you, but only one will be selected depending on our compatibility. Instead of diverting your focus to prepare for those three, it's better if you just focus on making Heisk a Humanoid Rank Spirit first. We'll immediately proceed with the Spirit Link after that… You should be at least a Spirit Grandmaster at that time."
"I see." Noel took a deep breath. As Ardagan said, if he diverted his focus, he would end up slowing down his progress. It was like playing rock-paper-scissors, so it was useless to worry about it.
The fact that it was possible alone was enough for him.
Noel looked at Old Ru and said, "You don't have to worry about it. Please teach me about this as well."
"Alright then." Old Ru nodded.
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