Chapter 106: Control, Purity, and Stability
Just as his name suggested, Estiel, as Tower Keeper of Wisdom, naturally kept an enormous wealth of knowledge inside his tower. He didn’t just store relics, history, and simple pieces of information—there was an overwhelming amount of stuff not publicly known at all, just sitting there on display, seemingly worthless.
Eiros found himself on the seventeenth floor, specifically in a massive library that resembled a maze. Wherever he looked, all he’d find were towering bookshelves packed with countless books. The scent of old paper, the quiet air, and the flickering magical lights above all felt genuinely ancient. Dust drifted lazily through the pale beams of light filtering down from somewhere far above, and the wooden floorboards creaked faintly beneath his boots with every step he took deeper into the stacks.
There were a few other students around, though their exact number was hard to gauge given how massive the library was. Eiros might’ve run into Leiden, but the odds of that were slim, even if they were searching for the same kind of information. To prevent students from getting lost, the Tower had apparently deployed special candles that would guide students toward the exit through their smoke.
That was yet another piece of advanced magical tech Eiros didn’t fully understand, but he genuinely admired just how cleverly this world operated.
After finding a few books he needed, Eiros dug up some genuinely useful information.
’This library really does live up to the Tower of Wisdom’s reputation.’
He leaned against one of the pillars, flipping through the pages of a book. Around him, a fair number of books had already piled up. The pillar behind him was cool against his back, its stone surface carved faintly with old, half-worn engravings he couldn’t quite make out. Since Renessa wanted to search for her own information, Eiros had decided to split off briefly and go find what each of them needed.
The book Eiros was reading revolved around understanding stigmata and every foundational concept tied to the soul.
Since he’d only arrived in this world roughly a month ago, his knowledge of stigmata was already fairly extensive, but there was still a lot more he could refine and understand.
That thought proved correct as Eiros spent his time reading.
Right now, what he understood was that Soul Essence acted as the fuel powering the main engine—the Soul Core. To improve that engine, he needed to absorb Soul Stones, stabilize the Soul Core, and improve its control and purity.
But there was no further information beyond that. This was exactly where these books proved essential, since Eiros managed to find what he was looking for, which could be summarized like this:
Soul Tier functioned as a measure of a stigmata user’s soul quality. Normally, the higher the soul quality, the less a Stigmata could restrict the manifestation of its user’s power.
Meanwhile, the Soul Core functioned as the core of this whole intricately-working engine. The Soul Core was the core of Control, Purity, and Stability, which held tremendous influence over the Breakthrough to the next Soul Tier. The higher the quality of each of these smaller sub-engines, the greater their influence on the Main Engine.
Stigmata turned out to be even more surprising than expected. At first, Eiros had assumed stigmata were simply granted to humans, helping them gain immense power as they grew stronger. But it wasn’t nearly that simple—stigmata actually determined what its user could do, imposing its own limits and prohibitions.
Only once someone advanced to the next Tier would those restrictions loosen, becoming easier to break. So, essentially, those who grew stronger were the ones who broke the rules set by their own Stigmata.
The other points mattered just as much, but what Eiros had grasped above was the most important thing so far. His understanding of how their power actually worked had improved dramatically from before.
Especially the parts on Control, Purity, and Stability.
’Absorbing Soul Stones until the Soul Core is full isn’t enough on its own to attempt a breakthrough. But those three points, those smaller sub-engines, matter just as much—right now, my own progress there is probably still pretty low.’
Even though his Soul Core had already reached the halfway mark, because of those other three points, Eiros might not even have hit fifty percent toward a good breakthrough chance with a solid foundation.
Sure, he could probably force a breakthrough in that state, but how big would the risk actually be?
On top of that, his need for Soul Stones was becoming increasingly absurd. Eiros had initially thought it was just his imagination, but it turned out this book confirmed that it wasn’t just his imagination at all.
It was a genuine fact.
The fact that Eiros had spent this whole time absorbing Tier F Soul Stones from low-ranked monsters had made him realize that the stronger he became, the stronger the Soul Stones he actually needed. At this point, Eiros started to feel that Tier F Soul Stones from low-ranked monsters had genuinely become increasingly inefficient for him.
He needed mid-tier ones, or ones close to breaking into Luminous, like that gorilla he’d fought back in Clathria.
What those gave him was far greater and far more efficient, but it also meant that Eiros’s Control, Purity, and Stability became increasingly chaotic and unstable, since he was absorbing Soul Stones from monsters whose soul quality outranked his own.
After processing all of that, Eiros let out a small sigh, dropped the book over his face, and slumped down to lie flat on the cold floor.
The plan he’d made earlier, about needing to become a hunter and gather large quantities of Soul Stones, wasn’t something he could keep putting off any longer.
He genuinely needed a better source of Soul Stones. His system would help out, sure, but the others, like the Academy and the Tower Keeper of Defense, would only ever provide low-tier ones.
After mulling it over for a moment, Eiros got up from where he was lying. He’d already spent a few hours here, and the other students were probably getting ready to regroup soon.
The Academy hadn’t specified exactly how long they’d be staying at the tower, but they had mentioned they’d be heading to the beach to relax once the sun rose.
Yeah, no rest whatsoever.
Eiros put the books he’d taken back in place. He set them down randomly, since the tower staff themselves had said they’d handle the reorganizing later.
That was their job, so there was nothing wrong with that.
After that, Eiros followed the smoke trailing from the lit candles, passing through corridors lined with bookshelves. But he stopped in his tracks when he heard a familiar voice.
"Sure, I used to be kind of shy, so I figured I’d change that, hehe."
"Waaah~ Miss Saintess, you’re genuinely so sweet!"
Eiros hesitated slightly, then peeked from behind a bookshelf, watching the Saintess smiling sweetly at a group of girls.
"So, what do you all usually do?"
"Ey~ we just walk around and have fun! Wanna come along? Please! Please! Come with us, okay?"
"Right...! We’ll show Miss Saintess this drink that’s really famous and gone viral lately, you’ll definitely love it, it’s super sweet!"
The Saintess, though she still looked a little overwhelmed, did her best to keep up with the energy of those extroverted girls. Talking with them, keeping her tone sweet and gentle, yet friendly and approachable.
Watching that scene, Eiros couldn’t help but smile awkwardly.
’...She genuinely changed after that.’
The Saintess, who used to always be alone, struggling to end conversations because it was too hard for her, was now trying to blend in, even trying to live like an ordinary student.
Without her Saintess attire, looking as though she’d set aside her title as the Saintess entirely, living instead as an ordinary girl at the Academy.
Whatever enlightenment she’d received from the goddess, Eiros didn’t know—he was curious, but decided not to dig into it. What mattered was that this direction seemed to be heading somewhere positive.
Letting out a small sigh, Eiros glanced around, then turned and walked away. Luckily, this library didn’t have just one exit, and he didn’t want to interrupt the Saintess’s efforts there.
After leaving the library, it didn’t take Eiros long before he found Renessa, who’d apparently already stepped out ahead of him.
Renessa sat on a sofa deliberately placed in the wide corridor. Sunlight, or something resembling it, spilled in through a tall arched window nearby, casting long streaks across the polished floor and catching faint motes of dust in the air. She held a book that seemed to have come from that same library. Wearing clear glasses, her hair tied back, she looked genuinely focused, flipping through page after page.
But she stopped the moment she sensed Eiros approaching.
Eiros hesitated, then tried to peek at what book Renessa was reading, leaning slightly to one side to catch a better angle, only to find something genuinely surprising.
’Huh?’
Eiros froze.
What book was that?
***
Eiros Condition:
Core Fill: 48%
Control: 39%
Purity: 34%
Stability: 24%