Chapter 32: Emotional Energy
The moment the Primordial Succubus’s voice vanished, the entire black-and-white space began to shatter.
The endlessly stretching lines developed cracks one after another, then split into thousands of fragments large and small. The surroundings clearly looked like a colossal mirror being broken apart, yet Erik heard no sound at all.
The enormous silhouette of the Primordial Succubus had disappeared.
The Mirror of Myriad Worlds had also been stored away in the space bracelet.
All that remained was the black Heaven Gate with its dark purple patterns standing before him.
Erik had assumed everything was over, but the instant he was about to turn and check on Felyn, a scorching sensation suddenly appeared deep within his body.
He immediately stopped.
The feeling wasn’t like pain. It originated from somewhere deeper than the body, as if something that had been sealed shut inside his soul had suddenly been opened.
BOOM!
A heavy sound appeared directly inside his head.
The Heaven Gate before him trembled at the same time.
In that same moment, Erik sensed a similar gate existing within his own soul. It had no definite size, yet he knew with certainty that from this very second, he had truly stepped onto the cultivation path of an Awakened.
Normally, after opening the Heaven Gate, an Awakened needed to absorb energy from Energy Crystals to nourish the gate, strengthen the body, and then gradually advance into the Black Iron grade.
But Erik’s Heaven Gate was completely different.
It showed no reaction whatsoever to the Energy Crystals sitting inside the space bracelet.
Instead, the Primordial Incubus power within his bloodline began to circulate.
Surges of heat ran along his chest, both arms, and his spine, then converged on the Heaven Gate within his soul. The dark purple patterns on the gate immediately lit up, as though they had finally found the right kind of energy.
Erik knitted his brows slightly.
"This is..."
Before he could finish, one of the space fragments drifting around him suddenly lit up.
Inside it appeared Elowen’s face.
She was sitting in the rest room of the Trial Space. Her silver hair fell to her shoulders, both arms hugging her knees, her gaze still fixed on the door Erik had left through.
A very faint layer of pink light appeared around her body.
Then it flew out of the fragment.
The other fragments also lit up one after another.
Meira looking at a screen with a worried expression.
Carmilla with her head lowered, gazing at the hand Erik had once held.
Vylana sitting on the edge of her chair, her eyes almost never leaving the image of him fighting.
Laviana.
Sarna.
Along with the women in the secret group chat.
Every one of them wore a different expression. Some were worried, some were blushing, some were jealous, and some looked at him with a gaze so heated it nearly seemed to pierce through the screen.
Stream after stream of pink light continuously flew out of the fragments, gathered around Erik, and was absorbed by the Heaven Gate.
He reached out his hand.
A thread of pink energy wound around his fingertip, then slowly seeped beneath the skin.
The sensation was very pleasant.
His muscles along with his bones felt as though they were being nourished from within by this energy.
[Ding!]
[The SS Heaven Gate has completed its link with the Primordial Incubus.]
[Special energy absorption method detected.]
[Primary energy source confirmed.]
[Emotional Energy.]
An explanatory panel immediately opened before his eyes.
[Emotional Energy: Generated from genuine emotions directly related to the Host.]
[Affection, joy, being stirred, anticipation, embarrassment, jealousy, desire, gratitude, anger, along with many other types of emotions can all be converted into Emotional Energy.]
[The stronger and more genuine the emotion, the greater the amount of energy produced.]
[Emotional Energy can be used for cultivation, leveling up, strengthening the body, and nourishing the Primordial Incubus power.]
Erik finished reading.
The expression on his face gradually turned strange.
"So that means... I don’t need to use Energy Crystals?"
[Ding!]
[Correct.]
Erik was silent.
He recalled the conversation he’d just had with the Primordial Succubus.
Succubi needed emotional value to sustain the potential of their race.
And he could take that very thing and use it as cultivation energy.
’So in the end I really did turn into a human-shaped emotional battery?’
The System didn’t answer.
Erik had the feeling it was pretending not to hear.
He was about to study it further when a completely different color suddenly appeared among the hundreds of pink streams of light.
White.
The first came from Elowen.
It was very thin, but so pure that it still stood out strikingly.
Right after came Felyn.
The image of the blonde woman resting her head on Erik’s shoulder by the stream appeared within one of the space fragments. Both eyes were still covered by the gauze bandage, and the clothes on her body were still old and worn, yet her smile was so gentle that she seemed like an entirely different person from the woman standing before the hut at the start.
The white light from Felyn was even clearer than Erik had expected.
Meira along with Carmilla also showed a few very faint white specks.
When the first light touched his forehead, Erik immediately felt the difference.
It didn’t directly strengthen the body.
A cool sensation spread into his soul, causing the excitement from his new power to quickly stabilize.
[Second special energy source confirmed.]
[Faith.]
Erik raised an eyebrow.
"Faith?"
[Faith does not necessarily come from worship.]
[Absolute trust, deep gratitude, spiritual dependence, reverence, or a being viewing the Host as an existence of extreme importance are all capable of generating Faith.]
[Compared to Emotional Energy, Faith is more difficult to form.]
[Current effects: Soul purification, temperament refinement, increased compatibility with high-level energy.]
[Accumulating sufficient Faith can promote the formation of Divinity, helping the Host draw closer to the Throne of a God.]
Erik read the last line one more time.
"A God?"
The System offered no explanation.
He waited a few seconds, then lost interest.
"I’ll deal with that later."
That kind of thing was still far too distant for the current Erik.
He had only just opened the Heaven Gate and hadn’t even gotten a firm footing in Black Iron yet. Thinking about becoming a God brought no practical benefit.
Besides, Erik had never harbored ambitions of ruling the world.
Having enough strength to protect himself and the people beside him, having money to spend, having a comfortable home, eating well and sleeping well every day, having a few women he liked by his side, and when free going out to see what else this world had to offer.
If he could live like that for a very long time, he would already be very satisfied.
BOOM!
The Heaven Gate within his soul suddenly shook violently.
All the Emotional Energy around him was instantly pulled in.
The muscles beneath his combat suit tensed. The dull aches lingering from the sixth-floor battle quickly vanished, and a faint itching sensation appeared along each section of bone, as if they were being strengthened from within.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host, on advancing to Black Iron tier 1.]
The notification had barely disappeared when another surge of energy poured through the Heaven Gate.
[Black Iron tier 2.]
Erik was slightly stunned.
The speed was faster than he’d expected.
The emotions those women outside had generated during the trial had been accumulating beforehand. Now that the Heaven Gate had just opened, all of it instantly converted into energy.
[Black Iron tier 3.]
[Black Iron tier 4.]
Only here did the speed begin to slow.
The space fragments around him also gradually dimmed.
The last stream of Emotional Energy was absorbed by the Heaven Gate.
[Ding!]
[Black Iron tier 5.]
Everything came to a stop.
Erik slowly clenched his right hand.
The knuckle joints let out a very small sound.
Strength.
That was the clearest sensation.
Before opening the Heaven Gate, the Primordial Incubus had already brought his base physique to roughly five times that of an ordinary person.
Now that gap had been stretched even wider.
’About ten times?’
Without the combat suit.
Not counting any equipment effects.
If he took an adult with a perfect physique as the standard, Erik estimated that his current body’s strength was at least around ten times that.
Perhaps even higher.
"An ordinary Black Iron tier 5 definitely isn’t this strong."
Erik had read plenty of material before awakening.
Clearly the SS Heaven Gate along with the Primordial Incubus had made every tier of his completely different from a normal Awakened.
He wanted to inspect more thoroughly, but a large crack ran across the space.
Crack!
Everything around him began to collapse.
The warmth from Felyn’s hand immediately returned.
Her body, which had been frozen mid-step, suddenly lost its balance, and her whole form tilted forward.
"Ah..."
Erik reacted very quickly, one arm looping around her waist and pulling Felyn into his arms.
Both her hands instinctively braced against his chest.
"Erik?"
"I’m here."
Hearing the familiar voice, Felyn’s tense shoulders immediately relaxed.
A layer of white light also quickly enveloped both of them.
Erik pulled her closer.
The next second, they vanished.
The Teleportation Center at this moment was far more crowded than usual.
A temporary barricade had been set up around the teleportation area. Outside stood dozens of reporters, and the magic cameras were almost all pointed at the formation in the center of the great hall.
At the front of the waiting area, Elowen had almost never taken her eyes off the formation.
The wound at her side had been treated, but her complexion was still slightly pale. Her long silver hair hung down her back, and both hands had been clenched before her chest from start to finish.
Beside her was Meira.
The mature Elf woman wore a long dress of white tinged with pale gold. Her blonde hair was pinned up neatly behind her, and her green eyes also never left the formation.
Suddenly, the magic runes on the ground lit up.
Elowen immediately shot to her feet.
"Erik!"
White light flared.
Two figures appeared in the center of the formation.
Before Erik could even see his surroundings clearly, a flash of silver-white had already thrown itself into his arms.
"Elowen—"
Two arms immediately wound around his neck.
Her full chest pressed tight against Erik’s, and her body trembled in waves.
Then the collar of his shirt began to grow damp.
"Elowen?"
"I’m sorry..."
Her voice choked up. "I said I would protect you, but in the end I was the one who got hurt. After that you had to go alone, and I saw you get hit by those monsters..."
She drew in a breath but still couldn’t keep her voice steady.
"Then the feed went dark. I didn’t know what was happening inside."
Erik sighed.
One arm circled Elowen’s waist while the other slowly stroked her silver hair, then gently patted her back.
"The person who got hurt shielding me is now apologizing for being useless. Don’t you think that’s a bit strange?"
Elowen froze.
Erik lowered his head to look at her.
"If it weren’t for you, I couldn’t have made it there so smoothly either."
He gently squeezed her soft waist.
"I’m back. Stop crying."
Only then did Elowen finally lift her head.
Her jade-green eyes were reddened, tears still clinging to her lashes.
Erik wiped them away with his finger.
Click! Click! Click!
The light from dozens of cameras immediately flashed.
Only at this point did Erik turn his head to look around.
Reporters.
Cameras.
Center staff.
Countless Succubi crowding beyond the barrier.
He gave a wry smile.
"I only went on one trial run."
Meira finally stepped forward.
Her gaze quickly checked Erik from head to toe. Only after confirming he had no serious injuries did the tension between her brows gradually fade.
Then she looked at the person standing to his right.
Felyn had been silent since appearing.
She couldn’t see, and all around were hundreds of voices along with the sound of cameras. One hand unconsciously gripped the corner of Erik’s shirt, her body pressing closer to him.
Erik immediately reached his arm around behind her, gently wrapping it around her waist.
"Don’t be afraid. I’m right here."
Felyn startled slightly.
Then the hand clutching his shirt gradually loosened.
"Mm."
Meira looked at the blonde woman before her.
The old gauze bandage covering both eyes.
The tangled hair.
A body far thinner than the image in the old records from all those years ago.
But she still recognized her.
"Felyn?"
The blind woman turned her head toward the voice.
"You know me?"
Meira was silent for a few seconds, then answered in a soft voice:
"Of course."
"A great many people still remember you."