Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

Like she had dropped a pebble in a pond, the Empress Dowager's touch created a wave that illuminated Zach's body to his consciousness. He could see and sense his entire being. He could see how his muscles, veins, and bones intertwined and were connected. He could see the world essence energy swirling around within the mess of his physical body, fixing, reinforcing, and soothing it.

In the depths of the misty world essence energy, he also saw an impossibly faint golden light. He wasn't sure if it was his imagination or just a concentration of the light from his energy. And before he could confirm it, he snapped back to reality.

Zach stared at the Empress Dowager in a daze.

"How much did you see?" She asked as soon as there was signs of activity behind his empty eyes.

"Uh…Myself?" Zach was not sure how to explain it.

"I saw…my muscles, bones, veins, organs, blood, and energy. It was pretty amazing, but…"

"Why did I show you that?"

Zach nodded.

"You saw a decent bit, which means I can tell you a little more. What you saw is you." The Empress Dowager gestured at Zach's entire body.

"But it is only one part of you. There is another part." The Empress Dowager stopped. She was right in front of the restriction. Unless Zach could figure it out with the clues he already had, she wouldn't be able to say much more about it.

Zach's brow furrowed as he sank into thought about what it could be.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Hadn't he already seen all of him? What more was there? There were a few details missing like the color of his organs and the dirt under his fingernails. But those things wouldn't count as another part of him, at least not to the degree the Empress Dowager was hinting at.

There was something else.

What hadn't he seen?

He hadn't seen himself move.

Was that it? One part of him was the still, static being while another part was him in motion. Like the difference between the painting of a tiger and the tiger itself.

But that didn't quite make sense, not to mention how he hadn't seen himself in absolute stillness. His heart had pumped his blood, his muscles had contracted and relaxed. His energy had swirled around like smoke.

What hadn't he seen? Why couldn't he figure it out?

Zach scratched the back of his hand, trying to come up with different possibilities when he froze.

Why can't he figure it out?

'That's it!'

While he was in that weird state the Empress Dowager put him in, there was one thing he hadn't seen.

"My mind!" Zach said excitedly. He hadn't seen his thoughts and feelings when he was in that weird state.

The Empress Dowager nodded, a slight smile turning her eyes gentle.

"The mind and the body. The—Hah…" The Empress Dowager sighed exasperatedly.

"Ah, whatever. That's not important right now. What's important is that there needs to be a kind of balance between the two. The body needs to bear the weight of the mind, and the mind needs to be strong enough to carry the body. There's a little more to it like how a strong mind leads to a stronger body and how fostering a strong body can foster a strong mind, though the first is easier."

The Empress Dowager could sense Zach's ardent gaze. It made her realize that she was rambling a little. And while Zach didn't mind—it even seemed like he wanted her to continue—the Empress Dowager wasn't a teacher. She was just sharing some of her knowledge with a junior in the same field.

"What I'm getting at is that summoning is connected to the mind. The burden and strength of your familiars is thus placed on that, which means, if your body can't handle it, you can't summon strong familiars." Find adventures on empire

Zach nodded slowly. It made sense. Only a strong knight would be able to use heavy weapons, after all.

"Your familiars must have placed a significant burden on your body. I can tell that there is something different about Soara compared to Yanael and Alzara. If it is what I think it is…"

"Her original strength is above the SS-rank."

"Yes. You were fortunate when summoning her, then. If she had been at her original strength, you would have experienced a fascinating phenomenon known as spontaneous implosion."

"..."

The Empress Dowager spoke of what could have been his death with a fair bit of nonchalance. However, as the Empress Dowager continued looking at Zach, she couldn't suppress her smirk.

"But you felt it, right?" She asked.

Zach looked at her in another daze. After several short moments, it clicked. His eyes widened and slowly lit up like a grassy field in a drought.

He knew what she was getting at.

The Empress Dowager exchanged a look of excitement and eagerness that could only be shared between peers with similar interests and similar degrees of devotion and fanaticism to said interest.

Zach had been extraordinarily excited about summoning since he first heard about it, and it only got worse with each step he took on this path he had chosen. And it was something he had half-noticed by now.

The others around him who also excelled or made great improvements in summoning were similar.

The principal was a nutjob. Nessa loved summoning. Violina was a little eccentric, but she also loved summoning. Anerias loved his summons and preferred cuddling his furry beasts to sleeping in a bed. Dukiel sometimes had trouble dealing with people. It wasn't the same way as Zach, and he was better now than in the beginning of their stay at the Academy.

But he had never felt more at home than when he sat and stared at the sunrise with his familiars.

There was a direct correlation between loving summoning and being good at it. Naturally, there was talent, hard work, and luck involved. But most if not all great summoners loving summoning wasn't just because they were good at it.

Naturally, the Empress Dowager, a prominent figure in the world of summoning, wasn't an exception to the trend.

Princess Rienne shook her head and rolled her eyes as her grandmother threw her efforts into maintaining proper demeanor and decorum into the trashcan as she started giggling excitedly while leading the two youngsters away from her greenhouse.