Chapter 298: Power Of A Weeb

—To create Runes usable by others, a Mage must first remove the soul signature from their Will and make their Will transparent.

—The steps to remove the soul signature from the Will are as follows…

—1. Achieve Vairāgya.

Alex stared at the first point for several seconds, trying to understand what he had just read. The translation feature was working perfectly, but the word itself meant nothing to him, and he couldn’t see how achieving something with such an unfamiliar name would help him remove his soul signature from his Will.

He picked up his phone and opened Poogle, hoping the search engine could provide a straightforward explanation. The results appeared surprisingly quickly, which was somewhat strange considering he expected internet connections to become increasingly unreliable as the Apocalypse progressed.

[Vairāgya: 1. Dispassion, detachment, or non-attachment from worldly desires and sensory pleasures. 2. It translates to “uncoloured” or “going beyond color,” implying a state of mind that remains untouched or unstained by worldly impulses.]

Alex read the definition twice, but his expression only became stranger as he tried to connect it to what he knew about magic. What did it mean to detach himself from worldly desires, anyway, and was that even possible? More importantly, why would he need to do something like that to make his Runes usable by other people?

He returned his attention to the book and continued reading.

—Note: Achieving Vairāgya is not recommended. A Mage’s greatest weapons are his desires.

Alex blinked and leaned back in his chair, feeling even more confused than before. He had expected the book to explain the importance of achieving Vairāgya, but instead, it was warning him against doing so, which made the entire instruction seem rather pointless.

His confusion deepened when he felt a strange sensation coming from within his body, almost like an instinctive warning telling him not to pursue Vairāgya. He suspected that his SSS rank Physique was responsible, but he couldn’t understand why it would react so strongly to a concept he had only just learned about.

Before he could think about it any further, someone knocked on his door. Alex closed the book and stood up, wondering who would visit him at this hour, and when he opened the door, he found Sophia standing outside with an awkward expression.

“Can I come in for a moment?” she asked, holding her hands together.

“Of course. Come in.”

Sophia entered the room and glanced around before sitting on the nearby chair. She waited until Alex had closed the door, then looked at him expectantly, although she seemed to have trouble finding the right words to begin the conversation.

After a few seconds, she cleared her throat and said, “I’m sorry about how I acted earlier. I wanted to help you, but I didn’t understand that sometimes giving someone space is also a way of helping them.”

Alex looked at her for a moment before shaking his head. “It’s fine, Sophia. I’m actually thankful that you tried to help me, and I know you were worried about me, so you don’t need to apologize for that.”

He meant what he said because Sophia had cried for him and tried to comfort him when he was still struggling to process the news about his mother. Although she hadn’t known what to do, her concern had been genuine. Alex had always considered her a good friend, and her actions earlier had only strengthened his opinion of her.

Seeing his calmer expression, Sophia smiled with relief, though the atmosphere soon became awkward again as they both realized she was sitting in his room quite late at night. Alex decided to break the silence before things became any stranger.

“Why haven’t you gone to sleep yet? It’s getting pretty late.”

“I was healing some of the others, and when I finally tried to sleep, I kept thinking about whether anyone else needed help, so I went back to heal more people,” Sophia explained. She paused briefly before adding with a small smile, “I’m also experimenting with Faith to see if I can do something new with it, and if it works, I think it’ll be a pretty useful discovery.”

“What are you trying to do?” Alex asked, growing curious about her experiment.

“It’s a surprise,” she replied cheekily.

Alex shook his head with an exaggerated sigh, accepting that she wasn’t going to tell him anything until she was ready. Sophia seemed pleased with herself before her attention shifted toward the book on his desk.

“What about you? I thought you would have returned to the Land of Origin by now.”

“Oh, I’m just reading this Rune Compendium that I got from a Merchant earlier. I found something interesting, but I’m having trouble understanding why it works that way.”

Alex picked up the book and explained what he had learned about creating Runes that other people could use. He also told her about Vairāgya and the warning written beneath the instruction, hoping that explaining the problem aloud might help him understand it.

Sophia listened carefully before tilting her head. “Isn’t Vairāgya pretty easy to understand?”

“If you’re only talking about the definition, then yes. What I don’t understand is how detaching myself from worldly desires would help me remove the soul signature from my Will,” Alex replied.

“You told me that Will is what allows you to control Mana, right?” Sophia asked.

“Technically, it only helps, but yes, in this context, you are correct.” Alex nodded, wondering where she was going with this.

Sophia considered his answer for a moment before continuing, “Then wouldn’t achieving Vairāgya actually weaken your Will and make it harder for you to control Mana?”

Alex stared at her, momentarily unable to respond. It sounded like a wild assumption, but something about her explanation felt right, and his instincts were telling him that she might have stumbled upon the answer he had been looking for.

Sophia noticed his reaction and continued explaining her thoughts. “Think about it for a moment. What does the world ‘Will’ actually mean? It means what you want, doesn’t it? Your desires come from your Soul, so wouldn’t Will be the manifestation of your Soul’s desires?”

..

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