While they were discussing this matter, Felix was feeling like absolute crap. He wished that heat was strong enough to burn his nerves and release him from this fiery pain.
Unfortunately, the green liquid was constantly healing his skin, creating this wicked circle of recovery and agony!
Lady Sphinx didn't put him in that liquid just to torture him but to keep his flesh undamaged as much as possible.
That's because the inscriptions didn't really engrave themselves on his skin but inner flesh.
The writing outside was a mere projection of the real inscriptions.
'Three minutes remaining.' Lady Sphinx thought as she glanced at Felix's devilish appearance.
She didn't have a single ounce of doubt that Felix wouldn't handle the pain.
She watched him experience it way too often, she started to believe that he befriended it!
The only obstacle in this experiment was having the necessary body toughness to resist melting down completely.
Now that Felix had it, the ritual was guaranteed to succeed. As she expected, those three minutes went by without any sudden variable emerging.
Felix owned the pain like a champ and now, he could be seen floating like a limp corpse within the liquid, completely passed out.
His burnt skin was recovering swiftly, helping in easing up his tensed expression.
'Is he done?' Thor asked.
'If you are asking about the ritual, it has been completed successfully.' Lady Sphinx smiled with a satisfied expression, 'Felix could be now considered as the first being in the universe to own two perfect elemental manipulations.'
This was truly news to be celebrated and feel excited about it since it meant that it was possible for Felix to host even more elemental manipulations!
'Just thinking about those old fogies' jaws dropping after finding out about it makes me want to spill the beams badly.' Thor said with a thrilled tone.
'You better keep your mouth shut when we meet them in the council.' Jörmungandr gave him a warning look, knowing that Thor had a loose tongue.
Jörmungandr knew that the implication would be horrendous for Felix if he ever was found to muster more than one perfect manipulation.
Being found out to own one was already going to make his life hell since he would be hunted by primogenitors' descendants and also Jörmungandr's descendants to take it away from him.
Two or more manipulations would move the primogenitors themselves!
'I know, I know, I am not an idiot.' Thor mumbled in annoyance.
Everyone rolled their eyes at him after hearing him say so, making Thor slightly pissed at the way they see him.
'Bunch of pricks.' He cursed as he gulped down an entire wine jar in his throat.
….
After ten long hours, Felix finally regained consciousness while still inside the pod. He was a bit dazed at the start but soon figured out his current situation.
'Sigh, why everything needs to be so painful.' Felix let out a long sigh of relief after recalling what he had been through earlier.
'If you want to break your limits, pain and struggle are necessary.' Lady Sphinx looked at him from across the room and said, 'Without them, anyone could break their limits constantly.'
'I just wish it didn't hurt like hell.' Felix laughed bitterly.
'Don't worry, it was worth it.' Lady Sphinx smiled, 'You can now use both elements freely as long as you make sure that you choose a primary element and a secondary element.'
'Freely but choose primary and secondary?' Felix was delighted by the first half but confused by the second.
'Wait, let me get you out of there before we talk about this.' Lady Sphinx clicked on a button and the green liquid within the pod suddenly began to get suctioned off.
Thud!
Felix fell on the pod's floor powerlessly, feeling too exhausted to stand up on his own. The straps soon freed his limbs while the oxygen mask got withdrawn back.
Then, the pod's glass opened up and Lady Sphinx offered Felix a small bottle. Felix drank it without asking questions as he already knew its effects.
In a few moments, the exhaustion was gotten rid of and he started to feel refreshed yet again.
He quickly dried himself and then wore his nanosuit. When Lady Sphinx saw that he was finally comfortable, she pushed a seat towards him and sat nearby.
"First, tell me how do you feel?" She asked.
"Normal?" Felix replied while checking himself.
Lady Sphinx nodded her head and said, "There will be moments in the near future, where your skin would start to feel itchy but no matter how you scratch it, the feeling won't go away."
Felix was slightly terrified upon hearing so.
He knew that he would rather have his limbs cut off than experience this unscratchable itchiness!
It was pure torture!
"Was there an issue in the experiment?" He asked worriedly.
"No, this is because the seal on the inscription will start to weaken after some time." Lady Sphinx explained, "However, don't worry, the moment you start feeling itchy, you just need to bath yourself in the same liquid for a couple of hours. It will help reinforce the seal, which will extend its period."
Seeing his confusion, she clarified, "You see, it's impossible for two inscriptions to coexist in the same body if the owner didn't have perfect control over them. For you who is still struggling in the 2nd stage of elemental manipulation, obtaining that control is still merely a dream."
"So, I created two types of baths that will help you seal one inscription of your choosing. The sealed inscription will make it impossible for you to utilize external manipulation of that element." Lady Sphinx concluded her explanation.
Felix filled in the gaps on his own, "That's what you meant by choosing primary and secondary elements. If I decided to seal lightning inscription, I will be able to use poison element freely but for lightning element, I can only use internal abilities."
"Correct." She agreed.
Felix would be lying if he said that he wasn't disappointed at being able to freely control both elements internally and externally.
But, nothing could be done when his shitty elemental talent was holding him back.
Reaching a 100% affinity rating was merely the start. Going above it requires elemental talent and Felix had non of it due to his neutral race.
After all, he wasn't born from a race that uses poison since birth like scorpions or serpents. He wasn't born in a race that utilizes lightning.
The human neutrality allowed him to own multiple perfect manipulations but it cursed him with garbage talent in using them.
This was the universal balance.
"At least, I have a way to increase my affinities and get better, unlike other races who are completely stuck with a single element forever." Felix snickered, "I will take this limitation any day in the week."
"Couldn't agree less." Jörmungandr smiled with a pleased expression.
After recovering his spirit, Felix closed his eyes shut and felt the energies within his body.
Promptly, he noticed that his sensation of lightning energy was ten times better than poison energy.
This allowed him to figure out that his poison element was the one sealed.
He had no problems with that since he wanted to play around with both external and internal lightning abilities.
'Let's start with something simple.' Felix thought of creating three small lightning spears and applied the same method he used with the poison element.
Szlzlzlz!
In less than a millisecond, three flickering spears manifested above his palm and remained suspended there!
"It's not difficult at all." Felix played with the spears with a pleased expression.
He always believed that he would require to go through the same boring and repetitive practice to master internal lightning abilities.
"When it comes to simple abilities that require only elemental energy, the methods at your disposal are universal." Jörmungandr taught, "But, if you wanted to use unique abilities like supersonic speed, electromagnetic control…etc, naturally you will need to muster their own methods."
"I understand." Felix gave a slight head nod while snapping his finger, getting rid of the lightning spears.
For now, he was certain that he could use most of the internal lightning abilities. That was already going to be a huge help in his upcoming games.
"Though, I will be having difficulty with external abilities since my lightning affinity is even worse than poison affinity." Felix massaged his temple as he pondered, "To be able to remove the seal completely, I need to reach the 3rd stage at least in one element."
Felix never felt as needy to increase his improvement in elemental manipulation as now.
However, wanting it wouldn't change the fact it was going to be extremely difficult and dangerous.
After all, the only way to hasten his progress was by meditating in a place extremely rich with his desired element.
"I have some couple places that are immense with lightning energy. Though, I don't know if they are still hidden or not since it's been a long time." Thor shared some good news.
Just as Felix wanted to thank him for his suggestion, Jörmungandr jumped out of nowhere and said calmly, "I have already given him a couple of names for rich poisonous areas long ago. I was merely waiting for him to finish with the experiment before leading him there."
"Oho?" Thor snickered as he eyed Jörmungandr indifferently, "My spots are in my main galaxy which is a mere couple of millions of light-years away unlike yours. Do you really want him to cross half the universe right now?"
"Did you forget to mention that the milky way galaxy is on the way of mine? He would need to head there first if he wanted to hunt down void creatures with his own people." Jörmungandr retorted.
"Old fart, don't make me laugh!" Thor still laughed loudly, "Lady Sphinx had yet to receive a response from the Void Primogenitor! Hunt void creatures? He should think about it when he at least secures the Void Primogenitor's bloodline and permission!"
As they were bickering, Lady Sphinx and Asna could only stare at them with a bemused expression, not wanting to interrupt them.
Meanwhile, Felix was already starting to sweat from his forehead, knowing that the situation wasn't going well for him!
He completely forgot that Thor and Jörmungandr were rivals!
So how could they allow their most prized element to be surpassed by their rival's element?!
