Arnold stood in the middle of the deserted grounds. His eyes seemed to be looking at something. Yet there was nothing in front of them. At least nothing that the automatons observing him, could see with their electronic eyes. But in reality, Arnold was trying to make a life-changing decision. 

He had been confident about his choice. He might've liked darkness but he secretly despised it as well. Moreover, darkness can not defeat darkness. Since Nicole most probably had shadow affinity choosing shadow affinity for him was pointless. If he wanted to just increase his strength, then he would've gone for Shadow affinity. But right now, he needed to become powerful in hopes of defeating Nicole but not kill her, and light affinity was where Arnold would like to place his bet right now.

Technically, he already had the shadow affinity for himself. Natasha had shadow affinity, and she was under his command meaning he could pretty much use it as he pleased. But then again, he also had Amanda working under him as well, so he had both, the light as well as the shadow affinity. However, Natasha was a summon and could be resurrected multiple times even if Nicole destroyed her. Whereas Amanda on the other hand was a human. 

If Arnold was to fight Nicole with her alongside, Nicole would eliminate Amanda out of the equation first, because firstly, Arnold was immune to her skills. And secondly, he was pretty sure Nicole's system would alert her about Amanda and her affinity. Once Nicole turned Amanda into dust, and then not even Talos' resurrection ability would be able to resurrect her and he would be pretty much screwed at that point. Thus he needed to have the Light affinity with him. 

He was also sure that learning light affinity might trigger some unique quest or shit, as it was a super rare affinity. The varied applications of this affinity made it even more useful. However, he knew levelling it up would be a difficult task. If he follows his plans and learns light affinity, then he'd have to solely focus on levelling the skills he would earn by learning it. A low-level light skill might not be enough to defeat Nicole's high levelled skills. Yet his hands were tied. Thus he decided he'll burn that bridge when he crosses it. Choosing light was the most logical option at this time. That's all he cared about right now. 

'It seems I'm going to be busy for a while.' Arnold mumbled. The message still flashing on his interface. 

___

Found two affinity scrolls in the inventory. Please select the one you would like to learn now:

• Light

• Shadow

[Please note that you'll only be able to learn another affinity after your intelligence reaches 360 points.]

[It would now require 10 points to increase the intelligence by 1 point.]

___

He took a deep breath and chose, 'Light.'

___

REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED.

LEARNING...

LEARNING...

LEARNING...

YOU'VE SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED [ Light ] AFFINITY.

You've unlocked new compatible ability(s):

• [ Guardian Angel ] : (Active ability) Summons a Guardian Angel from heaven. The Guardian is indestructible and will only disappear once the duration of this skill runs out. As long as the Guardian Angel is alive, no harm can be done upon the user but summoning the Guardian has its demerits.

Every hit the Guardian takes would drain the summoner's mana by half of the amount of damage taken. Moreover, The guardian cannot generate mana on its own and hence the mana required by the Guardian to use its skills are consumed from the summoner's mana. 

[ Rank: S]

[Mana cost: 2000]

[Duration of summoning: 5 minutes]

[COOLDOWN: 1 month]

• [ Heavenly Blessing ] : (Active Ability) When Guardian Angel appears on the battlefield, nearby allied units (Up to 10) receive the Heaven's blessings which immediately restores their mana and HP by 50%, while allied units having Light affinity gain 80% of their respective maximum values. When this skill is activated, all units (Allied or not) having shadow affinity receive a debuff and their Mana and HP are reduced by half and the cooldown for all their skills in doubled (this effect never fails). The more mana is consumed for activation of this skill, the prolonged its effect is.

After successful activation of this skill, the Guardian Angel receives special buff and it's HP doubles. 

The user is prompted before activation of the skill. This skill will level up according to the level of the Guardian Angel. 

[ Rank: SS ]

[Mana cost: minimum mana required 10000 or more] (80% of max mana is recovered immediately after activation as per the effect of the skill). 

[Maximum Duration: 2 minutes (mana consumed: 20000)]

[Cooldown: 3 months]

Due to the effect of the title [Killer Of The Masses] the skill(s) have been upgraded to level 5.

___

Arnold let out a sigh of relief as he read the description of the second ability he had obtained. Like the way he thought, the summoning ability was nothing but a pit for endless consumption of his mana. He would supposedly lose mana every time the Guardian was attacked, he thought this was ridiculous but there was nothing he could do. 

The abilities he gained were without a doubt, overpowered. Hell, even calling them overpowered would be an understatement. The drawback, however, was pretty serious. 

Yet, the problem itself offered a solution as well. He could recover the mana by using [Heavenly Blessing]. Still, Arnold was going to stock up on extra-large mana potions once the shop was accessible again. He wasn't going to take any chances. Not anymore. 

The skill, [Heavenly Blessing] had also been automatically upgraded to level 5 so that was also a relief. At least he wouldn't need to start levelling up the skills from the scratch. He wasn't sure how high Nicole's skills were, but he thought they would've been between level 10-15 at maximum. Right now, he regretted not using the [Probe] skill on his sister. If he had done that while he could, he wouldn't need to be worried about her skills. But for now, he could only assume what her skills were. 

'I need to finish the ascension quest as soon as I can.' He thought, 'Once I finish it, I would be able to use the surplus exp I have to level up instantly and gain a few potential points which I could then use to level up my new skills.'

His resolve to finish the ascension quest was greater than ever. But before he could put his resolve into practice, another message flashed before his eyes. 

___

You can combine your existing affinities to learn an [Mythical] affinity. 

___

"Say what!?"