All of a sudden, Kyon’s mind was in a state of intense turmoil followed by delight and then endless gratitude to... To himself!

It was most certainly coming from the girl lying under him. Weird! Before that he could feel only those emotions that originated from darkness or light. Gloom and cheerfulness that these mysterious elements emanated were too strong and could even change his mood affecting directly his soul.

Usually, people's emotions should be quiet and no soul could hear them. However, he heard everything perfectly well! Her feelings had literally entered his soul where he could experience them himself. It should not be like this! Too powerful connection! The gratitude that he could hear in her soul made him feel like hugging her!

Kyon turned and looked into Juno's green eyes. Why was this cutie staring at him as affectionately as a kitten who had been rescued from a wild dog?! Her eyes welled up with tears. Her long eyelashes trembled. A delicate smile played on her thin lips. Her little pink lips moved as if whispering something.

{What is going on here?!} - Kyon was amazed for the umpteenth time today. He could feel the previously inactive light core in his soul spin rapidly. It was feeding on bright feelings emanating, with no doubt, from Juno’s soul. Ten turns... Twenty... Thirty...

Kyon was in complete shock. Where did she get so many bright emotions?! He had recently raised her three stages and she felt nothing! Could the events in the illusory world impress her soul so much that it was now converting them into bright emotions?!

He felt the core fill quickly with light energy... At the 97th turn, (which added up to the hundredth) his soul flashed a light into his body. Pleasant pacifying warmth spread to his every cell. The flow of his mind became easy and smooth. Out of the blue, he wanted to become a righteous man bringing joy and love to the world. The core continued to spin slowly.

Kyon seized the moment of the personality crisis and shook his mind with Synergy that returned him from the “good” state to the normal one. It was at this moment he knew that his Synergy had risen from the intermediate level of Newbie degree (1) to the advanced! It became twice as powerful. Now he would find it easier to develop his body, resist Kara’s curse, get out of Dinah’s paws! There was a peak level ahead, and then the beginning level of the Student degree.

When he appeared in this world, he was at the beginning of the Newbie degree. He reached the intermediate level when he connected with his soul. With each next level, it was getting stronger. Kyon calculated that his Synergy would reach the advanced level of Newbie degree when he was in the beginning stage of the advanced phase (1-3rd stage). However, a single contact with Juno’s soul had immediately upgraded his element of mind to a whole important level!

Just then Lovr was in for another shock. He raised to the 8th stage of the base phase.

{Come on?! That’s an option?!} – When he saved the girl in the illusory world, he upgraded to a whole stage, filled the core with bright feelings to the brim, activated his unique body, and also upgraded Synergy development from the intermediate to advanced level of Newbie degree!

Did it mean that he could continue to develop with this hit-or-miss method? Kyon would gladly confirm this idea if not for a strange heaviness in his soul. He had no idea what would have happened to him if he had died in that illusory world. It was a risky undertaking, after all.

Juno was choking on her own feelings of gratitude and appreciation. She could finally let out a whisper that caressed Kyon’s ears like a spring breeze:

«Master… You… Who are you?»

Kyon shook his head. He hadn’t got over the changes that occurred to him. He backed away from the bed until he collapsed into a chair nearby.

«Master, I am so grateful to you! I…»

«Do you remember everything?» – Kyon asked, surprised.

«What are you talking about? I feel eternal gratitude to you for raising my development to the first stage of the second phase! I... I didn’t know that you could do it! You are a wizard, aren't you?»

Kyon's eyes widened. Did she also upgrade her development upon the contact with his soul? It’s impossible! But his soul didn’t lie! He could really feel her development! Even too well... His spiritual feeling had been like the sight of an old dog before... Could it be a bonus from his unique body? Not bad!

As far as he knew, to jump to the next phase, he needed breakthrough medicine and long hard work with his soul in the state of meditation. And even so, the gratitude from the Juno’s soul was too strong! The last three stages stirred her emotions to the level that she gave him three turns of the core. And then another one, even if raising the young lady to the advanced phase, had suddenly given the remaining 97? Of course not. It doesn’t work like that. The girl’s salvation from hungry animals in the illusory world must have been imprinted in her soul. And now her soul was sending signals of gratitude to her stupid brain that failed to rationally determine the cause and “shoved” everything for her gratitude for raising the stages.

Everything fell into place. Psychology works like this. If somebody loves a jerk they will come up with reasons for doing it. If someone wastes time on things that are meaningless from a logical point of view, soon they will find some non-existent positive aspects of this activity. The brain does not like dissonance, it tries to connect the unrelated. Just like the people of antiquity came up with the idea of gods to stop being afraid of lightning and natural disasters. Juno had also justified her emotions by Kyon’s raising her stage. In fact, this ungrateful scum had simply relived the meeting with the beasts. Only now Kyon was her savior, not that golden-haired girl.

«Master, say something! Can you really raise someone’s stage of development?!» - Juno asked him compulsively, hurriedly getting out of the bed.

«You are such a fool! I am not a god! Your unique body responds to the key cleaning and raises development.»

«Ahhh! I get it! My flower in my soul felt the fresh air and thanked me by raising the stages!» - the girl rejoiced.

«Something like that.» - Kyon agreed skeptically and frowned thoughtfully, his two fingers on the chin. – {I can assume where her gratitude comes from. But why do I still feel her emotions like they are mine?}

Kyon wanted to test one theory. He walked away from Juno to the other side of the room and found out that her emotions transferred to his soul had greatly weakened. When he approached her, they intensified. If he moved away from her by 15 meters (about 50 ft) this spiritual (not otherwise) connection ended completely.

Juno's joy gradually subsided. She watched in bewilderment the servant pacing around her room. {What the hell is he doing?}

Juno caught herself thinking that she could no longer take him as her “servant”. She didn’t like it and it was wrong. She decided to promote his rank to her personal assistant. After his extravagant upgrade in development to the second phase and his crazy performance at the party, as well as his becoming a Stone of the 4th rank, she couldn’t consider the talented young man a servant.

Kyon moved on to the next experiment. He sent to his mind emotions of fear like those that children feel in the dark. After a couple of seconds, he was surprised to notice Juno's eyes widen with fear. She was infected by his emotions.

{Holy cow! Can she feel my emotions?!} - Kyon felt uneasy. They seemed to have grown a strong spiritual connection that broke off within 15 meters (about 50 ft) of distance.

At some point, Juno bit her lip so much it hurt. She disheveled her hair and shook her head.

«Can I really feel your emotions and feelings?! Why do you emanate fear?! What have you done? Answer me!»

Kyon looked reproachfully at the sky. {Haven’t you fucked up this world, dear god? What were you thinking about when you set the laws of the universe?}

He took a deep breath and came up to Juno. He infused her soul with Synergy just to confirm his guess.

This time he had no trip to the illusory world. Kyon could easily move around Juno’s soul, studying its every nook and cranny. In the area of her loins, he found a graceful flower of beautiful shape that symbolized her unique body. It was the divine lotus of development.

At that moment, Juno cringed. She had experienced something unknown to her. A certain substance was pouring into her soul caressing and enveloping her.

Juno opened her eyes. She couldn’t believe what was happening. Her mind was empty.

{I see... The frequency of Juno’s has become similar to mine. I have captured her soul and changed its tonality to my own! Now our souls resonate and catching the waves of emotions that once were weak.} - Kyon realized.

Apparently, the feeling of heaviness in his soul meant overload. It was either the restriction of heaven, if there was any, or Juno’s soul was a too heavy burden for Kyon’s being... One thing was clear to him. He couldn’t capture all souls without exception and it didn’t look like an endless free ride. Most likely if he had died in the illusory world, he would have died in the real one, too. However... He supposed that with the development of this soul he could capture more of them. In the future, he would understand when he could take over souls. His feelings would guide him.

Kyon infused Juno’s body with Synergy to confirm his theory experimentally. There was no resistance, indeed. It was like floating in his own body.

Now they couldn’t harm each other with elemental attacks. Their energies would flow unhindered through their bodies. Each of them would feel the emotions of the other as their own, especially when they are very close to each other.

As Kyon was a master of ten elements, he had full power over Juno’s body. If the girl removes the formation from her forehead, he could infuse her with Synergy and instantly suppress her, change her mood or make her suffer in pain. Or he could use the terrible spatial attribute that was insignificant in the battle but could easily flow through the body.

Thus, he could always break Juno with one touch even if she gained tremendous power. Now, clearing her keys, he didn’t have to worry about his safety. Given his talent, Juno didn’t have a chance to resist him even without the resonance of their souls.

A pleasant feeling of being an invader swept over Kyon. The idea that he had taken from Juno the most precious and made her his property was intoxicating.

Meanwhile, Juno was emitting emotions of despair and lack of understanding.

«Master, I am begging you... Answer me, please!»

Kyon looked down on her with a victorious look, gave her a vile smile and left her chamber, leaving the girl to die from an invasion of her questions and endless theories.

«You are a terrible person! I hate you! You cannot make a young lady suffer from curiosity!» - She shouted after him. There is no torture worse than ignorance.

Juno was sitting on her bed, hugging her knees and sobbing softly. She seemed to have lost something important that she could never return. Her assistant had taken it away... Countless questions occupied her mind like a swarm of bees. Why was there a certain substance in her soul? Why could she feel his emotions? Did he feel the same? Why was she so grateful to him?! She was the patriarch’s granddaughter, after all. She was always worthy of the best and she rarely thanked anyone for gifts. She hated Kyon! It was all because of him!

{Monster! Scumbag! You are not human! You’re so infuriating! Arrr! Once you pay me for everything!} - Juno found peace in hatred but it wasn’t enough. She needed some distraction, so she went to the training ground to test her new power.

Her heart will never be the same again.