<h4>Chapter 289: Trust</h4>


    Date- 27 Mar 2321


    Time- 14:06


    Location- Sky Blossom City, Sky Blossom Card Stadium, VIP Box no.1


    “…” I realised that there are not two secrets that I would take to my grave but three secrets… Cmity soul core, Soul mutation method and physique and trait stats.


    “Got you! Haha. You should have seen the look on your face haha. You silly goose I can not believe you feel for it. It was a ruse to prank you. Did you forget you and I have a soul contract and I have to protect you from harm? And also there are many card apprentices with extra Physique or trait stat in the southern watch. So do not worry it is not a big deal if you have proper backing. ” Anna eximed, revealing that her words and actions earlier were just an act.


    “All that was an act?” I was still in alert mode. I would not take any chances when ites to my life.


    “Yes, it was all an borate n of mine to get back at you for trying to show off despite knowing that you are a cheat. A soul energy maniption skill and now a special physique or trait stat? If these ain’t cheats then what?” Anna exined that she did that to get back at me because she was jealous of my cards and talent.


    “borate n? Isn’t it quite far-fetched from what happened? But you do know that this stunt has made me more cautious towards you?” Yeah, I was just warming up to the idea of Anna as a friend and she had to pull the wrong prank. Now I will have a hard time trusting her.


    “Does it matter? you did not trust me from the start, anyway. I have been throwing myself at you for a while now, don’t you dare act dumb. You are aroused and attracted to me but you do not try to make a move on me even if I pinned you down. Not because of my numerous ex-lovers you are not that type of guy. It is because you cannot bring yourself to trust me and lower your guard in my presence.” Anna was spot on, I was not a prude to give up on a sure thing but I was calctive enough to know that fornication will lead to feelings which I rather not have towards someone I am not sure if I could trust yet.


    “…” Despite my thick skin, I was not shameless enough to ask her to teach me the next step to form Ego Gem after she poured her heart out. If I did that I wouldn’t just be shameless but considered as a jerk.


    “So, where were we? Yes, the purity of your soul energy is more than enough to nourish your ethereal spirit and conjure it to reality.” Anna chose to live the previous matter despite how hurt she was. Who wouldn’t be? Despite her status, she conjured enough courage and went out of her way to confess to the boy she likes and then help him in every way possible only to know that he did not even trust her yet? It was already a miracle that she did not leave instead stayed behind and decided to help me.


    I followed Anna’s guidance and fed my soul energy to my Ethereal spirit. The spirit greedily devoured the soul energy and started to form shape and gain presence. Feeding the spirit soul energy was like filling in colours to a picture. Ethereal spirit was a colourless picture that came to reality as I filled it with my soul energy, the metaphorical colour. After feeding it most of my spirit energy I found that the Spirit stopped. Seeing how it looked alive and real. I knew the spirit was full and had finally condensed to reality rather than ethereal.


    To test whether my spirit haspletely condensed to reality I tried to summon it to the outside world from within my soul just like Anna did earlier. As I willed it, my spirit was summoned in the outside world. Like Anna’s spirit which showed disgust to everything in existence, my Spirit carried an ominous quietly maniacal look in its eyes with a devious smile. Yep, that look sent a chill in my spin. As my spirit painted me as a psychopath. So I hurriedly recalled it. Now I understood how Anna felt showing her spirit.


    “No surprise there you conjured your spirit to reality faster than I thought. Now let’s head to the third and final stage. This should be easier. What am I saying? You achieved the first and second stages as easy as you were walking in a park, then this third step should be a lot like drinking water for you.


    Ask your spirit to surround itself with as much soul energy as possible. Andpress all the soul energy in a shape of your choice with the spirit in the centre. For optimum results I rmend you to choose a symmetrical design for your gem for example a sphere. This way you can easily know where the centre is as you forge your Ego Gem.” Anna tried to act unaffected by how fast I conjured my spirit to reality and started to guide me about thest step to forge the Ego Gem.


    “Wait! That’s it? I gather soul energy around with my spirit in the centre andpress the gathered soul energy into a shape of my choice to get an Ego Gem. How does that work? How can justpressing soul energy for a gem? That does not make sense.” Yes, this was the most illogical thing I had heard.


    “You fool, the third step is not for you but your spirit. All you have to do is gather enough soul energy with your spirit in the centre and hold it in a ce as your spirit starts to cocoon itself using the soul energy you have gathered.


    Now don’t ask how the spirit knows this? It’s like asking how caterpirs know to form cocoons? How do spiders know to weave their silk? They just do, ites naturally to them. Simrly our spirits also naturally know to forge a gem they just require our help in gathering the soul energy and hold it in ce.


    Now just shut up and form the gem. I have ces to be since you do not appreciate my presence anyway.” It was very awkward for Anna to stay behind after revealing that she knew that I was pretending to act dumb and did not trust her. She felt like running away and hiding in embarrassment but still, she forced herself to stay behind andplete the task. As it was not like a Heatsend to leave a job half-finished.