[Nightmare]

Chapter 27 [*Spirit Particles]

"Do you mean studying whether harem leaders will level up with the aid of their women?" Helix asked nervously with a racing heart.

"Exactly, it's an obligation we owe to our people.

Since you're a harem leader now, are you willing to sacrifice yourself for the cause?" Charlotte asked with a predatory gaze.

Helix gave her a truly pathetic smile and sighed.

"Seeing you four right now… I don't have the willpower to refuse even if I wanted to…." He confessed with a sigh.

Charlotte lit up in excitement, and the wave of excitement reached Marie shortly after.

"Especially when I have the opportunity to further high culture." He said while shaking his head.

"How can we test if the women in the harem can boost the leader's stats?" He asked with a teasing smile.

He knew the answer but figured she had to work a bit too.

"Let's see if I can do a spirit particle transfusion. That's a good start." Charlotte replied with a lustful gaze.

Marie looked down at the bed with a wry smile.

She had already done a transfusion, so it felt irrelevant.

"Marie." Helix called out.

The young woman looked at him with wide eyes.

"I know you've already done one, but we don't know if it will work a second time.

Culture requires science." He joked with a charming smile.

Charlotte burst into laughter but suppressed it low enough not to cause chaos in the ward.

"Are you willing to do some testing?"

Marie immediately nodded, and he gave her a charming smile.

Helix turned to face Charlotte and allowed his eyes to wander.

Her body heated up.

"I like your idea, and feel that testing is a mission as crucial to the world as it is shameless." Helix chuckled.

Charlotte laughed quietly.

"Alright, let's begin, shall we?

Marie, would you be willing to give us a rundown of spirit particle transfusions?" He asked while turning to Marie.

—

"To do a spirit particle transfusion, you must circulate all spirit elements into your lungs and then…." Marie instructed before pausing.

"Breathe them into Helix's lungs." She said with a red face.

"*Kiss him." Charlotte corrected dismissively.

"S-Spirit particles aren't mana." Marie continued quickly.

All of the women had moved their chairs to the left side of the room for her lecture.

"There are seven forms of spirit particles.

The seven forms are fire, water, gravity, acceleration, electricity, air, and signals." She explained.

"While our Nightmares instinctively activate the particles we need, we must learn to utilize the necessary particles for other spells.

You can think of your Nightmare and stat development as a helper system for that reason."

Helix gave her an [I'm impressed] expression while the other women nodded.

"Luckily, there is only one [spirit particle], so calling the various forms is not limited by an affinity.

Once it reaches your lungs, it breaks apart into seven forms and flows to your body differently.

However, calling upon each type is a separate process."

Charlotte's eyes widened after Marie dropped the bombshell.

The other women were stunned as well.

,m "W-Why are you all looking at me like that?" Marie asked.

"There's only one that contains all seven properties?" Riley asked.

Helix sighed.

"Yes, it's lucky. If there were seven types of particles, it would be chaotic, dangerous, and impossible most of the time.

Parts of spells would be released while lacking the other parts.

Moreover, we'd revert to humans if the air didn't contain all seven elements.

Agility makes us lighter with gravity decrease.

Then we become faster with the acceleration particles.

Like our Nightmares, our superhuman capabilities are passive skills granted by Myriad without our knowledge.

However, we must control them if we want to use or create spells." He explained.

"Our SP category only measures the reserve our bodies are capable of holding."

All of the women stared at him with gawking expressions.

"What? How do you think I've been creating and using magic circles?

Just because I used to have a tiny reserve doesn't mean that I'm useless." He chuckled.

"N-No, no. I'm just impressed.

I don't even think that Macron understands how our stats work…." Marie replied.

"Daaaaaaaaamn. The Myriad Library is a broken joke." Charlotte commented.

"Only if you read…." Riley commented.

Charlotte's face blushed, and she turned away with an annoyed expression.

"Go on." Helix requested with a slight smile.

"Yes…. The best way to gain control is by learning how to extract each part and assigning it a color.

By identifying all seven and visualizing them going through your body, you can control them." She explained.

"You can assign colors how you like.

It's most common for the colors to be in the form of the rainbow spectrum.

The mapping is as follows: fire red, strength orange, electricity yellow, gravity green, water blue, acceleration indigo, and signals violet." She continued.

"To do the transfusion, you close your eyes, visualize each color, control their flow into your lungs, and finally breathe them out.

That's all you have to do."

Charlotte gave Marie a mocking glance.

"Appreciate it, genius. Just one question… how the hell do you do that?

You make it sound like you just ask the particles to come, and they do." She asserted with an annoyed expression.

"I-I… just think about it, and it happens…." Marie replied awkwardly.

The other women in the room gave her a bitter expression.

Helix clapped.

"Attention. Stereotypical anime clapper here." He announced.

Helix chuckled when he saw how attentive they were.

"I don't mean to downplay Marie's talent or insinuate the process is easy." He began.

"But I'd like to reiterate that you all are using the spirit particles in the air to control your stats passively.

It comes to you with the same thoughtlessness as moving your hands." Helix reasoned.

"So before you feel let down, close your eyes, visualize the seven types, and ask them to gather in your lungs."

Helix gave them a gentle smile when they saw the inspired yet hesitant expressions they wore.

"If you're worried about failure, please don't.

I feel cringe-worthy-ly shameless saying this, but I don't mind helping you practice and improve your magical capabilities tonight." He chuckled with a self-deprecating smile.

Marie's eyes widened.

"This is all just a hypothesis. I… don't remember how I did it…." She announced with a bashful expression.

"Nice try, savant. The talented don't fail." Charlotte declared while sticking out her tongue.

Marie blushed with a bitter smile.

"Marie, since the others don't know how to do it, you'll need to demonstrate every time someone fails." Helix laughed.

Charlotte puffed out her cheeks with annoyance, and Marie's eyes sparkled.

'Elise… if this is your doing… I'll thank you just this once.' He sighed with a hopeless smile.

Seeing the women's excited faces, he didn't know what to say.

But he wasn't going to pass this magical training session up.

"Does anyone want to… be the first to further our people's culture?" Helix asked with a hesitant tone.

"Rock paper scissors!" Charlotte declared.

"You need a demonstration first, dummy!" Marie snapped with her characteristic vigor.

"Can't we battle for it?" Riley asked.

"No! It's the battle of the blushes, Riley.

Marie, someone needs to give practical feedback.

If you don't, we won't understand your description more." Charlotte reasoned.

"T-That would be helpful." Emelia added shyly.

When Emelia got involved, Marie panicked.

"Rock paper scissors!" She announced with a panicked expression.

Charlotte gave her an evil grin.

"Let's get started then. Are you all ready?" Charlotte asked.

"Y-Yes." Emelia stuttered while pushing out her fist with a determined expression.

Riley nodded and thrust her hand out like a fist.

Marie nodded with a serious expression.

"Rock… Paper… Scissors, shoot!"

—

[A/N: I thought this was a charming way to drop an info dump on the readers. Thoughts? ;)]

Disclaimer: Grammatical mistakes and minor inconsistencies = more content.