Chapter 1262 Conduits
"What do we do now?" Umbra asked. "Do you fight it?"
"Maybe," Emma said. "How strong is it?"
Umbra looked at the Deer. "Essence Manifestation realm," she said. "As far as I'm aware, this thing isn't seeing us as a threat at all."
"Well, me and the kids are only in the 5 Sense Improvement realm, and you are so far beyond that it can't even sense you," Emma said. "It's understandable why it is not afraid of any of us."
"Do you want me to help?" Umbra asked. "Not that you would need any."
"No, I don't need your help," Emma said, looking toward the Deer in the distance, frowning a little as she did so."
"So what's the problem?" Umbra asked. "Why aren't you going? It's going to rain soon. We will need to leave."
"Yes, yes, I'm going," Emma said. "I'm… I'm just confused as to what to do exactly."
"Huh?" Umbra asked. "What do you mean? What are you confused about."
"I don't have any powers do I?" Emma said. "5 Sense Improvement realm gives me nothing and father hasn't given me any Essence Weapon. There isn't much I can do without using my real strength, but that's not very fun."
"Besides, I don't want to fight it. I'm not the sort of person that hurts others in the first place," she said.
Umbra found that a little hard to believe considering the 5 different people she had beaten up just a few hours ago.
"I don't have anything to tell you then," Umbra said. "If you can't fight, then I don't know how you are going to kill it."
"Kill it?" Emma looked toward Emma in confusion. "Why would I want to kill it?"
Umbra was a little taken aback. "Wasn't… that the mission of yours? To take that beast's corpse back?" she asked.
"No," Emma said. "I don't have to kill it for the mission."
"Oh," Umbra said. "I was mistaken then. I suppose you will have to take the deer back alive then."
"No," Emma said again. "The mission isn't to take back the deer at all."
"Then what is it?" Umbra asked in confusion.
Emma pointed. "See its antlers?" she asked.
Umbra looked at the glowing orange antlers as if she was looking at fire itself. "Yes," she said.
"That is what we're supposed to get," Emma said. "That Antler is apparently a natural conduit, and thus sells for a whole lot of money."
Umbra looked at the Deer and started walking toward it with Emma. They couldn't let it get too far away while they decided what to do with it.
"What is a conduit again?" Umbra asked.
"You see the sword my father used when absorbing?" Emma asked.
"Yes, that strong sword," she remembered. "Yes, that is a called a conduit. If you put your essence into it, you can create something from it even if you aren't using that type of Essence or aren't in the Essence manifestation realm yet."
"Conduits are anything that can help you convert the Essence in your body into something like an attack."
"As far as I'm aware, there are 3 types of Conduits."
"First, is the Natural conduit. The Flamelord deer's antler is a natural conduit."
"Second is the Man-made conduit. The sword my father has is a manmade conduit."
"Finally, the third ones are skills. They are conduits in the sense that they can be used to convert Essence into something else. You are familiar with these, but I am not."
Umbra nodded for a moment and asked, "Aren't the swords everywhere? I remember seeing those goons that my kids fought this morning carrying them. That is what you are talking about, right?"
"Yes," Emma said.
"Then why are the Deer's antlers going to make us rich when everyone has swords?" Umbra asked.
"Ah, that's because of the three conduits they all have their own advantage and disadvantages. Because of the conditions, the natural conduit is considered to be the best," Emma said.
"What sort of conditions?" Umbra asked.
"Hmm… what did father say again?" she thought. "Ah right, Flexibility and Essence Strength. Those are the conditions."
Umbra wasn't sure what Emma was talking about. "What are those?"
"Essence strength is simple to understand, right? It's just how strong the attacks end up becoming," she said. "Manmade conduits and Skills have scalable Essence strength, meaning they become strong with the user."
"However, a Natural conduit's Essence strength is capped at a certain level, depending on the conduit itself. That Flamelord Deer's antlers, for example, might not have an Essence strength over the Essence Manifestation realm. This gives it limited strength."
Umbra frowned a little. "That doesn't sound very good. Isn't that bad?" She asked.
"It is," Emma said. "But the Natural conduit makes up for it in its Flexibility."
"Flexibility is how flexible a conduit is at creating something," Emma explained. "For example, if I make a sword with all the water in a lake, I won't be able to create an attack with more water than what was in that lake."
"That is beacuse Man-made conduits have low flexibility. Skills in fact have no flexibility at all. You can only use a skill in just one way at all times."
"However, Natural conduits have extremely great flexibility," Emma said. "They can be used in any way, shape, or form. If I have a Natural Shadow Conduit, I could use any and all skills that you could. All I require is to know the skills and how they work."
"Now, imagine if the most anyone can reach in your city is Essence Manifestation realm, with only a handful ever reaching beyond that. You can see why they would love a natural conduit like this."
"They have no reason to care about its limited Essence strength and everything to care about its unlimited flexibility."
"That is why the natural conduits sell for so much," Emma said. "Once as large as that antler would sell for so much that we would never have to work another day for years and years on end."
