After the two ladies calmed down from his teasing, Max decided to focus on the level-up first. After defeating the wraith of Baron Marcus, he had received a lot of EXP, so he was quite excited for the power-ups.
Before that, however, he had a small task to attend to. He turned to look at Stelle and said, "Go ahead and absorb the Mana Shard."
Stelle didn't say anything, but her face said it all as she just looked at him strangely.
"His soul is already purified, meaning you won't find any Remnants," Max said. "You can just directly absorb it. Oh yeah, tell me what kind of Skill is in that Skill Shard later."
Saying that, he walked from there.
'Big Sis, do it!' Max said, as he went to sit some distance away from the two sisters.
They also understood him, so they continued with their stuff, especially Stelle, who quickly began to absorb the Mana Shard.
As for Max, he was feeling a rush of unknown strength bubbling inside him. It was so intense that for a moment he expected himself to explode from the power-up.
That strange state lasted for a while and when it ended, Max felt completely refreshed and energized.
Feeling the strength rushing through his veins, he felt as if he could defeat the baron all alone. Of course, that was just an illusion.
He clenched his fists and smiled, 'Status!'
...
[Status Screen]
Name: Maxwell Corelhelm
Rank: Level 8, Bronze
Overall Level: 8
EXP: 12/139
Health: 100%
Stamina: 98%
Energy Reserves: 100%
...
'Damn! In just two or three days, I've reached Level 8!' Max sucked in a deep breath, suppressing the happiness bubbling inside of him.
While it seemed to be a small power-up, considering he had only leveled up twice even after defeating the Silver Rank Boss, he felt it was quite normal.
For once, he was now sure that Kafka purposely made it harder for him to get EXP by giving less mana than he would usually get from absorbing the Mana Shards.
The good side was that he could absorb the Mana Shards too, so his speed wouldn't be slowed down.
Secondly, leveling up gets harder and harder the more you level up, so gaining two levels at once was already a miracle.
Lastly, he had just taken two or three days to reach Level 8, when normally people would take a whole month and some even many months.
Even a genius like Stelle, who had a company of a Silver Rank healer, only reached Level 6 before meeting him.
Max was very happy with his pace of progress, even though he wanted to reach the peak of Bronze Rank after defeating the baron.
All of a sudden, the ceiling above him cracked as some debris fell down some distance away from him.
'They are still fighting?' Max's eyes shone as an idea formed inside his head. 'I can assimilate with The Heart's Desire at this time and it's also a perfect place to do so. Nobody will suspect anything.'
He licked his lips in excitement and called out to Charlotte, "Hey, you'll keep all of my secrets safe, right?"
"Yes, I am bound by Oath and even without it, I wouldn't have disclosed anything about you," Charlotte replied, sitting beside Stelle.
"Thanks!"
After thanking her, Max took out the colourful ball from the system storage. It looked so ordinary that anyone would have thrown it aside.
However, Max knew its true value as he was the one who had designed it.
'You won't give me much in the short term, but in the long term, nothing is better than you,' Max's lips tugged upwards as he saw a notification before him.
[Host is in contact with "The Heart's Desire". It is a Soul Bound Artefact.]
[Do you want to bind it?]
Just when Max was going to say yes, Kafka spoke in his mind.
[You sure want to do this? Your soul isn't strong enough to house any more Soul Bound Artefacts and it will have problems even with normal ones.]
'It's fine! These two are more than enough to take me to the end,' Max said, full of confidence. 'At most I'll just need some normal ones so I'll see to that later.'
[What about other Soul Bound Artefacts?]
'I will have my lovely wives, Big Sis, including you. I'll just give them all of that to strengthen them,' Max shrugged and said. 'Now please bind it.'
[Sure!]
[Ding! The binding is in process. As The Heart's Desire is a Divine Grade Artefact, only a part of it will be bound and as for the other part, it will slowly assimilate with Host's soul.]
Max bit his lips, feeling his soul being forcibly stretched by some invisible hands. It was worse than having his body ripped apart, and he wanted to cry out.
But he wasn't willing to let the two ladies see his miserable state, not yet at least. So he endured the process which lasted for a few seconds, though it certainly seemed like an eternity to him.
He gasped for air, as notifications sounded in his ear.
[Congratulations Host for successfully binding with the Heart's Desire.]
[Gained Chaos Affinity!]
[Chaos Affinity - Everything came from Chaos and one day shall return to it. Thus, having affinity to chaos means having affinity to every element.]
Instantly, Max felt different. His surroundings felt different, as if they had changed somehow. But that was only for him.
The world was made from different elements, and every element derived from the all-consuming Chaos. Having affinity to chaos gave him the power to feel and control every element present in the world.
And one day, possibly he would master them, ultimately leading him to become the master of chaos.
Things didn't end there, as Max knew the full potential of The Heart's Desire, and that showed in higher ranks when affinity to the world began to get serious.
Max couldn't suppress his excitement anymore and laughed loudly. However, even with all that, he knew that he shouldn't get arrogant.
After all, he now had the potential to be the strongest, but he wasn't the strongest being yet.
And many good plants had been crushed before they grew into a tall, powerful tree.