When the Mana Source for darkness entered Shang's left arm, it began to clash with the light. The two of them began to fight, just like the fire and ice were fighting.
However, the darkness and light began to rotate clockwise, the opposite of the other two.
In the end, Shang had fire and ice rotating counter-clockwise and light and darkness rotating around them in the opposite direction.
It looked like some form of weird whirlpool.
"What can you do now?" the dean asked.
Shang looked at his left arm with confusion.
Yes, what could he do now?
Shang lifted his left arm and pointed it at the wall. Then, he willed the light to become active.
As he willed it, a shining beam of light came out of Shang's arm, forcing him to protect his eyes.
However, nothing else had happened.
'Do I have the ability of a flashlight now?' Shang thought, but before he could think more, he got distracted by a feeling of pain coming from his left arm.
Shang looked over, and his eyes widened in horror.
Was this still his arm?!
What did his arm look like?
Old.
Decrepit.
Unhealthy.
pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ Injured.
It was like Shang's left arm was the left arm of an old man on his deathbed.
As Shang looked at his left arm, he felt a feeling of disconnect. This didn't look like his arm at all!
However, Shang still managed to make the logical connection as to what the beam of light had actually accomplished.
If his arm was old, decrepit, and weak, the beam of light should have done the opposite.
'So, logically, that beam of light is supposed to heal others?' Shang thought with confusion. 'I don't think it would work on me since it also injures me to an equal degree. At best, I could probably transfer my injuries from all over my body to my left arm, but that isn't very useful.'
Shang looked forward. 'The beam of light has taken the vitality of my left arm and unleashed it into the surroundings.'
'So, if I use darkness…'
Shang pointed forward and willed darkness to be unleashed.
SSHHH!
Some wind appeared in front of Shang and got absorbed into his arm. However, the wind wasn't very powerful, and Shang didn't see his arm healing at all.
'Since I didn't absorb any vitality, my arm didn't get healed, which makes sense. I can unleash my vitality at basically anything, but it doesn't always have an effect. However, I can't absorb vitality from stuff that doesn't have vitality,' Shang thought.
Then, Shang looked at the dean.
The dean knew what Shang wanted and lifted his arm. "Don't overdo it. If you absorb too much, you might explode."
Shang nodded and willed for his arm to unleash darkness.
However, nothing had happened, which made Shang frown. 'I can unleash all my other abilities from range, but darkness apparently needs me to touch the other person.'
Shang walked over to the dean and grabbed his wrist. Then, Shang willed darkness to take effect.
In an instant, Shang's left arm felt like it was about to explode, and Shang quickly stopped.
After looking over, Shang noticed that his left arm was extremely muscular and almost swollen.
When Shang saw that, cold sweat ran down his back. 'I nearly absorbed too much!' he thought with fear.
Shang quickly pointed to the dean and unleashed some healing light to reduce the vitality in his left arm, making it normal again.
Luckily, his arm was no longer injured.
'So, if I absorb too much vitality, as long as it's not enough to make my arm explode, my arm can be fully healed,' Shang thought as he scratched his chin.
'That gives me a way to reset my other abilities. I could use some heat to cool my arm down, use a lot of cold to injure my enemy and injure my left arm, and then just absorb their vitality to regain my ability to do the same thing again.'
'Theoretically, it's an infinitely repeatable cycle. In a way, I'm using my enemy's power against them. I absorb their power, use it to injure them, and then absorb more of their power.'
"I think I know what your Affinity is," the dean suddenly said.
When Shang heard that, his thoughts got pulled back to the present.
Right, what was his Affinity, actually?
An Affinity for the sun would make sense with fire and light, but it wouldn't make sense with darkness and ice.
An Affinity for Temperature would make sense with fire and ice, but it didn't make sense with light and darkness.
An Affinity for Twilight would make sense with light and darkness, but it wouldn't make sense with fire and ice.
What about some kind of Affinity involving the universe? There were ice planets and stars. One would be darkness and ice, and the other would be fire and light.
However, that also wouldn't make any sense. After all, if this were some form of cosmic Affinity, it would need to include normal planets as well, and Shang had no Affinity with Earth.
Then, what was it?
The dean saw Shang's expression. "An Affinity doesn't always have to be something that actually exists. It can also be a concept."
"A concept?" Shang asked.
The dean nodded. "Let's take temperature, for example. Temperature doesn't really exist as its own thing. It is simply a state of matter. A higher temperature means that the piece of matter has more energy. A low temperature means that it doesn't have much energy."
"So, in a way, temperature doesn't really exist."
"Something else is poison. Yes, it is something that exists, but different kinds of poison are poisonous to different beings. Something that we see as poisonous might not be poisonous to some plants or animals. So, in their world, the poison isn't poison, but food or water."
Shang nodded. The dean knew many things, and Shang valued the opportunity to learn from him.
Shang still didn't like the dean for some reason, but he still respected him.
"I think you have an Affinity for Balance," the dean said.
"Balance?" Shang asked as he looked at his left arm with furrowed brows.
'High temperatures and low temperatures are in opposition, and they could be balanced. Light is also basically raw energy while darkness is the absence of energy.'
'So, I can essentially tweak the amount of energy?' Shang thought.
"Why Balance?" Shang asked. "It feels more like a form of energy manipulation."
"If it were a form of pure energy manipulation, you would have also had an Affinity for Wind. After all, wind is just movement, and movement also represents energy. Yet, you don't have an Affinity for it," the dean said.
Shang frowned when he heard that.
Balance?
Was it truly just that?
Sure, Balance was a rather abstract concept when compared to other Affinities, but it still felt incomplete to him for some reason.
"It somehow still feels incomplete," Shang said with uncertainty.
The dean furrowed his brows and looked at Shang's left arm.
"How do you perceive the Mana Sources in your left arm?" he asked.
"Fire and Ice are fighting each other in a counter-clockwise rotation. Light and darkness are fighting each other around the other two in a clockwise rotation," Shang said.
The dean nodded. "Is there something additional or different somewhere in the center?"
Shang concentrated and focused on his left arm.
However, he didn't feel anything that shouldn't be there.
"No, it's only these four things," he said.
The dean frowned. "Then, that means that your Affinity hasn't truly unveiled itself yet. If the Mana Sources are still separate, it means there is still a missing component."
"However, I have already given you one of all the possible Mana Sources in existence. There are no more Affinities."
When Shang heard the dean's words, he got reminded of something else he wanted to discuss.
It might be related to the issue with his Affinity.