Chapter 91: VOL 2 Chapter 36: Synergistic affinities.
In the lists that Erik was compiling, the initial Ascended-level ranks—from novice to expert—were written without much more information than a counter enumerating the number of people in that rank, divided by affinity. Except for one in the expert rank, which was written separately and enclosed in a box.
Although, for obvious reasons, the box didn't contain a name, it did have a unique identification number plus a brief description of the person's physical appearance. Additionally, something that surprised the women a bit was that Erik had marked him as someone with two affinities.
Starting from the expert rank, all the subsequent ranks more commonly included a unique identification number and a slight description of the person, as well as their respective affinities. This indicated that Erik had paid special attention to them as potential threats in the tournament.
After a while, Erik finished writing in his notebook and sighed with relief. He then handed the notebook to his masters with an amused smile; after all, they seemed incredibly interested in what he had written.
"So you can read it at your leisure." Erik commented playfully as he handed his notebook to Eleonora, who was beside him. She smiled somewhat embarrassedly and said.
"Fufu, thank you."
As Erik began to eat happily, Sigrún and Seraphina gathered around Eleonora to examine Erik's notes more carefully. After all, they were truly a surprise to them, since they contained different findings from the results of the investigation they had conducted on their disciple's—or young master's—potential competitors. In their research, they had only marked about 20 as possible threats, far from the more than 30 threats highlighted in the notes.
But what really surprised them was that there ended up being seven people with double affinities, even though in their investigation they had only found four. Of those four, two had hidden it quite well, requiring some effort to confirm the information. But now Erik, in just a couple of hours and in a completely stealthy manner without raising suspicions, had not only managed to detect those two who liked to hide. He had also seemingly discovered three more who had managed to evade their network.
"Erik, are you sure there are seven people who have double affinities?"
After reviewing the notes several times to make sure she wasn't misreading, Sigrún asked, a bit confused, while looking at the star-haired boy who was eating at high speed. He quickly took a sip from a glass of what seemed to be wine, then responded with a smile.
"Quite sure; I checked several times. Seven had double affinities, and there was even one with synergistic affinities."