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Chakra Affinity is innate...

A practitioner cannot choose what kind of affinity they’d get to have. Most of the time, it’s been set the moment they’re born.

Some think that it’s genetic. Some think that it’s based on luck. Whatever it’s based on doesn’t change the fact that it’s innate, though.

And upon experiencing their initiation ceremony, that innate affinity comes alive too but will mostly remain dormant until the specific conditions are met.

The most common condition is when the practitioner begins practicing a martial art that is biased to a certain element.

Let’s take something called the ’Fire Fist,’ for example.

If a person had an innate affinity with the fire element, to them, practicing fire fist would feel easier, smoother, and more natural. They would most likely master it pretty quick. The way they learn it might even be instinctive, but that’s usually an indication that their fire affinity was on the higher side.

However, if someone with a water or ice affinity practiced Fire Fist instead, their chakra will communicate its repulsion to the idea to them. It’s like an allergic reaction; they’d feel bad, feel ill if they forced themselves to practice a technique biased to the element at the opposite spectrum of their innate affinity.

Not only will they feel disgusted by the practice, it’s almost certain that they won’t make any progress with it at all. No matter how much effort they put into it, most of that will just be wasted if they forced their way into this.

If their innate affinity turns out to not fall under the same category as their martial arts but also not be in contradiction. Nothing essential happens. Their chakra affinity remains dormant and silent. But it also wouldn’t let them know what kind of affinity they have in this way.

Or, it could also be possible that their affinity was simply just null or neutral, which is considered to be the worst, by the way.

Chakra affinity was an important aspect to a martial artist’s growth. It’s practically something that they cannot avoid forever.

It mostly stems from the idea that, eventually, an individual will be biased to a certain type of martial arts.

Most of the high-grade martial arts techniques out there are heavily biased towards a particular attribute, be that elemental or conceptual. Some are made specifically for a certain type of weapon; sometimes it’s heavily biased to a certain element instead. Other times, it could even be a mixture of both.

Either way, practicing high-grade martial arts will eventually cause a reaction in the practitioner. It could force their chakra to change in color, appearance, and feel; it could change them physically or emotionally; it could make them do certain things, etc.

Being the ’jack of all trades’ wasn’t an advisable path for any martial artist simply because the effort-to-reward ratio was nowhere near worth it.

It’s for this reason why most of the practitioners stick to their affinities and biases.

Elemental affinities, in particular, could be developed, though. Yes, one has an innate elemental chakra affinity, but they’re not ’cursed’ to only have one.

Practicing and learning a martial art of a particular elemental affinity and achieving good results from them could give birth to an affinity to that element eventually.

Doing this was usually challenging, but there were people in the past who relied on this very idea to turn their fates around.

The Elite Slime that Ren fought previously had a [Burning] status to it, which basically means that it’s of the fire element.

Its attacks left Ren hissing from being scalded by the heat. It leaves a trail of burned and charred ground in its wake, and its gelatinous body is simmering from its own heat.

This fight made it clear to him that he’s not yet equipped to handle elemental attributes.

To be fair, somebody in his level shouldn’t be expected to handle elemental attributes just yet. Only those at the Marrow Cleansing Stage and above should start worrying about those.

But it did make Ren see the advantages of wielding the power of elements.

Elemental attributes are forces of nature itself. By observing then, martial artists mimicked and created techniques specifically to harness or borrow the strength of nature itself.

Even for those who followed the ’Path of Arms,’ elemental affinity was an important aspect. It’s a facet of martial arts that they cannot ignore either.

Obviously, it’s something that Ren would have to handle sooner or later. So it wasn’t really a bad thing to start learning about them this soon. The earlier he does it, the more he understands, and the more time he has to incorporate them into his future path.

’I’m afraid that, because of the recent events, I might be developing affinities with the neutral or life attributes. Maybe one of the two, or even both. I’m not certain yet.’

Ren hasn’t felt his innate elemental affinity reacting to anything since he mostly focused on neutrally aligned martial arts, ones that didn’t ’stain’ his chakra with a bias and were easy enough to master.

The only martial art he practiced that had an elemental affinity was the Green Lotus Core Technique, which had the life attribute. But even this wouldn’t stain his chakra either. He designed it that way, after all.

However, the Green Lotus Core Martial Physique doesn’t have that kind of measure. Its effects were not to just increase the technique’s effectiveness on him by 300%; it also raises his affinity to neutral and life attributes.

So, it wasn’t really wrong for him to think this way.

Most people think that the ’neutral’ attribute was the worst kind of affinity. Because although it doesn’t stop them from practicing martial arts techniques of any attributes, it doesn’t have a bonus either, unlike a real bias.

The life attribute wasn’t bad. In fact, it’s one of the more illusive affinities out there. But this attribute was more keyed to survival and vitality. It won’t provide bonuses to this combat power, at least not directly.

Right now, Cedric was still 80% sure that his chakra hasn’t been ’stained’ just yet. He refused to believe that he’d miss the feeling if it ever happened.

But truthfully, even if he did develop a bias to neutral and/or life attributes, he wouldn’t be mad at it. That’s not the worst possible outcome.

Besides, with his main cheat, there’s no way he’d ever be limited to just these.

Actually, there are ways to discover a person’s elemental affinity better.

However, the tool for that purpose tends to be on the expensive side since it’s a rare drop from the dungeons.

That tool is called the ’elemental orb.’ It’s a really rare drop from a swamp shaman that are often seen at stages 40 to 50 of the dungeons.

It’s one in a thousand drop, as they would say. And it’s a one-time consumable too. When used, it allows the user to discover all their current elemental affinities. It’s a very detailed breakdown too. It would even include information on whether the affinity was innate or something that has been developed recently.

After revealing all the information, the Elemental Orb shatters into a powder that will be scattered by the air. It could only be used one time, it cannot be repaired by the world system, and it’s usually priced around 100,000 to 150,000 credits, depending on demand.

The Elemental Orb is actually the weapon of the Swamp Shamans; they use it to fire all sorts of hell at their target. But even though all shamans had an elemental orb in their possession, only very few drop theirs upon death; that’s why it’s a rare drop.

It’s even rarer than the Swamp Shaman’s blood, which was the second most valuable drop from the monster.

Ren doesn’t plan on spending that many credits just to know his current elemental affinities.

First of all, he couldn’t afford it. Even now that he gets a cut on the potions he sold, he doesn’t have that much money on him.

Second, it is way too early. Even if he knew now, what of it? Even if he wanted to use a martial art that falls under the same elemental affinity he has, chances are he wouldn’t even be able to use it because he doesn’t have enough chakra for it.

Playing with elements begins, safely, at the Marrow Cleansing Stage because martial artists in that stage could carry more chakra on their bodies and would have their preliminary chakra network built.

Ren was far from that, so not only was this inadvisable, it was also a very bad and very stupid idea, worse than a waste of his precious time.

He’d find more success refining his flesh rather than trying to harness the power of the elements this early.

So, the furthest he could go right now was to learn about them so that he could start planning. Anything beyond this would be a bad idea.

Ren wasn’t stupid either. He’s never one to be careless in his martial practice. If he wants to achieve the heights he’s aiming for, then rookie mistakes like these are unacceptable.