She tilted her head slightly.

"So tell me..."

"Was that merely a coincidence?"

"Or was it fate"

After that, the woman continued speaking, drifting into a long string of explanations and speculation. However, for Kelly, it might as well have been someone speaking Russian. None of it made sense. Not a single word. His brain simply couldn’t keep up with the complicated reasoning she was throwing at him. Finally, unable to endure it any longer, Kelly raised a hand and interrupted her.

"Could you just tell me what the damn thing actually does..."

He sighed in frustration.

"...without explaining the science behind all that shit"

"...."

The woman just looked back at him as if casually remembering his existence which just annoyed kelly all the more.

"You will understand more once you actually use it. Me explaining it now will not help you much. You have already taken a different path than I did, and because of that, Gluttony may manifest differently for you perhaps even far stronger than it ever did for me. It is also possible that you will find it much easier to work with than I ever could."

Kelly frowned immediately at that explanation and replied with visible irritation,

"You know that doesn’t explain a single thing, right?" The woman simply sighed, clearly unimpressed by his complaint, before continuing calmly,

"Have patience, kid. As I said earlier, the only thing you truly need to understand right now is this: as you have already seen in your status, the soul strength of an individual normally cannot be increased at all unless one possesses an extremely rare and special treasure. However, in the stages beyond the Foundation, soul strength becomes one of the most important factors in determining a person’s future. Quite simply, the stronger the soul, the greater the individual’s potential, talent, and eventual strength."

The woman suddenly stopped speaking. Looking at Kelly’s expression, she quickly realized something important. He hadn’t understood anything she just said. Letting out another tired sigh, she paused for a moment to gather her thoughts before trying again.

"Fine. Let me explain it in a way even you can understand."

She leaned slightly forward on her throne.

"Think of your soul as the source code of a program."

Kelly blinked.

"That source code is then used to create the software."

She continued patiently.

"The cleaner and more efficient the source code is meaning fewer errors and better structure the better the software runs. Fewer glitches, fewer limitations, better performance overall."

Then she pointed slightly toward him.

"But once that source code is written... it normally cannot be changed."

She paused briefly.

"Are you still with me, boy?"

Kelly nodded quickly.

Seeing that he was at least following the analogy, the woman continued.

"However..."

Her voice lowered slightly.

"You gain the ability to edit that source code once your hardware improves."

Kelly tilted his head.

"In simpler terms," she clarified, "your body and power are like the hardware that runs the program."

"As you move further along the path of power especially after completing your Foundation Stage, which for you means reaching Level 100 your ’hardware’ becomes stronger."

"And once your hardware becomes strong enough..."

"You can begin tinkering with your source code."

She raised a finger for emphasis.

"That is when you can start gradually increasing your soul strength."

Kelly thought about it for a moment before replying.

"Okay... I think I get the example."

He scratched his cheek slightly.

"But wait."

His brows furrowed.

"If that’s the case, then once people pass Level 100 and upgrade their ’hardware’..."

"Wouldn’t everyone be able to modify their source code?"

He looked back at her.

"So then what’s so special about this skill"

"Heh... you are right."

The woman gave a faint, amused chuckle before continuing.

"But everything I explained depends entirely on your initial source code."

Her tone became slightly more serious.

"As I said before, the better the source code, the fewer the glitches."

She gestured lightly as she spoke.

"The soul strength you possess during your Foundation Stage doesn’t matter much in the initial stages however after that it becomes the base value for everything that follows."

"From that initial value of soul strength, all future growth is calculated."

She paused briefly before giving a simple example.

"Take you and that Agawa boy."

Kelly stiffened slightly at the comparison but continued listening.

"After reaching Level 100, you both would normally enter the next stage of power."

"In that stage, your soul strength begins to grow again but the increase depends entirely on your base value."

She explained further.

"For example, suppose Agawa’s base soul strength is 100, while yours is 50."

"When both of you enter the next stage, your soul strength might double."

"So Agawa’s becomes 200, while yours becomes 100."

She raised a finger.

"And that is only the beginning of that stage."

"As both of you continue progressing, the same rule keeps applying."

"Each new growth is calculated using the previous value as the base."

Her voice echoed calmly.

"So if the next improvement increases soul strength by fifty percent, Agawa’s 200 becomes 300, while your 100 becomes 150."

She looked at Kelly meaningfully.

"Do you see the difference?"

"The gap does not remain the same."

"It keeps growing larger."

The woman leaned back slightly against her throne.

"That is why the initial source code matters so much."

"A stronger soul produces a better ’program,’ which in turn allows the ’hardware’ your body and mind to operate at far higher limits."

"In other words..."

"Your strength, speed, intelligence, and every other stat you possess ultimately depend on the quality of your soul."

She finished calmly.

"So, imagine the difference between you and Agawa once both of you reach the peak of the second stage of power. Not only that even if at the foundation stage the amount of soul strength someone has doesn’t matter much but it still helps because it increased the base limitations of your body, someone with stronger soul will have a far higher bottleneck in terms of their vessel growth than someone like you with soul strength of 50 and they can reach their goal much faster because of their talent and potential being far higher"

Her tone carried quiet certainty.

"This example I gave you is only the most basic version of how it works."