Formless Ascension: My Affinity Is Limitless

He is also remarkably cautious! Many other young ascenders would have proudly blurted out their class details right then and there!

The Host’s voice suddenly shifted, becoming mellow:

However, Uhtred... humor me for a moment. I know you want to guard your secrets tightly — and understandably so. But let’s play a little hypothetical game... a game I’m sure the audience would love to watch play out...

Uhtred shrugged. ”Sure.”

Alright then, picture this scenario with me, Uhtred.

The Host’s voice became dramatic, like he was telling a tale.

The human race — one of the great races of the multiverse, top-tier, but not at the level of the most talented races across the multiverse — produces a talent that is made out to be Unique Grade at first. A young, handsome human ascender.

He motioned toward Uhtred with a flair that drew light laughter from the crowd.

Being a Unique Grade makes this human ascender a Pathfinder. And just like every other Pathfinder, he gains access to his multiversal stream earlier than everyone else...

Shortly after, a certain viewer who shall not be named... a powerhouse of the Ascendant Realm—

The crowd burst into gasps of shock and disbelief. The mention of an Ascendant Realm powerhouse in this ”story” made many very surprised.

—stumbles into this young, handsome human ascender’s stream... and gets banned by the System after revealing... something.

The Host paused, looking at Uhtred with a knowing smile.

Does this story sound familiar, Uhtred?

Uhtred remained silent, his face unreadable.

The Host turned to the audience:

In this story, an Ascendant Realm powerhouse saw something in this young human that made him take the risk of revealing a hint that got him banned by the System for two whole years...

This time, there were no gasps from the audience at all. They all went silent, horror written on their faces. They understood clearly how grave a System ban was.

Uhtred suddenly felt the weight of their gazes settle on him differently.

The jovial air of the ”interview” had turned sour in the span of a few seconds. It now felt more like an interrogation, than an interview.

The smile on Uhtred’s face vanished entirely.

Somehow, the Host was telling the story of what happened to him right after the integration.

The Ascendant Realm powerhouse the Host was talking about was none other than Ascendant Favoured One, and he was the young human ascender in the story.

That much was obvious. What wasn’t obvious, however, was how the Host possessed this information.

Was he wrong after all? Did the Host already know what his class was and was simply performing for the audience?

No!

Again, Uhtred couldn’t shake off the feeling that the Host still didn’t know that much about him.

He was getting there with his story, but it felt as if even the Host himself was discovering the story as he told it.

Uhtred closed his eyes.

Even as the Host detailed his rise through the ranks to the audience — about how he constantly defied the estimates of his multiversal viewers... about how he did things that made his class hard to discern — Uhtred didn’t pay attention to the Host.

He was instead focused on pin-pointing the sensation that made him so certain that the Host really didn’t know much about him.

Then he felt it.

Esoteric magic...

Uhtred opened his eyes, then calmly, without a trace of anger, he reached up and lifted the Host’s arm off his shoulder.

The Host’s words cut off mid-sentence. He looked down at Uhtred, a flicker of genuine surprise flashing through his eyes. He seemed very taken aback that a simple Nascent Realm ascender had discerned what was going on.

There was no other reason for Uhtred to remove his arm unless he had sensed the Esoteric magic at play.

The audience was also shocked.

It was as if a play was coming undone before their eyes.

The millions of audience members present, along with the billions more watching from all across the Grand Multiverse, were already aware of the Host’s ability.

They had seen it in play over many cycles of universes taking their Tower trial. Even if they didn’t know everything about its intricacies, many already knew what it did and how it functioned.

”I think it’s time to stop this roundabout performance,” Uhtred said into the mic. He looked directly at the Host, who had already regained his effortless composure. ”That technique of yours is pretty clever. What is it, some kind of pre-emptive Esoteric probe?”

The Host’s expression remained pleasant, but his third eye twitched faintly on his forehead.

He hadn’t expected Uhtred to identify the nature of the magic being used against him, let alone know how it worked.

”You have to be in contact with your target to use the ability, don’t you?” Uhtred continued. ”I’m not good with Esoteric magic at all, but even I can tell how your ability works when you make it so blatantly obvious.”

”You don’t actually know anything about me. Your next words aren’t certain. Even you don’t know what you will say next. But the longer you remain in contact with your target, the more your next words turn out to be secrets about them.”

Uhtred didn’t wait for the Host to confirm his deduction. He didn’t wait for the audience’s reaction either.

”You know what? I actually came to a decision before I stepped onto this stage,” Uhtred said, his voice relaxing as he let go of all the accumulated tension, the internal scheming, and the endless risk calculations that had weighed on him for a year.

”I wanted to see how far you people would go to dissect my abilities...”

He shrugged naturally.

”I could simply tell you guys I’m a wielder of a thousand elements, hundreds of esoteric guiles, tens of fundamental laws, but that still wouldn’t stop you all from analyzing my every move...”

He paused, then looked to the side.

A fair distance away, at the edge of the corridor where he had come from, Handler Roy was standing there, a torn expression on his face.

The look on the Handler’s face surprised Uhtred. They weren’t particularly close, yet Roy looked genuinely distressed by what was about to happen.

There was clearly something deeper at play here — something connecting the Tower, the higher entities, and the System itself to the existence of his class.

But Uhtred had already made his choice. Just as he had sworn to himself after the integration, he would always prioritize his own growth above all else.

He was done stifling himself just to prevent attention.

He looked to the crowd, whose anticipation had already built, sensing something mind-boggling incoming.

”You all want to know what my class is?”