Seth waited for a short while, standing still as he observed the effect of his ability.

The fragment of fate he had consumed earlier slowly faded from his mind, like steam disappearing into open air.

Ahead of him, the young man who had been exhausted earlier now looked normal again.

His steps were lighter, and his breathing had returned to its regular rhythm. Within a minute, he was running as if nothing had happened at all.

Seth quietly followed from a distance.

There were no visible side effects.

The young man did not stumble, nor did he collapse, and did not even become suspicious of what had happened.

His tiredness had simply vanished, and Seth's own body just returned to normal...

'I don't feel any recoil or consequences after consumption…'

This puzzled him as he had expected danger.

When he experimented with his Authority earlier, he had noticed how objects could become damaged or weakened after their purpose was changed.

Because of that, he assumed anything related to fate would be even more dangerous.

Fate after all felt more important as it affected lives and involved the grander scheme of things...

Yet, after consuming a piece of fate, nothing bad happened.

His own body felt fine, the young man was fine, and even the surroundings were unchanged...

'Perhaps the fate I consumed had too little impact, that's why there are no noticeable results.'

Seth surmised that perhaps Fate was not equal.

Some parts were light and easy to take, others were heavier and harder to bare.

He had already felt this earlier when he tried to view the man's history.

Some parts of the past resisted him, as if pushing him away. And a few even wanted to harm him.

Perhaps consuming minor fate was safe, while touching major fate would carry danger?

With this conclusion in mind, Seth decided he needed more tests.

Seth decided to spend the next few hours quietly testing [Fate Consumption] further.

He moved through the Zerep District, keeping [Null Presence] active.

Whenever he passed by people, they simply did not notice him unless he bumped into them.

Young students walked to school, and old residents sat on benches, reading newspapers or drinking coffee.

A few joggers passed by, and shopkeepers arranged their morning supplies.

Seth picked his targets carefully...

He did not want to harm anyone or cause real trouble, so he chose small things that were only brief parts of fate.

Moments that would not matter too much.

He found a street vendor who was sweating and looked strained.

Seth focused and gently consumed a small piece of the man's "reserved energy."

Instantly, Seth's own minor muscle fatigue from walking vanished, replaced by a faint surge of stamina.

The vendor, meanwhile, sagged slightly against his cart, rubbing his brow as a deeper wave of tiredness hit him.

Next, he watched a student walking dejectedly, likely after a bad grade.

Seth carefully took a tiny fragment of her "disappointment from earlier this morning."

A dull, heavy feeling touched him briefly before fading, while the student's shoulders seemed to lighten just a bit, her expression softening from despair to simple regret.

Then, in another place, Seth observed a baker taking a fresh, perfect loaf out of the oven with clear pride.

Seth consumed a thread of the baker's "satisfaction from completing the bake."

A warm, pleasant feeling of a job well done spread through Seth.

The baker looked at the same loaf, gave a small, routine nod, and moved on to the next task, the special moment of pride now absent.

Each test followed the same pattern...

After a small, already-experienced moment from the recent past was taken...

While the person lost the lingering emotions or physical impact of that moment, Seth gained it temporarily.

After a dozen such experiments, his understanding grew.

First, consuming past fate had no direct backlash on him.

The event was over and he was just siphoning off its leftover energy.

Second, the effects were subtle but specific.

He was not creating new feelings in people, nor was he taking away the real, lingering aftermath of things that had already happened to them.

They were left with the factual memory, but not the full emotional or physical impact of it.

Third, the "protection" he'd felt on deep past events was a real limit.

Trying to take Theo's "birth" was impossible.

Trying to take a deeply traumatic or core memory from anyone would likely be blocked or dangerous.

But surface-level, recent past experiences?

Those were the ones that were quite easy to take...

'So it's not about stealing their luck or their future...'

Seth concluded, pausing in a quiet alley.

'It's about stealing the aftermath? I can take the strength they gained from a workout, leaving them with more of the ache, and I can even take the satisfaction from a finished task, leaving them with the emptiness.'

...

After confirming the limits of [Fate Consumption], Seth moved on to the last ability he had not tested yet.

[Word of Silence]You hold power over the word "silence". Once uttered, all those who hear it will halt their actions, and your environment will temporarily become solemn.

Seth stared at the description for a while.

'Power over the word Silence? That seems simple enough... But what does it mean for the environment to become "solemn"?'

The first part was quite clear...

If he said the word, everything that heard it would stop.

But the second part was what confused him.

He understood what silence was, yet solemnness was different...

For something to become solemn, it was not only due to the absence of sound.

Solemnness dictated a certain type of emotion, or atmosphere.

He could not imagine how a single word could change the environment like that...

But given how he was already in this horrid fantasy kind of a world, it wasn't all that unbelievable.

To test it properly, he needed a safe place.

If he used a spell in public, there was a chance a witch or someone sensitive might notice it, even with [Null Presence] active.

For now, caution was quite important.

So, he walked until he found a quiet area behind the district.

There was an empty park with a few trees, a small pond, and barely anyone around.

He looked around carefully.

There were no people here, only wind and moving leaves.

This was good enough...

Seth stood between two tall trees and took a slow breath.

The ability did not require gestures or special chanting.

It was something that belonged to him, and like breathing, all he needed to do was speak.

He whispered a single word.

"Silence."

For a moment, nothing changed.

Then Seth noticed something subtle.

The branches that were swaying from the wind suddenly stopped.

The leaves were still, and even the grass did not bend.

It happened only for a split second— less than a blink.

Then everything returned to normal, as if the pause had never happened.

Seth frowned slightly.

'That's it? The movement stopped, but only for a very short time... I didn't feel anything else.'

He felt no solemnness at all.

In fact, if someone had been watching, they might have missed the effect entirely...

He repeated the word.

"Silence."

Again, a short pause.

The trees froze, then continued swaying.

The pond ripples paused, then moved again.

Birds still chirped in the distance...

Nothing more.

Seth lowered his head in thought.

'Maybe it's because the environment is already quiet? There's nothing to make solemn... It is already peaceful here, so the ability has no clear effect.'

This sounded reasonable.

If "solemn" meant creating a heavy or serious atmosphere, maybe it needed the opposite environment...

Perhaps the spell only showed its true effect when there was noise, movement, or emotion.

A silent place could not become more silent.

He needed a place with activity, a location where the disturbance would be obvious.

Yet he also had to avoid witches or anyone who might detect magic.

Busy streets were dangerous, schools were dangerous, buildings with many people were dangerous.

He needed somewhere with movement, but not humans...

After thinking for a while, he found a solution.

There was a river near the edge of Zerep District.

It was not crowded, and no residents stayed near it early in the morning.

But the river itself always had sound— flowing water, rushing currents, splashing against rocks.

Even if no people were near, the environment was quite lively.

Seth walked there with steady steps.

The sound of water slowly grew louder.

When he reached the riverbank, he saw the current moving rapidly, sparkling under the sunlight.

Leaves floated downstream, and the surface constantly shifted.

This was a clear contrast compared to the silent park.

Seth stood near the water and observed for a moment.

Then he raised his head and whispered again:

"Silence."

As he said this, the river did not freeze, nor did the current reverse.

Instead, something subtler happened.

The rush of water continued, yet its movement seemed "smoother", as though an unknown force had brushed across the surface.

The sharp splashes and crashing sounds also turned dull and muffled in an instant.

What had been noisy a moment ago now sounded distant, almost muted.

The environment had turned solemn.

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