Location- Sky Blossom City, Guild Association Mall, Warehouse no.234
If you think about it by practicing their active soul control the card apprentices strengthen their soul and their control over it, in return, their accessible soul energy increases. Other than that there was no other benefits to practicing active soul control without the grimoire.
Now the question was, why can a grimoire give such magical abilities to the card apprentice? Where do these powers come from? According to Ann, this power belonged to the world and we gained access to it by forming a contract with the world's will with the grimoire as the medium. But how does that work? Why was there a need to use the grimoire as a medium? Why can we not directly establish a contract with the World's will?
Seeing that my confusion grew with her words Ann offered, "Master Wyatt, I know it is confusing but this is all I can disclose to you about the grimoires. If you have doubts ask away, I will try to answer them to the best of my knowledge without touching the sensitive and taboo stuff."
"Ann, why is there a need for users to use a grimoire as a medium to establish a contract with the world's will? Why can't we do that directly?" I asked Ann, taking up on her offer.
"Master Wyatt, you should already know that to feel the presence of the world's will you will have to forge an ego gem. Considering the average talent of people all over the world it was impossible for everyone to form a ego gem. Of course, there are some exceptions such as yourself. But do you believe the monsters would have waited for us to forge our ego gems? The world back then was not peaceful enough for us to patiently forge an ego gem and independently form a contract with the world's will.
Therefore the first of us to walk on this world thought of using the grimoire as a medium to form a contract and borrow the power of the world." Ann answered by saying that humans need to forge an ego gem to feel the presence of the world's will, so it was impossible for humans to form a contract with the world's will at the card student realm and went on to explain to me that at the being, the world was plagued with monsters and it was not ideal for humanity to patiently forge ego gems to establish a contract with the World's will and borrow its power. Therefore our ancestors came up with the idea to use a medium to form a contract and borrow the power of the world's will.
"Does that mean that the ego gem can do everything that a grimoire can do? Doesn't that make the grimoire redundant? So why do card apprentices with ego gems fight for higher grade grimoire," I asked thinking that if the ego gems could also perform the same function as the grimoires shouldn't the grimoires become obsolete after the card apprentices forge their ego gems?
"Master Wyatt, what you are saying is correct if we consider that grimoire and ego gem play the same role in a card apprentice's growth. But are the grimoire and ego gem the same?" Ann answered me with a question.
"No?" I didn't understand, was Ann saying that grimoire and ego gem were not the same. Then wasn't grimoire a replacement item for ego gem?
"Master Wyatt, Grimore is indeed a medium used by card apprentice to form a contract with the world's will to borrow its power but it is not the same as ego gem. They both have two different functions. Grimoire deals with the world's power that is the soul pathways and the ego gem deal with energies in the world's will that is the rules, and their meanings.
The grimoire gives the card apprentice access to soul pathways which we make use of through cards while the ego gem gives us access to rules which we make use of through runes. Therefore both the grimoire and ego gem are important to a card apprentice." Ann narrated the importance and necessity of both the grimoire and ego gem for a card apprentice and how they gave them access to two different power systems, Soul pathways, and Rules. While the card apprentices made use of these two power systems through Cards and Runes.
Hearing Ann's explanation I understood that grimoire and ego gem were two different things that helped the card apprentice borrow two different power systems from the world. But in end, one question remained how was grimoire created? I now know where it gets its ability from but the principle behind its creation was still beyond my reach as I knew that enter the taboo part which Ann wasn't supposed to explain to me. So I decided to go around it, "Ann, so why are the grimoires divided into five different grades?"
"About that, the materials—" Ann was about to explain why the grimoire was divided into five different grades but was interrupted by Asong.
"Ann, stop it right there. You were just about to reveal how the grimoires are created to explain why they are divided into five different grades." Asong interrupted Ann who was so keen on explaining to me that she forgot that she almost revealed what she asked not to. And then glancing at me Asong said, "Master Wyatt, please don't try to take advantage of the courtesy we have extended to you."
"What? I am innocent. All I wanted to know was why the grimoires are divided into five different grades." I said putting on an innocent smile.
"Yeah, right." Asong rolled her eyes at my response.
I did expect that it would not be easy to get the privileged information so I was not discouraged and instead demanded, "So, Why are the grimoires divided into five different grades?"
"You…" hearing me demand Asong looked at me in disbelief.