Arhal City, Golden Scale Academy, inside the guest dorm room.
"It is just that... you would not want your academy’s students to be in the dical dorm during the selections. Would you?"
As soon as Ethan heard those words, he remained silent.
Not because he could retort, but because he could not even speak. His throat felt dry. His tongue felt heavy.
The weight of Cael’s presence pressed down on him like a physical force.
Cael let out a sigh. He knew he was venting on Ethan because of the vision he had just seen.
The stadium full of corpses, the Wraith Princess, the flas that almost consud him.
It was not Ethan’s fault. But the frustration had nowhere else to go.
He deactivated the skill and sat back on the bed.
Ethan gradually recovered his breath. His hands were still trembling slightly.
He had not expected the Everbright representative to be so confident, so strong, so utterly overwhelming.
Slowly, Ethan cald himself and said,
"W-well, we will not force you. If you are interested, you may co. Have so rest."
Without waiting for a response, he turned and bolted away. He even dashed into Edwin on his way out, stumbling briefly before disappearing down the corridor.
Edwin watched him go, then turned back to Cael with a smirk.
"What did you do to ta him so quickly?"
Cael fell back onto the bed, his back hitting the soft mattress with a dull thud.
"Want to experience it?"
Edwin quickly diverted his eyes and changed the topic with a wry smile.
"Ahem. So, what is the plan?"
Cael ruffled his hair, ssing his silver locks even further.
"We ca here for the selections. There is no need to show off our power. But if others are interested in sparring, let them do as they wish."
After all, along with Team Gray, there were six other teams from Everbright Academy.
Although Cael was the representative, that did not an he oversaw them. They were competitors, not subordinates.
So, he added after a pause,
"Just tell them not to cause trouble."
Edwin quickly raised his hand and asked,
"W-wait, wait. Why are you telling all this?"
Cael grinned, and Edwin felt chills seeing that grin, giving him a bad feeling.
And sure enough, Cael softly said,
"Because you are the vice-representative from now on."
Edwin’s eyes widened.
"On whose orders?"
Cael shrugged and answered,
"Mine, of course."
He stated it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Edwin was left speechless. He opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. Finally, he helplessly nodded.
"I... fine."
After exchanging a few more casual words, Edwin left to et with Aria and Brania.
The door closed behind him with a soft click.
Cael closed his eyes and began to think about the vision.
The image of the Wraith Princess, her broken horn, her inverted gold eyes. The flas. The corpses.
The dread still clung to his chest.
-TAP -TAP
His leg involuntarily moved, tapping against the edge of the bed fra. The repetitive sound filled the silent room.
"Ugh. Thinking is useless."
He sat up and sent a ssage to all his clones, ordering them to disperse.
He could have dissipated them directly, but doing so might cause inconvenience.
The issue was the blood drop; each clone left a drop behind when destroyed.
If he let them handle it themselves, they could find a source to destroy that drop.
Soon, he felt the connection to his clones fade, one by one. They were gone.
Summoning his sword, he cut his palm slightly. Blood welled up, and from the drops, new forms erged.
The Black Lightning clone, the Space clone, the Frostfla clone, and the Wind clone manifested in the room.
Four figures, identical to him, stood in silence.
The training maniac clone did not appear. There was a reason. It was Cael’s lifeline.
If the worst ca to pass, he needed to swap with it to save his life.
The Wraith Princess was one of the strongest [Marshal] rank wraiths. He could not afford to be careless.
Cael did not tell the clones what to do.
Since they were re-created, they all now had Cael’s mories, including the vision. They knew what he knew. They felt what he felt.
"Status."
-----
[Status]
[Na: Caelir Vayne]
[Class: Iridescent Monarch (SSS)]
Elents:
• Wind (75% → 79% Mastery)
• Water (56% → 58% Mastery)
• Earth (45% → 49% Mastery)
Unique Elents:
• Moonlight (33% Mastery)
• Frostfla (48% → 49% Mastery)
• Black Lightning (52% → 55% Mastery)
• Space (16% → 20% Mastery)
• Death (Locked)
• Ti (Locked)
[Rank: Silver 3]
Skills:
• Copy (SS)
• Cloning (SSS)
• Fusion (SS)
• Teleportation (S)
• Wrong Eye (S)
• Faceless Mask Construct (A)
• Mana Sovereignty (SS)
• Ti Deceleration (SS)
• Death Reaper’s Requiem (SS)
• Temporal Reverie (SS) [Locked]
• 150 skills
[Weapon Mastery: Sword (61% → 63% Mastery)]
Techniques:
• Gale Weave Swordsmanship
• Mana Strengthening Body Technique
• Unification Art
-----
Temporal Reverie
Rank: SS
Type: ???
Description: ???????
-----
Looking at the locked skill, Cael was confused.
’Maybe... due to copying the skill by overwriting the rules.’
He turned his head toward the clones, who stood waiting for his command.
Four sets of violet eyes stared back at him.
Cael spat with a cold tone,
"Find the person who used that skill on . Whatever thods you use, I don’t care about the aftermath; I only want the results.
"Don’t hold back."
The clones simultaneously nodded, their hair color and eyes changed, their facial structure slightly altered as well.
Black lighting clone, as usual, changed into black hair and black eyes.
Frostfla clone, changed into white hair and blue eyes.
Space clone into gray hair and brown eyes.
And lastly, Wind clone changed into dark green hair and light green eyes.
Then they all vanished from the room, teleporting away, their presences fading like whispers in the wind.
Cael lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling.
...
Late at night, the guest dorm was silent.
The corridors were empty, and the only sounds ca from the distant rustle of leaves outside the window.
Cael sat cross-legged on the bed, his eyes closed, his breathing slow and asured. In his hands rested a piece of dried mana beast at, already half-eaten.
He was ditating, trying to touch mana.
He could sense mana, the threads of energy that flowed through the air, through the walls, through his own body. He could feel them, trace them, almost grasp them.
But touching was different. Touching required a connection. A bridge between his will and the energy that surrounded him.
Once he could touch mana, he would beco a [Gold] ranker.
It was a qualitative change. A leap, not a step. Once he reached [Gold], he could finally complete the Mana Strengthening Body Technique and achieve a perfect mana vessel.
And that, in turn, would amplify Mana Sovereignty.
But as Seraphina had said, [Gold] was not sothing you could achieve just because you wanted to.
Cael did not care. He continued to try.
His thoughts drifted, despite his efforts to focus.
Luke.
The differences between the Luke of the novel and the Luke he saw.
The Death elent he had copied from Luke. The Ti Deceleration he had copied from Elowyn.
He was frustrated.
Cael sighed and shook his head. He was losing focus. Thinking in circles. Going nowhere.
Just as he was about to open his eyes and stand, sothing appeared in the air before him.
A red-colored leaf, ford from starlight, materialized in the middle of the room.
It did not fall. It floated, suspended, as if held by an invisible hand.
Strangely, it caused no mana disturbances.
Like a falling paper, the red leaf drifted downward and tapped softly against Cael’s forehead.
Instantly, for reasons Cael couldn’t understand, an imnse wave of mana entered his body.
It was so vast, nearly overwhelming.
The sheer volu of energy threatened to drown him, to tear through his channels and leave nothing but ruin.
But his body reacted. His innate ability: Adaptability, kicked in.
His body began to absorb the mana, drawing it in, trying to make it part of himself.
Cael had no chance to think. He tried to calm the mana, to slow its flow, but it was no use.
His adaptable body could not match the amount of mana entering. It was too much. Too fast. Too vast.
Cold sweat ran down his body.
He knew if this continued, he might explode.
Without hesitation, he activated Ti Deceleration.
The world slowed. The mana entering his body slowed with it, giving him a brief mont of breathing space.
But he could not maintain the skill for long. The strain was already building.
As panic began to set in, sothing shifted.
He touched it.
The mana.
For the first ti, he felt it, not just sensed it, but ’touched’ it. His will is connected to the energy flowing through him.
The barrier between sensing and touching had been crossed.
With no ti to waste, Cael imdiately began circulating the Mana Strengthening Body Technique.
The mont he touched mana, he beca a [Gold] ranker. The qualitative change had happened, but he had no ti to celebrate.
The mana was still pouring into his body.
He deactivated Ti Deceleration before it could harm him further.
The flow resud, but now his body was adapting faster. The technique was working. His mana vessel was expanding, strengthening, changing.
Minutes passed. Then an hour.
Finally, the flow stopped.
Cael took deep, ragged breaths. His body trembled from the ordeal. Sweat soaked through his shirt. His muscles ached.
He opened his eyes and looked at his hands.
"Peak of [Gold 2]?"
User Comments
0 comments from readers