It had been three days since Cael woke up in the dical room.
His body had healed faster than the doctors expected. The bandages were gone, and the crack on his hand had sealed.
The dull ache that had accompanied his every movent had faded completely.
Cael’s first order of business was to inquire about the dark green-haired girl he had captured. Or kidnapped, depending on how one looked at it.
The information he received was limited.
For so reason, she had fallen into a coma and remained unconscious.
The doctors could not determine when she would wake. It could be days. It could be weeks. It could be longer.
But they had found her na. Seris Vale.
She was a multi-billionaire orphan. Her parents had been killed by terrorists when she was young, and she had been saved by beasts.
According to the records, she had never shown her face in public since then. Her whereabouts for the past few years were difficult to track.
The information the academy had gathered was the best they could find, and it was not much.
Cael filed the information away for later.
Currently, he sat on the floor of his training room in a ditative posture.
The room was empty except for his clones, who had gathered in the corner to watch. The walls were bare, the floor smooth, the air cool and still.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
It was ti to break through to [Silver 3].
This was his first ti attempting a breakthrough since his transmigration.
His advancent to [Silver 2] had been an exception, achieved after the heated battle against the Minotaur.
That experience was unexpectedly uncontrollable, almost accidental.
This ti, he wanted to do it properly.
"Ha."
Thinking of that Minotaur, Cael could not help but laugh.
At the ti, it had been a struggle to kill it.
He had used everything he had. His body had been battered. His mana had been depleted. He had barely won.
Now, just three weeks later, he had confidence that he could kill that sa Minotaur twenty tis over.
The combat progress was staggering. Well, due to the skills he acquired.
Shaking his head, Cael pushed the thought aside and began to release wind elental mana from his body.
The pale green energy drifted outward, dissipating into the air.
It was a slow process, but a necessary one. He needed to exhaust his mana completely before he could begin.
He could have used [Ti Deceleration] to burn through his mana in an instant, but that would strain his ntal state.
Breakthroughs required absolute focus. Even a slight slip could be deadly, and Cael was not going to risk it.
The wind continued to flow out of him, thin streams of mana that curled and faded like smoke.
Minutes passed. His mana reserves dropped.
When he felt the last of his mana leave his body, he reached for a recovery potion and drank.
The liquid was bitter, but the effect was imdiate. Warmth spread through his chest as new mana began to circulate through his channels.
He exhausted it again.
Another potion. Another cycle.
By the ti he had drunk three recovery potions, his mana channels felt raw but ready.
He closed his eyes and focused inward.
Unlike ordinary [Silver] rankers, Cael could sense mana.
It was a gift from [Mana Sovereignty], a side effect of the SS-rank skill that most would never experience.
At least, that was what he had concluded.
He could not use mana the way [Gold] rankers could, but he could feel it.
He could feel it flowing through the air, through the walls, through his own body.
He let himself sink into that sensation.
The mana he absorbed was smooth, almost effortless.
Unlike his previous attempts, where the flow had been rough and uneven, this ti it felt natural.
His body was accepting it without resistance.
Cael lost himself in the feeling. Ti slipped away.
He did not know how long he sat there, breathing, absorbing, growing.
When he opened his eyes, his normal violet irises shone with a brief flash of cosmic purple before fading back to their usual color.
Cael smiled and muttered,
"I achieved [Silver 3]."
His voice was calm, but there was satisfaction beneath it.
Then he noticed his clones.
They were standing in the corner, watching him like he was so sort of rare animal.
Their eyes were wide. Their postures were tense. They looked like they had been frozen in place for hours.
Cael’s gaze paused on the training maniac clone.
A strange feeling settled in his chest. It was his Guilt.
’Why the hell am I feeling guilty toward my own clone?’
He had never questioned it before. The clones were extensions of his skill. They were not real people.
They were constructs of mana and will, given temporary form and purpose.
But they acted so human. They bickered. They complained. They had personalities, preferences, even desires.
Over ti, without realizing it, Cael had stopped treating them as tools and started treating them as subordinates.
It felt weird. He was not sure how to feel about it.
"Ugh, stop looking at like that, damn it."
His cautious wind clone slowly turned his head away. But the other clones did not move.
The trash-talking black lightning clone, the competitive Moonlight clone, and the arrogant Frostfla clone surrounded the training maniac clone and stared at Cael with nacing eyes.
Cael looked at them and asked,
"What?"
Black lightning spoke first.
"We want our independent rights. You did not even give us nas, yet you work us to death."
The training maniac nodded.
Moonlight clone followed up.
"You heartless demon. How long do you intend to lock up? I want to roam around the world, challenging others."
The training maniac nodded again.
Frostfla clone finished.
"Let’s fight. Whoever wins can set the rules."
Once again, the training maniac nodded.
Cael had been listening patiently, but now he felt exasperated. His clones were staging an intervention.
’A rebellion?’
He let out a helpless sigh.
"Fine. From now on, I will be nice."
Hearing Cael’s words, his clones smiled. Their shoulders relaxed as they looked relieved.
Then Cael recalled sothing and said,
"By the way, I am thinking of creating a skill that can transfer my pain and injuries to you. Help look into it."
As soon as those words fell, the room fell silent.
Veins popped up on Frostfla’s, Black Lightning’s, and Moonlight’s foreheads.
Their faces twisted with outrage as they shouted at once,
"YOU PSYCHOPATH."
The training maniac clone nodded yet again.
...
Seris had a long dream.
In that dream, she saw a little girl.
And that girl was the daughter of multi-billionaires, living in a world of comfort and privilege.
But the dream did not linger on the happy monts. It rushed past them, blurry and indistinct, as if those mories had faded beyond recovery.
Her parents were killed. She was rescued by beasts. Ever since that day, being around humans felt uncomfortable, almost suffocating.
Perhaps it was the trauma. She did not know.
So, she left. She went into the wilderness.
The dream showed her the years that followed. She learned to survive. She learned to fight. She resonated with her SSS-class and beca sothing more than human.
Unknowingly, she beca the leader of the wilderness. Beasts gathered around her, not out of fear, but out of loyalty.
They were no longer just beasts to her. They were family.
Whenever she ca across forest poachers, she hurt them but did not kill them.
She gave them warnings and let them go. She wanted them to learn. She wanted them to stop.
But one day they ca back with backup, stronger and more nurous.
They killed twenty percent of the creatures in the forest before she and the beasts fought back.
She and the beasts won the war, but they paid the price. Too many of her family had fallen.
From that day on, she no longer hesitated. She killed anyone who hard the beasts.
The dream shifted.
Seris found herself standing in the Rainfall Forest.
Before her, the little girl from the dream was fighting fiercely with a silver-haired boy.
Their movents were fast, brutal, and desperate.
Slowly, Seris began to realize that the little girl was no other than herself.
She had all the mories. She rembered everything she had done over the years.
But watching it from the outside felt strange, as if she were a stranger observing soone else’s life.
Then the battle stopped. Or to be accurate, the ti itself paused.
The silver-haired boy and the image of herself froze mid-motion, suspended in ti like statues in a forgotten garden.
-STEP
Seris heard a footstep behind her. She turned her head.
A girl stood there, her white hair fluttering in a wind that did not exist, her red eyes bright and clear.
Unlike the last ti, she was not hidden in shadows. She was fully visible, her features sharp and distinct.
If Cael were to see her, he might have thought Elowyn was cosplaying.
The resemblance was uncanny. The sa face shape. The sa delicate features. But this girl carried a trace of maturity that Elowyn did not have.
The Sovereign of Red Heart smiled softly and greeted,
"Hello."
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