Chapter 106 - Core Growth

Chapter 106: 106 - Core Growth

Adrien skipped his usual training clearing that morning. He stayed in his room instead, sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor with both hands resting over his knees.

For once he had no intention of testing a spell or grinding its mastery. He wanted to measure the real progress he had made over the last two months and, more importantly, how far he still was from reaching Three Stars.

Adrien closed his eyes and concentrated. The room slowly faded from his awareness, the noise from the corridor going first and then the distant activity outside the windows.

Inside his mind everything turned dark, as if he were floating alone in empty space with no sound, smell or movement left to pull at him, and his concentration settled entirely on himself.

Absolute Mana Sense turned inward, and for the first time Adrien could perceive his Mana Core this clearly. He had always been able to feel it beneath his sternum, but now its shape hung almost directly in front of him, with two distinct star-like structures surrounding it while mana circulated steadily through both.

Two Stars. Adrien focused on the mana moving through the Core, and its purity stood out to him immediately.

The mana inside him was extremely clean, and Absolute Mana Sense let him notice how it kept becoming slightly purer as it circulated through his Core and his body. Mana travelled outward, passed through him and returned again, and each cycle felt more stable than the one before it.

Adrien stayed like that for several minutes, examining every detail he could sense. He could not put an exact number on it, but judging from the state of his Core, he estimated that he had completed somewhere between sixty and seventy percent of Two Stars.

That was better than he expected. Almost two months had passed since his advancement, and little of that time had gone toward Core growth.

’I’ve grown quite a lot without really prioritizing this. Most of my attention has gone toward improving spell mastery, learning new spells and understanding my talents, but I don’t regret that.’

Raising his Core rank mattered, but Adrien had already learned that power counted for little if he could not use it properly. His recent fights had proven that mastery and control weighed as much as raw rank.

He already knew what he wanted to do before reaching Three Stars. He wanted to push every spell he currently possessed as far as his present rank allowed, while adding more useful spells to his arsenal whenever he found them.

Once he reached Three Stars, he wanted to take Spell Fusion far more seriously, since Absolute Magus was not restricted to Frost or Lightning and the number of possible combinations could turn enormous.

Some would fail, while others could reshape the way he fought, and Adrien could already picture more possibilities than he knew how to organize. For now he still had no idea where the limits were.

He was not even sure limits existed, and that thought only sharpened his interest in finding out how far Absolute Magus could actually go.

His thoughts eventually drifted toward what Vael had told him in Elyndor. The dragon whose heart now beat inside Adrien’s chest had possessed the same Unique Path and the same three SSS talents: Absolute Mana Sense, Bottomless Core and Absolute Comprehension.

Vael still had not told him who the dragon actually was, so Adrien had no name or title to chase, but someone with a Unique Path, three SSS talents and enough power that Vael spoke about him with that much respect had almost certainly been important among dragons.

’And somehow Father knew him well enough to put his heart inside me.’

That remained the part Adrien understood least. Alaric had known the dragon, Vael had known him too, and the dragon had apparently known enough about Adrien to predict that he could awaken the Draconic Physique one day. Yet Adrien had spent eighteen years convinced he simply had a weak heart, and a large stretch of his own past was still missing.

Even so, the conversation with Vael had handed him something new. Adrien finally had a clear thread connecting the heart, his Physique, his Unique Path and all three of his talents, which was considerably better than having nothing.

’Little by little. I’ll find out eventually.’

The door to his room opened and Adrien’s concentration wavered for an instant. Absolute Mana Sense spread outward on its own, identifying the familiar presence before he even opened his eyes. It was Ariane, so he let the meditation go and found his sister standing near the door.

"Are you busy, Adrien?"

"No. I was meditating for a while. Do you need something?"

Ariane stepped farther inside before answering. She seemed completely normal, although Adrien still remembered what she had gone through over the last few months.

"I was wondering if you wanted to spend some time with me. There are a few places I wanted to go, but I wanted you to come with me if you don’t mind."

Adrien took a moment before answering. He briefly wondered whether the kidnapping attempt had marked her more than she showed, though he doubted she was afraid to go anywhere alone.

Either way, he did not mind going with her. There were mistakes from his previous life that Adrien could never repair, and his relationship with his own sister had been one of them.

He died estranged from his sister, and this time he had another chance, so an afternoon with Ariane was not something he needed to think twice about.

"Sure. Where do you want to go?"

"There’s a market I wanted to visit. I need to buy a few things, and I thought we could get something to eat while we’re there."

Adrien nodded and pushed himself up from the floor. His legs felt stiff after sitting still for so long, though the feeling vanished once he stretched them out.

"Alright. Give me a few minutes to change."

Ariane headed back toward the door. "I’ll wait downstairs."

Adrien listened to her steps fade down the corridor before pressing a hand against his chest one last time. Three Stars could wait a few hours, and the Core would still be there when he returned.

For the rest of the afternoon he had something else to do, and spending time with his sister was reason enough to drop training for once.