Chapter 15: Breakthrough

Chapter 15: Chapter 15: Breakthrough

After a brief rest, Eric went down to the backyard garden to retrieve Coal, carrying the crow back up to the attic to resume his cultivation.

Having successfully escaped the affectionate clutches of five-year-old Lily, Coal immediately seemed to forget that Eric was the very person who had offered him up as a distraction in the first place. The crow ruffled his feathers with an eager chirp, perching neatly on the edge of the pine desk.

"Here, Coal," Eric whispered, withdrawing the smooth, walnut-sized crystal from his system inventory. "Take your time with this one."

Coal’s dark, bead-like eyes locked onto the glowing stone. With a sharp snap of his beak, he swallowed the *E-Rank Mana Stone* whole. A shiver ran through his small frame as the dense, concentrated mana flooded his internal pathways. Letting out a soft, drowsy croak, the crow curled into a tight ball atop his wool blanket and drifted straight into a deep refinement slumber.

Seeing that Coal had settled safely, Eric sat cross-legged on his straw mattress, closed his eyes, and picked up his mana circulation right where he had left off that morning.

The rest of the afternoon passed in absolute tranquility.

Eric circulated his energy without interruption, guiding the ambient mana through the seventy-two meridian junctions toward his core. By the time he opened his eyes, the warm amber sun was already dipping below the western horizon. It was six in the evening. Emily’s split shift at the diner was over, and the front latch clicked downstairs as she walked in through the front door.

On the desk, Coal remained deep in his refinement trance, his chest rising and falling in slow, rhythmic pulses as his beast core ground down the dense E-rank energy.

*Digesting an E-rank stone takes significantly longer than an F-rank pebble,* Eric observed.

With a simple thought, he unsealed his spiritual sea and recalled Coal into his Beast Taming Space. The pure, isolated ambient energy within the soul domain would shield the bird from external disturbances and accelerate his internal digestion.

Eric headed downstairs to the living room, joining Emily and the children as they returned from the neighborhood park. Running around the open grass and swings in the cool evening breeze was their daily routine.

Nearby on the worn sofa, Jade, Emily’s Leafjade Cat, was dozing in a patch of fading sunlight, flicking an emerald-tipped ear lazily at the commotion.

Leaning back in an old wooden armchair, Eric called up his status to check the afternoon’s yield.

│ Cultivation Stage: Mortal

│ Level: 0 (22%)

A solid 7% gain from a single daytime session.

Combined with the previous night’s progress, his foundation was firming up rapidly.

After a warm, lively dinner of vegetable soup and toasted crusts with the family, Eric helped Emily clear the bowls, said goodnight to the younger kids, and headed back up the wooden staircase toward the attic.

Halfway up the stairs, something deep within his chest violently stirred.

*THUMP.*

A sudden, roaring torrent of warm, pristine mana erupted across his spiritual tether, flooding directly into his Mana Heart like a breached dam. A wave of raw, electric vigor surged through his meridians, scouring every trace of physical fatigue and mental sluggishness from his muscles in an instant.

*What is this?!*

Eric braced a hand against the banister and summoned his status panel.

│ STATUS PANEL

│

│ Name: Eric

│ Race: Human

│ Cultivation Stage: Mortal

│ Level: 1 (2%)

│ Talent: Appraisal (Rank E), Skill Comprehension (Rank C)

│ Skills: None

│ Contracted Beast: 1/1

Eric stared at the glowing lines of text in disbelief.

*Level 1?! Already?!*

Then the realization struck him.

*Coal!*

The explosive rush of spiritual power hadn’t been generated by his own meditation, it was the direct soul feedback from his contracted beast completing a breakthrough.

With a flick of his mind, Eric summoned Coal out from his Beast Taming Space.

*FLASH.*

A dark avian silhouette materialized atop the polished wooden banister. Coal looked completely revitalized, the singed feathers and chipped talon scratches from the dungeon skirmish were gone, replaced by thick, glossy plumage that shimmered with an oily, obsidian luster under the hallway light. His bone-white beak was visibly denser, and his dark eyes burned with predatory clarity.

"Look at you, buddy," Eric whispered, reaching out to stroke the sleek feathers along the bird’s crown. "You look dangerous."

*Caw~!*

Coal puffed his chest out proudly, letting out a sharp, resonant trill that vibrated with newfound power.

│ CONTRACTED BEAST STATUS

│

│ Name: Coal

│ Race: Bonepecker Crow

│ Cultivation Stage: Mortal

│ Level: 4 (6%)

│ Rank: D

│ Skills: Flight (Rank E), Scratch (Rank F)

*From Level 3 to Level 4 in a single day,* Eric marveled, feeling the dense current of mana humming through their mental tether. *Feeding him mana stones yields ridiculous growth. If we want to scale up fast enough to hit our targets, dungeon hunting is non-negotiable.*

Right as he flexed his left hand, Eric noticed something else.

The dull, throbbing ache that had plagued his shattered left forearm had vanished entirely.

Curious, he made his way into the attic, pulled a pair of scissors from the desk drawer, and peeled away the medical tape. He unwound the layers of gauze and unstrapped the composite splint.

Beneath the wrappings, the purple discoloration, swelling, and tenderness were gone. He rotated his wrist, clenched his fist tight, and pressed his thumb firmly along the site of the previous fracture.

There was zero pain.

Under the restorative surge of his Level 1 breakthrough, his mortal vessel had undergone a qualitative physical refinement, fully knitting the fractured bone and repairing the bruised muscle fibers.

"Level-up feedback is completely broken," Eric grinned, rolling his left shoulder with fluid ease.

He walked over to the small attic window, looking out over the illuminated crystal-steel towers of Riverdale’s inner district.

His arm was healed, his baseline was Level 1, and Coal was operating at Level 4 Mortal Rank.

"No more downtime," Eric murmured, his dark eyes sharp with calculation. "Tomorrow morning, we dive back into the rift."