Chapter 53: Primordial Chaos Core
After lamenting his lack of System Points for a while, Caelum once again sat down cross-legged and focused inward.
Using his Spirit Sense in reverse, he observed the interior of his own body.
The changes were immediately apparent.
The position of his heart had shifted significantly compared to before, and now his mind, heart, and energy core existed in perfect alignment, connected through a strange and profound balance.
Taking a deep breath, Caelum activated the [Myriad Heavenly Ascension] cultivation technique once more.
The surrounding mana instantly began flowing toward him.
As the mana entered his body and circulated through his meridians, it eventually reached his energy core, which had transformed entirely from its previous state.
The core now resembled a miniature night sky devoid of stars, carrying a deep purplish-black hue that radiated a strange sense of depth, and his aura seed too had disappeared.
Caelum had already decided on a simple but new name for it – The Primordial Chaos Core.
The moment mana entered the core, it underwent a violent transformation.
The Primordial Chaos within it forcibly broke down the mana itself before refining it into a purer form of spiritual energy.
Soon afterward, he broke through into the 1st Layer of Qi Condensation once again.
"...Why does cultivation feel so easy now?" Caelum muttered in disbelief.
As he observed the core more carefully, he noticed two dimly glowing stars forming within the darkness of the Primordial Chaos Core itself.
At the same time, he could clearly feel the mysterious connection linking his mind, heart, and core together, though the exact purpose of that connection still remained unclear.
Without stopping, Caelum continued cultivating.
A vortex of mana gradually formed around him as his body greedily absorbed the surrounding energy and refined it continuously through the Primordial Chaos Core.
Outside the training room, however, a certain staff member nearly lost his sanity.
"This is a weapon training room, not a magic training chamber!" the man complained while preparing additional mana stones to stabilize the room’s mana density.
As a responsible employee, he had no choice but to maintain the environment despite the trouble.
’Why is that brat breaking through circles inside a sword training hall?!’ he screamed inwardly.
Meanwhile, inside the room, Caelum’s cultivation rose rapidly.
Before long, he had already reached the 9th Layer of Qi Condensation.
However, unlike before, he could clearly sense that this was not truly his limit.
Yet, something was restricting him from advancing further.
Then, through the feedback provided by the [Myriad Heavenly Ascension] technique, Caelum finally understood the issue.
To continue progressing on his new path, he first needed to reconstruct his First Magic Circle within his heart.
Only then would he be able to advance further in cultivation.
"...Huuuh. That took quite a while," he muttered with satisfaction as he stopped cultivating entirely.
Remarkably, he had already begun forgetting the horrifying pain he experienced during the reforging process.
However, he now possessed one major regret.
’Tsk... I should have just drunk all that milk,’ he thought bitterly.
Most of the milk he had received from Tur, the Buffalomate, had been used to strengthen his body externally over time.
Now that his physique had evolved into something far greater, he regretted wasting such resources beforehand.
If he had known an upgrade of this scale was coming, he would have not wasted a single drop of that.
"...Whatever."
With that, Caelum stood up and exited the training room.
The moment he stepped outside, he saw the same familiar staff member waiting nearby.
This time Caelum felt great.
Unlike the last time he used the room and he had occupied it for an entire day, today the time was short.
"Uh..."
However, the moment the man looked at him, Caelum felt slightly odd.
The expression directed toward him was no longer simple irritation.
It was the kind of look someone would give a man who had burned down their house, stolen their savings, and somehow increased their workload at the same time.
Seeing that terrifying glare, Caelum wisely chose silence and quietly made his way back toward his dormitory.
***
Nearly a week had passed since Caelum’s breakthrough, and life at the Imperial Zenith School had mostly returned to normal.
Well, mostly normal.
Bonjour and Sénior had not attended classes even once during the entire week, apparently traveling somewhere alongside Elder Gurath of the Barbarian Race for reasons unknown.
Other than that, school life continued peacefully.
And today happened to be a particularly "wonderful" day.
It was the weekend and a working holiday.
Normally, this would have been the perfect opportunity for the children to freely waste their time however they pleased.
Some would sleep the entire day, others would train desperately to awaken their Aura Seeds, while a few would study magic, swim, explore the academy, or even establish legendary childhood rivalries over completely meaningless matters.
Unfortunately for them, the school had other plans.
The evil school administration had arranged a Live Summoning Class.
The session had been organized for every first-year student within the Foundation Division, which meant the enormous [Beast & Summoning Grounds] were currently overflowing with children lined up under the supervision of their respective instructors.
From above, the scene resembled countless ducks gathered together in formation.
As for Foundation Division Class A-1, the situation was slightly different.
Their usual instructor, Dorian, was still recovering from the dungeon incident and therefore unable to supervise the session personally.
As a result, a substitute teacher had been assigned to them.
He was a tall man with black hair, wearing a neatly buttoned full-sleeved shirt that barely concealed the imposing aura surrounding him.
At the moment, however, the substitute teacher was not paying attention to the class.
Instead, he was staring directly at Caelum.
More specifically, he was subtly sniffing the air around him with a deeply suspicious expression.
"This is impossible..." the substitute teacher muttered under his breath.
Or rather, the Black Dragon muttered.
