After his conversation with the System, Nox spent the next hour exploring the limits of his new power.
He'd returned to the abandoned hotel briefly to check on Serian, found her still sleeping deeply, didn't disturb her. Then ventured back out to find a more isolated location for experimentation. No point risking collateral damage or attracting unwanted attention.
He found an empty lot a few blocks away, what might have been a parking structure before the merge collapsed most of it. Plenty of concrete rubble to practice on, no civilians to accidentally hurt. Perfect testing ground.
He started simple, standing in the center of the cleared space.
Closed his eyes, drew his focus inward like Serian had taught him during their brief training session. Reached for that sensation of the corrupted mana in his core, that thick heavy presence that felt fundamentally different from normal energy.
