Lucian stepped inside the room, and he glanced over at countless wooden shelves swarming with loads and loads of papers. As he walked through the narrow walls, the small breeze produced from his movements was enough to disturb the dust piling all over the place.
Clouds of dust rose, following him at a close but relevant distance. After reaching the very end of the room, Lucian turned around and sat cross-legged on the ground with his hands resting over his knees.
He straightened his back, and with a smile on his face, he commanded the system:
'System, give me my Mana Stone!'
---
———————————————————
[#~System Notification~#]
———————————————————
[Understood.]
[Fetching the E-rank Mana Stone from Host's Inventory...]
---
His choice could very well be reckless, but it was something he absolutely needed.
Although his own attributes and crucial variables—such as his Unique Authority—had made his overall strength multiple times stronger, it was a fact that, unlike others, Lucian did not have a unique factor contributing to his strength.
"It's still only the beginning, yet earlier signs of mana wielders have surfaced quite intensely. Even that man on the building's top... He might not have noticed it yet, but the fact that he could perform such extreme movements with a physique like that... Not to mention the absurd reactions over his face; they're all pre-emptive signs of subconscious control over the remnants of Mana."
"But the fact that I've already encountered one after just 3 days from the beginning, it's only necessary for me to achieve something too..." He muttered to himself while staring at the bright glow emitting from the system window.
The light rose, then converged, and before he could even blink, a roughly shaped blue stone hovered above the system screen. It was small, comparable to the size of his thumb. As for its shade, it was faint but clearly visible.
From afar, it looked similar to just a normal, fashionable piece of crystal since it neither had any visible strands of mana encircling it nor any other signs that distinguished it as extraordinary.
Though, Lucian wasted no time and picked it up right away with a rather soft grip. He then slowly began to move his hand closer to his face, his eyes intently stuck on the stone.
'The faster, the better!' A thought struck his mind as he, in an instant, tightly shut his eyes and shoved the stone in his mouth.
There, he twisted his tongue and adjusted the stone, placing it right over his molar. In a single go, he bit down on the mana stone with all the power he had, bursting the stone into countless small shards.
In that moment, Lucian's eyes widened, not with any emotion, but as a bodily reflex. He tightly clenched his jaw as something seemed to be clashing within his body, trying to escape.
Cold sweat broke through his forehead in an instant as veins bulged through his body. And yet, despite quivering in the slight sensation of pain, Lucian did not move.
Instead, he calmly kept his back straight and his breathing steady, almost as if his life depended on it.
Trying to keep his calm, he slowly shut his eyes and diverted all of his focus to his insides. Within moments, he began to feel a strange warmth within his body. It didn't spread, nor did it wither. It simply stayed, concentrated.
As it slipped through the mouth, its pressure, all of a sudden, disappeared. It was strange, but Lucian didn't refute it at all, as he suspected it to be the effects of his authority.
Before he could know of it, the strange warmth began to change, or more specifically, evolve. As it slowly phased through his body, its properties began to change. For once, it contained a strange warmth. Then, the next instant, it contained a frosty chill that slithered through each of his bones.
But for some reason, it didn't harm him in any way. Neither did it go awry, nor did it block any of his qi paths. Instead, just like before, the energy guided itself towards his abdomen.
And before he could even do anything, it had placed itself right below his navel. There, it began to combust with a soft but powerful force. Before he knew of it, the heat began to spread through his body, energizing it at an astonishing rate.
From his abdomen, as countless threads of energy weaved their path all the way to the tips of his fingers, he began feeling a tingling sensation over his skin.
For a moment, his brows arched downwards as he found it somewhat uncomfortable. Though bearable at first, it slowly began to grow worse with each passing second.
'The hell... I-is this!?' His lips parted in discomfort as he gritted his teeth in pain. In a heartbeat, the slight discomfort had evolved into something painful.
Veins bulged over his neck as he felt countless thin needles poking through every pore on his skin at the same time. That too, simultaneously.
And each time, the pain only grew worse as the size of such needles seemed to be increasing.
But Lucian had no other choice but to endure this pain, since if he decided to abandon it all at such a crucial stage, he'd only be inviting his own death.
On the other hand, several system screens flickered in striking red color—unbeknownst to Lucian—as if something uncanny had occurred.
---
———————————————————
[#~System Notification~#]
———————————————————
[#~WARNING~#]
[The amount of Qi within the host's body is rising tremendously!]
[The limit of energy that the host's body can endure has been crossed!]
[The host's body has begun to break down!]
[If not dealt with quickly, Host will not be able to survive!]
---