[Name: Riven Astravar
Age: 15
Bloodline: [Astravar Bloodline (Elemental)] [Genesis Star (Primordial)]
Titles: [Seventh Star] [Youngest Heir] [Astravar Family's Disgrace] [History Maker (Mythic Talent)] [Vessel Of The Genesis Star] [Wielder Of A Primordial Body] (New!)
Traits: [Primordial Physique]
Gate: Ignition
Realm: Awakening
Affinity: [Awakened - Space (Lv 1 - 1%)] [Unawakened - Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Light, Dark, Lightning, Ice]
Strength - 28 → 56
Agility - 26 → 52
Vitality - 28 → 56
Perception - 14 → 50
Will - 10 → 50
System Inventory: Empty]
His stats had doubled. Every single physical attribute had increased by one hundred percent. Strength that had been enhanced by awakening was now twice as powerful. Agility had scaled proportionally. Vitality that governed his endurance and resilience had jumped to levels that should require years of cultivation to achieve.
But Perception and Will had increased even more dramatically. Fourteen to fifty for Perception. Ten to fifty for Will. The mental and spiritual attributes had expanded far beyond what physical training alone could accomplish.
A new title had appeared. Wielder Of A Primordial Body. Confirmation that the integration had succeeded, that he now possessed something beyond what normal cultivation provided.
And the Traits section no longer showed empty. Primordial Physique sat there in glowing text, permanent modification that would shape everything that came after.
Riven stood slowly, testing his transformed body. His legs held steady despite the ordeal. His balance was perfect. Every movement felt controlled and precise in ways that should require years of practice to develop.
He moved to the mirror and examined his reflection. The change was visible. His muscles had become more defined, his frame somehow both leaner and more imposing. His face had lost any remaining softness, the angles becoming sharper, more striking. His blue eyes seemed to glow with intensity that transcended normal human pigmentation.
He looked older than fifteen. Looked like someone who had earned power through struggle rather than receiving it as birthright.
'This is just the beginning,' Riven thought, watching his reflection. 'This is what the system grants at the start. What will I become when I climb through Gates and Realms properly? When I awaken all nine elements? When I truly master what the Genesis Star has given me?'
The possibilities stretched before him like infinite horizon. But there was something else he needed to explore. Something he had been curious about since seeing it on his status screen.
The Space element. His awakened affinity. The rarest power in Desolara's history.
"Guide," Riven said, his voice steadier now. "Tell me about the Space element. What is it? How does it work?"
"The Space element is one of the two rarest affinities in existence," the Guide responded immediately. "Only two individuals in recorded history have awakened it before you. It grants manipulation of spatial dimensions, allowing the user to affect distance, position, and the relationship between objects and locations."
Riven's breath quickened. Manipulation of space itself. Not just moving through it but actually affecting it, changing it, controlling it.
"What can I do with it at my current level?" he asked, needing practical information.
"At Level One Space affinity, your capabilities are extremely limited. Basic spatial awareness. Minor distance manipulation. Potentially short range teleportation, though attempting that without proper mastery carries significant risk."
"What kind of risk?"
The Guide's response was immediate and dire. "Spatial manipulation gone wrong can result in partial teleportation, causing portions of your body to materialize inside solid objects. It can create spatial tears that damage everything in proximity. It can strand you in locations you cannot escape from. At low levels, Space affinity is among the most dangerous elements to practice with."
The warning landed like cold water. This was not something to experiment with casually. This required caution that Riven currently lacked.
"However," the Guide continued, "bloodline abilities function differently from learned techniques. The Astravar Elemental bloodline grants instinctive understanding of your awakened element. You should be able to access basic manipulations without extensive training, though true mastery will require practice and level advancement."
Instinctive understanding. The bloodline should guide him, should provide fundamental knowledge of how to use what he had awakened.
'I should be able to manipulate it,' Riven thought. 'At least at a basic level. The bloodline will tell me how. I just need to try.'
He focused inward, reaching for the Space affinity the same way he could feel his Aster. For a moment nothing happened. Then suddenly he sensed it. A layer beneath normal reality. Something that existed adjacent to physical space, a dimension that could be affected if he just knew how to touch it.
Riven concentrated harder, pushing his enhanced Perception into that strange layer, trying to grasp it the way instinct suggested he should. The Space element responded immediately, surging forward with eagerness that startled him.
For a brief moment he felt connected to something vast. Could sense the bathroom around him not as solid objects but as coordinates that could be adjusted. Could perceive distance as malleable rather than fixed. Could understand that position was negotiable if you possessed the power to negotiate it.
The knowledge flooded through him. How to reach through space. How to compress distance. How to relocate himself from one set of coordinates to another. The bloodline was teaching him, providing instinctive understanding of mechanisms that should require years to comprehend.
Then terror spiked through him like a blade.
He was about to teleport. Was seconds away from attempting spatial relocation without truly understanding the mechanics. Was going to shift his physical position based purely on instinct that he had possessed for less than two days, trusting bloodline knowledge to guide him through a process that could scatter his atoms across the estate or materialize him inside a wall or strand him in some spatial pocket he could never escape from.
The Space element writhed in his mental grasp, powerful and dangerous and utterly indifferent to whether its wielder survived using it. This was not gentle power that protected its user. This was raw cosmic force that would execute whatever command he gave regardless of whether that command resulted in his death.
Riven released his hold immediately, severing the connection with desperate urgency. He let the Space element retreat back into dormant potential, felt it withdraw from that layer beneath reality, pulling away from the coordinates and distances and positions it had been preparing to manipulate.
His hands were shaking. His borrowed heart hammered against ribs that suddenly felt too confining. Sweat that had nothing to do with the integration process broke out across his forehead.
He had been seconds away from attempting something catastrophically stupid. From trusting instinct he barely understood to protect him during spatial manipulation that could kill him in dozens of horrific ways. From proving that having power meant nothing if you lacked the wisdom to use it properly.
'Not yet,' Riven thought, forcing his breathing to slow. 'Not until I understand it better. Not until I have more control. Not until I can practice somewhere failure means embarrassment rather than death or permanent disfigurement.'
The realization settled over him like cold certainty. The Space element was his greatest advantage and his most dangerous liability. Power that could transcend normal limitations but that required mastery he currently lacked. Using it prematurely would not prove his capability. It would just demonstrate that he was reckless and foolish.
He looked down at his hands and saw them trembling. Fear coursed through him, genuine terror at how close he had come to potentially killing himself through ignorance and overconfidence. The bathroom that had seemed private and secure moments ago now felt like a trap, a confined space where spatial manipulation gone wrong could turn solid walls into instruments of his own destruction.
'I need to be smarter than this,' Riven thought, his mind racing. 'Need to think before acting. Need to remember that having power does not automatically mean I know how to wield it safely. The system gave me capabilities but not the experience to use them without killing myself.'
He moved to the sink and splashed cold water on his face, letting the shock of it ground him back in physical reality. His reflection stared back at him from the mirror, violet hair plastered to his forehead with sweat, blue eyes wide with residual fear.
'Space manipulation is too dangerous to practice alone,' he concluded, the logic crystallizing with absolute clarity. 'Too easy to make mistakes that cannot be corrected. Too many ways it can go catastrophically wrong. I need supervision. Need someone who understands spatial mechanics. Need a controlled environment where failure does not automatically mean death.'
But where would he find that? Who in the Astravar family understood Space affinity when only two people in all of recorded history had possessed it before him? The Guide had said the Genesis Star contained accumulated knowledge, but knowledge and practical instruction were different things entirely.
'I'll have to be patient,' Riven thought, the realization bitter but necessary. 'Will have to develop my other capabilities first. Let Space affinity remain dormant until I have more experience with cultivation generally. Until I understand Aster manipulation well enough that adding spatial complexity does not immediately result in my death.'
The decision made sense even though it frustrated him. He had the rarest element in existence and could not safely use it. Had awakened power that transcended normal bloodline abilities and was forced to leave it untapped because the danger exceeded his current capability to manage.
But being frustrated was better than being dead. Being cautious was wiser than being bold when boldness meant potential obliteration.
Riven took several deep breaths, letting the fear and frustration wash through him and then recede. His transformed body felt strong despite the terror of near disaster. His enhanced senses still functioned with perfect clarity. The Aster flowing through him remained potent and accessible.
He had gained enormous advantages today. Had integrated a Primordial Physique that doubled his stats and tripled his Aster capacity. Had confirmed that his system interface was accurate and that the Guide could provide valuable information. Had learned that Space affinity existed but that using it required more care than he currently possessed.
'One step at a time,' he thought, steadying himself. 'I don't need to master everything immediately. Don't need to prove myself by taking unnecessary risks. The Elders think I'm worthless. Let them keep thinking that while I develop properly. Let them remain ignorant of what I'm becoming while I grow strong enough that revealing my capabilities cannot be countered or suppressed.'
The logic was sound. Patience served him better than recklessness. Caution would keep him alive to eventually demonstrate the power that haste might squander through fatal mistake.
He needed to clean himself properly. Needed to wash away the sweat and fear and physical evidence of what he had just experienced. Needed to compose himself before Esme returned and started asking questions about why he looked like he had just survived something traumatic.
Riven stripped off his soaked clothing and stepped into the shower, turning the water as hot as he could tolerate. The spray felt good against his transformed body, washing away salt and tension. He stood there for long minutes, letting heat work into muscles that had been torn apart and reformed, letting steam fill the bathroom and obscure the mirror that had shown him his fear.
'I almost killed myself,' he thought, the truth settling in his chest with uncomfortable weight. 'Almost teleported into a wall or scattered myself across dimensions or created some spatial catastrophe that would have ended my second life as stupidly as jumping off that bridge ended my first.'
'But I stopped. Recognized the danger and pulled back. That counts for something. That means I can learn. Can exercise judgment even when power is available and tempting.'
The water continued to pour over him, hot and steady and grounding. His enhanced Perception tracked how his body processed the heat, how his Vitality converted the warmth into relaxation and recovery. Even this simple act of showering revealed the magnitude of his transformation.
He finished washing and dried himself with towels that felt softer against his enhanced senses. The bathroom was filled with steam, obscuring everything in white mist that felt appropriate somehow. Like the physical manifestation of his need to obscure what had just occurred from external observation.