Four days.
It had been four days since I watched the carriages disappear into the Iron Throat Pass.
Two days spent at the Eclipse Keep, tying up the final loose ends with some people and ensuring my departure was as unobtrusive as my presence had been. The remaining two were spent on the road, pushing deep into the wild, untamed foothills south of the barony.
I was searching for a secluded spot to have a breakthrough.
And I found it in a shallow cave, hidden behind a thicket of thorny frost-brush. With a grunt of effort, I rolled a massive, moss-covered stone to block the entrance, the sound echoing dully in the confined space. That should deter any curious beasts. For anything or anyone more perceptive, I wove a simple illusion over the entrance, a suggestion of unbroken rock and shadow that would make any glancing eye slide right past it.
Settling into a cross-legged position in the center of the cave, I closed my eyes and cast my senses outward.
[Pulse of the Unseen]
The world dissolved into a tapestry of life and energy. I felt the scurrying heartbeat of a mouse twenty yards away, the slow, patient pulse of the ancient trees, the faint shimmer of ambient aura clinging to the rocks. I pushed further, stretching the pulse to its limit. Thankfully, I detected nothing.
Satisfied, I pulled my awareness back inside the cave, then deeper, into myself.
Now, it was time to break through to the Third Tier.
But before that, I ran through the traditional stages of progression in my mind, the path walked by more than ninety percent of all resonators in this world.
The first two steps were no different than mine - stabilization and harmonization.
Then came the circulation. One would have to draw environmental aura into the body and move it through predefined pathways(it’s probably related to one’s locus). And it was a process that required intense focus.
The next step was refinement: a passive filtering of that aura as it circulates, making it compatible with the resonator’s affinity and locus. Impurities would be slowly expelled.
The final step was absorption: guiding the refined aura to the core - the Aura Core - to fill its limited capacity, like pouring water into a lake.
And only when the core was full to bursting could one attempt a breakthrough, compressing the aura to trigger a qualitative evolution.
It was a clean, simple, but painfully slow process.
My path would be slightly different. For me, the traditional three stages weren’t separate steps. They were one single, simultaneous, and perpetual action. And I was going to build an ocean with its own tide.
’Aura Well Genesis...’
The name alone sounded like a cheat code.
First, I had to use the Infinite Loop, the perfect harmony between my Body, Energy, and Mind loci, as a forge. I would have to draw in raw environmental aura and then channel it directly into this self-sustaining circuit.
As it cycled, the refinement would happen actively. My Body locus would temper the aura, giving it density. My Energy locus would purify and energize it. My Mind locus would align and structure it. Three different purification processes at once, turning raw energy into something uniquely mine.
Then came the crucial part. I had to force this refined aura to the central point of the Infinite Loop. I had to compress it there, spin it, and use that concentrated energy to carve out a new metaphysical space inside me — the Aura Well itself. This would be a gravitational point, a dynamic center of power.
It sounded simple laid out like that. But I wasn’t a fool. Holding three intense processes in perfect balance while performing internal metaphysical architecture was a task with zero margin for error. One misstep, and the conflicting energies would rip me apart from the inside. This was undoubtedly the most dangerous and advanced foundation any Tier 3 resonator had ever attempted.
If I succeeded, the potential was staggering. A self-filling, self-refining core that operated on a level beyond anyone’s understanding. I’d be in a league of my own.
A wry smirk touched my lips.
’Probably be the most OP Tier 3 resonator there is, or was.’
Shaking my head, I let the thought go. Pride was a distraction. Ambition was a liability right now.
I took a long, deep breath, emptying my mind of everything — Cassandra’s scarf, the Crown Prince’s gaze, the weight of my secrets. There was only the plan, the process, and the power.
My consciousness dove inward, finding the three brilliant points that were my loci. I willed them to life, and the Infinite Loop ignited, a trinity of power humming in perfect sync.
’...Now.’
I slowly opened the floodgates, and the environmental aura surged into me.
The first part was easy. Guiding the surging aura into the Infinite Loop felt natural. The circuit accepted the energy, the three loci humming as power cycled through them in a stable flow. I had mastered this much.
Then came the refinement, and everything became a battle.
I focused on my Body locus first, commanding it to temper the raw, chaotic aura. The energy fought back like a wild animal, refusing to be shaped. My first attempt was easily shattered. The second failed even faster. The third was a bit longer but still a failure.
A dull ache started deep in my bones with each attempt. It took seventeen attempts before I found the right resonance, a specific frequency of will that made the aura finally condense and grow heavy. The effort left me sweating.
Next was the Energy locus. Now I had to force this newly dense, stubborn aura to purify and ignite. It was like trying to light a waterlogged log. The thick mass resisted violently, threatening to tear itself apart and take my channels with it. My head throbbed, my vision spotting at the edges as I poured every ounce of focus into maintaining the balance. The process was excruciatingly slow, a war of attrition that drained me more with every passing second. When a brilliant, stable current finally emerged, I was already half-exhausted.
By the time I reached the Mind locus, I was running on sheer desperation. My mental strength was a shallow, nearly dry well. Imposing order on this now-dense, super-charged, and volatile energy felt almost impossible. It was a torrent trying to smash through a dam of my own fraying consciousness. Each second was agony, my mind screaming under the strain. I was on the verge of blacking out when something finally gave way. With a final, gut-wrenching heave of will, I forced the alignment. The aura snapped into a perfect, intelligent flow, and I felt a part of my mind go numb and distant from the strain.
There was no time to recover, not even a second. I dragged the perfected aura to the center of the Loop. Both my body and soul trembled with the effort. I made it spin, compressing it tighter and tighter until I felt a terrifying pressure building in my core. With the last shred of my strength, I pushed it over the edge.
The Genesis Aura Well ignited with a silent, profound roar deep within my core.
However, I didn’t celebrate or take a break. I held my focus, a fragile thread of will overseeing the newborn vortex.
It was unstable, flickering, threatening to collapse under its own nascent gravity.
’Hmmm...’
I carefully fed it the last of the refined aura, guiding its spin, reinforcing its structure.
Minutes stretched into an eternity of meticulous adjustment.
Then, a shift. The flickering steadied. The spin slowly became self-sustaining.
A tiny, perfect vortex, no larger than a pebble in my perception, began to hum with its own rhythm. It drew in a trickle of environmental aura all on its own, cycling it through the Infinite Loop and adding a droplet of newly refined power back into itself.
It was finally finished. And only then did I allow myself to disengage.
’Hmmm.’
I slowly withdrew my consciousness, my awareness rising back through the layers of my being. The intense pressure in my core faded, replaced by the deep, resonant hum of the Well.
I opened my eyes to the darkness of the cave. My body was drenched in sweat, trembling with exhaustion, but a profound sense of accomplishment settled over me.
’Breakthrough... complete...’