"Huuu," a loud sigh of relief left Ryuk’s lips as he swerved to the end of the book, finding nothing but the hardcover that fully shut the book closed.
The information he had gleaned was like glue seeping into his brain.
As Ryuk closed his eyes, the pictures of the notes began reappearing one by one over his head.
The process continued again and again until he felt the information completely glue itself into his mind.
"I have gotten what I want. Now is the time to put it into play," he mused as he opened his eyes and looked around the room.
It would have been nice if there was some meditation room in the castle, and Ryuk could guess there was probably one.
But to go back upstairs and ask that from Morgaine seemed like too much hassle.
He wanted to get this done right here and now, and in the end, Ryuk decided to use the library for his cultivation process.
The Mana here was abundant, comparable to the special cultivation rooms in the Arisen Hall because it was the home of the Half-Fallen One.
All Ryuk needed was a bit of focus, not any fancy special cultivation room or some luxury futon.
And since this was the library, and knowing Morgaine didn’t seem like the one to suddenly pop down and come read, and with the Half-Fallen One not being around, it was Ryuk’s best chance to own the place for himself.
Shifting the book to the side, he straightened up on his seat as both of his hands moved into each other and rested upon the golden table.
With a quiet and peaceful inhale and exhale, he closed his eyes and his consciousness began fading away into nothing, soon appearing before the gigantic red-blue door.
The door radiated an awe-inspiring power, and it was none other than Ryuk’s Primordial Gate.
Even though he had seen this door not once or twice, but many times now, it still struck at his heart.
Advancing forth, Ryuk’s hand moved to touch the Primordial Gate and then—
GRUUUUUUM
It parted open for him as he stepped into it, finding nothing but an endless land of grassy plains before him, at the middle of which was still the cocoon that housed Isha.
But Ryuk only glanced a little before focusing on the task.
"I’m now in the Primordial Gate. In this place, there lies my Apex Core in wait."
"But this place seems almost endless. How am I supposed to find the Apex Core within here?" He mused under his breath, but his eyes soon flashed as his brain hinted at something.
Right now, as Ryuk stood in the space, there was Mana around him—cold Ice Apex Energy. And with a little bit of work, Ryuk soon found out something.
"The Ice Apex Energy has varying different levels of concentration in the Primordial Gate.
"The Apex Core is said to be nestled within the depths of the Primordial Gate, and it acts as a reservoir and processor of Apex Energy."
"If the Apex Core stores the refined energy, then obviously, Mana leaks out of it, permeating the Pet World and acting as a conduit for Isha to obtain Mana due to my special ability class as a Beast Tamer."
"If the concentration of Mana is different, then somehow, that must mean the thicker the concentration of Mana in an area, the higher the chance that there is a possibility of the Apex Core being present in that area!" Ryuk mused, his brain piecing together various information and giving him a way through.
Without wasting any more time, Ryuk began sprinting forward into the distance.
He had easily found that the deeper he headed into the Primordial Gate, the more he felt the Mana concentration increasing.
Perhaps at the end of it, he would find the Apex Core lying in wait.
After endless hours of running, Ryuk soon began noticing something different.
Never once had he delved this deep into his Primordial Gate, which of course, also housed his Pet World. He only ever looked at the endless grassy plains before he left the realm.
But now, as Ryuk walked deeper and deeper, he soon began to notice that the endless grassy plains were fading away into nothing.
What was revealed after that was an endless area of dark void, concealing bizarre blue constellations that flashed in the upper sky.
Ryuk couldn’t help but stop at the sight as he stared behind him, finding the almost fading grassy plains.
And with a bit of consideration to settle his nerves, he moved into this void of space.
This space seemed to hold endless depths, yet Ryuk felt the ground beneath him solid, even though there was nothing but darkness beneath him.
He quickly began running straight into the distance, running past countless amounts of constellations before he finally arrived at the end of the place.
The sight before Ryuk shook his heart.
At the end of his Primordial Gate was no single Apex Core.
It was a humongous tree, whose half was lined with purple dark energy that trailed down it, seemingly giving it a dark, preternatural aura of death.
Yet at the other side of the humongous tree was a blue energy that floated around the branches giving the tree some bit of life.
Somehow, the colour difference reminded Ryuk of his Primordial Gate, whose colour also shifted into a differentiated blue and dark hue.
"What, what is this?
Why do I have a tree at the end of my Primordial Gate?" He mused without understanding.
The manual had never talked of any tree, but soon his eyes flashed as he felt ice-cold Apex Energy erupt into his face, and he turned his head up.
From the dried branches of the tree, there was a single branch that leaned toward the blue area of the tree, and that branch was completely covered in icy cold blue energy.
At the end of the branch was a single object—a large ice-cold blue gem that radiated the purest essence of Ice Apex Energy Ryuk had ever seen.
It was like this was the ultimate true essence of all of his Ice Apex Energy.
"So this is it. This is my Apex Core."
"But... but..."
"How come it’s just only on a single branch, and there seem to be thousands of branches all around?"