I took a breath.
Slow. Deep. Steady.
Every muscle in my body ached, shoulders tight, arms heavy, legs buzzing with exhaustion but I pushed all that aside.
The pain didn't matter. Nothing did, except the feel of Essence around me, the raw pull of it in the air like heat radiating off stone.
I activated every skill.
[Psynapse Boost]. My perception sharpened in an instant. Threads of Essence lit up around me, glowing faintly, shimmering like strands of silk caught in a wind I could finally see. I was able to differentiate the red of fire from the black of darkness.
[Essence Shift]. The Essence responded fast, faster than they ever had before. I didn't need to force them anymore, I just willed them to shift. They bent toward fire, curling around the thought, hungry to change.
[Essence Shaping]. I pulled the Essence with purpose, spiraling the flow into a shape I had been chasing for hours.
It finally answered.
The fire formed, not as a chaotic burst, but as something structured, almost beautiful.
A spinning sphere, the size of my head, solid and balanced.
At its core, fire churned in tight, molten loops. Two bright spiral tails twisted outward, spinning in opposite directions like a miniature spiraling galaxy. Each tail flared as it rotated, leaving streaks of gold and red behind.
It was perfect.
'Nine seconds.'
I let out a breath, half a laugh escaping with it. From thirty three to nine.
Then my Psynapse twitched. Something shifted, barely noticeable. But I caught it.
The moment the beam formed in front of me, I already knew.
I didn't leap or jump.
I twisted.
My left foot pivoted, my spine arched, and my upper body leaned away from the attack just as it fired. The heat grazed past my shoulder.
The sphere still floated in front of me, undisturbed, spinning quietly like it belonged in the center of a star system.
I looked at the fireball and knew I could create it even faster, so I did.
I wasn't done.
I locked onto another cluster of Essence around me, dense, tangled, like a ball of thread soaked in mud. It resisted, sluggish and heavy. A pain to shape. I didn't care.
It was the darkness which formed the dome and was probably passively in Edgar's control.
I decided to break it and slammed my will forward—no grace, no patience, just force. I drove my intent into the Essence cluster like a blade, splitting its structure wide open.
It responded.
The dome pulsed. Darkness rippled like a disturbed liquid. Then it lashed.
The darkness came fast, violent.
My goal was simple: push back the darkness and pull the Essence out from beneath it.
I gritted my teeth and roared into the dark.
"GIVE ME MOREEEEE!"
My voice echoed like thunder across the dome. My will slammed into the darkness and kept it at bay.
The Essence vibrated in the air, shocked by the force of my demand. Then it surged toward me.
I guided it straight into the shape.
My Psynapse flared again, harder this time. Essence flooded into my skull like liquid lightning. I felt something tear behind my eyes. Blood ran from my nose, but I didn't stop. I wouldn't stop.
I pulled harder.
And the Essence obeyed.
The second ball formed faster than the first. It spun with controlled precision, stable yet fierce. Fire condensed into a solid, glowing core, its spiral tails burning in shades of deep crimson and gold.
'Five seconds.'
I stared at it. Stared at both of them.
Twins of destruction, spinning silently in front of me.
Sweat clung to my skin. I felt it run down my back, sting the corner of my eyes, pool at the edges of my lips.
I smiled through the burn.
My will was stretched thin. My body ached in places I didn't even know could hurt. I had no idea how long I'd been at it, hours maybe, but I never let go. Despite the burning in my chest and the ringing in my ears, I kept both fireballs steady under my control.
And then I heard them.
Multiple notifications pinged in my head, faint but unmistakable. Skill-ups, maybe. System alerts. I didn't look. I couldn't afford the distraction.
My focus was already at its limit. One more break, one misstep, and everything would fall apart. So I did the only thing I could. I held my breath and sharpened my awareness. Waiting.
The next attack didn't make me wait long. I felt the air shift, just a flicker of pressure at my right.
I didn't move.
Then came the beam.
The moment it fired, I stepped forward, just one clean step, and it screamed past behind me, smashing into the training floor with a hiss.
I exhaled the breath I'd been holding and grinned. A slow, tired grin.
Taking a few steps back, I stared at the dark dome towering over me, almost six feet in radius now. Its surface pulsed, and I knew what was coming. The fifth constriction. Soon.
I raised both hands toward the spinning fireballs, still burning, still under my control.
"Let's see if you survive this."
I forced more will into them.
The spheres resisted for a second, almost like they wanted to lash out on their own. But I kept them locked. Slowly, I increased their spin, accelerating their rotation until both were blurs of heat and motion.
The fiery tails stretched longer. The cores flared.
My head throbbed, but I didn't stop.
Gritting my teeth, I guided the fireballs closer to each other. Inch by inch. Controlled. Measured. Every moment was like dragging mountains with threads of thought.
They were inches apart when I released my hold.
The fireballs immediately expanded, reacting to the sudden freedom. The spiraling tails whipped outward as their cores pulsed violently. Then, with a flash of white-hot light—
They collided.
The explosion that followed was like thunder trapped in a bottle. A boom ripped through the space, a wave of raw force that sent a shockwave rolling through the dome. I'd already stepped back, but the impact still slammed into me like a physical wall.
I skidded a few feet, boots dragging on the ground, but I stayed on my feet.
Breathless. Shaking.
Still standing.
And smiling.
There was no damage to the floor, but the dome, well, I could feel it through my perception. The darkness had thinned. A lot. At least by 60%.
It survived this time, but one more push, and I knew it would break.
I moved my focus from the dome to the system notification and checked them one by one.
[Skill Level Up!]
[Essence Shift - Level 2 -> Level 3]
I nodded to myself. This was expected.
I moved to the next notification.
[Skill Acquired]
[Blazing Sfera - Level 1]
My eyes lit up, and I gave myself an imaginary high five.
"Hell yeah."
Finally, the system recognized it as a skill. A surge of information flooded my mind, locking in the entire process of forming the fireball.
It detailed everything, from activating [Psynapse Boost] to reinforce my will, to using [Essence Shaping] to mold the sphere, and finally, [Essence Shift] to transform the Essence into fire.
"Wow. This is perfect."
It felt like a blueprint had been imprinted directly into my mind. I no longer needed to go through each step manually, just activating the skill would trigger the entire sequence effortlessly.
And that gave me an idea.
If skills could streamline complex processes like this…then maybe I could consolidate, or more precisely, link my talent with my class or even more precisely link the generator core with my class.
There were many manual steps involved with my core.
To reinforce my body with generated Essence, I had to channel it myself, every time. And to make space in the generator core, I had to manually condense the Essence building up inside it.
If I could create a skill to streamline all of that, a system that kept the core running on its own, constantly circulating and condensing Essence while reinforcing my body in the background, it would be a game-changer. Like an automatic loop that never stopped.
Not only would it make everything more efficient, but it would also ensure my body never lagged behind my Essence.
The thought made my heart pound with excitement.
Ba-dump.