I looked at the water bubble I had made around myself. It was the only thing keeping me safe from the heavy pressure and wild space energy outside.
Even though I was protected, my mind was a mess. I felt both excited and nervous at the same time, and those two feelings kept fighting inside me.
Thought after thought rushed through my head.
What if I failed?
What if things worked out but not the way I wanted?
I kept thinking too much.
I took a deep breath to calm myself down, then reached into my storage ring and pulled out my communicator.
I had talked to Steve just yesterday. He finally received his class and was busy leveling up like crazy.
So this time, I decided to call North.
We talked every day without missing a single one. Our chats were starting to feel different lately, less like just friends, and a bit more… something else.
I just really hoped Arkas wasn't listening.
If he was, this would get real awkward.
A second later, the call connected.
North picked up with a teasing tone.
"Well, well, well... your highness. How come you called so early today? To what do I owe the honor?"
I chuckled.
"Had a bit of free time. Thought I'd check in before I get crushed by the pressure here. What are you up to?"
"I'm at the wind elemental chamber," she replied. "Came for some training. It's a bit wild today, but I'm keeping up."
"That's good." I paused, then asked, "Did you eat?"
"Yeah, had lunch earlier."
She sounded casual, but I could hear a little smile in her voice.
"Same here." I glanced at the swirling chaos outside my bubble. "Still stuck in this weird crater. Starting to feel like I'm being slow-cooked."
North laughed softly.
"Are you sure you're not turning into a sea animal at this point?"
"Probably am," I said. "Might grow fins any minute now. But hey, the strongest one around, no question."
"As long as you're a strong fish with a staff, I guess it works." She giggled, then added, "I should start calling you Fish King."
"Don't push it," I smirked. "Anyway, how's the training going? You feel like you're getting close to something?"
There was a short pause before she replied, a little more seriously.
"Actually, yeah. I think I'm starting to move with the wind instead of just forcing it. It's... freeing. Like I'm finally listening instead of just commanding."
"That sounds... philosophical," I said quietly. "I like that."
She let out a soft chuckle.
"It is what it is."
After that, we both went quiet. Not an awkward silence, just... calm.
I fidgeted a little, not sure why I suddenly felt nervous. Still, I pushed through and asked,
"So... what about your class?"
She answered right away.
"Got one."
I smiled to myself.
"Nice. Congrats! Umm... how about you take me out for some celebratory food when I get back?"
There was a short pause. I could almost picture her blinking, surprised.
"...Okay," she finally said. "Yeah, we can do that. Nothing wrong with that."
Her voice cracked just slightly near the end. Was that a stutter?
Just to make sure we were on the same page, I added,
"Just us, right? I'm not sharing my food with anyone else."
I heard her take a deep breath before answering.
"Yes. Just us."
I gave a small nod, even though she couldn't see it.
"Cool, cool, cool. Alright then, I'll see you when I'm back."
"Yeah," she replied, voice softer than before. "See you soon."
"Bye."
"Bye."
I ended the call and exhaled.
"Too much effort, man... too much effort."
But despite the words, I was smiling.
It took me a minute to get out of that call with North and settle my thoughts.
But eventually, I calmed myself down. The nervousness I felt before slowly faded, replaced by a steady sense of determination.
I took a deep breath, stood up, and removed my clothes, placing everything carefully into my storage ring. Then I sat back down cross-legged, completely naked inside the water bubble.
It was time to mess things up, hopefully, in a good way.
There were three major things I wanted to accomplish here, and my inspiration came from two specific moments.
The first was the grey figure I saw in the vision during the activation of my defense skill, the one that gave me a glimpse of a higher path.
The second was when I created the [Blazing Sfera] skill. Especially how the System recognized it, tracked it, and helped automate certain parts of the process.
That's exactly what I was aiming for now.
I wanted to modify my Generator talent, evolve it and reshape it into something greater.
The first thing I wanted to do was create a circulation system, a network of channels inside my body specifically for Essence to travel through.
Right now, my body was using blood vessels as a temporary pathway and relying on my nervous system to communicate commands.
It wasn't meant for this, but because of my high Constitution and Psynapse stats, it somehow worked.
My blood vessels had been holding up under the pressure of constant Essence flow, and the System had been helping out by handling the infusion of attributes into my body.
But I knew that wouldn't last forever.
I needed something better. A proper pathway made just for Essence. Something permanent. Something efficient. And luckily, I had a perfect blueprint for it, the vision I saw during my defense skill awakening.
The image of that grey figure, with glowing channels etched through his body, had stayed with me.
The second thing I aimed to do was to earn a new skill from the System.
A skill that would allow me to condense the generated Essence into orbs inside my core. These orbs would allow me to store more Essence in the core. If I could automate that process, it would give me an incredible advantage.
The third goal was to gain control over the absorption speed itself. Right now, my Generator core absorbed energy automatically.
To speed it up, I had to either get hit by a massive amount of energy or force it manually by sitting still and focusing for hours.
That wasn't efficient. But if I had Essence channels in place, I could control the flow and speed, direct it where I wanted, when I wanted.
And finally, the most important part, link everything to the Generator Core.
The core was on the verge of evolving.
This was my window to make these changes. If I pulled this off, I wouldn't just upgrade my Generator talent, I'd modify my entire body structure to match it.
That would lay the groundwork not just for my next class evolution, but also for something far greater, my race evolution at Level 100.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
In my mind, I replayed the vision over and over again, the image of the man with channels engraved across his body.
I focused on every detail, trying to memorize the exact paths of the glowing lines. I had to get them right. One wrong move, and this entire attempt could backfire.
This was the reason I'd worked so hard to level up both [Psynapse Boost] and [Essence Shaping].
Everything had been building up to this moment.