Chapter 388: I Liked The Silence
My Psynapse flickered faintly. There was no system prompt, not yet but I didn’t need one to know. I could feel it, deep inside my core.
My talent was on the verge of leveling up. It was like standing at the edge of a cliff, not with fear, but anticipation, knowing the wind beneath would carry you higher instead of letting you fall.
A quiet smile touched my lips.
No fireworks. No epic music playing in the background. Just the gentle ripple of warm water and the heavy silence of an old castle trying to breathe again. I let my body sink deeper into the bath, until the water touched my shoulders.
I inhaled slowly, then shifted into a seated position. My body aligned with the natural currents flowing through the pool, water infused with weak but constant ambient energy. And then, I opened my channels.
It began like a whisper. Energy trickled in, slow and smooth. First from the water, then from the air, and even from the ancient stones that made up the broken walls around me. All of it flowed into me, particles invisible to most, yet very real to someone like me. I didn’t fight it. I let it happen. I welcomed it.
Into me.
Around me.
Through me.
I sat there for several minutes, maybe longer. Time felt... soft. Unimportant. The constant churning of battle had faded, and for the first time in what felt like days, I could actually feel myself again.
Eventually, I willed my status to appear.
A familiar screen floated in front of my eyes.
[Status]
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Name : Billion Ironhart
Race : Executor(Human)
Class : Primordial Executor – Transcendent (Mythic)
Laws :
Minor Law of Absolute - 40%Level 3 - Minor Law of SpaceLevel 2 - Minor Law of Fire, Ice, Lightning, Light, Wind, RepulsionLevel 1 - Minor Law of Vitality, Conversion, Absorption, Shadow, Attraction
Awakened Weapon: Executor’s Staff
Rank: Master
Level : 199
Talent :
- Generator Nexus 2
- Essence : 145/145 (+100)
- Soul Shackle : 3
Attributes :
- Strength: Alpha (1795)
- Constitution: Alpha (1640)
- Dexterity: Alpha (1342)
- Psynapse : Alpha + (2339)
- Essence : ∞
Skills:
- Essence Engine (Innate) Level 7
- Psynapse Fracture (Max)
- Collapsing Heaven Level 2
- Lightning Rend Level 3
- Sovereign Reversal Level 4
- Phantom Dive Level 2
- Absolute Domain Level 4
- Revert Level 4
- Fractured Unity Level 3
- Sanctum of Judgement Level 3
- Lotus of Annihilation Level 1
- Thunderflame Dominion Level 1
- Runic Ascent Level 2
- Singularity Beam (Weapon Skill)
Abilities:
- Apex Body – II (Passive)
- Trait Acquisition
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Everything looked solid... but my stats were still somewhat unbalanced. That was fine. I had a plan for that. I was going to fix it during the quest I’d just received and beyond that, when we went beyond this world. The quest to advance my class and break into the Grandmaster tier was still waiting.
I opened the Talent Panel next.
[Talent Panel]
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Talent Name: Generator Nexus
Level: 3
Activation Command: Power Up!
Recharge Sources: Any form of energy
Upgrade Requirement : Level 5
Function 1 : Essence Generation
– Generates Essence from absorbed energy
– Essence : 145 / 145 (+100) units
– Level-Up Requirement: 2900 Essence units generated
– Progress: 2750/ 2900
Function 2 : Null Heart
– Generates Soul Threads from generated Essence
– Combines Soul Threads into a Soul Shackle
– Null Heart Charge: 0 / 1000 Essence (1 Soul Shackle = 1000 units of Essence)
– Soul Shackle : 3
– Anchored Soul : 3
– Soul Shackle Limit: 3 (equals to level of talent)
Abilities:
– Essence Transfer : Can transfer stored Essence to an attribute. After use, 50% of the transferred Essence unit remains as a permanent boost
– Essence Infusion : Can infuse stored Essence.
– Particle Absorption : Can directly absorb energy particles from the environment.
– Sovereign’s Mark : Generated Essence bears your unique signature, bending only to your will.
– Soul Shackle: Anchors a corrupted Bonded Soul into the Null Heart, allowing control and shared evolution.
– Sovereign Absorption: Generates a violet vortex that devours energy and channels it directly into the generator core, bypassing the engraved channels. Scales with Talent Level and Psynapse strength.
– Verdant Extraction: Extract life force and distribute it throughout the body. Cannot be stored.
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I was close. So close.
Just some more Essence units, and the talent would level up again.
I narrowed my eyes slightly and focused. Then, with a thought, I activated Essence Transfer and pushed the entire stored Essence into my Strength stat.
A rush of heat exploded through my muscles. They twitched, vibrated, then steadied as the essence soaked into every fiber. My arms tingled slightly. My back cracked. The water around me trembled.
[Strength: 1917]
It wasn’t just a number. I felt the change. The improvement. I was close to breaching Alpha+ now.
A chuckle escaped me. Light and low.
"One day," I whispered to myself, "I’m gonna grab Arkas by that bald head and slam him into a mountain just because I can."
The memory of our last spar flickered through my mind. I still owed him that beatdown. And I’d make good on it.
More energy flooded in, and Essence kept generating steadily now, the vortex inside me slowly spinning up to a higher speed.
The fatigue I’d been holding onto since the battle started, the drain of repeated Law-use, the psychic toll of fighting others, the mental weight of the dead, all of it began to fade away.
My wounds were knitting together. The strain in my joints eased. Even my breathing felt smoother.
Steam rolled off my skin as I raised the temperature around me, gently evaporating the water.
A shimmer of vapor danced across the surface before lifting into the air, and I emerged clean, skin still glowing faintly with residual energy.
No dirt, no blood, no grime remained. Just me, soaking in a shallow bed of stone and light, in silence.
I didn’t move. Didn’t rush. The pool was still.
I closed my eyes and simply listened, to the stillness, to the flow within, to the faint hum of my generator core pulsing in sync with the universe.
There was peace here, in this moment between destruction and the next storm.
The Essence trickled into my heart, bit by bit. At the center stood the white Null Heart core, calm, steady, while three crimson cores orbited around it, flickering now and then like new stars. The weight of it all pressed inward. I felt like I was carrying an entire world inside me.