I closed my eyes and sat silently, focusing on my heartbeat.
Steady. Strong. The rhythm of my own existence, the foundation upon which everything else was built.
This wasn't just about picking a class. It was going to be a defining moment for me.
Essence Architect. Essence Noblesse. Two paths, both beyond anything I had ever dreamed of. Legendary Paths. One meant creation, the other meant dominion.
I thought back to my journey so far. Every battle, every struggle, it had always been about pushing forward, never bending, never breaking.
I fought not just to survive but to carve my own place in this world. To get justice for my parents. To not be another soul whose fate was to die and get captured by the Eternals.
A memory surfaced, Grandma watching me struggle under a crushing weight. I was younger then, barely strong enough to hold it, let alone squat with it. The metal bar dug into my shoulders, my legs trembled, and sweat dripped down my face.
"Again," she said.
I gritted my teeth and lowered myself, my body screaming in protest. My knees nearly buckled, and for a moment, I thought I'd collapse. But I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of her so I pushed up, gasping, forcing the weight back to standing.
She gave a slow nod.
"Good. Now imagine doing that every day, for the rest of your life, without ever getting stronger."
I barely heard her over the pounding in my head.
"What…?"
"You think limits are something you break?" she said, stepping closer. "That they disappear just because you push hard enough?"
She tapped the bar on my shoulders.
"This weight? It's heavy now. But in a year, it won't be. You will awaken, level up and break past it."
Her voice lowered.
"But what about the ones who won't awaken?"
I sucked in a breath, trying to process her words.
"Those people? They have limits they can't break," she said. "No talent, no strength, no chance. They push, and push, and push, but the weight never gets lighter. It just grinds them down until they can't stand anymore."
I clenched my fists around the bar.
"That means power has limits. True power is not about breaking limits."
She shook her head.
"True power is about controlling the limits. About deciding where they exist. And if you're strong enough, about taking them away entirely so that you don't have to worry about breaking them again and again."
The memory faded, but the lesson remained.
Essence Architect was the path of creation, of shaping something new. But Essence Noblesse? That was control.
To be an Essence Noblesse was to wield the very thing that made reality what it was. Not just to shape it, but to command it. To be the force that dictated its form, not just its creator.
Creation had rules. Refinement had limits.
But ruling?
Ruling meant there was no limit except my own will.
I opened my eyes and locked onto the glowing panel before me. The words pulsed, waiting for my choice.
I reached forward and selected Essence Noblesse.
And the space around me changed.
A soft hum resonated through the air as Essence stirred. At first, it was subtle, a faint ripple in the surroundings, like a gentle ripple in the water. Then, like a tide responding to the pull of the moon, it surged toward me.
A storm of Essence formed around me, swirling in gentle waves, wrapping me in its embrace. Unlike the Essence that burned and raged, this Essence did not lash out. It flowed quietly, gentle like butterflies, moving in weird patterns around me.
Then, the world shifted.
I felt myself getting pulled in a vision.
I floated in endless space, surrounded by stars that burned like distant flames. Planets spun in slow, mesmerizing arcs. And in the center of it all stood a man.
An old man. A very old man.
His body seemed frail, his robes flowing weightlessly in the void. Yet his presence dwarfed everything around him. His eyes, glowing a deep, swirling green, were overflowing with vitality.
Before him loomed a massive planet with rings encircling it, its surface slowly rotating as it traced arcs around the star.
The old man lifted his hand.
A tremor rippled through space.
Essence surged from every corner of the cosmos, rushing toward him in great green waves.
It moved with purpose, not like untamed raw Essence that it was supposed to be but like loyal subjects answering a call. It swirled around him, eager, alive, almost joyful, like children running to embrace a long-lost father.
Then, with a mere wave of his hand, the Essence obeyed.
It churned, condensed, and transformed, shifting into colossal chains, each link thicker than entire moons, glowing with the deep emerald radiance.
The chains moved, slithering through the void like living serpents.
They shot toward the planet.
With a deafening clank, they wrapped around its surface, coiling tighter and tighter, binding it in their crushing grip. The planet trembled, its rotation faltering. The very laws that governed its motion were being rewritten.
The old man flexed his fingers.
The planet's movement stopped.
A world, frozen in an instant.
Then, as if it weighed nothing at all, the man turned and the planet moved with him. He drifted through the stars, carrying it as effortlessly as a traveler carrying a bag.
And just like that, he was gone.
The vision shattered, and I gasped, my body jolting back into reality.
Essence still swirled around me, whispering in the air, waiting.
I clenched my fists, feeling the energy pulse beneath my skin.
I heard the system notifications, but I ignored them. My mind was completely occupied with the vision.
The sheer scale of what I had just witnessed, the power displayed by that old man was overwhelming.
Controlling a planet with a flick of his hand, forging chains strong enough to bind it out of thin air, and then carrying it away as if it weighed nothing. I had never seen anything like that in my entire life, not even in movies.
"Was that real?" I murmured.
I had seen recorded fights and live battles of Grandmaster-ranked individuals, but none of them came anywhere close to what I had just witnessed. Recalling the scene, I raised my palm and focused on the Essence still swirling around me.
I willed it to move and it did. The Essence responded instantly, gathering gently in my palm.
A smile tugged at my lips. I continued focusing, guiding the Essence as it twisted and swirled, forming a miniature storm that spun lazily above my hand.
Watching the Essence swirl around me, I instinctively activated my talent. I pulled in the surrounding energy, which was agitated due to the Essence surge and let it flow into my core.
Almost immediately, I felt my Essence storage reaching its limit. Without hesitation, I activated [Essence Shaping], compressing what I had to make room for more.
Fifteen minutes passed. The once-vibrant currents of Essence gradually dispersed, yet the energy I had drawn in allowed me to generate more Essence than before. Though I couldn't harness it all, I had taken in enough to push my limits further.
I checked the storage.
20/20 (+20).
I had 40 units of Essence. I funneled 20 into Psynapse, temporarily boosting it to 110.
A subtle clarity settled over my mind, like a dense fog lifting.
I exhaled slowly, then turned my attention to the system notifications.