Once he got back to his place, he took out the technique and sat in the lotus position. He read the instructions a few times and committed them to memory. He took a deep breath and started to feel the essence around him. Once he sensed it, he began circulating it according to the instructions. The essence flowing through his body nourished and strengthened all of his cells. Once it reached his heart, the book, which had been silent up to this point, began to absorb the essence. The suction force continued to increase, draining more and more essence.
In the other house
"Huh, why did the essence suddenly become this little?" Draven thought as he stopped cultivating.
Back in Kael's room, Kael had started to panic, this tome seemed to have no signs of stopping. " If this continued, the sect would have to come and investigate. At that time, what will I tell them?" Kael thought as he looked at the vortex in front of him, greedily absorbing essence like a blackhole. After absorbing essence for a while longer, it finally stopped. Then with a burst of golden light, it appeared in front of him and flipped through the first page and went to the second one. Two strands of black and silver floated towards him and entered his body. Kael quickly went to look at what was happening inside his body where he saw the two strands, merge into his whole body, morphing each and every one of his cells.
They were originally red due to his innate fire element, but now had a mixture of black and silver too. He began to refine the essence he had absorbed earlier and discovered he could feel three types of essence in his body. He tried to manipulate the silver essence, and his perspective of the world slowed down.
His heart started to pound, and his palms became sweaty. He quickly did the same with the black essence and found his body turning ethereal. He felt connected to his shadow, like it was an extension of his body. "Time and shadow element." He said, not fully believing it himself. He tried it once again, and just like the first time, when he channeled the silver essence, his perception of the world slowed down, and the ants at the edge of the door seemed to be walking at a snail's pace. When he channeled the black essence, his body turned ethereal and he could move his shadow like it was his arm or leg.
"So together with my original fire element, I also have the time and shadow element." He said with harried breaths. " I can't let anyone find out about this. Thank God it stopped absorbing essence. If this were to be found out, I'm afraid my life would be over that instant. After taking some time to settle his nerves. He focused on the book again. This miraculous book that could grant others new elements, what else could it give him? After a minute of silence, the book flipped to the next page.
"It's blank?" He blinked.
.Then, without warning, words in crimson ink started to appear on the page.
"Essence convergence manual.
Absorb the world's essence and bend it to your will."
Then the crimson letters detached themselves from the book and went into Kael's brain. He felt a headache that lasted for a second, then it disappeared the next. Knowledge on how to use the technique appeared in his mind. His eyes widened."So it's a cultivation technique that absorbs and refines essence. And it can even help me increase my spirituality. Only profound techniques and above can do that." While he was lost in thought, words started to appear on the next one too.
'Time stop.'
'Shadow step'
They too, separated from the book and flew into his head. He experienced the headache again, but his time he was prepared. Knowledge about the skills appeared in his mind. Time stop stopped time for three seconds within a range of five meters from him, and shadow step teleported him to any shadow within a fifteen-meter radius. "These two will be my trump cards for now." Kael thought as he activated Shadow Step and vanished from the spot, emerging behind the door from its shadow. He went back to the book, which had flipped to the next page.
Crimson words started to appear again,
'Nether fire. Fire that burns everything down to the soul, leaving no trace of it.,
'Volcanic heart ore, crimson lotus core, obsidian root vine…'
Kael read as the words formed on the page, then once it was complete, they flew into his head.
"So it's a way to evolve my fire into the nether fire."Kael thought as he went through the knowledge he had just acquired. It seems like he needed to collect some ingredients first. "This won't be easy, half of these ingredients I have never heard of. What is soulsteel dewdrop? And in the end I must bathe in nether flames for four days. "Kael shuddered at the mere thought of it. Nether flames were special flames that could be found through fortuitous encounters out in the wild.
"It's still early for me to even go out and explore on my own, let alone go hunting for treasures and beast parts." Kael thought as he put the thought at the back of his mind. He turned his attention back to the book which was now on a new page.
'Name: Kael Thayne
Cultivation realm: Awakening Realm: First Stage
Skills: Time Stop, Shadow Step.'
After that, the book closed and went back into his body, like it was never there. Kael just sat on his bed thinking about his gains today. "Although I we afraid of how I was going to survive in this world, with this time, I can get stronger faster than before. But I need to keep the fact that I have three elements a secret for now. I'll go and pick up some skills from martial hall tomorrow. I'll need credit if I want to get a weapon too." Kael said as he thought of how he was going to acquire credit in the future.
"Let me cultivate for now." Kael thought as he sat in the lotus position and began to circulate essence. A small vortex appeared on his chest and started to suck the essence from the surroundings. The essence was quickly absorbed and refined into while a portion of it went to enhance his spirituality. He could feel every tendon, bone and muscle being enhanced. He could push his perception up to twenty meters ahead, a result of his spirituality increasing. Spirituality also determined how many beasts one can tame and their sensitivity to energies.
Time passed as Kael continued to cultivate and soon it was midnight. Kael had been cultivating for about seven hours and felt like his body was at its limit. He could no longer continue to accumulate essence. "I'm already at the edge of the first stage." Kael was astonished by this speed. "Cultivating from stage one to stage two usually took two to three days. But here he was, already about to break through to the second stage after cultivating for just seven hours.
"Just as I thought, it's no ordinary cultivation technique, it must be extraordinary even among profound level techniques." Kael realized.
He got ready to break through to the second stage. He started to circulate the essence with more force. His body was already at the cusp of the first stage and only needed a little push to break through.
With a loud bang, he successfully broke through to the second stage. The essence flooded his body, nourishing and enhancing it. He exhaled and opened his eyes. He clenched his fists and felt the strength contained in them. He walked up to his door and threw a fist at it. The door shattered without much resistance, granted, it was only a wooden door, but it was still impressive. "Right now, no normal human is my match. I still don't know how strong those in the same realm are, but those below me won't be a threat unless they use their skills." He thought as he examined his hand. There wasn't as much as a single scratch on it.
He then activated the shadow step and moved through the various shadows in his house, appearing in his kitchen, then back in his room. He did this until he ran out of essence, then he went back to cultivate.