Chapter Six
A talent of grade… A.
Silence swallowed the entire hall. Everyone stood frozen in shock.
One student finally muttered,
"More than two students from the public batch with grade A… this is a miracle."
Eugene's eyes widened slowly, happiness blooming across his face.
"High talent… I don't fully know what this talent thing really means, but since I got a rare grade, it must be something huge for a cultivator. This is a massive step toward my goal…"
Those were Eugene's thoughts.
He turned and headed back to his friends, joy clear in every step.
But as he began walking down the platform, the crystal orb suddenly lit up again—
its glow roaring back to life, crackling with strange, distorted noises.
Eugene froze.
The students turned.
The instructors turned.
"What's going on?" a student shouted.
Mist began pouring out of the orb again—pulling at Eugene's feathers for a second time.
"Huh?! What is this? Someone stop it—THE CRYSTAL!"
Musa screamed, fear and shock flooding his voice.
Then—
BOOOOOOM.
A massive explosion erupted.
Eugene was thrown across the hall.
Flames burst out, and a scorching burn tore across the left side of his body.
"Aaaahhhh!"
His scream echoed painfully through the hall.
Chaos struck instantly. Students ran, screaming as fire spread everywhere.
One of the instructors reacted quickly—he unleashed a wave of freezing wind, unbelievably cold.
Within seconds, the waterfalls around the hall froze solid, and snow-white frost spread across the ground.
"EUGENE!!"
Eugene's vision blurred. His eyes began closing slowly, as Ryn's panicked voice faded into the distance.
Ryn reached him and froze at the sight:
Eugene's entire left side— from below his stomach to the edge of his face—was burned.
Particularly around his mouth.
The shattered crystal, still smoking, released one final cloud of mist…
Musa turned toward it just as it formed the shape of a single letter—
…
Five hours later
Eugene woke up in a large white room with three huge windows—one on his left, one in front of him, and one on his right.
It was close to sunset.
Ten white beds lined the room.
A bag of IV fluid hung beside him, with a tube running straight into his arm.
"My… head…"
A sharp headache pulsed as he groaned.
The door opened—Fred rushed inside.
"Thank goodness… you're finally awake," he said, voice trembling between relief and tension.
Eugene asked,
"Where am I? What happened? Why does my head hurt?"
Fred sat on the chair beside him.
"Well… the crystal exploded. And since you were close to it, the left side of your body got partially burned."
Shock washed over Eugene's face.
"An explosion… a burn…"
Fred noticed the panic and quickly added,
"But the burn can be treated! It won't stay forever."
He said it mostly to soften the blow.
Still—being burned on the most important day of your life as a cultivator, right after your awakening…
that pain isn't something anyone forgets.
Eugene stayed still, paralyzed with disbelief.
"So… what caused the explosion?" he asked quietly, eyes full of fear and sadness.
The door opened again. A man wearing a long white robe stepped inside, holding a small handheld fan.
It was Master Musa.
"That's what I came here for," Musa said. "I need to know if anything happened to you this morning. Anything unusual."
Eugene drifted into thought…
"No… nothing happened. But I think the cause might be the resources you ate," Fred said, glancing at Eugene.
"What? My resources? How could that cause an explosion?"
Musa stepped closer.
"How did you consume them? Did you turn them into a potion?"
Eugene blinked.
"A potion? Why would I do that?"
Musa let out a long sigh.
"…Then that explains it."
Eugene stared blankly.
It felt like they were speaking an entirely different language.
"Why did you stop talking? Explain. What do the resources have to do with the explosion?" he snapped softly.
Fred answered:
"Do you know the crystal's real function?"
"Yes. It absorbs feathers and determines your talent grade."
Musa nodded.
"Feathers form in your body after consuming resources. But those resources contain impurities."
"Impurities?" Eugene repeated, confused.
Fred explained,
"Impurities are harmful or useless substances inside the resources."
"That's why professional alchemists turn the resources into potions—to remove the impurities."
"You ate them raw," Musa continued. "That made your feathers unstable and contaminated."
"When you released your feathers, the crystal couldn't analyze the depth of your Feather Sea."
Fred added,
"That's why it first gave you a grade A—your true talent."
Musa finished the explanation:
"But because the resources were impure, your Feather Sea's purity and depth dropped drastically.
Your talent fell… from A to C.
"As for the explosion—
the crystal wasn't designed to absorb toxic feathers.
And since your feather quantity was extremely high because of your natural talent…
the crystal overloaded."
"And it exploded."
Both Fred and Musa looked at Eugene.
All they saw was shock.
Sadness.
Pain.
Eugene heard their voices, but he wasn't listening anymore.
His mind sank into a dark place:
"Why… why does this always happen to me?
I lost my mother.
Now I've lost my talent.
My body is disfigured.
Damn it… damn it all…
Every time I think I'm getting closer to discovering who destroyed the village…
closer to becoming the cultivator I dream to be…
my dream grows wings and flies away like a bird that was trapped for years…
While I sink in this sea of chains and pain."*
…
Seven hours later
Eugene lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.
The night outside was quiet—calm enough to hurt.
Visitors came and went:
Reem, Ryn, a few students.
But what crushed him most… were their eyes.
Pity.
Sadness.
Mockery.
Sympathy.
Those looks hurt more than the burn.
He turned and lay on his stomach.
Tears slipped onto the pillow—
silent tears of rage and heartbreak.
Outside the clinic, right across from Eugene's bed, stood a dark figure behind a tree.
The night concealed him almost completely.
His eyes… shaped like three-pointed stars.
But not stars of light or joy—
stars of deep, blood-red color.
He watched Eugene without blinking.
Then he smiled—
A hollow, empty smile.
A smile that could freeze a human soul.
A faint, shadowy mist slipped from the man's mouth.
End of Chapter Six