The day was not yet over, yet Lucien had already returned to his room.
He sat quietly on the edge of his bed, shoulders relaxed, mind still reeling from what he had accomplished within a single afternoon.
After fusing with his first internal technique, he had not stopped.
One by one, he had fused with Water, Earth, Nature, Lightning, and Ice knight breathing manuals too. Every single one of them was low-grade—manuals most heirs wouldn't spare a second glance at.
Each fusion had cost him between thirty-five to fifty Fusion Points.
And every single technique—
—had reached Advanced level instantly.
The sheer efficiency was absurd.
Lucien exhaled slowly and opened his status panel again.
His gaze paused.
His Tier had changed.
Tier 1 (Mid-level)
→ Tier 1 (Peak-level)
He hadn't trained.
He hadn't circulated aura for hours.
He hadn't even broken a sweat.
Yet his strength had risen.
The reason was clear.
This wasn't learning.
This was fusion.
The techniques hadn't merely been memorized—they had been woven directly into his body at a metaphysical level. His aura channels had been reshaped, refined, and expanded to accommodate multiple elemental circulation patterns.
Each fusion altered him from the inside out.
His foundation itself was improving.
And that—
That was terrifying.
Lucien leaned back against the headboard, a broad smile spreading across his face despite himself.
"So fusing techniques directly strengthens the body…"
That alone made the system monstrous.
Still, there was a problem.
He had too many techniques. He couldn't actively cultivate all of them separately as that will just take too much time. Worse, now that his heir status had been revoked, his access to the library had been restricted to the first floor only.
So, he can't fuse with mid-grade and higher techniques to increase his strength again.
Lucien's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Then I'll make my own."
A new thought surfaced.
'Fuse them all.'
He raised his face slightly and focused.
"Fuse all internal techniques into one."
A familiar blue panel materialized before his eyes.
[Would you like to fuse the following internal techniques?]
• Whispering Gale Breathing (Low-grade)
• Crimson Hearth Breathing (High-grade)
• Flowing Tide Breathing (Low-grade)
• Stoneheart Breathing (Low-grade)
• Verdant Pulse Breathing (Low-grade)
• Thunder Vein Breathing (Low-grade)
• Blizzard Ice Breathing (Low-grade)
[Resulting Grade: Mid-grade (Estimated)]
[Fusion Cost: 530 Fusion Points]
[Confirm]
[Cancel]
Lucien stared at the number for a moment.
"…That's steep."
He sighed softly.
Still, even after spending that amount, he would have plenty of Fusion Points left. And if this worked—it would solve his biggest problem.
After a brief pause, he selected Confirm.
[Fusion initiated…]
This time was different.
The moment the fusion began, Lucien's consciousness was dragged inward with force. His body stiffened as streams of heat, cold, pressure, and motion surged through his aura channels simultaneously.
His breathing slowed.
His heartbeat became the only sound in the room.
Seconds stretched unnaturally.
Ten seconds.
Twenty seconds.
Thirty seconds.
Lucien sat completely still, eyes unfocused, as if frozen in a trance. His aura fluctuated violently, then gradually stabilized, converging into a single, cohesive circulation pattern.
Finally—
[Fusion completed.]
Lucien inhaled sharply and snapped back to awareness, a thin sheen of sweat covering his skin. His body felt heavier—denser—yet strangely harmonious.
Before he could fully process it, another notification appeared.
[Please assign a name to the newly fused internal technique.]
[Grade: Mid-grade]
Lucien stared at the panel, his heartbeat steady but his mind racing.
A single technique.
Born from fire and wind, water and earth, lightning and ice—balanced by nature itself.
Slowly, a name formed in his thoughts.
"Six-fold Origin."
Fire, Ice, Water, Wind, Earth, and Lightning—six volatile forces that should never have coexisted within a single body. Yet they did, bound together by something deeper and quieter. Nature did not stand alongside them as an equal. Instead, it anchored them, threading through every circulation path like invisible roots sinking into fertile soil.
Six active elements.
One origin.
As the name settled, a cold mechanical chime echoed in his mind.
[Internal Technique Named: Six-fold Origin Breathing]
[Nature Element recognized as Core Binder]
[Fusion of Internal Technique, Six-fold Origin Breathing, initiated]
Before Lucien could even brace himself, his consciousness was pulled into a deep trance again.
But this time, the change was violent.
Steam poured from his skin as though his body had been thrown into boiling water. His muscles tensed, veins bulging sharply along his arms and neck as waves of elemental aura surged through his aura channels. His skin flushed red, then darkened, briefly tinged with purple before settling into a faint, unnatural green glow.
It wasn't his body changing colors.
It was the world responding.
Fire warmth bled into his bones.
Cold from distant ice sharpened his senses.
Moisture gathered in his breath.
Wind howled faintly beneath his skin.
Earth pressed, heavy and grounding.
Lightning crackled, fleeting but lethal.
All of it was drawn in—filtered, stabilized, and woven together by the unseen flow of Nature aura acting as a silent mediator.
Then—
Snap.
The sound echoed from deep within him, like an iron chain shattering.
Lucien's aura exploded outward in a sudden, uncontrollable surge before collapsing back into his body just as quickly, flowing into newly widened channels as if it had always belonged there.
Outside, several high-ranking guards and members of Ardent, stiffened simultaneously.
"What was that?"
"An aura fluctuation?"
"No—it was too concentrated."
Orders were issued in hushed urgency. Guards spread through the estate, checking corridors and courtyards as whispers rippled through the Ardent household.
Inside the room, Lucien finally stirred.
He exhaled slowly, a long breath laced with condensed aura escaping his lips. His heartbeat thundered in his ears, every fiber of his body humming with unfamiliar power.
"What… just happened?" he murmured.
The difference was unmistakable. His strength hadn't merely increased—it had deepened, as though his body had been reforged at a fundamental level.
Before he could open his status panel to check, a sharp knock sounded at the door.
"Young master? Are you inside?" a tense voice called out. "Please open the door."
Lucien wiped the sweat from his face with the towel beside the bed, forcing his breathing to steady before opening the door.
A guard stood outside, visibly tense. The moment he saw Lucien standing unharmed, relief flashed across his face.
"Young Master," the guard said, bowing quickly. "There appears to have been an incident in this section of the estate. For your safety, it's advised that you remain in your quarters for the time being."
Lucien's expression remained calm as he nodded. "Understood. Thank you for informing me."
The guard bowed again, excused himself, and hurried off.
Lucien closed the door behind him and leaned lightly against it, a slow smile spreading across his face.
He opened his status panel at once, his gaze locking onto the glowing blue text.
The mastery level of Six-fold Origin Breathing had already climbed to Advanced.
That alone was shocking.
But what truly made his breath hitch was his tier.
Tier: 2 — Mid Level
For a moment, his mind went completely blank.
He had been Tier-1 Mid just hours ago. Even after fusing several low-grade techniques, reaching Tier-1 Peak should have been the limit for the day. And yet now…
Lucien's lips twitched. The faint smile he wore stretched wider, twisting into a grin before finally breaking into quiet laughter.
"Hah… hahahaha…"
The sound echoed softly through the room.
From Tier-1 Mid to Tier-2 Mid—in a single afternoon.
If anyone else had accomplished this, it would have taken years of brutal training, rare resources, and near-constant life-or-death combat. For him, it had happened behind a closed door, in silence, in one afternoon.
But the laughter gradually died down. His expression settled, the excitement draining away as quickly as it had come.
"Well," he muttered, exhaling slowly, "that's about it for now."
Reality asserted itself.
He had already fused every low-grade elemental breathing technique available on the first floor—Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Ice, Lightning, and Nature. His aura channels for those elements were no longer immature pathways. They were stabilized, even reinforced.
Further fusion with techniques of the same level would still strengthen his foundation, but the explosive growth he had just experienced wouldn't repeat.
Progress would become very slow now.
Lucien rubbed his temples lightly.
"High grade manuals… that's going to be the bottleneck."
There were still Martial techniques, of course. Before reaching Tier-2, he hadn't been able to properly circulate aura outside his body, making external techniques impractical. That was why he hadn't touched them earlier.
Now, however, it was different.
At Tier-2 Mid, he could reinforce muscles, enhance strikes, and channel aura into weapons. Martial techniques were finally within reach.
Under normal circumstances, he would have gone straight back to the library.
But today wasn't normal.
Lucien's eyes flicked toward the door.
The guard's reaction earlier hadn't been accidental. The aura surge—brief as it was—had still been detected. Even if no one suspected him, the entire estate would be on edge for the rest of the day.
With his current status, no one would bother accusing him, but that also meant movement would be watched more closely.
"Not today," he decided quietly.
There was no need to push his luck.
Besides, now that the excitement had faded, exhaustion crashed down on him all at once. His body had undergone drastic internal changes in a short span of time. Rest wasn't optional—it was necessary.
Lucien headed to the bathroom, washing away the sweat and lingering heat from his skin. When he returned, he lay down on the bed, his body sinking into the mattress.
The moment his eyes closed, sleep claimed him.
He didn't wake again until the next morning.
----
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