Chapter 61 – A Madman

Kieran woke up in a panic the next day, tears rolling down his cheeks, and his heart was beating madly. He took in deep breaths, calming his mind slowly.

*sigh*

'That's why I'd rather cultivate than sleep.'

He got up from his bed, stretching. His whole body relaxed compared to his mind, which was a mess after his nightmares. After spending so much time in a rift, he hadn't realized how stressed his body was during all this time when he had to be on his guard at all times.

His aurora collar suddenly rang as he received a call.

"Hey, Thomas! How are you?" Kieran said in a relaxed manner.

"You! You finally answer! What exactly are you sending me!" said Thomas in an agitated voice.

"Can't you read? It's a cultivation technique."

"I know it's a cultivation technique, but do you even know how much this stuff is worth?!"

"Of course, since I bought it."

"..."

Thomas was speechless at Kieran's relaxed answer.

"You didn't make a mistake by sending it to me?"

"Of course not. As if I could be wrong about such things."

"I can't accept this..."

"Ah?! Hello?! I can't hear you anymore. I call you back later!"

"Wai..."

Thomas didn't have time to finish his words before Kieran cut the call. He accessed his notifications and saw that Thomas and Ryan had called him several times during the last hours. Without hesitation, he deactivated all the notifications of his aurora collar.

He accessed the hotel menus, ordering dishes made from the meat of Gold rank crystal beasts. Each dish cost him more than 20,000 nova, but he didn't care. The taste of each bite was worth such a price.

"What are you planning to do today?" Runihoril asked.

"I will try to strengthen Luna's soul with the Soul Restore Potions, and then I will go to a training center to assess the limits of my current strength and train myself to manipulate my two elements, with what happened with the Thundershields guild I have not yet been able to understand how to successfully use them in combat."

"Not a bad idea. I'm also curious to see what a human training facility looks like."

Kieran finished his meal before pulling out a potion from his aurora collar. The potion seemed to contain a mist that was slowly moving inside of it.

"With this, Luna should be able to leave the cocoon. Even if she still won't be able to leave my spiritual world, she will be able to move inside."

"I'll help you direct the potion's effect on Luna."

"Thank you, Master."

He opened the potion before swallowing its contents. A feeling of cold crossed his body, and the energy of the potion was quickly drawn inside his spiritual world. Runihoril made several seals with his hands before the energy gathered around Luna, slowly entering the cocoon.

A few minutes passed before all the energy was absorbed inside the cocoon. Kieran watched the whole scene as Runihoril made several seals again with his hands, and the cocoon gradually disappeared, revealing Luna's soul floating.

Luna waved her body in the air, dashing toward Kieran circling around him. A smile appeared on Kieran's face at the moment.

"I missed you too, Luna."

***

After spending some time with Luna, Kieran took a magnetic train to a training center, where he rented a private room.

The training center was much bigger than the one he used in Ozryn. Each room was equipped with formations that could be activated by spending nova credits.

Once inside the private room, he activated the evaluation option, an opening appeared on the floor, and two white pillars came out of it, a green light emanating from them.

"Please activate your abilities for the evaluation to begin."

Following the instructions, he activated his abilities. A moment later, the green light from the pillars began to scan his body.

"Evaluation... Evaluation complete. Crystal Strength Level: 937."

"937... My strength is equal to a peak stage Bronze rank."

A golden halo filled with ancient inscriptions appeared in his right eye.

[ Kieran Arvost]
[Crystal Tree Status (1):
Name: Earth Wolf Transformation
Refinement Rate: 231/2000]
[Crystal Tree Status (2):
Name: Fire Giant Transformation
Refinement Rate: 231/2000]
[Crystal Essence: 462]

"My double awakening, the Heavenly Sun Body and the Heavenly Tribulation. Thanks to all these things, my strength will soon reach the top of the Bronze rank even though it has only been a few days since I breakthrough."

"This machine that your race created is useful. In my time, if a cultivator wanted to estimate his strength, he would have to follow a series of tests that took an eternity compared to this machine, which only takes a few seconds to estimate your strength. According to the results of this machine, if you could correctly use both of your elemental affinities in a fight, your strength would be equal to an early stage Silver rank." said Runihoril.

Kieran nodded, he turned off the evaluation option before sitting cross-legged, exhaling a long breath. He started to focus on his two crystal trees. A flame and a stone had appeared in each of his hands.

The elemental particles around him began to surround him, the flame and stone in his hands growing as the seconds passed, soon reaching two meters.

He slowly opened his eyes, focusing his attention on the flame and the stone in his hands, an oscillation appearing on their surface as their shape gradually changed.

After 5 minutes, their shape had finally stopped changing. They looked like a blade made of fire and a long spear of earth.

He accessed the menu of the training room, making large targets appear 30 meters away from him before throwing the blade of fire and the spear of earth.

The furthest the two attacks moved away from his body, the more he could feel that crystal essence was taken from him in exchange.

In an instant, the two attacks streaked across the room, missing the targets. They continued until they reached 50 meters, where their form became unstable before exploding.

"The time it takes me to shape them is way too long. I have to try and reduce that time as best I can. I can also only control them within a 50m range around me, and right now, directing them once they get away from my body is difficult."

He moved his hand to the room menu before a video of him throwing the fire blade and the earth spear played in front of him. He repeated the video several times, trying to figure out how to best use his abilities.

He concentrated again, trying to reduce the time he spent shaping his two elements.

Time passed as he tried to improve his control. Each time his crystal essence was depleted, he would take out a crystal essence recovery potion from his aurora collar before continuing the training, and like that, a day passed.

"Huff... Huff..."

Kieran lay on the floor, beads of sweat trickling down his forehead, while his chest heaved with each labored breath, desperately gasping for air.

"I can't take it anymore. I don't even have enough energy to create a small flame. Even if I want to keep training, I'm going to have to stop here for today."

"You've been training for a whole day. It’s been hours since the sun set, and yet you still want to continue?"

"There are many things I need to learn. My new abilities from advancing to Bronze rank, the Heavenly Sun Body, and the Dance of The Heaven and Earth. If I waste even an hour doing nothing, I would feel like I've lost an entire day."

"You made good progress today. You can now create a blade of fire in 2 seconds. At this speed, in a week, you should be able to create them instantly."

"I may have succeeded in reducing the creation time, but I made practically no progress for the rest. During the whole day, I could only hit the target once."

A slight smile appeared on Runihoril's face seeing Kieran's upset face.

"Do you know the difference between an amateur and a master?"

Kieran frowned at the sudden question.

"The difference between an amateur and a master? The master is better in every aspect."

"The only difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed a lot more times. Nothing is out of your reach as long as you keep that mindset in your training."

Kieran pondered Runihoril's words as he slowly stood up with pain all over his body.

Runihoril suddenly heaved a long sigh, "It's too bad my elemental affinity doesn't match yours. There's hardly any advice I can give you for the next few days. It looks like I'm going to be bored for a while."

"If Master is so bored, I can introduce him to TV series."

"TV series? What is this?"

A slight smile appeared on Kieran's face.

***

Back in his room Kieran sat cross-legged on his bed while Runihoril was in the living room in front of a holographic television.

A massive space battle raged on the screen, cannon fire illuminating the vastness of space. Spaceships engaged in the melee, while some of the protagonists threw themselves out of their spaceships to fight directly in space against a race that looked almost human.

However, these opponents had a unique appearance. Their luminous pale blue skin emitted a soft glow, almost reminiscent of an ice crystal.

Their eyes, large and almond-shaped, had deep black irises. They were the Vrals, a race that had clashed with humanity many times over the last ten thousand years, becoming one of the Aegis Alliance's most formidable enemies.

Unlike the humans who awaken various crystal seeds. Vrals, like some other races, awaken almost all the same types of crystal seeds. They were known throughout the universe for their ice-bound crystal seed.

Recently, only a few altercations on the border of the areas controlled by the two races still fueled the war between the Vrals and humanity. Over the past hundred years, the situation between the two races had stabilized, reaching an unusual calm, a fragile status quo.

"Go Jerica! You can do it! Destroy the Vrals fleet!" Runihoril’s excited voice could be heard throughout the room.

"..."

"No! Jerica!!"

Kieran frowned at the sight of Runihoril commenting on every action that happened during the episode.

'Did I make the right choice to introduce Master to TV series?'

He shook his head, and a crystal essence stone appeared in his hands with Fire and Earth Elemental stones scattering around him. The elemental particles in his chamber rapidly increased several times their original number. He could feel the heat rising and a slight heaviness on his body as he began to cultivate for the first time since returning from the rift.

The yellow sun in his spiritual world began to rotate, and with it, all the crystal essence within a hundred meter radius was drawn toward him.

The previously quiet hotel suddenly became noisy, with several cultivators leaving their rooms screaming.

"What's going on?! Why is all the crystal essence from my crystal cores pulling away from me?!"

"I have no idea. The same thing occurs to me!"

"Same here, I tried to use all my concentration, but I only ended up attracting a strand of crystal essence!"

"Who is the bastard stealing the crystal essence from my crystal cores!"

"Where is the manager of this hotel!"

All the cultivators of the hotel started to gather in the lobby, and after several discussions, they realized they were all in the same situation.

None of them understood what was going on, even the hotel staff.

"Does anyone have high crystal essence sensitivity here?"

"Yes, I do!"

"Can you find out where all the crystal essence is drawn to?"

"I can try."

After several minutes the cultivators discovered that all of the crystal essence was being drawn into a chamber in the hotel.

The hallway in front of Kieran's room was crowded with people as a hotel staff had been called to resolve the situation.

Once arrived, the hotel staff knocked on his door.

"Sir, please open the door. We need to talk."

Receiving no response, the hotel staff knocked on the door again, but there was still no response.

Inside the chamber, a cloud of dense crystal essence swirled around Kieran, and the sound of knocking echoed through the chamber. Still, in his cultivation state, he was immersed in his own world, not paying attention to the outside world unless something was coming close to his body.

Although he couldn't hear the sound of knocking on his door, another person in the room could hear them clearly.

"Who dares knock so many times on a door?! There's no one! Leave! Let me watch my episode in peace!" yelled Runihoril.

As the space battle between the two factions was reaching its climax, the protagonists were about to reveal a part of the plot when a knock came again from the door, drowning out the protagonists' words.

"No! What did you do!"

Runihoril rushed towards Kieran.

"Kieran! Kieran! Hurry! It's urgent!"

Kieran slowly opened his eyes to be greeted by Runihoril's pale face.

"What's happening?"

A knocking noise resounded in the room at this moment.

"That! Some madman has been knocking on the door for ages, and they ruined my episode! You need to come quickly and rewind the episode a few minutes back so I can see the whole scene again!"

"..."

Kieran's face was one of shock and dismay.

'Now I'm sure I made a huge mistake introducing him to TV series! And the worst part is that it's just an action series... It's not even a drama!'

He got up from his bed, rubbing his head, passing in front of the holographic television, he put the episode on pause before heading for the door.

"What are you doing? You haven't rewind my episode. Oh! I see you're planning on taking care of that fool first. Very wise."

'What a fool?! There must be something wrong if someone knocking so many times on my door!'

He refrained from telling his master what he thought.

As he opened the door, he was greeted by many eyes staring at him. Each of them possessed at least a late stage Iron rank cultivation with some at the middle stage Bronze rank cultivation.

"Can I do anything for you?" asked Kieran.

"Sorry to bother you, dear guest, but we have received several complaints from cultivators currently staying at our hotel." replied the hotel staff.

"I have no complaints. Everything is going well for me. Goodbye."

Kieran suddenly turned to close the door as the hotel staff's mouth twitched slightly.

"Wait!"

"Hmm? Anything else?"

"The complaints concern you. The crystal essence of the whole hotel is gathered in your room. It wouldn't be a problem if it was only the surrounding crystal essence, but even the crystal essence of other cultivators' crystal cores is attracted to your room!"

He finally understood why so many people stared at him with red eyes.

'I have never used the Heavenly Sun Body near other humans. Is the range really so great that it affects others?' he thought for an instant.

He suddenly heard laughter behind him. Taking a quick look, he saw Runihoril laughing at the sight of the many cultivators who had come to complain.

"Admire the power of the Heavenly Sun Body!"

Kieran facepalms at the sight.

"I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused. I didn't notice that I was pulling the crystal essence in such a range. I will be careful in the future."

"Thank you for your understanding."

He turned again to return to his room when a hand was placed on his shoulder.

"Wait a minute, you still have to pay back for the crystal cores you emptied." said a man in his mid-thirties in the middle stage of the Bronze rank.

Kieran's gaze fell on the man's hand before looking him in the eye.

"I give you a second to remove your hand from my body."

"Hum? Hey kid, we're not in your cultivation academy where you can rule everyone around you with your early stage Bronze rank cultivation."

The man suddenly tightened his grip on Kieran's shoulder with a smile on his face.

"It's been a second."

*crack*

"Argh!!!"

A loud cracking noise was heard in the hallway before the man screamed in pain as he rolled on the floor while holding the hand that was once placed on Kieran's shoulder.

Only the man's screams of pain echoed down the hallway as all the other cultivators present stared at Kieran without moving with a look of shock on their faces.

None of them had been able to see the moves Kieran had used to break the man's hand. Even those in the middle stage of Bronze rank had only been able to see an extremely fast black blur, leaving them speechless.

Kieran took one last look at them before returning to his room.

"Haha, well done! You truly are my disciple!"

Kieran let out a sigh as he felt a headache rise as the image he had of his master began to deteriorate in his mind.

He moved to his room, rewinding the episode of Runihoril before returning to his cultivation.