Samuel slowly woke up, after having what seemed to be a day-long rest, he still felt tired. His surroundings were suddenly different. Now he could not only feel the natural energy around him, but his body was absorbing that energy, though by only a portion of it. He sat on the floor again, "Let's see how is that barrier doing"; he murmured before he started to cultivate. After an hour or so, his eyes opened up as he smiled happily. Not only did he find that the barrier was no more on his soul foundation, but he also rose to soldier one star! He could jump into the next tire if he wanted to, but he thought otherwise; a few hours ago his foundation was of the lowest of its tire and if he does not let his body adapt to its foundation before levelling up again, his foundation might just crumble. He was not proud for even a moment. Soldier tire was a child's play. Cultivators at his age in his school are around warrior two stars or one star which worried him as he has to enter the realm of Knight in a year. This feat is only possible for the royal family, not to forget that he is just a commoner. For people like him, the Knight tire was a feat of their life. Thinking this, his head started to hurt.
He kept the book and the core on the table ." If I need to make it possible I must use these things" he said to himself as he took the book in his hand. The book had two pages and both were blank. "What help can this give me..."; he said as he kept it back on the table, leaving the book opened with its stark white pages fluttering. And then he examined the core. The core had a concentration of natural energy but it had his souls signatures.
"The only explanation is that my body absorbs this energy and when the masked man removed whatever that barrier was, it is forcefully seeping into my soul.." he murmured to himself unknowingly as the puzzles fell into pieces, although the biggest question in his mind was "Why did they do it ?"
"Didn't the lady say I have a fire-based soul? I wish I could learn more about it" he said. Suddenly the pages of the book shone a brilliant white light before turning dim. However this time, the pages were no longer blank, Samuel slid the book near him as he started to read.
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ธ๐ฐ ๐ต๐บ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ด๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ ๐ข๐ง๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐บ, ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฏ๐ข๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ข๐ญ ๐ข๐ง๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ข๐ญ ๐ข๐ง๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฆ๐ด. appeared in the book.
He was hesitant for a moment as this was something out of ordinary. But then again so were the people that came yesterday, he needed to be strong anyway so he thought he might as well use whatever he gets. "So which one is stronger?" he muttered to which new writings emerged on the book. Samuel read the book further.
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ง๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ช๐ต๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ด ๐ช๐ต ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ค๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ช๐ต'๐ด ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ต'๐ด ๐ง๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ค๐ข๐ฑ๐ข๐ค๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ข๐จ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ.
Witnessing such a magically peculiar book first handed, Samuel was speechless before deciding to use it efficiently.
"Tell me about fire-based affinity souls and how to enhance it," he asked and started to read the answer.
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ง๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ถ๐ด๐ถ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ต, ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ข ๐ค๐ฆ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐ช๐ฏ ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ช๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ ๐ต๐บ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด, ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ถ๐ณ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ช๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ.
"What kind of flames do I have?" he asked the book.
๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ข ๐ง๐ฆ๐ธ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ.
Taking a knife, he slid it over his index finger, pouring his blood, which got absorbed by the book the moment it fell. Samuel waited for few seconds before the book shined again.
๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ'๐ด ๐ข๐ง๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ถ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ต๐ต๐ข๐ค๐ฌ๐ด ๐ข๐ด ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ด ๐ช๐ต ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฆ๐น๐ค๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฎ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ด๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ช๐ฏ. ๐๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ๐ด๐ฎ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ'๐ด ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ, ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ข ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ต๐ต๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ, ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ข ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ.
Reading this Samuel's eye dulled as he bit his lower lips, "Is there any merits of Blacksmith's fire?" he asked and read.
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ข๐ญ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ข ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐บ๐ด๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ข ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฃ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฉ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ค๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ด๐ฐ, ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ค๐ข๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ด ๐ข ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ต ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ด ๐ช๐ต.๐๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ๐ด๐ฎ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ๐ด ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ช๐ต ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ถ๐ฎ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ถ๐ด ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ช๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ข๐ญ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฑ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ช๐ต ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต๐ด ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ช๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ด๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ.
"Where can I find God, Touche, and France fire located?" he asked.
๐ช๐ฏ๐ท๐ข๐ญ๐ช๐ฅ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต, ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐บ๐ด๐ฆ. ๐๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ, ๐ต๐ธ๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฉ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ๐ด.
Samuel sighed, it was time for him to see what the core does. He poured water into the tub as he waited for the water to release some steam. As soon as the steam started to come out, he went into the tube, his body did not even register the temperature rise. He was astonished to see that the water was denser with energy than the air was, the exciting part was, from the air he was only able to absorb a part of it while right now his body was absorbing all the energy his skin came in contact with, therefore strengthening his body! After a while, it was almost close to an hour, but seeing the progress of strengthening his body, a part of him wanted to continue to do that yet he decided not to, as he remembered the man specially mentioning the timing. Since he did not seem to have any ill intention towards him, he thought he should follow it.
When he came out of the tub he felt his body strength to be at par with his soul. "Time for me to step up into the next tire," he said while grinning as he immediately went back to his cultivation for his breakthrough.
Samuel decided to stay at his house and cultivate, he felt himself to be addicted to cultivation. It might be because he was never able to do it before and something he truly wanted to do.
Two months quickly passed away in days for him. The core was now completely dull stripped of any energies it had. "Time for me to check my tire," he said closing his eyes again, judging by the foundation of his soul he can roughly guess that he is around bottleneck to the one-star soldier, each tire has another lower star added to it, thus he was currently at warrior five stars.
The terrifying thing about all of this is that he was able to break from one tire to another in a day at this pace but even after continuing that pace for two months he hasn't even properly move a star up.
"How much time before ur scan is complete?" he asked the book.
๐๐ฉ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐บ-๐ฆ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ถ๐ต๐ฆ๐ด.
Hearing this Samuel decided he can spare some time and go to school.
For the past months Samuel was the school's main gossip, every day he is absent from the school they think of new reasons such as he might be too ashamed to come to this school now, it might be that this school isn't how it used to be in its prime but still it isn't so degraded that students like him could attend him.
The bigger question was how did he enrol into the school? There was written as well as physical exams one needs to participate in before enrolling. The only possible reason might be is that he belongs to some high noble family who enrolled him by the factor of money.
Even teachers were having doubts about this but unfortunately, the headmaster was as usual, away from school.
"I think he is a next to kin of some noble family who cast him out here," a girl said while a boy replied, "You girls and your fantasies, I think he is just a fraud living under the name and performance of some other student who gave the exams".
These discussions were taking place when Samuel entered the classroom.
For a moment nobody was able to recognize him and thought he was a new student. His body was more muscular his dressing sense had changed but most importantly, his hair was no longer black, the red hair gave him a piercing look and his red eyeball gave him a blood lusted look.
"Good morning class" greeted the professor as his eyes fell on Samuel. "Today as we planned we will try to emit our aura," he said, Samuel has heard about it from the book, it was a training to allow the flow of energy from one's body outside the world. Samuel had no problem with this as there was a more effective way to do this, outer realm manipulation, in this method one needs to possess a physical object and control it, the result is that he has to gain perfect control over his energy casting.
"Bruno, your turn," said the teacher as he focused but no aura was generated "keep trying boy, I know you have it in you," he said, next was Samuel, he was preparing to cast his aura as he heard, "Megaumi, ur up" professor said.
Samuel was completely cast away, suddenly Samuel no longer felt like attending the class as he firmly stood up and walked towards the exit door.
Normally the teacher wouldn't even mind if Samuel stays or leave, but due to his role as a teacher he can't let him slide "Brat, come back and sit in your seat" he said sternly to him while Samuel ignoring his words left the classroom.
This world is full of people like this professor, Samuel thought to himself as he sighed, he must become stronger to gain their recognition and respect
"Well well. If it isn't the four-star soldier tier kid" a student higher than his grade said putting his arms around Samuel's shoulder.
"You know, in a place at this students might tear you apart for their good, be blessed that you have seniors like us to take care of you" he continued while another student said "But bro, it will be too tiring for us to protect him all the time," the former boy said.
"Oh don't worry, I don't think he will leave us be empty-handed, right junior?" the grin was flashed on his face dulling Samuel who's mood was already sour. But before he could say or do something a gust of wind hit them all.
Samuel was the only one who reacted in time and connected his feet to the ground with mana as everybody else was blown away.
"Seriously? Bullying a new kid? That's low even for you" a boy said as he walked into view from the hallway