Chapter 35- Energy That Changes

"6 hours?! What?!" Malice blurted out with a shocked look on his face. 'How did six hours pass? I thought I was out for a few minutes!' He thought to himself.

Even though he had been very focused on the task, Malice was still aware that time was passing. But, not to a degree where a few hours would feel like a few minutes that's for sure.

"When you're in a state of inner focus like the one you've been in, a few hours or even a few days will feel way shorter as your sense of time is completely warped," Cipher explained. "Though, you didn't take as long as I expected. I was going to stay here for at least 24 hours."

"... Is that a good thing?" Malice asked as he looked at the clock, further proving Cipher's words.

"Yes, that is certainly above average speed. A Marked one usually takes a little longer to grasp how their Soul Essence works. Your talent is good." Cipher explained.

"That's… good…" Malice replied with a calm look on his face. Even though he was glad that he was above average in that department, he knew he was far from good at actually manipulating Soul Essence efficiently.

"Now, try to channel your Soul Essence and do a run-around lab. I want to see the effect." Cipher said as he sat down again and looked at the boy silently.

The latter nodded his head and stood up. Then, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment, a few seconds later, he felt the same rush of unknown energy seep through every cell of his body.

He felt his muscles pulse with immense power. 'This feels so addicting…'

Even after merely using it twice so far, he felt quite hooked on the feeling of power that Soul Essence brought. It was as if his body was getting a soothing massage that restored all of its wasted energy.

Taking a few moments to regain his composure, he looked ahead of him. 'Let's see the difference.'

Then, he dashed forward. Almost instantly, he felt the drastic difference. The moment his leg pushed the ground, he found himself farther ahead than he expected.

'Ah!!'

*BANG*

Before he knew it, he smashed into one of the machines, head-first. Falling to the ground, he groaned as he grabbed his face.

"Ouch!"

Cipher looked at him for a moment with a deadpan expression. "That machine cost me a lot of money." He said.

"What?! How much?!" Malice blurted out with a shocked expression as he looked behind him. There, he could see a dent in the thin metal of the machine in the shape of his face. "Oh no!! I didn't mean to do that!!"

'I'm really screwed! How am I going to pay for this?!' Even without knowing the price, Malice knew that he cannot afford it at all. He had no money on him to afford dinner for a few days let alone a high-tech machine owned by an extremely rich individual.

"Don't worry about it. I will buy another one later." Cipher sighed. "Let's go to the gym. That should be a better place to test this."

With that, Malice and Cipher went back to the other section of the place. There, the man-made Malice stands on the treadmill.

"I put the option on the treadmill to follow whatever pace you're running at so give it your best shot." He explained.

Then, he left Malice on his own. The latter took a deep breath and channeled his Soul Essence again before he slowly started running. His speed started slow, then gradually grew faster and faster.

In mere moments, he was already running faster than ever before and still increasing. His legs looked like a blur as they moved on the belt at a ridiculous speed.

'Holy!!!' Malice, meanwhile, was struggling to grasp how fast he was running. Even though he was still in the same position, he felt as if he was cut through the air at an enormous speed.

'The effect is insane!!' 

The energy that he was using kept coursing through his body, supplying it with even more power. Unlike normal where his muscles would start feeling soar after a certain period of time, he didn't feel that uncomfortable at that moment.

It was as if his muscles weren't really exerting themselves and instead were relying solely on the Soul Essence to charge them up.

A few minutes passed as the speed grew to an unbelievable level. That's when Malice found his limit. Trying to move past that threshold became suddenly impossible. 

'This is my limit.' He mused as he started slowly decreasing his speed till he stopped. Exhaling a breath, he looked at the screen of the treadmill. It showed him the speed at which he was running.

'23 kilometers per hour… That's ridiculous! Almost three times my normal speed!' He thought to himself.

Although Malice's body had already reached a high level of power after killing that many monsters, he still could only run at around 14-15 kilometers. When he wasn't marked yet, it was around 8-9 kilometers. With a simple Soul Essence coating, that number jumped 8 kilometers.

And that was still with Malice not being proficient in channeling his Soul Essence. He was certain that number could double if he can really reach a better level of mastery over it.

"Did you feel that?" Cipher asked curiously.

The boy looked at him and nodded. "Yes, I felt it. This is… amazing." 

"It is. Soul Essence is a miraculous power capable of achieving the impossible. This is what every single mundane human wishes to be. It does truly change the user completely." He said.

Malice understood what Cipher was trying to convey. The Soul Essence was akin to a fuel that created dreams. It is a form of energy that truly births a new person, like a cocoon of miracles. It is not merely some kind of power used for battle or other things as many think.

That Soul Essence is also why so many people are addicted to the Mindworm, or as many like to call it, the Corrupted Dream Drug. Using it gives the person dreams where they become Marked Ones, living their dream life, doing whatever they wish with the immense power they have.

However, such intense, vivid dreams can damage the brain heavily across years of consumption and could lead to death or other illnesses. That was the same way Malice's dad died… Trying to live a life he couldn't manifest in reality.

The boy quickly shook his head as he looked up. 'What am I even thinking about now? That's long gone.'

"In any case, you are still at the doorstep when it comes to truly extracting all the power from the Soul Essence. So far, you are wasting so much of that essence in the air without making use of it. You need to keep practicing and channeling the energy to grow familiar with it. The second important thing is that you need to…"

"To?"

Cipher took a moment to think before he replied. "You need to use it in battle, or in a life threatening situation. The body and mind figure things out better under immense stress. That's how you engrave what you learned and improve it."

'Well, I'm already doing that.' The boy thought to himself. 'But, I will definitely be using Soul Essence from now on. It will change a lot of things.'

Malice was aware that monsters were only growing stronger in the Dungeon as he went deeper. 

"What about learning to use my Trait, Cipher?" He asked.

"That will need to wait. You have to first learn more about the elements before you can manipulate them. This is also why today, we are going to finish way later than normal. The schedule has been revamped. Stand up." 

"... Yes sir!"

'I won't even call that a revamp!! I will be dead by the end of it!'

A//N: Thanks to everyone who supported the book with Golden tickets and power stones :)