Activating The Mana Heart

It's been four months since Sethos visited the library. During this time, he had diligently cultivated every day while absorbing mana from the atmosphere. 

*huff huff*

'Just a little bit more, just a little bit!'

Sweat and mucus was running down Sethos' entire body, the pain he was experiencing right now was excruciating. However, despite how unbearable it was, Sethos still tried his best to persevere. 

'This is a process that all martial artists have to go through! I have gone through it once, so there's no reason I can't do it again!' Sethos motivated himself. 

Although tears started falling from his eyes, the young toddler continued to have a determined look on his face, a look so fanatic that people probably would've thought he had gone crazy. 

*swoosh*

A black, liquid like substance started flowing out of Sethos' body as he breathed a sigh of relief. Though a foul odour began to spread across the room, Sethos didn't care one bit about it. Instead, his face was full of joy as he passed out on the floor.

'It seems that this body of mine can't handle such a physically demanding task just yet. Myra would probably wake up due to the unpleasant smell. I'll probably have lots of things to deal with tomorrow morning.'

______________________________________________

"Sir Vincent, the young master will be fine, right?"

"I've told you several times already, he's alright. He probably just had a serious diarrhoea last night." The man said with a stern voice.

"B-but, what about the black puddle of liquid I had to clean last night? I don't think that's a symptom of diarrhoea." Myra stuttered. 

"Tsk. Shut your mouth, lowly maid. My job is to check the health condition of every single young master who resides in this estate. I don't have time to answer any of your silly questions."

Sethos slowly opened his eyes, and saw Myra and a man dressed in a luxurious blue robe bickering with each other. He immediately recognised the man as Sir Vincent. Sir Vincent was a healer responsible for looking after the Silvermoon descendants who were living in this estate. As most of the children here were under the age of three, it was easy for them to contract diseases or become ill. Vincent's job was to go to every room per week to check if they had any serious health issues that needed to be addressed.

As someone who had woken up from a deep sleep, Sethos once again familiarised himself with his surroundings. He looked around the room, and found that the dirty floor and mattresses were now spotless. Moreover, he was no longer wearing the greasy shirt from yesterday; and instead, he was wearing a clean pair of pyjamas and brand new white socks. 

"See, the young master is already awake. I told you he'd be fine." Vincent said with a snort and walked out with a displeased look on his face.

Myra immediately turned around and looked at Sethos with shock and relief, and exclaimed, "Thank heavens you're alright! I wouldn't know what to tell Madam if you suddenly died under my watch."

However, Myra's reassurance immediately vanished without a trace as her face turned from a smile into a grimace. This was the first time Sethos saw the joyful young maid with such an expression.

"Goodness, which sibling is it this time? Don't they know that nobody is allowed to attack children who are under the age of 3? There's a reason why they're put under surveillance. These people have simply no regard for the rules." Myra shouted angrily.

"Or is this related to the Sebastian incident?" 

'The Sebastian incident?' Sethos thought to himself. 'Seeing how Myra is muttering to herself like that, it must have some relation with me. Though the black mucus was my doing, there is no telling that others who harbour malicious intent against me wouldn't attack me. The only way to protect myself is to grow stronger.'

Sethos contemplated for a while, and decided on a solution.

'Change of plans. I have to activate my mana heart as soon as possible so that I can have another method of defence.' 

______________________________________________

Later that night, as usual, Sethos waited for Myra to fall asleep before starting his plans. However, due to yesterday's incident, it was clear that the maid has become more vigilant of her surroundings.

'I must be extra careful today. If anything is exposed, I'll be put into an extremely precarious situation.' 

'Now then, according to the book, activating a mana heart won't particularly affect the surroundings as everything will be done internally. But on the off chance that something goes wrong, a surge of mana would leak out and cause the room to explode.' 

Sethos, being a cautious person, reminded himself once again about the dangers before implementing a risky plan. 

'Whew, let's begin.'

Sethos started to spread the mana he accumulated for four months. Because Sethos was only a year old at this point, his mana veins were still incredibly narrow. The amount of mana flowing through exceeded the maximum capacity that he himself could contain. As a result, Sethos had to forcefully expand his mana veins in the process, making the entire experience several times more agonising than it already was. His heart started pumping wildly as the mana started circulating over and over again. Sethos gritted his teeth and maintained his consciousness despite the tortuous feeling hitting him repeatedly. His body was becoming more and more uncontrollable and ferocious the more time it took. Moreover, the atmospheric mana felt extremely uncomfortable in his body as it was an external entity eating him up from the insides. 

In defiance of everything that was happening in his body, Sethos kept repeating a single phrase in his mind. 

'This is all for the sake of getting stronger; to achieve what I couldn't in my past life! And to do that, no matter the difficulties, I must stay alive and continue on!' 

With his immense willpower, Sethos managed to maintain his consciousness and bear through the pain that normal people would've died hundreds of times over. Slowly, as his heart began to circulate the mana and convert it into his own, the discomfort he felt slowly faded away. After everything that happened, Sethos coughed a mouthful of blood and fainted on his blood soaked mattress. 

What Sethos didn't know was, the accomplishment he had achieved today would attract attention from many powerful higher-ups from the family, including the all-powerful patriarch, Alexander Silvermoon.