Over the next 1 year, Lucien trained his Agility and Strength, according to the Darkness manual.
The improvement was noticeable as and since he could get Agility balanced out with the other stats with more focus on it, he spent all the existence points he got from the Rank 0 animal meat provided by the emperor, on Soul.
-Lucien BloodMoon-
-Age: 6 years-
-Race: Human-
-Paths:
Iron Ghoul(Rank 0)
Darkness(Rank 0)
Vampire Baron(Rank 0)-
-Strength: 7.00-
-Agility: 7.00-
-Vitality: 5.00-
-Soul: 10.00-
-Control over external body: 99%-
-Control over internal body: 35%-
-Control over particles: 15%-
-Adjustment over new stats: 100%-
As his soul got stronger, Lucien began to try and control some parts of his internal body, he could now slightly shift an organ. Helping his blood circulation flow smoother was an effect of Vitality which was hidden till now, since he couldn't stimulate it.
Another thing appeared in his stat window and that is control over particles, it was impossibly hard to improve it, but after asking the system he realized to promote he only needed 45%, and that is where that 1 year and 10 months came from.
Over the next over 2 years he continued practicing the promotion diagrams to prepare for the advancement, while tempering his control over the particles. Since he has some points to squander, he didn't get another path, but just brought Vitality to 10.00, since it was the only stat that was left behind.
Another thing was that the improvement of Strength and Agility slowed down considerably at 9.00, reaching the peak with every stat seemed harder that he though, so he just finished it off with existence points.
-Lucien BloodMoon-
-Age: 8 years-
-Race: Human-
-Paths:
Iron Ghoul(Rank 0)
Darkness(Rank 0)
Vampire Baron(Rank 0)-
-Strength: 10.00-
-Agility: 10.00-
-Vitality: 10.00-
-Soul: 10.00-
-Control over external body: 99%-
-Control over internal body: 50%-
-Control over particles: 50%-
-Adjustment over new stats: 100%-
He had majorly focused on control over particles, so they managed to catch up to his internal body control.
The system mentioned 45%, but just to be safe Lucien brought it a bit further.
'Preperations are finished, now I need some place where nobody will disturb me.'
Lucien was cautious even through it was the palace, accidents could happen and damage might be permanent.
"Luna, find me a training room, I don't want to be disturbed, no matter what."
Luna was one of the maids, that has been helping Lucien since he was born.
Lucien didn't trust her too much, as she was probably assigned here by his father, and gathering information on his son to 'protect' him, is well within the boundaries of an emperor.
He was only giving any one of the maids simple commands, whenever he needed something, nothing more, nothing less. He never shared anything sensitive with them.
Walking into a secluded training room, that had no windows and only 1 door to enter and exit, Lucien just closed the door and sat in the middle of the room.
'All Existence, focusing on 5 meters outside the door, scan every 1 minute, if someone is spying.'
-It would cost 1 existence point per meter, so 5 existence points per scan-
'Do it.'
Lucien started focusing on the promotion diagram and pulled a stream of Darkness particles into his body, guiding them along, the route was long and exhausting. The promotion route in the diagrams was different than stat tempering routes.
It had checkpoints which to progress through you had to break. They felt to Lucien like doors that were obstructing the way and you had to open them to progress, the moment you fail you have to start over, all doors close at fail.
When he found out he was amazed at how someone could invent something like this.
There was no damage upon failing to promote to Rank 1, so Lucien kept trying over the last 2 years to familiarize himself.
This promotion route had 9 doors in it.
As Lucien was pretty familiar with them, and had devised his own system on opening doors by using the system manual, different from the imperial manual, it was instinctive to him and felt more comfortable this way.
In the imperial manual you would keep the stream going till it slowly grinds away at the door making an opening and then using the stream from both inside and outside the door could be opened.
Lucien though grinding away something in his body might bring disadvantages later on, the advantage was that once you open a door, even if it closes, the small hole that was ground stays, so opening it again is easy.
The method Lucien revised was what he would use now. He continued pulling streams of darkness particles gathering them outside the first door, once he knew it was enough he just burst though it with one blow from the small sea of particles.
He kept going through the 2nd, then the 3rd, all the way through the 8th. Arriving at the 9th door Lucien started looking solemn, the door itself felt different, it was like the hardest final obstacle separating mortality and beyond.
It was here where the balance of his stats, shined like a bright light. To grind this 9th door might take years, in fact grinding each door becomes progressively harder as they get sturdier and harder to open.
But to Lucien this was not a problem, with his method and Strength at 10.00, his body could contain much more particles, so he kept gathering them at each point, since the other parts of the route were smaller, making 9 small particles seas, when he was ready he started moving the first sea towards the second and when it almost reached he started moving the second towards the third, with the first following closely.
At the moment the 8th sea almost reached the 9th sea, the first 7 connected to the 8th, looking like waves ready to breach the heavens.
With no hesitation Lucien smashed the 9th sea into the gate, bringing the start of the wave attacks, the door slightly shook after that slam. Closely after that the 8th one slammed into it, bringing a stronger shake, then the 7th, 6th, 5th...
The moment the 4th one slammed, the door revealed a small crack and the 3rd managed to open it 45% of the way, during this time Lucien kept the stream of particles going strengthening each sea more and more, the moment the 2nd one slammed in to the door, it shook and opened almost 75% of the way.
With a small grunt, Lucien pushed everything for one final strike, and the moment the 1st of the seas smashed into the door like a tsunami, it opened all the way.
This method definitely saved him quite some time, as grinding would have taken a long time, especially on the 9th gate.
The moment the 9th gate was opened the stream that Lucien had to control to enter the body, was automatically connected to the space beyond the final door, and started flowing in and gathering there.
In the same moment the stream was connected another aura rushed out from beyond the door and seeped into his head.
Lucien felt the would blur and the he felt, absolute clarity. Like all this time, he was half asleep and now he is awake, the world felt different, it had more colors, it was more vibrant.
The change was addictive, he wanted to feel it again.
Looking around he decided to check his stats, after the breakthrough.
-Lucien BloodMoon-
-Age: 8 years-
-Race: Human-
-Paths:
Iron Ghoul(Rank 0)
Darkness(Rank 1)
Vampire Baron(Rank 0)-
-Strength: 20.00-
-Agility: 20.00-
-Vitality: 10.00-
-Soul: 50.00-
-Control over external body: 99%-
-Control over internal body: 50%-
-Control over particles: 70%-
-Adjustment over new stats: 0%-