Orion Retracer Academy, 12:25 p.m.
Dawn and Aurion were greeted by a vast array of human-sized capsules. These capsules had a transparent entrance, with soft cushioning covering the inside. It also had a tight security installed, which didn't allow anyone outside the capsule to disturb anyone inside. This was a place known as the Seed Formation Chambers.
Dawn looked at Aurion as he gripped the pearl tightly. "Yo Aurion, I'll head to a capsule to form my seed. Let's see how much we progress, okay?"
Aurion nodded and started to head towards one of the capsules. "Sure! Let's see who progresses more after this!"
With Aurion's reply lingering in his mind, Dawn headed towards a nearby capsule and lied down on the comfortable cushioning. Once he felt that his position was comfortable enough, he muttered out, "Close."
Whoosh!
In an instant, the transparent door closed the capsule shut, not letting anyone interfere Dawn's seed formation, or let Dawn interfere anyone else's.
Dawn then looked down at the pearl he was holding and instantly put it in his mouth.
Gulp.
Without hesitation, he swallowed the pearl whole. Once it went through his stomach, a cold sensation took over his body and converged towards his brain, creating an image Dawn could see vividly.
The image was of a golden tower. The tower had 50 floors and it looked like it was halfway to completion. The workers building the next floor had a rhythm going on, speeding up the process of the building the floor.
Not many people know this, but this tower was the true image of the god blood seed that was used to serve as a foundation for Retracers. At most, those who wanted to pursue the path of Retracers would usually visualize a plant being nurtured and cared for, becoming a large tree at the end. Though the tree and the tower may have some similarities, they're two different things. Some people even visualize other things other than the tree or the tower. Dawn visualized the formation of his god blood seed with the creation of a hovercar.
But now with the help of this image, Dawn slightly adjusted his technique of seed formation to become somewhat close to the building of a tower, achieving a resonance.
This resonance trigger a phenomenon on the environment, allowing a surge of energy to enter Dawn's body, letting his god blood seed be formed at least five times faster than his usual speed.
And so, for a while, it was a monotonous process of Dawn looking at the image of the tower, adjusting his own god blood seed formation technique to the said image, and then absorbing the energy from the surroundings to help form his own god blood seed.
...
"Huuh...haah..."
The image of the tower slowly dissipated once one hour was finished, leaving Dawn wanting for more. The euphoric sense of quickly increasing his seed formation swept his body away as he opened his eyes while gasping for air. Even though it was enjoyable, it still took a toll on his brain as he had to focus on multiple things at the same time.
After a while, Dawn noticed that there was something a bit different in his surroundings. It was not that he was looking at the world in a different way, but rather, he felt that he himself was different.
With this question in mind, he muttered out, "Stats."
In less than a second, basic information about him was brought up on the transparent door that acted as a screen.
Looking for a while at the given information, his eyes landed on a certain line which made him grin with glee.
[God Blood Seed Formation]: 15%
'Hahaha! I knew my efforts would pay off! After three days of not progress, with the help of the pearl, I was able to increase it by 1%! I want to see the look on Aurion's face when he hears this!'
After wiping off the sweat all over his body, Dawn opened the capsule, coincidentally at the same time Aurion opened his own capsule.
Dawn, with a big smile on his face, looked at Aurion who unexpectedly had an even bigger smile on his face.
Aurion ignored Dawn's smile and asked, "So...how much progress did you make?"
Dawn instantly became humble and shyly replied, "Oh you know. With the help of the pearl and my effort, I was able to increase mine by 1%. Not really much compared to yours."
Aurion smiled at Dawn's statement, comforting him. "That's great! You're making some progress. I'm sure you're going to become a Retracer someday! But you're quite correct on that last sentence though. Wanna know how much progress I made?"
Keeping up the shy facade, Dawn replied with a, "Oh? Do tell."
Aurion grins all of a sudden, which surprised Dawn. He then raised up two fingers as he replied, "Two percent!"
"Oh?" Dawn's eyes widened with shock. He couldn't keep his shy facade any longer and asked out of disbelief, "Seriously?! Normally, you and I would only get quarter or half a percent from eating the pearl! To think that you got a two percent increase...and I thought I was lucky!" Dawn had a sad expression on his face afterwards.
Aurion wanted to brag about his progress even more, but seeing Dawn's expression, he decided not to and tried to think up of a reason as to why it was like that. "You know Dawn, it must have something to do with me reaching the 20% threshold yesterday. It might have made me gain a clearer visualization of the god blood seed formation, letting me form my own god blood seed faster."
Dawn definitely knew that Aurion was lying by the way he spoke, making him feel even more depressed. He just gave out a normal response, not wanting Aurion to notice his expression even further.
"Yeah."
Seconds later, incessant screams coming from girls came from a place tens of meters away from Aurion and Dawn. The screams could still be heard from their place, making the both of them look at the direction of the screams.
At the exact moment they turned their heads around, they were greeted with the sight of an extremely handsome man. A stature that wasn't too tall, golden hair that glistened with the rays from the sun, crystalline blue eyes, an aquiline nose...the man had the making of a perfect foreigner that lived in the 21st century. Not to mention, this perfect look came from a man that was just 18 years old!
This man, was none other than Kane Adarmon, the star student of Orion Retracer Academy!
Just by standing in place, Kane gave out an aura that was easily perceived by Dawn even from tens of meters away. It was an aura he was too familiar with...an aura that came from his father. From this, Dawn deduced Kane's strength, which left him looking at Aurion with his eyes wide open. Aurion also looked at Dawn as he got to the same conclusion as well.
"It seems we both have the same conclusion in mind," Aurion said.
Dawn nodded. "That aura definitely comes from a Pseudo-Retracer right?"
Aurion nodded. "Indeed. An 18 year old Pseudo-Retracer...no one would believe it even if it were in front of their eyes."
A Pseudo-Retracer usually meant that the person couldn't fully awaken their god blood, choosing only to have control over a small strand of their god blood. But for those who had the possibility of becoming a bona fide Retracer, becoming a Pseudo-Retracer even before they became Retracers would allow them to have more control over their fully awakened god blood, giving them an edge over other Retracers.
All of a sudden, a girl came up to Kane and asked a question which Dawn and Aurion could barely hear.
"Kane, how much progress did you make?"
Kane looked at the girl for a bit while answering coolly, "Oh, it's a bit on the low side this time. I only got a 4% increase." Kane ended his statement with a small smirk, which made the girls that were close to him swoon.
Hearing Kane's answer, Dawn and Aurion looked at each other and sighed simultaneously.
"Man. Even though Kane is my inspiration, it's still shocking to see his progress. Even at that rate, he would only take a month at most to completely form his god blood seed," Aurion said to Dawn, feeling dejected.
Dawn nodded with a dejected expression more intense than Aurion's. "Mm."
Seeing that other people in his surroundings progressed even faster than him made him feel like he was a worthless being in the world. He suppressed this thought as he said to Aurion, "I'm just gonna take a breather."
Aurion wanted to speak a bit more with Dawn, but then he felt an aura around Dawn, an aura of pure bereavement that shivered him to the core. He decided to reply with three words.
"Yeah, take care."