Three days later…
Kale's mansion, secret chamber.
The two chambers at the bottom were a bonus gain for Kale, the right was transformed into a crafting workshop while the left, at the moment, was used for the formation setup.
Right now, Kale was sitting at the centre of the hall, his legs were folded and eyes were closed as he meditated, a formation was spread around the whole floor with him at the core.
Blood red lines were making a complex form on the floor, numerous soul seals were present all around the formation working as nodes.
Kale slowly opened his eyes and exhaled 'The formation is complete, its structure has been modified to match the current limits of my body, if everything goes well then I would have the chance to cross the foundation limit,'
After taking a deep breath, Kale raised his palm and slammed it on the ground, a change occurred in the formation, the red lines started to glow as the gloomy atmosphere surfaced all around, but to Kale, that gloomy feeling was like a warmth exciting his soul.
Fynn was in his room, he was taking a lunch break when his gaze landed on the tree outside the window and he frowned, he saw that the lush green leaves of the tree started to curl up, losing signs of vitality.
He suddenly, felt a gloomy feeling engulfing his heart 'What's happening?' He thought.
Though he didn't have to think much before the image of Kale surfaced in his head, he gulped down his saliva and sighed, at the moment, he didn't even have the right to ask questions.
As the formation worked, the arear in hundreds of meter around the mansion became deathly still and gloomy, the insects stopped chattering and the birds flew away in fear.
Due to it being at the top, there weren't any people around at night so the phenomenon remained unnoticed.
Inside the underground hall, at the centre of the formation, Kale's body trembled as a formless force restricted his normal functioning of the body, his heartbeat started to slow down, it kept decreasing until his heart started beating only once per two seconds.
Kale's consciousness turned slight blurry, if it was him from before, doing it for the first time, then he would have already been forced into a half-conscious state but the current him had firm control over his consciousness.
While his heart rate was slowed down, the energy inside his body was in chaos, it was almost threatening to flow in reverse. Moreover, his body was absorbing origin energy from surrounding without letting any escape, soon an astonishing sight appeared. Kale's body started to expand, his muscles bloated up, nerves and veins started to show on them.
From a mature-looking teenager with a well-balanced body, Kale turned into a big balloon-like figure. If a practitioner saw this scene they would first be stunned then run away in fear that Kale might explode, right now, he looked like a balloon that could explode anytime.
All the muscles and tendons in his body were pushed to the limit but Kale had a calm expression on his face, once his body expended to a limit, it stopped absorbing energy, Kale meditated for around half an hour then a faint smile appeared on his face.
'It's time,' He thought and forced out all the energy condensed in his body through all the acupoints at the same time, normally this would deal similar damage to all his acupoints but won't destroy them, instead, the secondary self-healing due to the dense vitality at the moment, after recovering both the acupoints and the body would be upgraded by a notch.
It would be a success gained in a fake death state, that's why it is called ‹Life & Death Ritual›.
Kale took action and forced out all the energy at once, under his control, everything went well, although his flesh was ripped at someplace and his body was covered in blood, he knew the wound will slowly heal and he was out of danger.
This was where the process should end, it should have ended... But just when his body started to slowly recover, it suddenly started to again suck energy on its own.
'What? How? Shouldn't my body have already reached its limit? Why the change? Is it because of Origin Energy or due to the unusually strong body of humans here, wait, I can think about it later, the question right now is if I should stop it or not?' Kale thought, he observed the formation and noticed that the soul seals were already half used up, he could forcibly stop the process but there was an issue, the continuation of the process meant his body wasn't at the limit he desired and he still hadn't reached the beyond A Grade he wanted to conquer.
Kale only thought for a moment before his eyes became firm, he extended his bloody hand and opened the bag on the side, he took out more soul seals and arranged in the formation.
Kale never depended on a single plan, he had prepared a lot of material in case something happens and the formation fails, he had a big stock of soul seals not just for the ‹Life & Death Ritual› but also to practice his other WitchCraft methods.
In the end, he took out five Health Potions he had bought in case he somehow fails in the ritual, then started controlling the formation again.
The process became harder during his second time due to him being injured but with his rich experience and firm will, Kale finally succeeded, most of his body was now bathing in blood, faint red steam was oozing out of his skin, his eyes were red but he was still smiling.
Just when Kale thought it was over, his body again started to absorb energy.
He was stunned.
Kale first looked at the spare material, he speculated for a second then contacted Fynn, due to the effect of the contract, as long as they were in a certain range it was easy to contact him {Listen carefully, and urgently do as I say, take all our spare money and...}
Fynn was preparing to start his training session when he got the message, he quickly took the bag filled with gold and silver coins and ran to the Carran Town at his fastest pace.
While he was out, Kale slowed down the process to buy some more time, it wasn't that he didn't have a chance of success but the problem was what if it wasn't the end and there was another re-do waiting for him.
Fynn was doing his best but still wasn't fast enough, in the end, Kale drank a potion before starting and went through the process a third time, fortunately, it was a success, but as he expected, his body again started absorbing energy.
'What the... Will it keep going like this? No, quality can replace the quantity...' A dangerous idea flashes past his idea.
In the next second, Kale started to multitask and made several changes in the working formation, giving it a strong input to temporarily increase its power several times.
When Fynn came back, he was told to directly enter the secret chamber, it was the first time Fynn got to know about the secret chambers, what surprised him more was Kale's half-dead state, for a moment, he thought if he would free on his death but as soon the thought appeared, he felt an invisible claw clenching his heart, he felt like one more wrong and he would be dead, as a result, Fynn quickly shook his head and denied the idea.
Kale quickly gobbled up the potions brought by Fynn and recovered from his injuries, he even drank several Body Strengthening Potions to temporarily empower his body's durability.
At last, he took a deep breath then flickered his fingers, the lines on the formation glowed brightly, it almost seemed like they were on fire.
A bigger change occurred on the outside, the effect range of the formation increased from a few hundred meters to a mile, all the plants and lower lifeforms in the range got their vitality and energy sucked out of them.
Kale betted everything on the last turn, he knew his limits very clearly, if he kept going then he would surely die, even those Health Potions has a limit, once the limit is reached they will be ineffective for a certain period.
Under the influence of energy fluctuations, Kale's body again inflated like a balloon, his skin had turned purple-blue at many places but it couldn't be seen because of it being fully covered in blood.
'Wh.hat... Is this....' Fynn looked at Kale with wide eyes, as he stumbled in his footsteps and fell to the ground. He was of a higher lifeform level, thus he was able to resist the formation, but the bloody sight of Kale sent shivers down his spine with just one look.
Until he now, he was very dissatisfied with Kale's action, thinking how Kale practices safe techniques while he had to go through all that torture to gain strength but now after seeing what Kale himself was going through, he didn't dare to give birth to this thought again.
He even felt that Kale was actually being lenient to him.
Kale ignored him and pushed out all the energy inside his body at once, as soon as he did, he could hear the crackling sound of his bones, regardless of the pain he didn't stop and finally pushed out all the energy through sheer force, once he was done his body shrank like a squashed sponge.
Kale lay motionlessly on the ground, his body was twitching, the pain had turned his body numb, still, there was a warm place in his body, it was his Origin Chasm.
When his body calmed down, his Origin Chasm went into motion, the energy inside was unstable, surprisingly a qualitative change was taking place in all three chaotic and unstable energies.
'Breakthrough, at a time like this? Damn,' Kale cursed inwardly, he wanted nothing more than to rest right now, but now that he was breaking through, he had to focus on controlling the flow of energy in his body.
'Sigh... So it is time to make the choice,' Kale deeply sighed, he then sent a message to Fynn asking him to help him sit in a meditative position, the dense vitality in the hall had already started to heal him albeit it was slow.
When a Mortal Stage practitioner breakthroughs to Enlightened Mortal Stage, they get a benefit depending on their main class.
Mages get their innate ability that can either increase their mana restoration rate or reduce mana consumption rate during spells.
Martial Artist can awaken their Martial Spirit also known as Battle Spirit.
Mutants get a boost in their mutant powers.
In case, someone is following a mani class that consists of the fusion of two ore more from these three, like Martial Mage or Mutant Martial Artists, then they have to make a choice, between the two, Mutant Mage can either focus on getting a boost in their mutant abilities or gain an innate ability suitable for the mage. Mutant Martial Artist can either awaken their Martial Spirit or get a boost in their mutant abilities.
This is one of the reason, why cultivating fusion classes is harder and requires more resources, one wrong choice can affect their whole future.
Though, it is still followed by many in hope that they would have a side to fall on if they failed in one expect.
Kale had chosen to be a Mutant Martial Mage in the past, so he has three options but can only choose one.
He had thought about it long ago and made his decision before walking down the path, under his control his Battle Qi surged around, suppressing the two other energies inside the Origin Chasm.
He has decided to bet on Martial Spirit.
He had several reasons for making this choice.
If he chose to follow the Mana route, then the ability he awakens was bound to be ordinary like others, after all, he didn't have the blood of some royal or noble mage family flowing through his veins.
If he had that type of bloodline then there was a chance for him to awaken a stronger ability, as for lower abilities they could be easily replaced by good equipment, like the «Mana Restoration Ring» he had in his possession.
He also assumed about the boost in mutant ability, but right now he was mostly using his mutant ability to only strengthen his bones, even if it was boosted, it would only increase his bone fusion speed.
On the other hand, a Martial Spirit is closely linked to a practitioner's temperament, knowledge, life experience and desires, at least this is the case most of the times.
Although it can go wrong for the younger children but it was more than 90% true for an adult man who awakens their Martial Spirit later, furthermore, the Martial Spirit grows with the user.
Kale considered his past life experience and knowledge of plants before choosing this option, according to him with his vast understanding and love for plants, his Martial Spirit should be related to plants, if it is, then it can help him when becoming a Plant Mage.
After all, he may be a kid by age and appearance, but not by memory and experience.