Above the skies of the flat mortal world, in the starless void. A slit of light appered which was precisely cut with geometry soon after it opened like an eye.
Utmost brilliance flashed, blinding light spread throughout the sky, just as if second sun had appeared in the world.
A split second later a piercing pillar of chaotic light shot out from the slit like portal.
Not an instant later the light reached the mortal realm destroying everything in its parth... even the realm itself was reduced to hot bits of asteroids.
•••
GASP!
Tom woke up gasping for breath in the middle of the night.
Sweat covered his face like he had a dream that didn't go that well.
He could vividly hear Bella's voice barley yelping 'help' before everything went white.
His previous life as Han Tian still gave him lucid nightmares. The pain of loosing Bella was unimaginable that even after re-reincarnation his mind was still chaotic that even he broke the first rule of reincarnation... telling his mother early on he was not just some ordinary child but one having his previous life memories. Build trust and love then share secrets, not share secrets then build trust and love.
"Haaa..." Tom sighed.
He snuggled close to his mother Anna who was sleeping beside him. Trying to find comfort close to her, this was null of dirty thoughts. Only pure thought to seek warmth and maybe let this warm smoother his pain.
As for sleeping together... it was common practice for the weak to sleep with the strong, especially in the world were assassination during sleep was as common as cow eating grass... it's commonsense.
It took only a matter of 8 minutes for him to realise that his mood was already ruined making him 99 percent sure that he wouldn't get a wink of sleep tonight.
Changing his posture, sitting in a half-lotus postion he put his mind on something he was too busy to try... Accumulation. It's a word basically denoting cultivation but fundamentally diffrent from it.
Accumulation is just as the word itself implies collecting something to form another and here that something is mana and the product is Origin elevation.
However, only a few days passed since his awakening and he just arrived home with his mother, things related to Cloe also didn't give him much time.
Placing 10 low grade mana stones close to him but not touching him, he took a deep long breath. Collecting the little mana he could through the surroundings he dived into the same state he was when he awakened.
Tom's vision changed, now he was in his Innerscape. In the darkness justifiable amount of stars representing Magicules were connected by purple Aura like substance that was mana.
Tom's will focused on a star and then he began ACCUMULATION drawing atmospheric mana into himself. Tendrils of dence purple mana that were invisible when dormant circled around him but only a tiny bit of essence of entered into him via chest.
The next second the Magicule he focused on began to illuminate and change colour.
From a tiny point in the sky it now shone with red light but he didn't stop he kept Accumulating mana... from dark red to bight red it turned colours like many metal would when heated.
Wondrous feeling rose as the feeling of lost power washed over him. Without unneeded rest he poured all the mana he could, no sooner it turned blue.
Next was white if considering how heated metal worked. He took a pause and heaved a sigh of relief, murmuring to himself "Well that went with out a hitch. I didn't even break a sweat...monster would be a nice title for me now."
The world he was living, Lokam. In Lokam every awakened will be guided by an unknown force to form a mana core, the next origin realm. This mysterious forced is commonly refered to as mother nature or the will of nature.
Humanoid intelligent creatures will be unknowingly guided during the process to form a core, While wild animals will also get this guidence but a more permanent one even after mana core realm.
Unfortunately, Tom couldn't feel this influence, it was like an urge to do so for other beings except for Tom, but all is not lost, a little bit of theory is only required to make a core.
However, this doesn't make one more 'talented' as the people like to call it or the so called soul power&talent relational hypothesis by Anna. One could only brighten a magicule upto one's talent colour but even that was hard process... a physically and mentally taxing one.
But Tom raised it all the way to Blue without much much of an effort. If the people of Lokam heard about this they wouldn't believe it and if they saw it they would turn geen with envy, bleed bloody eyes with anger, what took even blue talented one a day to achive was done in a minute by Tom, it was simply mind blowing.
Anna was still sleeping like a hen, head tucked into a white pillow. Her curvy body gently rised up and down as the air was blessed to flow into her.
"Oh god, she is still sleeping like a log, she didn't even notice me absorbing mana... clumsy woman." he chuckled and started Accumulation again.
Blue became brighter and brighter but mana required was intensifying. 2 hours passed the Magicule turned white and Tom began to show signs of more effort not exhaustion, it shows how perverted his soul power was.
Mana in the atmosphere was still high but the absorbing time was now really slow, it shows that the ability to absorb manna was not entirely focused on the soul.
Fortunately the solution was an easy one... money!
Picking up a low grade mama- *ahem mana stone laying around him, he swallowed it like a Senzu Bean.
Cold sensation moved through his throat and oesophagus it was like he swallowed an ice cube. His stomach felt like it was brimmed with cold water.
Ding!