The winter sun had already painted the sky in an orange hue but the clouds is still black and grim. It is dinner time and Ralph and the maid is serving the Cross family dinner at the dining room. The dinner is extravagant as Count Shields already helped procure some supplies to stocked up in the villa. Everything is provided as what Malcom paid for. Dinner is enjoyed by the whole family including the servants.
"I will be choosing the room at the far end of the hall. Opposite from you guys because I want to have some alone time during the stay. I want to figure out what is going on with me relating to all those dreams. Please…" Adrian made up a drama at the dinner table so he can act secretly out of supervision.
"…." Malcom was silent for a bit as he doesn't know what to say. His son is only 10 years old. Leaving him unsupervised will threated the heir of the family. He then turns to Amanda for the answer.
"Sigh… okay. But the servants need to stay in the second floor as well. Ralph will be in the room next to you followed by the maid." Amanda thought of the solution.
"That's right. I will inform the servants first." Malcom immediately agrees to Amanda. His trusted aide, Ralph had been the Cross family butler since he is a kid. So, letting him in charge of Adrian's safety while agreeing Adrian's selfish request is a prime solution.
"That is fine by me." Adrian agrees to it right away. It's a result that he hoped for.
"Mary's room will be next to mom and dad." Marylyn becomes excited having a room close to her parents.
With all rooms on the second floor is occupied, the Cross family will have a good night's rest for the night, except for one boy. Holographic screens filled his vision watching a 20-meter black giant 'bleeding' serpent's every movement.
The serpent slithers thorough the snowy forest leaving a trail of snow and blood of its prey. It's body sometimes extrudes poison gas through its scales, turning the surrounding leafless trees dried and charred after being clouded by the poison gas.
"It's a mutated Deathbring Serpent. Ugh… The poison will be hard to handle. As it had turned to a demonic beast its poison is more deadly and potent." Adrian contemplating on his bad luck seeing a tough opponent. I was intending to handle it alone but seeing the beast in from of him made him hesitate again like last time.
"Aria, suggestions on how I can handle this alone." Adrian asks Aria for solution as always.
[Responding. Suggestion 1. Master can overpower the serpent. Master can equip 'Excalibur' gaining Light+ special effects and accessing 'Severing Light' special skill. Use 'Parallel thought' to constantly cast 'Cure' to fight against the poison. ARIA will also assist with 'Bodily chemical manipulation' to control Master's anti body to resist incoming poison. Cassiopeia can assist in casting 'Water Barrier' adding more defence against the poison and attacks.]
"???" Adrian becomes confused as he never thought he can overpower that demonic beast.
[Suggestion 2. Wait for it to return back to its nest to sleep and assassinate it while it is sleeping.]
"It has a nest? Is it the concentrated miasma location?" Adrian thinks back when he received the notification.
[Responding. Correct.]
"Between the two, what is the probability of success on each suggestion?" Adrian asked.
[Responding. !00% success on both of the suggestion.]
"???" Adrian becomes puzzled on the success rate.
"Aria? Are you messing with me?" Adrian begins to be a bit annoyed.
[Responding. NO. ARIA always believes in Master's capabilities to adapt at any situation. Master had always showed ARIA of his capabilities and manage to prevail in all of it. Even if it is not the best, Master's name (Park Jae Sung) had made people scared and aware of Master's existence.]
[As ARIA is with Master. ARIA will never let Master fall again.]
Adrian calmed down his anger. He thinks he had become 'soft' after reincarnating. He always doubts himself, not like when he is in his past life. 'THE' Park Jae Sung. A prodigy of learning new things. The name that online threads wanted to talk about but was erased the next second. The phenom of the South Korean Army.
Adrian looked outside the window and stares directly at the beautiful moon on the sky. Breathing steadily. Each breath inhaled contains mana and each breath exhaled extrudes the pressure of a Half Moon stage mage.
"Come out." Adrian commands the Grimoire of the Fallen on his left arm. Chains and a book pop out from his arm on to his left hand. The chains untangle from the arm and dancing around him. The grimoire slowly floats beside him.
"That creepy book again." Cassie made a remark as she had saw the grimoire last time when Adrian took the Pearls of the Lake to increase his stage. Looking at the old chained book made her shiver in fright.
As always Adrian isolates his mana existence with the presence of the book.
"Aria, I will proceed with Eve's Mana Method. I will direct the mana. All you need to do is stabilize the structure of the body. The pain is not important. Only success matters." Adrian sits in a lotus position ready to reconstruct his body to an imperfect version of a Primordial.
[Responding. Orders received.]
['Bodily chemical manipulation' develops new sub skill…. 'Marionette'.]
[Marionette: Allow ARIA to take over Master's consciousness from permission.]
['Battle simulation' develops new sub skill…. 'Free simulation'.]
[Free simulation: Creates a perfect simulation of any subject to detect failures and inconsistency.]
"That is a great development, Aria. I will make a simulation with Eve's Mana Method inside my thought. There are also some adjustments. I want it to be as close as possible to a Primordial. So, I modify it a little based on Eve's knowledge. Simulation." Adrian praise Aria adaptability by managing to made a new skill.
[Notice. Simulation of Master's structure materializing. Only seen by Master's eyes.]
A perfect copy of Adrian appears in front of him. Same clothes, hair, face and etc. It is actually just a perfect mirrored hologram at the size of half a meter tall so he can 'tinker' it while sitting. Adrian begins 'tinkering' the hologram and remove the unnecessary parts until the hologram only shows blood vessels, heart and brain.
He stares at the hologram and made adjustment and seeing if his modifications yield perfect results. The first one made the heart explode. The second one, the entire body explode. Taking a step back and thinking of the reasons for the cause of the explosion.
"Urmm…" Adrian thinks hard about this. The night is still long. He should take his time to prepare and kill the serpent tomorrow. He can go tonight but Excalibur's presence is too grand. Only in day times, he can unleash the legendary sword to not attract any attention.
"How about like this….?" Adrian runs the simulation again after thinking for 20 minutes. Adrian is an expert in human anatomy so he knows the ins and outs of the human body. The only difference between humans of Earth and humans of Etterra is the mana passage. Luckily, Adrian asked Aria to check its characteristics years ago.
Finally, as they say third times the charm. Adrian shows a big smile and immediately get to work.
[Selected: Durandal]
"Equipped. Cassie you can absorb any extra mana form this operation. Maybe you can advance to Half Moon stage." Adrian gets into his mana circulating pose and made some preparations as runes form into small magic circle forms on his chest while telling Cassie to cultivate mana too.
"What are you going to do?" Cassie became worried after seeing Adrian's determine eyes but she did not get any answers. She did not say anything anymore and materialise showing a visage of her beautiful self.
Adrian uses Durandal to absorb as many mana as he could and direct it into his heart. Violent mana began bombarding his heart but it is still beating constantly in a fast rhythm. Adrian begins to sweat profusely and blood begin to flow out his lips. If Aria did not help him, he would be a fountain of blood and rolling on the floor in pain for this.
The mana is still beating into his heart. This is what Adrian is aiming for, barrages of mana launch towards it in a rhythmic order when the heart is relaxed. When the heart pumps, the mana on the surface of the heart will seep into the heart tempering it with mana. Tempering the heart is only the first step as it is the most painful process.
Adrian right now is actually in a half dead state. His eyes are already not responsive to light but the heart is still beating and his mind is telling him 'to absorb mana and direct it to the heart'.
Three hours of pain, finally passed. Durandal is dropped on the floor while Adrian is still sitting in a lotus position with his arms in front and eyes showing its white. One thing to pay attention is at the location of his heart is glowing brightly but the heart is not beating.
[Beginning recusation.]
Aria begins to use 'Bodily chemical manipulation' to force the heart to move. 1 minute… 2 minutes… 3 minutes… The heart is still not beating for 10 minutes.
[Initiating Master's plan B]
On Adrian's left chest, 3 magic circles made of runes is embedded on his skin as a back up to the plan.
*BZZZ*
"Pwack…" Adrian pukes out blood and fell lying on the floor. He breathes ruggedly on his on pool of blood but his eyes are wide open. Indicating he is very much alive after the torture.
[Operations Success]
[Congratulations. Master had successfully created 'Mana Heart'.]
[Mana Heart: Self modified heart allows Master to pumps blood and mana.]
"Hehehe… That is good. Now for the second step of becoming a pseudo-Primordial." Adrian shows a big smile while still lying on his own pool of blood.
"Masochist." Cassie utters softly after looking at the bloodied scene.