"I am the master of my body." He stopped the force of natural advancement provided by nature and began to control where and how each thing would be improved. The pain of the process was hellish, but he didn't even blink.
His veins were being shaped to withstand more pressure than if the world had just raised his level naturally. Furthermore, he was making them in directions that would allow for better circulation of total mana.
"It's done." Kayden finished the process stinking because of the amount of impurities his body released. The boy was skinny and did not appear to be in good health.
The boy began to pull all the surrounding mana into him. Slowly, his control expanded more and more. What he was doing was similar to entering the last stage of transcendence, only this time the amount of mana was even greater than when he was at the eighth rank.
His eyes took on a blue glow and his breath was exuding mana in gaseous form. But the boy still hadn't reached the point he wanted. His instincts were guiding him.
He felt that even with his entire body cracking, he still hadn't gotten to where he wanted to be. The man began to become unstable for a few dozen meters, almost as if he understood that something big was happening.
"More, I want more." Kayden went into an absurd trance. Slowly, his control extended to nearly thirty meters around him. At this range, his mastery over mana was absolute.
CRACK!
Kayden felt something break inside him. His entire life was separated into before and after this moment in his mind. He finally understood his path. That was decades ago.
Without him realizing it, this process had already begun in his other life and then in limbo, it was further refined. Those mere four years in limbo easily amounted to decades.
If you add it, Kayden could easily achieve a century of productivity in this pursuit. The boy's mind became calm.
"I am a monarch." Kayden finally understood his life's purpose. He was a king, nothing more. The entire man around the boy seemed to bow. It sounded like they were shouting in celebration of the birth of a king.
"Kayden?" David's voice came through the door. And as soon as Kayden's eyes met David's, the scientist almost had a heart attack. The pressure from the boy and the environment caused an instinctive fear in David.
It felt like he was facing a living god. His mana bowed to him. His very existence felt wrong in space as if he were something ancient and dangerous that shouldn't exist.
In all his life, David had never been so afraid of anything as he was now. He felt tiny, like an ant facing an elephant.
Pooft!
Kayden fell to the ground unconscious. And David finally snapped out of the trance he was in and went to check on the boy. He was in shock to see the boy with something similar to the core and knew it was the mana heart they developed in the past.
What he didn't know was that it was no longer a mana heart, but a tyrannical mana heart.
***********
"So it's been three and a half years?" Kayden asked as he devoured some pasta and meatballs made by David. The boy had just woken up from another seven days of sleep.
"Yes," David confirmed Kayden's question. The boy didn't know how long he stayed in there, but he was sure it was much longer than here. Time probably ran differently there.
Kayden was fascinated by this, the ability to manipulate time itself.
"What happened in that time, David?" The boy finally asked the question he had been putting off. The scientist gave a big sigh before continuing.
"The nobleman who did this to you was unharmed, his family was too strong for us to do anything. The footage and evidence were buried." Kayden didn't even change his expression, he already expected something like this. "The army also broke the contract with you, they came while you were unconscious."
This Kayden didn't expect, but he didn't care either. After discovering his path, he no longer doubted that he would be able to reach the top in a short time.
"Astolfo entered one of the most reputable elite colleges in the kingdom and Heimer continues to do very well and excel in the matrices field." David had done some research on Kayden's friends to stay informed. "They came to visit you once every few months."
In short, Kayden didn't miss much.
"One year," Kayden muttered to himself.
"What's a year old, Kayden?" David could hear even though he was short.
"I'm 13 years old, I can still enter the Sol Academy." David remained silent for a moment, not knowing what to say. He didn't expect to hear this and didn't believe at all that there was time, even though he witnessed that scene seven days ago.
The two didn't discuss anything about it, David understood that it was Kayden's secret.
"Please take me to the orphanage, David," Kayden asked, he already had a plan to improve his rank, and that involved using the mana stone from the forest.
"Thank you, Heimer." Kayden thanked the boy for taking him to the forest. Luckily, Kayden was lucky enough to wake up in December, and during that time, his brother was on vacation. This was better than him revealing the secret to someone else.
The boy didn't have time to have a proper conversation with Han, it seemed like the old man was avoiding him. Probably out of shame for not being able to protect Kayden and Ryan or for not being able to even take revenge for them.
The boy also had to invent a miraculous excuse for his cure and he... threw all the responsibility on David. He simply said that the scientist had found an exceptional healer and did not go into further detail.
"I'll be back in a week, Kayden." The boy said after Kayden entered the tree. He still hadn't quite accepted the fact that Kayden spent seven whole days there, isolated. This seemed impossible, Heimer was sure he would go crazy in this place.
As soon as Kayden entered, he packed all his things and instantly began cultivating. The mana density here was much better than outside, and according to Heimer, the stone had returned to almost 100%.
His initial focus was on increasing his rank quickly and then training in life-and-death fights endlessly. This was the best way for him to progress quickly with his new style of mana manipulation.
Kayden began to draw mana towards himself. The boy looked like a vortex sitting on the stone, all the mana in the environment came to him naturally, and he had no resistance.
bonus chapter tomorrow