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Intoxicated

As the sun began to lower to the west, Alfie was sitting under the same tree he had been before. 

After learning about the applications of spiritual sense and gaining clues on how to deal with the outside world, Alfie sat down and began to practice. 

For the time being, he focused on increasing the range of his spiritual senses and fine-tuning his control over spiritual energy. 

It was incredibly tedious, even more so since Alfie wanted to explore applications of spiritual energy he'd been theorizing about. 

Since Spiritual energy was the basis of this world's power system, he theorized that if he could control it right he could imitate the powers he'd seen back on earth. 

Earlier he tried to shoot a beam of spiritual energy but couldn't gather enough energy to achieve his goals. 

It was due to this failure that he subjugated himself to hours of training. In the few hours he had been training a sense of intoxication filled his system. 

 Every minute he felt himself progressing, his body was getting stronger, faster, and more durable. The more he interacted with spiritual energy the more he felt it was encouraging him. 

It was only when Fawn came over to inform him that dinner was soon being served that he escaped from this trance. 

Looking at the inner regions of the circular clearing, instead of just frames there stood fully built houses. 

Alfie stood in shock, although very crude his subjects had built houses in a matter of hours. 

The luxury of having a hundred subjects on the first day was truly something he could admire. 

However, that wouldn't matter if he wasn't able to overcome the challenge that came with such wealth. 

Had Ivory not given him a clue about his predicament he would've honestly chosen to stay holed up in the source.

The guilt would have eaten up Alfie inside though, so he was glad to have such a capable friend. 

Focusing on the present, however, he needed to prepare a speech of sorts for his people. 

Other than the initial meeting they had when he summoned them, they rarely interacted. 

Or would that perhaps be better? Should he instead keep an air of mystery around himself? 

He already had Fawn as his intermediary, but making a small speech should at least boast some morale. 

Not only that he had asked Fawn to prepare the corpse of a 2-star monster for the dinner. 

Tonight his people would feast like kings and using that opportunity he would cement his image as a righteous and capable leader. 

Other than that he had one more thing on his agenda before he decided enough was enough for the night. 

Unlocking his Lord's talent was supposed to be the key to dealing with the predicament outside. The sooner he unlocked it the sooner the weight on his mind would dissipate. 

Dinner went as planned, and his subjects reveled in the fact they were able to eat the meat from a 2-star monster. 

Followed by Alfie's speech, the morale of the 100 subjects soared to the moon. While the crackling of fire and laughter still filled the atmosphere outside, Alfie headed inside his manor. 

Unlike the other generic houses that surrounded it, this one was a lot more luxurious. But just like the other houses it wasn't completely finished either. 

The builders had expedited the outer walls and left the rest of the houses pretty barren. To be quite frank all the houses were just wooden cubes held up with thoughts and prayers. 

Despite that, it still beats having no shelter. Plus in the coming days, with more time the houses would gain more amenities and become actually liveable. 

Alfie marveled at the thought of his soon-to-be kingdom but he soon relinquished those thoughts for the matter at hand. 

The inside of the manor only consisted of a single bed. At the current moment, there stood no windows, no other rooms, and no other furniture. 

Sitting in a lotus position on his bed, Alfie could still hear the cheers and laughter of his people reverberating against his walls. It reminded him of Pronoe a little bit, causing him to remember Lucia. 

He smiled faintly as the memories began bubbling up. For him, it had only been a day. Only a day since he'd seen her. 

But for her, it had already been a year. She must've already celebrated their children's first birthday. 

Alfie steeled his resolve and began to start the process of awakening his talent. 

Closing his eyes, he focused on pulling the surrounding spiritual energy towards himself. 

Due to his previous training during the day, the concentration of spiritual energy inside his body was much greater than when he first accessed the orb of self. 

If he had to guess he must've had around double the amount. He didn't have any context to know if it was impressive but he was still proud. 

It was only after a considerable time that Alfie realized that he knew nothing about the actual process of unlocking his talent. 

Sure, he knew that he had to condense spiritual energy into a solid but that was about it. 

Alfie was quite literally in the dark about the entire process. He wanted to search through his pocket space to see if there was anything detailing the process but he had a nagging feeling he was already close. 

Looking inside his body, large clusters of spiritual energy drifted across with no aim. 

He tried to condense them, bring them together but each time his control slipped away at a critical point. 

Alfie began to doubt if his control was strong enough for the process. He could always try again, it was the only day after all. 

But no a nagging feeling stopped him. It urged him, whispering to him that he could. He just had to think. 

Alfie needed a reference, something to gain inspiration from. And the only thing that came to mind was Zeus. 

He remembered the lighting chains that held him, the horror he felt as he tried to corrupt his soul. 

Something else also came to his mind. Though faint he recalled a bright light. That flash of light replayed in his mind a dozen times in a second. 

Stars. They were a reoccurring term in this world. They ranked potential, power, and so much more. 

But why? They could've called them tiers, stages, or realms but instead, they were called stars. 

Alfie had one last trick up his sleeve before he gave. 

He concentrated clusters on clusters of spiritual energy onto a single point. He felt it was on the verge of transforming but knew his control couldn't last. 

Each attempt before this ended up exactly the same, dissipating before anything came to be. 

This time however would end up different. With enough ample time, he began to command the singular point to rapidly spin. 

It was slow at the start, only fully rotating once per second. But as the seconds ticked by the singular point began to rotate faster and faster. 

It reached rotations as fast as 10,000 times per second, achieving speeds that Alfie couldn't perceive at this stage.

Making the point rotate was only a guess, but it required Alfie to input even more pressure and control than every previous attempt combined. 

Alfie gritted his teeth as blood dripped from all his orifices. Every single part of his body and mind felt like they were burning. 

He was pushing himself beyond limits that he could've easily broken given enough time. It was truly a foolish decision. 

As the rotation speed reached a million, Alfie's consciousness began to fade. He had pulled through thus far with sheer willpower alone and now it was beginning to wane. 

It was then that the singular point which held a dim glow began to erupt with a blinding light.

A pulse of pure spiritual energy surged through the air, covering the whole of Alfie's territory and more. 

On the verge of unconsciousness, Alfie was able to view the 'Star' of spiritual energy that formed within his body. 

It passively emitted spiritual energy, slowly enhancing not only his physical body but also his mind. 

He had actually done it. In the mental span of a day, he had gone from a mortal chained with lighting to wielding the first taste of power. 

Dizzy from the loss of blood and extreme mental exhaustion he fell back on his crude bed. 

A thought entered his mind. 'Spiritual Perfection' 9 Stars. 

His key to escaping his predicament had finally arrived he thought before succumbing to his fatigue. 

***

Under the sea, a lizard smelled the scent of energy so pure and refined that he began to drool. He had finally found the key to his ascension to the fourth star. 

Deep inside the forest, another freshly minted Lord felt the pulse of energy. Despite his future knowledge, he knew nothing of what that could be.