Berserker Diagram

Alvin truly felt sorry for the little boy. He had already dreamed of himself traveling through space one day, but today, he was told he would never be able to cultivate.

He really wanted to comfort the little guy, but he was powerless and could only sigh in his heart. Maybe he would recover from this incident as time passed.

But what he didn't expect was that,

From the next day, Asher started practicing with a stick in a small forest behind the orphanage.

Although it was called practice, in reality, he was simply swinging the stick left and right with no form or style.

Miss Rose had tried to persuade him to give up, as he would never be able to harness divine essence in his divine bone due to his injury.

Despite her efforts, little Asher persisted in his training.

It was said that where there is a will, there is a way. After two years of continuous training, Asher miraculously awakened divine essence inside his spine.

Even though he ended up coughing blood that day, he was happy that his training had finally shown results.

Miss Rose anxiously took Asher to the Awakening Temple the same day upon seeing him coughing up dark blood, with a silly smile on his face.

The doctor in the Awakening Temple was an elderly light magician with white hair all over his head. Although Alvin could not tell the actual age of the elderly man, he truly looked like he would die the next day.

After examining Asher's divine bone, the elderly man's expression changed as though he had just seen something that should not have been there.

"How do you feel now, little guy?" he asked Asher in a serious tone.

Seven-year-old Asher scratched his head and replied, "Nothing."

The elder shook his head. "No, do you feel anger or any negative emotion?"

Although Asher didn't understand what the elder before him was saying, he still shook his head.

"Elder Mozi, is there a problem with little Asher?" Rose asked worriedly upon seeing the strange questions he asked Asher.

Elder Mozi shook his head. "There is nothing wrong for now, but I am not sure about the future."

"Please tell me clearly…" Rose became even more anxious after hearing this.

Elder Mozi patted her shoulder. "Don't worry. This little guy has awakened his divine bone successfully. But what is strange is that the essence diagram he awakened does not belong to the magician path, weapon path, or body path."

Normally, magicians could only awaken by exposure to magic essence, whereas weapon masters could awaken by continuously practicing and understanding weapons, and body cultivators could awaken by tempering their bodies.

So, for Mozi to say that Asher had awakened, but it was not one of these paths, this was truly confusing, as these were the only three paths of cultivation in the land of Celestia.

Seeing the confused look on Rose's face, Mozi explained, "Normally, no matter which path it is, there is always an elemental affinity associated with it. But there is no elemental affinity in the essence diagram formed inside Asher's spine."

"How is that possible?" Rose asked in shock. It was common knowledge that everyone who successfully awakened would have some type of elemental affinity.

Elder Mozi looked at Rose and said after some hesitation, "In fact, I have seen similar essence diagrams before, but it is difficult to believe that they could naturally appear in a human."

"Two hundred years ago, I was part of the research team that investigated the beast tide in Flower City. You remember that incident, right?"

Rose nodded. "Back then, my team also participated in that rescue mission. Wasn't that incident caused by the presence of some kind of drug in the water source back then?"

Elder Mozi nodded. "Chaos Lotus, it's a rare type of water plant that has the miraculous ability to imbalance the elements present inside a living organism."

"At that time, the pollen from the flower was mixed with the water source in very high concentration. Consuming this type of water normally has no effect on organisms with only a single element in their bodies."

"But when the number of elements inside the body is more than one, these pollens are dangerous, as they break the balance between the elements, creating a brand-new essence diagram inside their bodies."

"This newly formed diagram doesn't have elemental affinity, but it increases the overall strength of the body to an astonishing level. The side effect, however, is that the organism goes into a berserk state and dies from exhaustion of life force afterwards. Hence, we call it the Berserker Diagram."

Rose furrowed her brows upon hearing this. "Are you telling me that little Asher has somehow awakened this type of diagram?"

Mozi shook his head. "The diagram is the same, but the effects are different. First of all, the kid is calm, with no signs of losing control. Secondly, his life force is intact, there is no sign of depletion. As I said, usually, a Berserker Diagram is a one-way ticket to death, and it only stops when the host dies."

"So, there is no problem, right?" Rose asked while gently stroking Asher's head.

Elder Mozi nodded. "There is no problem. You can take him home. I didn't see any negative effects on him for the time being."

Rose thanked Elder Mozi and returned to the orphanage with little Asher.

Years after that incident were mostly peaceful.

Slowly Alvin subconsciously integrated himself into Asher's life.

Asher would usually practice with his wooden stick in the back forest of the orphanage, unless he had to go to school.

Now Asher was 17 years old. Although he had practiced with several other weapons and trained his body regularly, he was still unable to mobilize a single strand of divine essence in his divine bone.

So, even though he had awakened, he was still a cripple in terms of cultivation.

But he strongly believed that one day, he would also become a powerful cultivator, so he never skipped a single training session.

Due to this reason, despite being only 17 years old, he had a strong build with lean but explosive muscles all over his body. Coupled with his handsome face and amiable personality, he was well-known throughout the small Flower City.

As Asher's life was going smoothly, one day, Henry, the boy who had awakened light and space magic back then, came back to the orphanage.