Chapter 25: Awakening.

Thomas stared Frenrin up and down, towering over Frenrin. After all, Thomas was over two heads taller than Frenrin.

"What do you want?"

Frenrin smiled, seemingly ignoring Thomas's unfriendly body language. "I would like to spar with you. I would really appreciate it."

"Hmm... now why would I want to do that?"

"...to help out a friend?"

"Hahaha!" Thomas then wiped the sweat off his forehead. "Alright, I'll spar with you for making me laugh."

Frenrin and Thomas once again sparred. Thomas held back less than last time, but Frenrin also improved about as much as Thomas. To be precise, it seems that Frenrin would have beaten the last version of Thomas he sparred against. Unfortunately, Thomas really was not trying pretty much at all last time, although, this time, Thomas did have to try... somewhat.

By the end of the spar, both Thomas and Frenrin were sweating, albeit Frenrin much more compared to Thomas.

Thomas was no less brutal compared to the last spar, but Frenrin seemed to mind less.

"Can we make this a daily occurrence?"

Thomas looked slightly annoyed, but not enough to outright reject it. "Why would I possibly want to do that?" I don't mind beating on you every now and then, but it's too much every day; it'd eventually just feel like a chore."

Frenrin pointed at his head while smirking. "Look at this…"

Frenrin held out his hand, putting it slightly in front of Thomas's face. He slightly opened his hand, revealing the Supreme-Grade Pill.

Thomas's eyes snapped wide open. "How did you get this?!"

Frenrin snickered. "It's a secret. So? Do you want to do the trade or not?"

Thomas gulped, literally swallowing his pride. His face looking down at the pill, still radiating a red glow inside Frenrin's palm. "Alright, I suppose."

And so began Frenrin's new schedule. He would wake up, train, spar, eat, train, eat, spar, read, and then finally sleep.

Frenrin was clearly pushing himself with this schedule. Luckily, his will seemed utterly unshaken by the intense physical labor. His body was also constantly getting healed with a supply of low-tier healing potions from Principal Alica.

Eventually the time came, yes, the time that Frenrin could finally cultivate. Well, to be honest, Frenrin probably could have started a week earlier with how much progress his body has made. His previous skinny build has become chiseled. His weight has mostly stayed the same, but his muscles have become more apparent.

Frenrin was sitting in bed shortly after waking up, thinking to himself. {I can finally cultivate. To be honest, I'm actually pretty excited.}

Frenrin sat up, a slight smile on his face. He had a short conversation with Garmr about cultivating until somebody knocked on the door.

Frenrin spoke loudly. "Coming."

Frenrin then opened the door, revealing Sven waiting there patiently.

"Hello, is it time?"

"Yes."

Sven then started to walk away, leaving Frenrin to play catch-up, with Garmr following along. Eventually they reached Revan's office. Sven led them inside the room where Revan was sitting, expecting them.

Revan greeted them with a stone-cold face. "Welcome, it seems the day has finally arrived."

Frenrin responded with a nervous yet excited expression, scratching his hair while smiling. "Hahaha, I guess so."

Revan stared at Frenrin for a moment. {This kid... he's changed.} After analyzing Frenrin, he then got up and moved all the furniture to the sides of the room, leaving a large empty area in the middle.

"Sit."

Frenrin then sat down in a lotus position, while Revan kneeled behind him.

"You've read about this, correct?"

"Yes, Sven gave me a few books about the first steps in cultivating."

Not even mentioning all the information Garmr gave, although, since he didn't actually cultivate as a human, it was probably best to go mainly off the information from the books.

"I'm starting!" Revan then groaned for a moment, and his hands started emitting a shining, bright white light. Unlike the lights the nurses were emitting when healing Frenrin, which corresponded to the element they were using, this one instead is represented based off his essence! It seems Revan is in fact a master, and one at a high level at that.

Frenrin felt a hot feeling permeating his body. It was scalding... but Frenrin didn't even flinch, instead focusing even more intensely.

Frenrin then felt the essence reach his core. It then wrapped around it... as if it was adding another layer to his core. Immediately after it covered his core, the single stream of scalding temperature started to converge in many different directions. Two went through his elbow all the way down to his hand, which promptly expanded as if it was adding another thin layer to his skin. Another went to his legs, and one finally went to his head.

After a bit, the essence starts to retract, heading in reverse the same motion it went in. Eventually all of the essence left Frenrin's body, returning to Revan's hands.

Revan nodded, then spoke. "The first step is done. Now for the second one."

In fact, this was actually the second step. But it was definitely deemed more important that Frenrin have an output for his ren. He needed to first know how to release it before creating it.

Frenrin put his hand up. "...Can I try something first?"

Revan nodded back in return, causing Frenrin to close his eyes.

Frenrin then imagined his core. And honestly, Frenrin had always wanted to try this. He was just waiting to know how to release his Ren before trying it. Back in his dream, that behemoth of a man cut open his stomach, and then he touched something... He wasn't sure what it was, but he could clearly tell it wasn't an organ or anything else normally in a body.

Frenrin then imagined even more intensely. He imagined his core in motion, as if a heart that was dead suddenly received a shock and started beating again, again, and again. He then imagined this metaphorical heart starting to circulate a gray essence... which it did, but he wasn't finished yet!

He recalled all of the information he recently consumed, all of it related to creating a star. Luckily, stars didn't require much essence. In fact, it required only the absolute bare minimum, which even then Frenrin only barely had.

He looked inside his core. It was beating like a heart, releasing essence into an intangible vein, which circulated throughout his entire body. The essence was so thin it was barely visible, but Frenrin tried to gather that essence. He controlled the veins to go in a specific path. Some would converge from one road to another, while some just continued in the same path. They all eventually reached his heart, whether they just passed by or coated it like a protective layer.

Frenrin willed the intangible pathways inside his heart to open up for his essence.

He forced the almost seemingly hesitant essence inside his heart, attempting to conjure a Rank-1 star. He thought of all the different ways it was described in the books. It was usually a searful process, one that felt incredibly similar to a tumor that was on fire growing inside of your body.

Others described it as the opposite, though, as if the star was draining all the heat from a very specific part of your body at once, chilling it in the process.

Frenrin found it to be the latter. His body felt as if a large part of it was suddenly frozen, and his face contorted despite his resistance to pain.

His face started turning pale, his expression growing more and more grim. The others observing him wanted to interfere, but any interference would instead spell doom for Frenrin. At the very minimum his core would be shattered, and most likely he would die.

Garmr once again felt pity, pity not for himself but for Frenrin. Frenrin was usually so calm and collected, as if nothing in the world could affect him. But it seemed that there were moments where he would lose reason, as if he had something to prove not to anybody else, but to himself. And he was clearly more harsh on himself than anybody else.

Eventually, the star, which seemed to be similar to an outline that was slowly being filled with color, turned completely gray, filling the entire canvas.

Frenrin's eyes snapped wide open, his breathing heavy and erratic, and his hair was disheveled and glistening with sweat. His eyes filled with fatigue, and his heart was beating at a rate way too fast for a normal human, but Frenrin was no longer normal. He was an awakened!

Frenrin smiled with the embracement of a naive, risk-taking junior, one that pushed himself to his limit but was smiling dumbly as if he had no idea what he was doing.

"Did I do it?"