Chapter 29 – Foundations of Power
The ruins were silent.
Not the lifeless silence of death, but a deep, reverent stillness — like the world itself was holding its breath.
Auther stood atop a jagged rooftop, wind tugging gently at his cloak. From here, he could see the scattered bones of fallen skyscrapers and the blackened forests twisting in the distance, glowing faintly with toxic mana.
It had been some time since his breakthrough to E1.
he had spend this time fighting, testing the limits of what it meant to evolve beyond mortality.
His body felt… different now.
Quieter.
More efficient.
His lungs processed air and mana at the same time. His muscles held strength in reserve like tightly coiled wires, and his perception had sharpened to the point that even insects crawling across stone registered on his awareness if he focused.
A lot had changed.
But the biggest shift hadn't been physical.
It was strategic.
> "F-rank skills won't carry me much longer."
He had created many since his Awakening — Mana Edge, Flame Spike, Neural Reinforcement, and more. But they were low-tier tools, meant for survival during his early growth. Now that he was an E-tier, he could feel the ceiling of those skills pressing against him.
Flame Spike, for example, had become little more than a distraction against tougher enemies.
He opened the Skill Creation window and stared at the list of all his abilities.
He had 59 SP saved up.
A decent sum — hard-earned through dangerous fights, smart tactics, and luck.
He could burn those points to create another handful of F-rank skills… or invest in one solid E-tier growth skill.
He didn't hesitate.
He began to type:
---
> Name: Pulse Weave
Description: "A foundational energy manipulation technique that enhances mana circulation throughout the body. Increases mana regeneration rate, improves internal energy efficiency, and lays groundwork for advanced energy techniques. Designed to evolve over time."
Rank: E1
Cost: 53 SP
---
He read it twice.
This was the kind of ability cultivation techniques were built on. Not flashy. Not offensive.
But crucial.
A skill like this wouldn't just help him now — it would scale with him, strengthen his casting, reduce waste, and possibly even allow the fusion or layering of future skills.
He pressed confirm.
---
[Skill Created: Pulse Weave (E1)]
[Remaining SP: 6]
---
The moment it settled in, he could feel it — like a secondary heartbeat forming just beneath his core.
Not a rhythm of blood, but of mana.
He closed his eyes.
Inhaled.
Then exhaled mana.
A ripple of pale blue light spread through his skin, pulsing in time with his breathing. The mana felt cleaner, smoother, like it no longer resisted his control.
"This… this is what a proper skill should feel like," he whispered.
No lag.
No clunky startup.
No instability.
It belonged in his body.
He practiced it for the next two hours, refining the flow until it hummed in the background like a second layer of life.
Eventually, he sat down and pulled up the system interface.
---
[Current Rank: E5]
[SP: 6]
[Core Sync: 62%]
[Notable Skills: Starwave Breathing (F3), Pulse Weave (E1), Fighting Mastery (F4), Mana Edge (F6)]
---
He stared at the "SP" field.
Just six.
Creating anything meaningful now — especially beyond E1 — would take dozens more.
> "At this rate, I'll need to find stronger prey," he muttered. "Or… another dungeon."
Then he had an idea.
He quickly opened Skill Creation and began typing:
---
> Name: Soul Loop
Description: "Passively generates 1 SP every 10 days. Tied to soul-mana conversion through ambient exposure and battle experience. Inefficient, but accumulative."
Rank: F9
Cost: ???
---
The system processed… then rejected the input.
A red warning flashed.
---
[Skill too complex for F9 Rank. Recalculating…]
> Revised Cost: 97 SP
---
His lips twisted into a grim smile.
> "Just creating a way to passively farm skill points costs nearly 100 SP. That's not happening anytime soon."
Still, it was possible.
Someday, he would afford it.
And then? He wouldn't be tied to the hunt for every single skill point.
For now, he needed to hunt carefully and kill smarter, not harder.
Stronger enemies, better cores, and dungeons with proper treasures were the key.
He stood up, stretching his limbs, and opened his map interface — an improvised one he'd built using notes, system flags, and environmental markers.
Something blinked.
A faint pulse — not a full gate, but a mana distortion roughly 8 kilometers northeast, toward an old collapsed reservoir.
> "Another dungeon?" he murmured.
He checked his supplies. Rations, water, two cores, and his blade — still reinforced with mana thread.
Then he moved.
---
The journey took him nearly three hours.
Along the way, he tested Pulse Weave in motion — cycling it while sprinting, climbing, dodging phantom beasts in the distance. His stamina held out better, and the burn in his muscles was easier to suppress.
But what surprised him most was how clearly he could now feel the dungeon's presence.
It wasn't just energy.
It was a kind of gravitational pull. Like his evolved mana core resonated with the unstable leyline forming the gate.
He crested a hill of cracked stone — and saw it.
An underground tunnel partially exposed by a landslide. At the entrance, a faint shimmer of green light pulsed.
---
[Unstable Minor Gate Detected – Mana Signature: Early E-Tier]
[Status: Inactive. Estimated Activation Time: 28 Hours]
---
"Perfect," Auther said.
He sat nearby, under the shade of a broken archway, and began preparing.
If he wanted to survive that gate — solo — he'd need to create at least one more active E-tier combat skill.
But he didn't have the SP.
Yet.
A slow smile touched his lips.
"That just means I've got one day to go hunting."
He stood up, blade gleaming in the twilight, and vanished into the trees.
the path of true evolution had only just begun.