My superpower is laser eyes. If I had unleashed this much raw strength in the outside world, the solid steel bars of a building would have already dissolved into a glowing puddle of liquid.
The awakening of this power permanently changed how I view my own sight. It grants me the ability to project high-intensity, concentrated beams straight from my retinas.
Ever since the ability surfaced, I have spent countless solitary hours training. I focused on tuning the energy, forcing my body to adapt, and pushing the boundaries of my vision.
Until this point, my training allowed me to interchange between two completely distinct properties. I learned to separate the fundamental nature of the light I emit.
The first variation is a thermal laser. When I lock my gaze onto a target, my eyes project pure, scorching heat energy.
In the open world, this thermal beam liquefies structural steel without resistance. The raw temperature behind the beam has already crossed five hundred degrees Celsius.
For someone whose superpower rests at rank one, that level of offensive output is extraordinary. It offers an incredible amount of raw attack power.
If a rank-one martial artist or a standard magician stood in my place, they wouldn't match this level of destruction. No matter what spells they cast or physical techniques they perfected, they would fall short.
Superpowers operate on an entirely different spectrum. They might not be trainable or attainable by ordinary human standards.
Yet, once a person undergoes an awakening, the specific field their superpower rules over changes completely. It simply cannot be surpassed by the martial forms of fighters or the complex spells of magicians at the same tier.
Stepping back, I took a deep breath and centered my focus. I cleared my mind, preparing myself to shift gears and test my other variation.
I channeled the energy into my retinas, altering the fundamental properties of the latent force. The air around me seemed to tighten as the thermal prickle vanished, replaced by a dense, crushing weight.
A sharp hum vibrated through the chamber as I unleashed a kinetic beam straight toward the reinforced wall. The concussive blast struck the target with a dull, heavy boom that echoed off the stone.
The impact hit hard, but the surface didn't shatter. Instead, ancient runes carved into the wall flared to a bright crimson life.
The magical symbols worked instantly, absorbing the heavy shockwave. They dispersed the kinetic impact, rippling the vibrational energy through the entire structure of the room to neutralize it safely.
I exhaled, wiping a speck of dust from my chin, and turned to check the digital interface. A specialized monitoring meter sat securely on the wall.
My mother had installed it specifically to track my training output. It served as a constant alarm system, checking the potential structural damage my gaze could inflict.
Since the world lacks a concrete numerical system to calculate raw superpower damage, standard testing relies on relative benchmarks. Every measurement uses the exact same baseline for comparison.
The digital gauge flickered, mapping the kinetic force against known limits. The needle settled squarely between a rank-one peak superpower and a rank-two magician or martial artist’s standard damage.
I stared at the readout, putting it into a real-world perspective. If I used this exact same kinetic beam outside, the concussive force would easily hurl a one-ton car backward through the air.
Looking closer at the metrics, a sudden realization set in. Before today, my raw output lagged slightly behind the absolute limit of the first rank.
But things had shifted. Now, I have fully reached the rank-one peak.
The invisible barrier holding me back felt thinner than ever. Looking at the data, it became obvious that crossing over into rank-two power will be completely effortless.
After letting the thought settle, I decided it was time to test my newly acquired ability: Perfect Control.
I dropped down onto the cold floor of the chamber, crossing my legs to assume a steady meditative posture. I closed my eyes, letting my breathing slow to a measured, rhythmic pace as I triggered Perfect Control.
Until this very moment, I hadn't found the quiet time to properly evaluate what this new ability could actually do.
With the retained knowledge of my past life, the theoretical mechanics of handling such a power were crystal clear to me. Yet, in this current life, I hadn't actually attempted to exercise it or explore its depths properly.
As the ambient hum of the training room faded from my senses, I directed this new awareness inward, probing beneath my skin. I began to actively observe the inner workings of my own body.
This form of internal perception is highly specialized, typically representing one of the advanced ways an experienced magician or a martial artist monitors their energy.
Through the precise lens of Perfect Control, my internal organs came into sharp, vivid focus, functioning in perfect synchronization. Right alongside them, a deeper layer revealed itself as I managed to observe the subtle, drifting currents of prana wound throughout my frame.
The fundamental law of martial arts dictating this world is clear: if a person manages to harness and control their internal prana after pushing themselves to the absolute peak of human physical limits, they will officially become a martial artist.
Given my current age, I knew I was already drawing close to that human threshold. I was right on the verge of the natural limit required to unlock the energy baseline.
But with Perfect Control active, the entire equation shifts completely. I could pull, shape, and direct this latent prana with absolute ease right now.
Suddenly, a wave of caution hit me, and I froze. I forced the energy back down, abruptly cutting off my interaction with the prana before it could anchor itself.
"Wait," I muttered under my breath, my eyes snapping open for a brief second.
I need to ask Dad first before I go ahead and fully awaken my prana. It is too risky to rush into it blindly without his guidance.
Sinking back into the trance, I shifted my focus away from the physical vessels and began to track my mental energy instead. I reached out to test its responsiveness, and to my amazement, it bent perfectly to my will without a single hint of friction.
Before today, becoming a magician was an absolute impossibility for me. Unlike prana, magicians must take their raw mental energy and fuse it tightly with concentrated willpower to forge actual magical energy.
Furthermore, this newly forged magical energy cannot just wander freely; it must be stored within highly specific spiritual focal points known as chakras. While prana naturally disperses and stores across the entirety of the physical body, magical energy remains tightly bound, meaning all aspiring magicians must successfully open their chakras first.
Before today, I simply lacked the fine, innate talent required to control my mental energy well enough to ever initiate that magical blend.
But prana operates differently, as it is already present inside the physical body of every single living human from birth. If someone has the sheer grit to reach the peak of human limits through physical conditioning, their prana might eventually awaken entirely on its own.
That was the exact reason why both Father and Mother had already mapped out my future, deciding that I would train strictly in martial arts alongside my primary superpower.
But now, with this level of absolute mental control at my disposal, the path of a magician is completely wide open to me.
I breathed out softly, letting the internal vision fade as I opened my eyes. It is definitely best to consult both Mother and Father before I make a definitive choice on which path to take.
Because of the extreme, clashing peculiarities of both energy types, a person can only realistically train in one of them. Attempting to build both prana and magical power simultaneously would tear a practitioner's system apart.
I uncrossed my legs and pushed myself up from the cold floor, grounding my feet into a steady, balanced stance. "Let's try my actual power now," I muttered to myself.
I activated Perfect Control, wrapping its precision tightly around my core superpower. I chose the thermal variation, gathering the heat energy right behind my eyes and focusing my gaze directly onto the center of the training wall.
A blinding, brilliant flash of light severed the air as the heat beam erupted from my retinas. The thermal stream slammed directly into the targeted stone.
The defensive runes across the surface flared instantly, attempting to scatter and neutralize the sudden thermal load. But unlike my earlier tests, when the barrier absorbed the heat completely effortlessly, the stone now began to hiss under the extreme strain, a low crackle vibrating through the material.
I kept my gaze locked for another moment before cutting the stream, turning my head to read the measuring device mounted to the side. The light on the interface flickered rapidly as it processed the data.
The indicator needle surged straight up, bypassing my old limits entirely. The readout confirmed that my output had officially crossed the threshold into a rank-two superpower.
More than that, the actual damage profile of the thermal energy didn't just clip the baseline of the next tier. It was already reaching the absolute peak of rank two.
Triggering this level of power felt completely effortless compared to my previous training sessions. There was no uncomfortable stinging behind my eyelids, no sudden drop in my stamina, and no sensation of bottlenecking too much energy through my body all at once.
The entire process felt incredibly natural. My physical vessels accepted the heavy energy flow without a hint of resistance, adapting to the strain instantly.
"Let's try the kinetic beam," I thought, shifting my focus.
I adjusted my internal controls, dialing back the thermal frequency and locking onto the concussive property of my vision. Rohan launched a sudden kinetic beam straight toward the reinforced structure.
The impact hit with a deafening, explosive crack. The runes across the surface lit up in a jagged web, rushing to dispatch the immense physical force and ripple the vibration throughout the entire frame of the room.
Because I wanted to remain cautious, I held back from using my full, unfiltered power. I resisted the urge to keep firing a continuous, sustained beam against the target.
I held the connection for exactly one second before severing the energy completely.
Thanks to that quick restraint, the training chamber managed to hold its ground against the concussive shockwave. Even with that brief single-second burst, a sharp tremor rattled through the floorboards under my boots, making the thick stone walls visibly shake.
If I had let loose and used my absolute full power, the sheer kinetic force might have brought the entire structure down on top of me. Cold sweat broke out across my forehead, a heavy bead trickling down my cheek as I stared at the vibrating wall and realized I could have easily destroyed this entire room.