Edmund let himself smile properly then, but it didn’t last long before his expression turned thoughtful. "Is that dangerous? Progressing that quickly?"
"Speed on its own isn’t the problem," Edith said. "Unstable circulation would be, or forcing more mana than his pathways can withstand. What I saw was controlled. My only concern is that he may move faster than the usual lesson schedule assumes."
"Then don’t slow him down just because other beginners need longer," Edmund said. "If he understands something and can do it safely, move him forward. But don’t let his talent make either of you careless with his foundation."
"I won’t. I’ll reassess him tomorrow before I decide how quickly to continue."
After lunch and a few hours of rest, most of the soreness from yesterday had faded, and Owen went back to the instruction room.
The training complex was busier than it had been that morning. Instructors were calling soldiers by name, swords were striking training targets, and every so often he heard the crack of an elemental weapon from one of the farther lanes. Inside the room, the thick walls turned all of it into a muted background rhythm.
He sat on the same cushion, found the mana around him, and began the circulation exactly the way Edith had taught him.
The first cycle came much more easily than it had that morning, and so did the next one.
He didn’t try anything new. He didn’t push more mana through at once or go looking for other routes. He just kept repeating it, and each time he sensed the mana a little faster, drew it in more smoothly, and lost his concentration less often while it moved through his body.
By the time the patch of sunlight from the window had crept halfway across the floor, the circulation was taking far less conscious effort than it had at the start. The noise outside changed as different groups rotated through the training grounds, and Owen kept going.
Eventually, he noticed that his core felt fuller and firmer, packed with the refined mana each cycle brought back into it. There was still no pain and nothing felt unstable, so he continued carefully.
Then a familiar pressure began to build.
This time, he recognized it. He kept the circulation going without interfering, and his core tightened, compressed and settled again.
Ding!
[Cultivation advanced.]
[Kindled — Crest]
Owen opened his eyes. That was two substages in a single day.
He thought about stopping, since Edith had specifically warned him not to chase breakthroughs. Before deciding, though, he checked himself over. His pathways didn’t hurt, his breathing was steady, and his core didn’t feel strained. He wasn’t drawing in more mana than before or doing anything she hadn’t taught him. He was repeating the same stable exercise she had told him to practice.
He closed his eyes and continued.
The afternoon stretched toward evening. Somewhere along the way, the circulation stopped feeling like an exercise he had to guide step by step and became a rhythm he could hold for longer periods. Mana flowed into his core, went out through his pathways, came back and was refined again.
Then the pressure inside his core changed completely.
It wasn’t the tightening he had felt before Brand and Crest. This time, the whole core felt as though it had reached a limit, and the refined mana pressing inside it had nowhere left to settle.
Owen became cautious at once. He thought about stopping, but the circulation was already moving on its own, carried along by everything that had built up over the afternoon. There was no pain, only an enormous sense of compression around his chest.
His pathways tightened all over his body, and his core contracted. For several heartbeats, Owen could hardly feel anything except that pressure.
Then the core gave way. It didn’t break. It expanded, opening into something larger and far steadier than before.
Mana surged through his pathways in a much stronger wave, and Owen drew a sharp breath. His sense of the mana around him became clearer, his body felt lighter and more responsive, and his core was unmistakably larger than it had been a moment ago.
The system chimed.
Ding!
[Congratulations.]
[Major Cultivation Advancement Achieved.]
[Tempered — Trace]
[Status Updated.]
Owen opened the Status panel.
[Strength: 15 → 45]
[Agility: 16 → 48]
[Endurance: 14 → 42]
[Perception: 13 → 39]
[Core Capacity: 10 → 30]
Every number had roughly tripled since that morning.
Owen stared at the panel for a while. Then he got to his feet, flexed his fingers, and took a few slow steps across the room before turning on his heel. His body answered faster and more sharply than it had that morning, as if the gap between deciding to move and moving had shrunk.
More than that, his core felt far deeper.
He was very tempted to summon his sword and find out what that meant for his fire. But he was alone in an indoor room right after a major breakthrough, and setting the training complex on fire was not a good way to thank Edith for her lesson. He left the sword where it was.
By then, the light through the windows had turned orange. Carrying on after an unexpected major breakthrough, without Edith examining him first, would be foolish, so Owen ended the session there. He went to eat and wash, and by the time he got into bed, he was tired enough to fall asleep quickly, even if he couldn’t quite stop smiling.
The next morning, Owen returned to the instruction room at the appointed time. Edith was already there.
"Did you practice?" she asked.
"I did."
"Then sit down and show me yesterday’s circulation. I want to see whether your control held up without supervision."
Owen took his place on the cushion and closed his eyes. Sensing the mana came naturally now, without any searching at all. He began breathing, and the ambient mana started moving toward him.
The moment he opened his core and drew in the first flow, he heard Edith’s breath catch.
He kept going, since she hadn’t told him to stop. The mana answered him in strong, steady currents, far more than it had when he started yesterday. Edith’s footsteps came closer and stopped directly in front of him, and for a long moment she said nothing at all.
Then her voice exploded through the quiet room.
"How did you reach Tempered Trace overnight?"
The shout went straight out through the open windows. Above them came a sudden clatter of wings as the birds resting along the roof took off all at once. Outside, the ringing of steel stopped, and for several seconds the training grounds were completely silent.
Owen opened his eyes.
Edith was staring at him as though the student she had left yesterday had been replaced overnight.
Yesterday morning, he had only just learned to sense mana. Today, he was Tempered Trace.