In the training hall
I spent three whole days after the auction and Talia and I, practicing Mana rotation. For me, it wasn't difficult... it was boring. I have been mastering this technique for a long time, but I had to act. If I show my true prowess now, everyone will ask where I got it from.
I was sitting cross-legged, closing my eyes and pretending that I was tripping over the current control. While inside me, the Mana was spinning smoothly like a Black River obeying me since I was born.
Talia was staring at me in amazement, sweat dripping from her forehead as she tried to keep up with me. Her voice came out trembling:
– "This... this is impossible! Is he a monster or what How could he learn so quickly"
She turned to me, her wide eyes shining as if trying to probe my seduction:
- "Sir Adam... was there anyone before me who taught him the rotation of Mana?""
I slowly opened my eyes, and I answered with deadly coldness:
- "No."
She hesitated for a moment, then burst out laughing, trying to hide her confusion:
– "Haha... he's a genius! Sir, a genius! I completely skipped the genius level! Usually, an average talented person needs four months to learn to spin. A rare genius needs three weeks... and you did it in less than three days! Is this possible Is it because of the family bloodline"
I could see her trying to justify the unjustifiable.
I said coldly, cutting off her enthusiasm:
- "Next... remember that any high talent brings with it all eyes. That's the last thing I want right now."
Her face shrank a little, but she couldn't respond.
As I sat thinking, I thought to myself:
"I didn't need this exercise... but if I don't do it, the doubt will increase in me. After the auction and the items I got, everyone is watching. I have to show that I learned Mana rotation in just three days... so that they wouldn't suspect me the day the wake-up time would come. On that day something impossible will happen, and if I did not prepare for my monstrous talent, they would wonder who I really am."
Then he turned to her:
- –Did you bring all the things from the auction to my room?""
She answered quickly:
- "Yes, Tor brought it, sir."
- "Okay. I'm going now. Tell my parents I'm not going to eat with them. And you... don't bother anyone."
She followed me with silent glances, in which there was something strange... not just admiration, but a mixture of fascination and fear. It's like she's wondering, " Is this boy really human?""
---
Elsewhere
In the family office, Leon sat leaning back in the chair, turning over some papers while the fire burned in the fireplace.
Smith, The Butler, entered and whispered in an anxious voice:
- "Sir... Don't you see that these materials requested by Adam are very strange?""
Leon raised an eyebrow:
- "What do you mean?""
– "Some of them are used only by Rune Masters, others are touched only by alchemists. These are not toys for a child."
Leon closed his eyes for a moment, then said:
– "Maybe he just wants to try some things."
But Smith was not convinced, he clenched his teeth and said:
- "Do you think I'm a fool?" A child of his age collects items that he can't use until the Masters"
Leon did not respond directly. He delved into the depths of his thoughts:
"Whenever I ask him about his goal, I remember those eyes... sadness, anger, joy and longing all at the same time. Even the blood baskets of our family, which reveal feelings in an instant, cannot hide this mixture.
Leon did not suspect Adam's intentions yet, but he did not understand his secret. How could a little boy have such an ability to hide his heart And why does it hurt her now
---
In my room, I turned on the oil lamp and sat down in front of the table, contemplating the crystals and materials I had obtained.
I closed my eyes, let my memory travel away…
Forty centuries ago, mankind lived in peace. No mana, no monsters, no superpowers. Just an ordinary world.
Then, something black appeared inside people's hearts. They didn't know what it was... but it was the spark.
That thing is what is known today as the mana crystal.
Just months after its appearance... the first disaster happened.
Mana swept the Earth like a black flood. In one night, the continents collapsed, and 99% of mankind died. The survivors panicked... and then the worst came out.
Heaven and Earth themselves parted from dark holes, which people later called: the cracks of chaos.
They were not ordinary gates... they were tears in the fabric of the world itself. And from inside the monsters came out.
But those monsters were only the beginning.
---
From the depths of the cracks of chaos they came out... the eleven cataclysms.
Creatures that cannot be described in words. Some of them were Mountains walking on feet of flame. Some of them were shadows incarnating in the form of human beings. Others were live earthquakes, or embodied tornadoes.
Each of them was able to annihilate an entire continent.
With their appearance, the continents collided with each other as if the world itself was being reshaped. This is how the five continents were born: western, eastern, southern, northern, and central.
But in the heart of each continent, danger zones remained, hidden from everyone, where the eleven cataclysms are hiding.
The most dangerous of them was on the middle continent: the Mana hole.
An endless crack, four SSS rank gates burst from his heart. Until today, no awakened person, no matter how strong, has been able to approach his center.
The area was divided into dozens of circles, but even the weakest of them an awakened C-rank could not hold out in them for me for a long time
People called these places "suicide points".
But I... for me, they were just the starting points.
---
In the thoughts of Adam
I remembered my life before I went back in time.
I was mercilessly experimenting on humans. More than a hundred thousand victims passed through my hands. Their screams, their blood, the collapse of their bodies... all these were only steps towards my goal.
"The more they shout, the closer you get to the truth."
I've never felt guilty. I was curious, excited, excited.
And so I discovered the impossible.
Every human being has one heart and one mana crystal. This is the law. But I decided to break it.
Why am i content with one... when I can accommodate five
I was laughing like crazy whenever I thought about it. Five mana hearts in one body!
No one before me dared to try... but I was not like them.
---
Now, looking at the black crystals in front of me, I knew that the path had begun anew.
.
Mana chains.
With her, I will be able to wake up with everything . Ease
I looked at my hands, saw in them the ghosts of the past, my victims, their voices, their blood.
She smiled.
"In the eyes of the world, I'm just an insect... I'm worthless. But this insect will turn into a curse. The curse will swallow them all."
I raised the crystal in front of my eyes, and my eyes radia
ted a calm madness:
– "In a world ruled by awakeners... I would be the same chaos."