Ray walked out of the training room with a tired expression on his face. His eyes were bloodshot, skin sunken in while his hair was disheveled. He looked like someone who had been awake for months

Although he looked like he had been awake for a month, this was not the case. There was a large smile on his face that betrayed his appearance and movement.

For the past 6 hours, Ray had been constantly training himself and seeing the changes that had occurred to his body and system after he broke through.

****

A couple of hours before,

When Aurora sensed Ray asking her a question, she quickly connected the connection that allowed them to speak to each other through their consciousness.

With it, the first question Ray asked her was,

“What does the system mean by breakthrough. I don’t feel like I have advanced to the intermediate tier”.

Listening to Ray’s question Aurora giggled,

“You don’t know anything do you?”, she asked.

Then continued to answer,

“What it means by breakthrough is not your strength but the level of your system that had finally broken through its basic tutorial phase”.

As Ray heard Aurora’s words, his hands trembled while his eyes shone with excitement.

He hurriedly asked her,

“Do you mean that the system I was using before was nothing more than a tutorial and the breakthrough fully unlocked the real system?”.

To this, she replied,

“Yes and No!, you were using the real system. But it had the most basic of features at the lowest grade. Think of it as a computer with parental control on it. It will only allow you to access the features that you are eligible to so”.

She then continued,

“Therefore, at the start, your body constitution was weak and did not reach the requirements required to use the true power of the system. However, after you started sensing mana and the first set of impurities left your body, the system unlocked as it had sufficient power”.

After saying these words, Aurora stopped for a moment to let Ray assimilate what she had told him. After a moment of rest, she continued,

“Furthermore, you broke through and fully unlocked the system after you condensed a mana core in your body. Which condensed right after you excreted out the first set of impurities from your body. Although your strength did not reach the intermediate tier, your magic power had received a qualitative upgrade”.

After listening to Aurora’s words, Ray realized that the unfamiliarity he felt in his body was most likely due to the mana core that he had recently condensed.

Moreover, he also realized that due to the condensation of the mana core, he could feel and sense the mana around him more clearly. Not only that, he could even control the mana much better than before.

He realized that this breakthrough was much more beneficial than breaking through the intermediate tier as that would only increase his strength and not his ability to control his strength.

Following this discovery, Ray chatted with Aurora a little more and discovered many new features while she also told him that he had obtained the “Soul-Based System” feature.

This feature allowed Ray to strengthen his soul and use all of the functions a soul-based system had. Such as using spirit attacks, fusing the souls of beasts into other matters, summoning souls, and many more things.

The information about this system required extensive research and large amounts of time and practice to get accustomed to using one’s soul for attacks and more.

Therefore, Ray did not give it much heed and practiced his mana control for the next few hours until his condition stabilized.

****

Ray walked through the streets with a deadpan expression on his face while he looked extremely haggard. Seeing his appearance, many people avoided him like a plaque.

This way, Ray finally reached a place to rest. Although he was currently in a game. Sleeping within “System Online” was the same as sleeping in the real world. Therefore, to recover his lost strength and get rid of exhaustion. Ray booked a nice room with a comfortable bed and crashed on the bed while he slept like a child sleeping soundly in his mother’s embrace.

As Ray slept like a child, the mana core within his body constantly circulated and purified the mana within his body. Hence, rapidly pushing the second set of impurities to the edges of his body.𝑂𝒱𝓵xt.𝔠𝔬𝐌

Furthermore, due to the condensation of the mana core, the primal energy within Ray’s body seemed to be fused with the mana core to an extent as a small amount of energy circulated along with Ray’s mana throughout his whole body constantly nourishing and strengthening his cells.

Meanwhile,

Aurora was currently checking Ray’s body for any injuries that may have occurred during the condensation of the mana core. However, to her surprise, Ray was as fit as a fiddle. There was not even a single injury nor an anomaly within his body. Moreover, Ray’s cells seemed to be rejuvenated and brimming with energy.

This outcome left Aurora a bit puzzled as forming a mana core at Ray’s level of strength was extremely dangerous and normally resulted in death. However, she used the system to temper Ray’s soul, making it stronger and purer causing Ray to unlock the soul-related function of the system.

With the augmentation of soul-based energy being used as a substitute and the clearing of the impurities opening up a channel for mana to travel, the mana within Ray’s body condensed into a core. Thus allowing Ray to withstand the process of condensing a mana core.

However, even with the system’s assistance, the condensation of a mana core would have caused some injuries to Ray’s body. Yet there was nothing wrong. Seeing this, she attributed the strange phenomenon to the primal energy within Ray that had now fused with his mana core.

Aurora could only sigh at what happened. After all, nothing wrong happened and the outcome was even better with the intervention of energy within Ray’s body.

However, this outcome left Aurora intrigued about the energy within Ray’s body. Hence, she started studying the aura emitted by the energy in a bid to gain some information about the energy.

Yet, to her dismay. She was unable to gain any insights into the energy within Ray’s body. There seemed to be some sort of special power that cloaked its aura. Seeing her attempt did not bear any results, Aurora could only leave it alone for the time being.

Hence, she moved on to other things to do.

After Aurora left, the primal energy within Ray’s body pulsed and as if responding to it, the newly condensed mana core within Ray also pulsed lightly. Both, the energy and core seemed to come alive as they pulsed rhythmically. Subtly influencing the flow of mana and soul energy within Ray’s body.

The flow of energy formed a network that looked like veins within a body crisscrossing each other as the whole network reached every single cell within Ray’s body.

Furthermore, if one would look closely, the network made a strange humanoid creature that greatly resembled a conjunction of different beings mixed as one.

It had the head of a human while phoenix wings came out of its back. Moreover, draconic scales covered its body while horns were coming out of its head. There were even more features however, they seemed to be dulled and the only features that lit up were those within which the primal energy flowed.

* * * * *

[A/N:-Here you go, today’s second chapter up now. Next will follow in an hour’s time. Have fun]