Timeless Prominence

Rein froze for a moment, but felt that he was being unfairly treated.

“That Xeeran had offhandedly mentioned the Golden Desert Town massacre. Am I not reasonable in reacting negatively?!”

Chenhr was impassive. “And that is why you are not calm or calculating. How was Xeeran to know of your origins? Do you want me to tell the whole village of your origins? You are guided by your rage, which will eventually lead to your downfall into the path of the devil. If Xeeran had died, we would have needed to start from square one.”

Rein wanted to retort, but he could only remain speechless.

“I truly do not understand why Master Yirn opted to bless you with this,” Chenhr continued as he handed the vial of dark liquid along with an ancient scroll to Rein while shaking his head. “This is a unique and rare advancer art available to inner advancers, almost impossible to find. I hope, at the very least, that you now realize how limiting it is to have aurae locked inside your body during the inner advancer stage.”

Rein unfurled the scroll to find instructions on an advancer art, ‘Aura Restraint’. It was a unique method of circulating aurae within the body that led to the effect of reducing one’s presence to others. Indeed, it was an advancer magic that functioned fully within one’s body.

“Granted. You have already agreed to infiltrating the Hall of Heroes, so this will only increase our overall success. Now perform the skill and drink the vial of dark liquid! This dark liquid is concocted with the heartblood of a user practiced in this advancer art. Thus, you will gain a small portion of the mastery said user had when he or she was alive.”

“Oh yes…” Chenhr raved as he relished Rein’s look of disbelief. “In the advancer world, you can, of course, simply train yourself in your magical arts and slowly strengthen yourself.”

“But! You can also find some being that has mastered certain types of magics relevant to yours… you can carve out their heart and concoct a potion and upon consumption, you will gain a better understanding of said advancer art. It is said that one’s own understanding of certain magics equates to an understanding of the universe, and that itself is etched into the heartblood.”

With a flick of the sleeve, Chenhr left the tower, leaving Rein to his own devices and to wrestle with this horrifying revelation.

He recalled that those with origin skills are hunted by certain advancers in the world. He also recalled that many modern magics were sourced from origin skills. It was then that he realized-- his heartblood would be a prime target if he were to carelessly reveal his origin skill.

Rein closed his eyes, doing his best to calm his inner fear and turmoil. He eventually decided it was best to simply strengthen himself. He would accomplish nothing wallowing in terror of an unknown future.

He tipped the vial of dark liquid past his lips, and began performing the advancer art on the ancient scroll. The dark liquid spread with rising heat within his throat then chest, and he instantly felt that the advancer art had become easier to execute. It was as if a hole in a dam had been opened.

He soon gained an understanding of this advancer art-- by no means was it some kind of earth-shattering magic. It did not make him invisible. However, it did have the effect of making him less noticeable.

If he was alone in an empty room, an enemy pursuing him into said room would quickly notice him. If an enemy had already seen his form and chased him into a room full of people, said enemy would still identify him rather speedily. But if said enemy did not know his form and entered said room full of others… the enemy’s eyes would be drawn everywhere but him.

In effect, the advancer art relied heavily on the user not drawing attention to oneself, and the reliance on the hunter not knowing what he was looking for.

Rein sighed. Master Yirn had said that he could reject the mission to infiltrate the Hall of Heroes. After drinking this precious potion, he doubted that was true. Inner advancer magics were rare as finding a four-leaf clover.

He opened the other two scrolls, the ink figures on the scroll danced within his eyes, and he felt the aurae in his body attempting to guide his movements. This must be how advancers passed down techniques.

Rein tried his best to focus on imitating the forms while allowing the flow of aurae to guide his movements. 

This guidance was constantly interrupted by his own mind. He could feel his mind struggling to resolve Chenhr words, at times feeling rage at Chenhr, at times anger at himself… Thus, his morning practice of the longstaff and the human-adapted dragon style made minimal progress.

It was only thanks to the potion that he could perform the minimum of the ‘aura restraint’.

Frustrated, Rein sat down cross-legged and he examined the human-adapted dragon style scroll in more detail. As he unfurled more of the scroll, he suddenly discovered that at some point, the color of the material changed and the handwriting was of a different person’s.

The words further inside the scroll seemed to be describing a type of draconic art that dragons would execute to temper their bodies with their own energies. This included bathing oneself in a fiery cauldron, dancing amongst stormy seas, or using lightning to torture one’s body.

Rein was quite aware that supposedly, humans that practiced these skills designed for ‘demon’ bodies had a history of losing their sanity.

But… he had already been remade after absorbing the draconic metamorphose bead. Was this why Master Yirn had given him this scroll without warning? Did the Master specifically create the human-adapted dragon form since Rein lacked a dragon’s body himself? That would certainly explain the different handwriting of the human-adapted dragon form section.

For reasons unknown to himself, this revelation helped Rein harden his resolve. Perhaps Master Yirn was only using him to infiltrate the Hall of Heroes. But to redesign a draconic skill for his human body… Some might not trust Master Yirn’s skill, but Rein himself was fully convinced.

Midday soon arrived, and large drops of salty sweat rolled down Rein’s forehead to his chin before dripping off like the sundew off a stalactite within the underground cave that the red tower was built within.

He had thought that simply imitating the forms would not be much of a physical strain. However, to accurately guide the flow of aurae through the scroll’s instructions required an immensely fine control over his own body, over the contraction of every muscle and vein.

Rein discovered something rather surprising though. The human adaptation of the dragon style that led into the draconic body tempering art felt significantly easier, and after steeling his mind, he had made substantially more progress in that area when compared to Master Yirn’s longstaff technique.

He could only surmise that this may have something to do with the draconic metamorphose bead within him. That seemed the most reasonable conclusion in Rein’s mind.

A rattling sound echoed throughout the tower as the large arch door opened. Chenhr had returned, with a dark gray wooden box in his hands.

Rein looked at this wooden box with curiosity,

Chenhr carelessly chucked the box over. “This, dear half-junior, is your lunch.”

With a groan, Rein caught the dark gray box. He was inwardly lambasting Chenhr. There was no need for the man to throw and shake up the contents of his meal. He understood Chenhr did not have much of an opinion regarding him, but surely, there’s no need to resort to meal destruction.

He then opened the box, hoping that the meal itself would still look edible. The ‘meal’ made him speechless, mouth wide open.

There was only a crystalline sphere inside the box that seemed to emit some kind of demonic aura.

“Hahaha!” Chenhr burst out laughing. “A good meal, eh? Why so surprised? Did I not tell you this morning that your body is more akin to that of a beastkin? Beastkins mainly advance through consumption at lower advancer levels! This is a beastkin core, formed from the residue energies of a dead beastkin!”

Rein's face darkened. Was he going to end up eating… crystalline-like beads everyday?

“Try it. It is one among many that Master and I collected in another realm.” Chenhr stared at Rein, as if wanting to watch every single detail of this ‘experience’.

“Oh yes.” Chenhr handed over a stone mortar and pestle that had inscriptions carved on its surface. A power gem was embedded onto the end of the pestle. “Beastkin cores are extremely strong and difficult to break down. It is important for it to be in small pieces such that energies within can contribute to your own.”

Chenhr flicked a finger and the inscriptions on the pestle lit up, powered by the embedded gem. Rein furrowed his brows as he grinded the beastkin core into fine sand with the pestle and mortar.

He truly did not wish to eat this, but he was already late to the party. Most semi-talented advancers, by adulthood would already be a shell advancer. The extremely talented ones might be even somewhat close to advancing to the outer realm. Most of these talents began their advancer journey as young as the age of eight to ten years old.

Rein realized that he may very well end up a middle-aged man like this bastard Chenhr and be stuck as an inner advancer if he avoided taking advantage of his half-human half-beast body. Now, that would be stupid...

The beastkin core had now become a crystalline sand, reflecting a bit of rainbow sparkle. Rein gulped, increasingly apprehensive of the taste. It looked better when it was just a bead. At least he had swallowed a bead before…

However, all this was necessary. Rein lifted up the mortar, and ‘drank’ the shattered core.

Rein wanted to retch-- it tasted like the desert sand that frequently blew through Golden Desert Town during dust storms. He resisted his urge to vomit as he held back the tears in his eyes, forcing himself to swallow as quickly as possible in a bid to get over this horrible experience.

Chenhr, on the side, was beaming, his mood gleeful in contrast to his usual monotonous self.

Once Rein forced himself to swallow the sand, he could finally give into his urges as he coughed and retched. After taking a few deep breaths, he finally calmed down, before an all-consuming heat started rising from the center of his belly.

Chenhr tightened his grip on his folded bamboo fan, a serious glint in his eyes, his gleeful attitude from a moment ago completely gone.

The very next moment, Rein realized why Chenhr’s attitude had so abruptly changed. His vision rapidly turned blood-red as he suddenly had an urge to attack and consume Chenhr, who was the only living being in the vicinity.

Screams and roars then echoed in his mind, drowning out his own thoughts as his body now went into a crouching all-fours posture, ready to pounce upon Chenhr.

The whole experience felt like a daze, and he was just a passenger in his body.

Right before his body pounced forward, a red burst of lightning exploded out from his belly, winding itself in arcs across his whole body.

Rein found himself in control of his body again, his vision and mind clear, feeling incredibly awkward and embarrassed as he was still in a beastly crouching all-fours posture.

“Mmm… interesting.”

At some point in time, Master Yirn had entered the tower to observe Rein’s ‘lunch’ moment. His murky green robed figure then faded away. He had left as quickly as he had come.

Chenhr smacked his folded fan against the palm of his other hand.

“Interesting!” He copied his Master’s words. “This is the first time we’ve had a case where a human transformed by a beastkin inheritance bead consumed a normally corrosive beastkin core.”

Rein wanted to smash his head on the ground. Was he nothing but an experiment? Shouldn’t there have been similar cases in the past?! Deep down, he knew he was certainly a rare case. Supposedly, those who consumed these demonic inheritance beads in the past all eventually went mad, infiltrated by the will that laid within those beads

As for the core that he had just eaten? That was no inheritance bead, but it still seemed to have a remnant will of sorts. Yet, the lightning element from the draconic metamorphose bead had quickly attacked the will within that remnant core.

Chenhr pointed his folded fan at Rein and ordered monotonously, “Throw a few punches.”

Although Rein felt slightly uncomfortable after finding out he was a test subject, he too wondered if eating the ‘sand’ was worth it.

He readied his stance, before attempting his best to perform the human adaptation of the dragon style.

Without the guidance of the scroll, his form and flow of aurae was erratic. However, Rein acutely sensed that his body was at the very least, minutely stronger. Or… maybe it was just his mind wanting to believe that consuming that rainbow crystalline sand was worth it?

Chenhr yawned and shrugged his shoulders, “Well, beastkins hunt and consume other beasts everyday, so it’s unlikely to truly be able to physically observe any changes unless this beastkin core consumption is maintained for at least a month or two.”

“And there’s no need to worry,” he added. “Master Yirn and I have collected a plethora of beastkin cores during our journey across the many realms.”

Rein closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Well. This must be the price of power. Sand for meals.

“You should be happy, half-junior,” Chenhr exaggeratedly admonished. “Across the ages, humans had repeatedly attempted to consume beastkin cores. They would grind them into sand, attempt to purify the remnant beast residual will and urge, and form advancer medicines. But however they tried, consuming too many of these always led these silly humans to end up devilizing and killing those close to them. Only well-treated advancer medicines circumvented this pitfall.”

“Thus, more often than not, the flesh, significantly less beneficial than the core, was the best humans could consume from a beastkin’s body to aid their own advancement.”

“Well, enough on this topic. Afternoon is here, and Master Yirn has ordered me to increase your knowledge of the advancer world. After all, knowledge is power. I can’t have you embarrassing Master Yirn or me in public, even if you’re only half his disciple and half my junior!”

He glared for a heartbeat, then beckoned to Rein, and they marched up the wine-red staircase, ascending up to the second floor of the tower.

When Rein reached the top of the stairs, he saw the whole floor filled with rows of shelves full of books. He groaned to himself. This was an absolute nightmare…

Granted, he had done a lot of reading under his father, but that did not mean he loved it. It was just a necessity.