The atmosphere seemed strange between the four of them, only when everyone sat at the table and had their dishes ready, did Linus break the silence again.
"Why did you go so far, Kayden? I thought you were going to kill one of them." Issac and Sirius were attentive to the boy’s response.
"For example, they had to serve as an example to the others, if I just knocked them out it wouldn’t be as effective." Kayden’s sentence left the three thinking for a few moments and in the end, they had to agree with the boy.
"And what was that uncontrolled bloodlust?" This time, it was Issac who asked.
"We all have our secrets, don’t we?" Kayden’s tone ended any further questions on this matter. "Why were they bothering you, Sirius?"
"They are children of a family of barons from my hometown and they hated me from an early age because of my talent." His tone was neutral, but it was possible to feel the amount of hatred he held towards this noble family in question.
Kayden understood his situation perfectly. He had already read dozens of novels with identical stories. It was practically a universal cliché that was bound to happen regardless of reality.
"If they bother you again, just let me know." Kayden was willing to defend each of his subjects, especially since each of them was an investment for the future.
Another week passed and Luan also mastered the level necessary to perform the mana heart procedure. He was currently reading the book Kayden had given him.
"You can’t stop halfway if you don’t want to die and you know that, don’t you?" Kayden was inside a room in the mansion. The mana flow there was around 30 times normal.
This was because of the king, who was in the room observing the entire procedure and drawing mana for his son. Kayden didn’t have any major interactions with the man, but she noticed that he was very protective of his children.
"I read the book, Kayden," Locke said, answering Kayden’s specific questions for the last 30 minutes. "And yes, father, I’m sure of it." The king had questioned whether his son was sure at least a few dozen times.
"You can begin then," Kayden said. He no longer had any doubts about Locke’s knowledge of the subject. As soon as the man left the room, Locke began to accumulate mana in his level 1 pseudo-core.
At the very least, a base was needed for the mana heart to be built on top of. To do this, Locke had to reach the first apprentice rank. Kayden took advantage of the great mana density to cultivate.
The heart process would take at least a few hours, and according to the king, there was no problem for Kayden to cultivate in the meantime. The amount of mana that was in the environment was more than enough for a dozen apprentices.
Without wasting any time, Kayden activated his path and began to draw mana from the surroundings into his body. He had been cultivating to move on to the rank process for a while now, and at that moment, he had all the necessary conditions to do so.
A frightening amount of mana was being injected into his body without a second’s pause. Kayden seemed like an endless pit. Quickly, he accumulated the mana he had used to advance to the eighth rank years ago.
And yet, he continued. There was still a large amount of mana left. Slowly, the minutes began to pass. While Locke was facing the worst pain of his life, Kayden didn’t even have a different expression on his face.
The final accumulation process and to correcting of small errors in its base lasted about three hours. The boy could have advanced quickly in just an hour, but he took advantage of the excess mana to test his base and correct errors he found in the process.
The pain of touching his heart on fundamental levels was absurd and his mind was screaming at him not to do it. It was practically like messing with your DNA, it was something unnatural and wrong from the body’s biological point of view.
Pain was no longer an obstacle for Kayden. He could think normally even if he was being roasted alive. These small tests revealed several errors that were naturally caused by the limitations of his own body.
Finally, Kayden was ready to advance and, at that moment, all he had to do was leave his body inert and he would advance naturally. But that wasn’t something the boy wanted. His path was literally about absolute control, and once again, he would control every part of his advancement.
His heart began to increase in size and Kayden just watched, ready to make whatever improvements he felt were necessary. His goal was to try to increase the force with which his heart pumped to each part of his body, as with each advance his reflexes became faster and he needed his mana flow to keep up with this progress.
It didn’t even take five minutes for his heart to grow twice its size and begin to increase in strength. This process was also simple and didn’t take much time. Next, the boy focused on his veins. His focus was to increase them without losing resistance. This took a while, but it was still completed.
After half an hour, he got everything he needed right, and at that point, he just had to let the universe do the rest. Even if he wanted to control everything, there were still some nuances that he was unaware of, for example, improvements to his flesh and bones.
His body began to boil and release various impurities, and at the same time, Kayden felt a feeling of release, almost as if a weight was lifted from his shoulders. This process only took twenty minutes and Kayden found himself in the eighth rank again.
"You took your time," the king’s voice brought Kayden out of his thoughts.