Completely reborn, Gabriel felt more alive and for lack of a better word complete than he had ever felt growing up. Gone was the hole in his heart that his parents created when they left him in the August household. The spell that covered him in that sweet and intoxicating feeling of love proved how much his parents loved him and how much they wished to be with him. On the other hand whatever change occurred with his body was neglected in the face of that huge revelation.

The bloodline of his mother’s lineage was thoroughly woken up by whatever spell was hidden beneath the overflowing love Gabriel felt from this locked dimension. Besides being a mystery, his maternal bloodline was really domineering as it forced his entire body to change to accommodate it. Having a low tier human bloodline wasn’t the worst thing when you looked at the whole situation. Without the adaptability and flexibility of his human side, Gabriel would never have survived the whole ordeal of having his body restructured.

While he was still lost in the feeling of love, Gabriel felt something change in his mana. It was no longer as small and dismal as before but it was growing rapidly inside of himself. If his body was likened to barrel before he entered the chest, then now he was a dry and barren lake thirsting for water. And the chest dimension held an unbelievable amount of mana for his body to absorb.

‘Might as well gather up all this mana that father and mother left in here…’ Gabriel thought as he proceeded to sit down and meditate like never before.

Drawing in every single iota of stray mana he could feel, Gabriel brought the mana through his acupoint and towards his meridians. Unlike normal his body seemed to not only not reject the ambient mana it seemed to lust for it like a ravenous beast. Creating a veritable vortex with himself as the epicentre he drew in as much as his acupoints and meridians could handle. Which was a terrifying amount compared to what he used to be able to handle.

Even drawing the excess mana in his body to his bones and organs for them to be forcibly refined by the powerful energy was doing little to help him cope with such a torrent of mana. While his initial change to his body was painless, this forced refinement brought about endless waves of pain that would put grown men to their knees. Yet the pain seemed to be nothing to Gabriel as he just reminisced about the love he felt seconds prior. This pain was deemed a necessary evil for him to connect with the ones who were capable of loving him the way that spell made him feel.

After his skeleton was finished refinement and his organs were almost complete, Gabriel finally broke through the hurdle known as the First Stage. Or what is better known as the Initiate Stage. The growth of a warrior in Avalon was solely depicted in their mana and the purity of said mana. While the first stage for a melee combatant like Gabriel would be the Initiate stage, it was further broken down into nine subrealms. Currently Gabriel was at the 1st realm of the Initiate Stage and he was not slowing down in his refinement of the ambient mana surrounding him, he possessed an unquenchable thirst for the pure mana and damn anything that stood between him and it. His body continuously absorbed the mana before further refining it into the flesh and tissue that made up his new and improved body. The 1st realm was nowhere near enough to satisfy his craving, and regardless of how many refinements he forced his body through it wasn’t enough. So he hunkered down and proceeded to break through to the next realm, the 2nd.

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By using this brute force approach Gabriel was able to keep his solid foundations instead of risking himself to too little mana for too big a vessel. With every cycle the mana made through his body it was making that barren lake grow bit by bit, by destroying the edges of the lake just to push the ‘water’ further.

Hours passed by as this torturous ordeal took place but Gabriel was immune to the pain his body endured. His strength grew by leaps and bounds, his mana was at the most pure state after the thousands if not hundred thousands of refinement that he subjected it to. If before he entered the chest dimension he was capable of lifting 50kg, now he was sure he could lift at least six or seven times that.

As he gradually came out of his intense meditation he felt the folds of the chest dimension start to collapse in on themselves as there was no longer any mana left to support the sealed space. Lost and befuddled as he was, he knew that he shouldn’t be in any danger considering how much thought and effort his parents put into making this whole thing. With calm and deep breaths he waited for the space to fall apart and with it grant him his freedom to return to the August residence.

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Outside in that very residence stood four weary and exhausted individuals. Their mana and essence on the verge of collapse as they kept any leakage of energy from escaping into the world. It had been a solid sixteen hours since any of Gabriel’s relatives rested with their silent vigil over the boy and the chest he was in and their task was almost complete as they too felt the tell tale signs of space tearing inside of the barrier they held together.

“Alright, home stretch boys. I bet he’s reached at least the 2nd realm of Initiate… who’s in for a little gamble?” Anika goaded her brothers as they each started to make wild guesses about the growth Gabriel experienced inside of the space his father made.

Derrick not being one to back down scoffed and placed his bet down: “Hmph, I doubt it is anything that extreme. Though knowing Marcel it is likely a runic weapon that Gabe has been binding with.”

Surprisingly joining in was Elijah who dropped his own bombshell: “Five lesser realms…”

Last but not least Gregory added in his piece with something much more lowkey: “It’s definitely a spatial treasure giving Marcel’s accomplishments. Either way we won’t know till the boy is out, losers owe five kilos of mana stones to the winner?”

“Agreed” The rest of the siblings called out as they braced for the final collapse of the space inside their barrier.