The morning sun declared the beginning of a new day. I woke up, rubbed my eyes, went to clean and tidy myself, and was about to proceed with my daily routine.
But came to halt after discovering the box father gave me. It was a black box tied with pink ribbons, what a blizzard combination. Unknown characters were written all over the box. Did dad try to mystify things like this? He sure failed miserably. But the box reminded me of yesterday's crazy events. I told myself that there were new things to do now.
Opening the box, I found a book, a purple crystal, and some Origin crystals. There was no elephant in the box, so much for mysteries. The purple crystal looked like a lightning Origin crystal but my focus was on the book's cover.
"Origin art of Sparks"
An Origin art! I was delighted. Father prepared a perfect gift for me. I then grabbed the purple crystal and tried to absorb energy from it. And the response from it gave me another shock! A Lightning essence crystal! Way purer than a lightning-Origin crystal.
"How did father predict that I would awaken lightning? Did dad have lightning element too? No, dad was a wind Elementalist. Or one of our ancestors have? Whatever, I will ask him later."
Leaving the crystal alone, I started studying the book.
"Hmmm. According to this book, practicing this Origin art will help me in channeling Origin energy through my blood vessels, and tissues and will make my nerves strong enough to tolerate the flow of elemental energy. This will also help me in forming my Red core. Lightning, in reality, is a flow of electrical sparks. So Art of Sparks is perfect for lightning element users.
Not only did my father give me a suitable Origin art, but he also gave me a small lightning essence crystal that will fasten my cultivation by leaps and bounds.
Warm cozy feelings filled in my heart. So, not to disappoint him, I started studying the book right away. I studied that book all day long. As if Mom knew that something like this would happen, she delivered food to my room from time to time.
After persisting for 3 whole days, did I manage to memorize the whole book and built my basic understanding of the Art of spark, and came out of my room.
"Dad, Daaad, where are you?"' I yelled.
"He left," Mom responded instead.
His departure caught me off-guard. "What? Why didn't you call me? I didn't even say goodbye. There was also a pile of questions I had for him."
"You were so busy with the new toys that you forgot about everything. You didn't even talk to us these days. And who's fault is that?" Mom retorted.
I was speechless. I was negligent to my father these days. This stupid origin art which I thought would take some hours to read, took me whole 3 days to understand. And who said that it was only an Origin art, it was a studying encyclopedia and a physics book on lightning. There were so many new ideas and knowledge I didn't know about lightning. So curiosity got me, resulting in my room lockdown for 3 days.
"Before leaving, he said something" Mom added.
"Oh?"
"He said, he had done everything for your foundation. Now it's time to create your own path."
Listening to this, I could only shrug my shoulders. Maybe it looked like advice to mom, to me- he sounded like- "I am not gonna give you any money."
"He also forbade you from asking anyone anything about any kind of weirdness you feel about your body and let nature take its course."
Listening to this reminded me of something I totally forgot, the Sensory Serum incident! The serum surely failed to affect my sensors yet I successfully awakened my element. Unlike awakening, it looked unsealing to me! The lightning elemental essence was literally absorbed on spot by me.
So I asked in a hurry ."But I really wanted to know why Sensory serum didn't work on me. Is something wrong with my body?"
"Don't know. You just need to know your body is a little special. Ask him in person for details. He didn't tell me either."
"Common mom, I know you know something."
Mon evaded my gaze and responded,
"I don't know anything about it. Now wash yourself up, you haven't showered for these days. You smell like a sewer mouse."
At mom's intense unwillingness to answer, I could only give up and went to the shower room.
After eating my launch with mom, I headed towards Carl's house. He had formed his red core. So, I went for his insights on this before starting myself.
"Ohhh, you are gonna, form your red core?"
"Yeah, dad gifted me an Origin art a few days ago. I studied it thoroughly these days. I will start cultivating tonight."
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"What's the name of your Origin art? Mine is Art of wind god, pretty cool right? Everyone will bow before this god of wind one day" Carl puffed his chest. But his expression and body language didn't have anything similar to what people can call wind god. Instead, it was so hilarious that I couldn't control myself.
"Pffft, Hahaha. Wind god, you? That's the worst joke I have ever heard. Hahaha."
After failing to gain my admiration, he sighed. My behavior hurt his pride a little, but I was adamant about my comments.
"Sorry, my bad. It just didn't fit at all." I repeated.
"Whatever man, back to the topic. If you want to get insights, you are asking the wrong person. As our elemental affinity is different. That means our body's elemental composition is different from each other as they are supposed to channel different elemental energy. Our body strengthening method is different too. So, there is nothing I can teach you. But, I can tell you about the red core."
"I am listening, Teacher Carl."
Carl rolled his eyes at my remark before continuing, "The red core is a primal elemental core located in the solar plexus. Our elemental core is like an artificial organ responsible for storing Origin energy and converting them into Elemental energy. And the red core is a prototype elemental core, made from twirled blood vessels and nerves. It's called Red core because it is red. haha."
"I see. So, the red core is the artificial organ we try to form in our body with Origin art. What about the individual property?"
" Oh, as the red core is made of your blood and also your organ, it gives the stored elemental energy a unique property, that is unique to you. Sometimes many people get almost identical property, that just means they are the same kind of individuals"
The Q&A went for one hour before we bade farewell. I returned to my same old room and started practicing my Origin art. My genius mind took 3 days to comprehend the whole art. But after persistently cultivating for 5 days, I finally managed to stimulate my blood vessels at will. With that, all my prep work was done. Now it was time to absorb elemental energy.
I took out the shiny purple crystal from the box and started absorbing its essence. The lightning essence poured into my body in waves. This astonishing speed of absorption filled my blood vessels with lightning essence.
"Was this suppose to be this fast?"
Putting down the crystal, I started gathering the essence in my solar plexus region. I noticed a large part of the energy was being absorbed by my blood cells.
"The book didn't say this would happen. Hmm. Is this what mom mentioned before? Whatever, let's ignore it, it isn't a bad thing that my body absorbs more energy."
When there was no more energy inside my blood vessels, I grabbed the crystal again. This was a repetitive cycle. My daily life also became boring due to my repetitive actions. But, seeing progress in forming my core, I didn't mind that boredom. I was getting close to wielding lightning by every cycle.
In a blink of an eye, two months passed away. One morning while cultivating, I suddenly felt nauseous. I started feeling a little dizzy and I felt my surroundings spinning. Unknowingly I coughed some blood and then I fainted.
When I woke up, the sun was in the western sky. Afraid of something going wrong with my body, I started checking my body condition and stimulating my blood vessels. To my surprise, I couldn't feel blood vessels in my solar plexus region. That reminded of me a certain situation pointed out in the book.
I hurriedly grabbed the essence crystal to verify my situation. And the crystal was sucked dry and turned into power waste in a matter of seconds. I took the Origin crystals from the box and the same thing happened to these crystals too. I was so happy that I started laughing like a mad man.
"Finally, after 2 months of hard work, I formed my red core!"
"Wait a minute, Mr. Richard said it would take 6 months roughly to form a core. So, if you are some kind of genius with lots of resources, it will take 4 months at least. But it only took 2 months. Am I some sort of super-genius?"
"Come to think of it, this whole situation feels a little wrong. When I first tried to absorb lightning essence, my body acted like it was hungry for it. That means, my body tempering method also played role in absorbing essence. Together with Art of Sparks, and the lightning elemental essence - it created a perfect trio. Giving me a great speed boost. And with my comprehension speed, it only took 2 months. There is no coincidence in this world. It was a perfect layout by my dad."
After my continuous monolog, I focused on the task at hand.
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