Training building of the first years.

Arlo stood before a pillar.

Beside him was a small bucket filled with water, a bottle containing a foreign liquid, and two daggers.

Khan had gifted the two daggers to him. It was a way to lift Arlo's fallen mood after hearing about the requirements of laws when tempering bones.

But Arlo didn't care about the daggers.

He picked the bottle up.

The liquid in the bottle was the mixture of the poison of the black steel spider, and the other ingredients.

Khan had helped him prepare it before leaving the smithy.

Arlo felt great liking and gratitude towards Khan.

He poured the mucky green liquid which stunk with a bad smell in the bucket.

The color of the water slowly turned light green.

After that, he hardened his resolve and placed his right hand inside the bucket.

Before his right hand entered the liquid, he stopped after hearing Old Bro's unexpected voice.

<< Why do you still do this when you know it wouldn't work? >>

Arlo ignored him.

He was very angry with Old bro. He was supposed to be his teacher, but what had he ever done for him?

Nothing!

All he did was tell him how weak he was or how pathetic he was.

He didn't bother answering and instead steeled his heart.

'I don't believe I can't cultivate. I just need to work hard.'

He couldn't cultivate mana because he had not awakened his mana core.

Now he couldn't cultivate Ki because he couldn't connect with his law?

He refused to accept this.

How was he supposed to grow stronger then?

What happened to all the talk about him being so talented?

Scarlett, Rebecca, Old bro, his father, and mother. Everybody had always told me he was so special.

Yet why was he so useless?

Yes! He didn't forget he awakened nine summons after he started cultivating Ki. But what was the use?

He could only awaken one of his summons, Anita, due to the lack of energy!

In the end, he was useless.

With these dark thoughts in mind, Arlo placed his hand in the liquid.

What followed was:

"AAAAAAAAH!"

An excruciating pain hit Arlo's nerves.

His hand was poisoned and turned green while his blood vessels became clear and visible.

But surprisingly, the poison didn't spread from his hand.

Even though the poison of the black steel spider wasn't powerful, it was still harmful to the body.

But after mixing it with green herbs, and corpse mushrooms and further diluting it in water, its toxicity was greatly lessened.

Grunting in pain, Arlo shakingly removed his hand from the bucket.

Then he clenched his hand and punched the pillar with all his strength.

The poison served to limit the natural regeneration of his body after being strengthened by Ki.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Bam!"

A muffled thud resounded within the building.

He didn't use Ki and only used his pure strength. Also, the pillar was made from an unknown material that was hard to damage.

Because of that, Arlo's fist busted upon connecting with the pillar.

"Ah!" he grunted in pain.

But he bore through it and punched again.

"Bam!"

"Bam!"

"Bam!"

In the silent building, only the sound of Arlo's fist colliding with the pillar and his painful grunts echoed.

His figure appeared lonely.

Arlo fell to his knees.

He didn't know the number of times he punched already.

His hand was now purely bones, with pieces of flesh mangling around it.

It was a gory sight.

A child wasn't supposed to go through such pain, and the tears that stained his face proved that it was also difficult even for Arlo who had experienced much pain.

Arlo looked at the fractures along the bone of his hand and gritted his teeth.

It was the moment of truth.

Using the technique his father taught him when he was a child, he absorbed the surrounding Ki and also concentrated the Ki in his body on his hand.

"AAAAAH!"

A whitish smoke covered his bony hand, and before he knew it, the fractures and splint across his bone started healing.

But Arlo wasn't satisfied with this development.

Tears streaked down his face.

"No! It's not working!"

He could feel it. His bones were healing but were not strengthened.

"Why?"

"Why me?" he roared out.

<<...>>

Amidst his outburst, a soft but strong hand fell on his shoulder.

Arlo raised his head and looked up.

In his blurry vision was an enchanting woman with a body that could charm even the same sex.

"Teacher?"

Hugged by her characteristic black suit, Evangeline looked at Arlo, a sad look flashing on her face.

"Why are you torturing yourself?"

Her fingers turned into short sharp claws and she tore part of the suit in her thigh area.

Then she used the piece of cloth and wrapped it around Arlo's bony hand which was still bleeding but quickly regenerating.

She looked into Arlo's tired eyes and spoke in a soothing voice:

"There are other ways to become stronger."

"But how?" Arlo refuted. "I don't have a mana core so I can't cultivate mana. Now I also can't cultivate Ki. How am I supposed to grow stronger?"

Unlike Scarlett and Rebecca, Evangeline didn't know anything about Arlo's background.

This was the first time she had also encountered something like this.

She had never seen nor heard of a person not awakening a mana core no matter how talentless they can be.

Neither had she encountered anyone not able to use the law they have an affinity with.

Arlo's case was simply unique and special.

"Hmm." she thought about it for a moment and asked, "Do you know what your law is?"

Arlo shook his head.

"But you must have felt a connection with it."

Seeing the change in Arlo's eyes, she spoke:

"Tell me about it!".

At the same, in Arlo's mind, old bro spoke:

<< Don't tell her! It's too dangerous. >>

Arlo ignored old bro. He was starting to feel a strong sense of dislike for the artifact spirit.

"I don't know what it is. The only I know is that there are threads of multicolored light connected to me. But no matter how I try to connect with them, it all ends in vain."

Evangeline narrowed her eyes.

"Multicolored?"

Each law has an essence, an energy form that is colored.

There are some laws of similar color, but in the end, they differ.

An example is wind and life energy. They were both green in color but were two different law energies.

But she had never heard of a law being multicolored.

'Hmm. I have to investigate it.'

She looked at Arlo.

She could tell he wasn't ordinary.

And even for someone like her, who ranked third in talent in an entire race, she couldn't gauge Arlo's potential.

'I will take him as my second disciple!'

Evangeline was a member of Clan Madison who boasted higher intelligence and analytical ability than other vampires.

Their thought process was at least 5 times faster than others.

Because of this, their clan was usually in the research department.

The majority of them later became formation masters and tailors and handled the business of the vampire continent.

When she awakened her bloodline and was judged to have a god-tier talent, the majority of the vampires were rendered speechless.

What is a God-tier talent?

In general, only one god tier of talent could be found in the world. And the chances were also rare.

A supreme talent was also called a continent talent, a one in several tens of millions if not billions talent.

But a God-tier talent was also known as a world-level talent.

That is among tens of billions of people, the chances of one being a god-talent were very low.

Yet she was one.

But her race wasn't happy about it. Instead, they lamented her luck.

Why was she a member of Clan Madison?

So what if she was an unrivaled talent in intelligence?

That was what the noble vampires said.

But Evangeline overturned their world as she grew.

So what if her major forte was intelligence?

She invested all her time in learning different martial arts.

She trained with various weapons.

Using her speed of learning, Evangeline became a living embodiment of martial arts.

There was no weapon she could not use.

No martial arts she did not know.

In the end, she became one of the five strongest vampires in existence, Scarlett added.

Several years have passed.

And she had only accepted one disciple.

Stefan.

He won her heart with his undying will and tenacity which reminded her of her younger days.

But what was the truth?

Stefan was undeniably strong but in the end, he was limited by his potential.

As a supreme-level talent, he was well respected, but as a direct descendant of Progenitor Scarlett, his talent fell low.

He could never succeed her legacy, the legacy of a god-tier talent.

Evangeline looked at Arlo and made her choice.

As the blood of Arlo trickled down through the wrapped clothes, Evangeline spoke words, words that marked the true start of Arlo's rise to a sovereign.

"Call me master!"

Arlo looked at her, the tears long stopped.

Evangeline rose to her feet, stretched her hand out to Arlo, and repeated her previous words.

"There are many ways to become stronger!"

Arlo wiped his tears and shook her hands.

The greatest master and disciple was born today.

AN: Drop a review if possible. For advanced chapters, visit my Patreon.