Ezekiel woke up slowly, his eyes fluttering open as the morning sun filtered through the cracks in his bedroom window. He lay there for a moment, letting his thoughts drift aimlessly. And then it hit him - he had done it! He had advanced his Blood core! He could feel that something was different, and he focused closely to try and understand what had changed.

He sat up halfway, lifting his right arm in front of his face. He curled his finger slowly, forming a fist. From there, he started to gradually flex the muscles in his arms. His upper arm started to bulge, and just when Zeke reached his limit, something strange happened.

After he had reached his physical limit, his Blood Magic seamlessly activated. It was as if he had a second set of muscles that only revealed itself when he reached the boundary of his first set. Without him even noticing, he was channeling his [Perfect Body control]. This wasn’t like casting magic. It came instinctively to Zeke, akin to moving his body. An uncontrollable smile spread across his face as Zeke repeatedly relaxed and flexed his arm.

Zeke felt better than he ever had. His body was light, strong, and healthy. It dawned on him that he was completely free of the omnipresent pain he had gotten used to during the previous weeks.

Aside from his spectacular control, Zeke could feel something more. He couldn’t quite put it into words, but there was something there. A mysterious connection between his core and something else, something hard to pinpoint. Zeke examined the strange sensation, but it was impossible to make out its source. If he had to describe it, he would say that the spell had become a part of him in a way that transcended the physical and magical.

Zeke stayed in bed for a while, listening to his heartbeat and marveling at the control he now had over his body. After a while, he started changing his heartbeat to mimic a song that his mother used to sing for him. His [Perfect body control] told him that such an erratic heartbeat would usually kill a person, but he was able to control the flow of his blood manually, bypassing the heart completely.

Zeke continued to play around with several of his usually automatic body functions. He had to marvel at how all of a sudden, he just knew how all the different systems inside his body worked — how they all fit together like a puzzle. He felt like a new man, filled with energy and potential.

As Zeke finally decided to get up, he realized that he was not alone in his room. Maximilian sat in a chair by the bed, asleep. There was a book in his lap, and Zeke realized that the old man must have been watching over him after he had passed out. Zeke smiled when he thought about how worried Maximilian had seemed after he had finished the engraving process. He hadn’t felt this cared for since leaving home.

Zeke's thoughts turned to his family. With the threat of his overcharged core solved, he finally had the freedom to consider such matters again. However, Shame was the first feeling that assailed him. He had never visited his family since joining the academy and had not even written them a single letter.

He had many excuses for never visiting home, such as not having the money for the carriage or not being able to afford the time. But he knew the truth, and in fact, he had always known the truth. The reason he didn't go home was simple — Shame and fear.

Ohh, he had been ashamed — ashamed of his life in the beggars' quarters, ashamed of not being accepted by the other students, ashamed of the fact that Lily threw him away only days after coming here, and ashamed of the fact that he was not the powerful mage he had always claimed to be.

However, no matter how strong a feeling, shame alone wouldn’t have kept him from visiting his family for so long. A much more dominant force had been at play.

He had been afraid, so deathly afraid of not having the strength to ever return. He knew with absolute certainty that he would not have had the resolve to leave his loving home ever again, never to return to this cold and dark place. His dream of becoming a Mage would prove too fleeting when weighed up against the certainty of struggle and pain, rejection and hardship.

Even so, fear and shame were no longer what he would let his actions be guided by. He should have made more of an effort, and he vowed to do better in the future. He decided to write them today, apologizing for his absence and promising to make an effort to visit in the future. It was all he could do for now, and Zeke hoped that it would be enough.

Zeke moved to stand, only to wake up Maximilian in the process. The old man jerked to his feet with inhuman speed, ready for a fight. After recognizing where he was, he looked at Zeke with an embarrassed look. Zeke smiled warmly, trying to convey his gratitude for the care.

"How are you doing, my boy?" Maximilian asked worriedly.

Zeke squeezed the old man's hand. "I am fine. In fact, I feel better than I ever have in my entire life."

He told Maximilian about the changes he had noticed. Maximilian grew increasingly excited by the boundless control Zeke seemed to have over his body. The two of them started an impromptu experimentation session to answer some of the most burning questions Maximilian had always harbored about the human body. For once, Zeke was a willing guinea pig, happily going along with the old man’s crazy experiments.

The two were at it for a long time, until Zeke's stomach started growling ever more insistently, forcing them to halt their activities for now.

"By the way, you've been asleep for three days," Maximilian informed Zeke as they made their way to the kitchen.

“What?!”

“What do you mean ‘what?’, did you think you could overtax your body, core, and soul to such a degree and not pay any price for it, you brat?” Maximilian chided good-naturedly.

Zeke had to reluctantly agree. He should feel fortunate that there had been no lasting damage. He didn’t even feel any of the trauma Maximilian had described. It was a curious thing — when he thought back to the soul-crushing pain he was certain he endured, his memories of the incident told him otherwise.

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Rather than flinching at the mere mention of the event, warmth radiated through his body. The pain of the first two stages was still fresh in his memories, but the trauma of the soul stage was absent. Instead of the diminishing experience he knew it had been, he remembered it as him becoming greater, becoming more.

Zeke got tired of digging through his warped memories after a while. He would have to reexamine this phenomenon at a later date. There was something he was much more interested in. He turned to Maximilian sitting across from him. "What is the next step in the plan?"

The old man leaned back in his chair, a twinkle in his eyes. "We move on to the Space core, my boy. The ability I wish for you to engrave is called [Perfect Spatial Awareness]."

Zeke’s eyes narrowed. “That sounds suspiciously like another one of your inventions.”

“So what if it is?” Maximilian challenged, “You didn’t regret it last time, did you?”

“Fair point,” Zeke allowed. “What’s it do?”

“It allows you to have perfect awareness of the surrounding space,” Maximilian explained expectantly.

Zeke's eyes widened with excitement. "That sounds incredible! But why are all the abilities you invent called 'perfect'? Wouldn’t [Body Control] and [Spatial Awareness] have worked just as well?”

Maximilian’s demeanor changed. He adopted a serious pose and his voice gained an ancient, wise quality. "You should strive for perfection in all things, my boy. With each lesson, and each new spell, you should aim to get at least one step forward. The techniques I invented, are called 'perfect' because they were developed to be the absolute peak in their respective areas. Take [Perfect Body Control] for example, it's designed to give you complete control over your body — without any limitations. [Perfect Spatial Awareness] is meant to give you a perfect understanding of your surroundings."

Zeke's eyes blazed. He couldn't wait to learn more about these techniques. Suddenly, he noticed a tiny detail he had overlooked a moment ago. "Who the hell doesn’t try to invent the perfect spell? Isn’t everyone else aiming for the same as well? You just name them 'perfect this', and 'perfect that' because you liked the way it sounded, didn’t you?"

Maximilian had been nodding along, but when he realized where Zeke was going with his questions, he froze. Zeke waited, but Maximilian kept glancing about, neither answering nor looking at him. Just as Zeke was about to say something again, he heard a bizarre noise coming from Maximilian. It sounded like a strange wheezing.

Zeke became concerned for a moment, but then he realized what was happening. The sound he was hearing was Maximilian attempting to whistle innocently. He didn't know whether he should be angry or amused by the old man's shamelessness. After a while, he started laughing, and Maximilian joined in right away.

After the laughter had died down, the old man clapped Zeke on the shoulder. "It’s high time to return to your training routine — Physical exercise at dawn, followed by school, lunch, hunting, and dinner."

“Can’t we just start with intensive training right away?” Zeke asked hopefully. “I managed to learn [Perfect Body Control] just fine, after all.”

Maximilian was already shaking his head. “That won’t work, I’m afraid. We could only do that in the first place because of your insane aptitude.”

“What do you mean?”

The old man sighed. “The rate at which you learned Blood Magic is far above the norm. A spell such as [Perfect Body Control] would have taken anybody else many times as long to master. I dared risk the intensive training solely because I had already confirmed your aptitude beforehand.”

The fire in Zeke’s eyes dimmed slightly at the explanation. “So I won’t be able to learn Space Magic anytime soon?”

“I didn’t say that, did I?” Maximilian teased. “But you should be prepared to struggle at first, Transcendent Magic is notoriously hard at the beginning.”

“Transcendent Magic? What’s that?”

“It’s a school of magic,” the old man explained with gleaming eyes. He had seamlessly shifted into lecturing mode. “I’m sure I’ve mentioned how Blood, Bone, and Flesh Magic are called Body Magic, right?”

Zeke nodded wordlessly, causing the old man to continue. “Another such school is Elemental Magic, comprise of Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind. We also refer to them as primary affinities in the empire.”

Zeke's ears perked up. He had heard of those two schools before but didn’t know there were more. He leaned forward, practically salivating at the prospect of expanding his knowledge.

“Well, another school is Transcendent Magic. It is comprised of Space, Time, Life, and Death. Those four Affinities are famously, or should I say Infamously hard to master. The reason for it is still up for debate in the Mage community. Personally, I believe it is because those concepts are hard to comprehend with our human brains. There is just no easy way to latch onto an idea so far beyond our understanding.”

Zeke listened eagerly, hanging on his every word. “Why don’t we start with the Mind spell then, if Space Magic is so difficult?”

“That’s because the Mind spell I want you to learn is special,” Maximilian said mysteriously. “Don’t worry too much, I have a plan for you to get started with Space Magic right away.”

“Really? How?”

Maximilian smiled. “…Monster hunting!”

The answer caused Zeke to deflate instantly. “I’ve been doing that already. Didn’t help me one bit!”

“Didn’t it?” Maximilian questioned.

“Wouldn’t I have noticed if it had?”

“Let me ask you a question: Did you ever feel some kind of strange sensation before getting attacked?”

Zeke thought back to his many adventures over the last couple of weeks. He had indeed sometimes sensed something right before an attack. He had thought that this was related to his improving instincts. Now that he thought about it, that theory didn’t hold up. Hadn’t he also experienced this very sensation in his first fight against the goblins?

“Like a tingling in the back of my head?” Zeke asked.

“Exactly like that,” Maximilian responded with a smug grin. “That’s your Space affinity kicking in. I want you to get used to this feeling, analyze it, and learn to control it. With your [Perfect Body Control] it’s going to be far easier for you to grasp.”

“And then I’ll learn [Space Manipulation], right?” Zeke asked excitedly.

Contrary to his expectations, Maximilian shook his head. “There is no such thing. None of the Transcendent Magics have a spell similar to [Blood Manipulation]. Thats one more reason why they are so hard to master. No, the first thing you are going to learn is how to freeze space. It’s a concept used in many spells.”

“Which ones?” Zeke asked excitedly.

"[Spatial Barrier] is one of them," Maximilian explained. "The spell uses solidified space like a shield. It makes for a powerful defensive tool while being essentially immune to physical attacks.”

Zeke’s eyes began to shine, but before he could get too eager, Maximilian continued. “Of course, there are drawbacks as well. One of them is that the spell is fixed in place and cannot move with you. So while it provides a strong defense, it forces you to stay in the same spot while using it."

Despite the warning, a fire had been lit in the boy. Over the next few days, Zeke would throw himself at literal hordes of monsters, challenging harder and harder quests with each passing day. He was trying to improve his understanding of Space as fast as possible.

As the days turned to weeks, Zeke found himself immersed in his training. Before anyone knew it, spring had arrived. It was then that he got news from an unexpected source. The Adventurers' Guild had sent a letter, informing him that he had met the criteria to be promoted from copper to bronze rank.