Lyren felt the connection with his core as his Elyria flowed through the channel towards his palm and he let it surge into the pattern. His connection was not yet steady and it was almost like a jet of water that came from an unstable source.
The connection would threaten to loosen but it would connect again and the process went on until he was able to fully give Elyria to the pattern on his own. He was shocked the next moment as he realized just how much the pattern in his palm was playing him.
Maybe it were the creators of this place. They just went ahead and tried to make things hard for him and maybe their students. He realized that this was definitely the correct move to motivate their students.
Using the pattern took almost twice the energy he used to light the first pattern. This was a huge problem and he was glad he was able to stumble into it this early or else he was forever going to rely on the pattern in his palm.
The pattern on the ground lit up in a white light and he recalled that he had to light the twin pattern so that it would take the normal golden glow they were supposed to release. He lit the second pattern and watched as the X lines connected.
The golden glow after they connected spread out until both patterns were normal and he still felt there was still Elyria in his core to light up more patterns. His curious mind could not help but analyze the possible reasons using the pattern in his palm cost twice as much energy.
After giving it several thoughts, he could only come to one conclusion. The pattern in his palm also had to be lit so that it could light up the patterns on the ground. If that was the case, then the users of the patterns were definitely being used by the system.
What was the need of the pattern if one could just go ahead and channel energy into the pattern and light up the pattern? Was that not a waste of time? Now that he thought about it, the reason he was unable to light the third row was because of the pattern.
That was exactly what he had been missing. When he thought to this point, he laughed at himself for his foolishness as he turned to the third row. He had already memorized the firs pattern and he just needed to rehearse it once more before he channeled energy into it.
He felt the connection with his core and smiled as he let the energy slip into the core. He slowly felt the connection loosening and tightening but he suddenly felt something was wrong. He looked at the pattern on the ground and saw a sight he dreaded.
The pattern was crumbling at a visible rate. Almost as though it was being erased. This drove him into panic and he stop feeding the pattern. Again, he had been rash. He had forgotten the first time when the pattern caused him a backlash.
How foolish to think he was smart and even claiming that the pattern in his palm was useless. He had just unlocked a function of the pattern. The pattern was a safe way to light the pattern. Without the pattern, two things could happen;
One, he might light up the pattern as expected and at a very efficient rate at that. This was the ideal outcome and it was probably reserved for the pros of lighting the patterns. People who had studied the patterns for a very long period.
The second outcome was what had just happened here. The pattern would start crumbling and disappear. This was not like the first row where he had caused cracks on the pattern. Here, he was basically erasing the pattern for real.
It was scary just how fragile the patterns were. This meant that he was yet to discover the secret to the patterns. Now he had realized the importance of the pattern in his palm and he acknowledged how thoughtful the creator of the patterns was.
The purpose was similar where there was an ideal outcome but also there was the effect of failure. The only difference was that when one was using the pattern, the backlash was concentrated on the user alone and the pattern would be safe.
If he did a mistake without the palm pattern, the effect was concentrated on the pattern. This was where the thoughtfulness of the creators kicked in. They realized just how difficult the creation of the patterns was.
Noobs like him could not yet create a pattern of their own and if they kept destroying the patterns, they were not going to make any progress. That was why the palm pattern was important. It taught the students how to be careful because the backlash would be focused on them.
For Lyren's case, he was the most grateful for the pattern's existence. He was sure that there was nowhere else he was going to find these patterns. If he went ahead and destroyed them all in his recklessness, he was going to be stuck here forever.
That was why he steeled himself to take on all the backlash and promised himself that he was always going to use the pattern in his palm until he could create patterns of his own. He shut his cocky thoughts off as he decided to pay more attention.
As he thought about it, he realized there was also a hidden cultivation secret behind the pattern in his palm. If it took twice as required, didn't that mean that it was helping him cultivate? Any time soon, he realized he was going to advance to the second stage and that was only because the pattern was cultivating him.
'Genius!:
It was somehow funny but as things stood, he could not cultivate normally but if the pattern helping him cultivate was going to help him get stronger, then he was willing to sell his soul to it until he was at the peak.
He felt a stare behind him and he could even feel like there was a grin. As though his thoughts had been read. He chuckled as he thought about it. Many people sought power but only few were crazy enough to truly seek it.
When he reached this place, he might have not said it aloud but it was only crazy people who could survive in this kind of environment. The thousand flight of stairs was proof enough. Only those who were crazy would spend hours or maybe days staring at a pattern and finally take the risk of lighting it up aware of the possible backlash.
Then there was the pattern in his palm. How many people who got the pattern would just dismiss it or even cut off their arms in fear of backlash? That was not all even. How many were actually willing to use the pattern after it burned them?
What about when it created a channel in his body and started drawing it? Wouldn't many have already given up and some faint hearted maybe killed themselves? How many were even willing to use it again after realizing they could still light it up without the pattern?
Wouldn't they opt for safety and decide to perfect themselves so as not to use the pattern again? Then how many would even think of letting the pattern cultivate them and even think of selling their soul to it?
Only a crazy person would do all this and standing at this desolate place was another crazy person who had done all these and was willing to go further into this path until he made it his. The side of his mouth twitched again as he tried to stop the urge to laugh.
Every time he laughed this way, he was sure he was falling deeper into this rabbit hole and he somehow enjoyed it. The unknown was waiting for him up ahead and he already knew how it was going to happen.
He chuckled… then the chuckle broke into a laugh. A cold laugh that seemed to resonate with this place as his personality seemed to undergo a transformation. And there was no mistaking it. The hall behind him had laughed with him. A dry, echoing rasp threaded through his own laughter—not in mockery, but acknowledgment. They were both mad…