Lyren definitely heard the laughter coming from the hall but he did not mind it. Instead, he was glad that there might have been someone or something watching him all along.
"So, what exactly do you want me to do?"
Lyren asked hoping for a reply but it appeared the voice was not ready to meet him yet. No, he was not ready. He was still too weak to even expect any reaction from the voice. Maybe it was his thoughts that had influenced it.
Little did he know just how long it was going to take him to discover the secret to the third row. He would wake every time he slept and continue with his daily routine of staring at the patterns and later lighting up the patterns on the second row until there was no more Elyria in his core.
In his time, he had come to realize that this place really suited his training. It appeared it would react to him everyday and when he woke up, the patterns would have already gone off as though telling that this was exactly what he was supposed to do.
Days passed until he could light up all second row's patterns without his core drying up. This meant that he had to discover the rule of the third row. He always lost his sense of time every time he was reading too deep into a patterns.
As things stood, he had fully memorized all the third row's patterns and there was nothing connecting them at all. Each seemed to be entirely different. But the only thing he was still sure about was that they were all A lines.
Everything lay on the fact there were no B and X lines. If he could discover why, then he was going to have his breakthrough. He was following this track when suddenly he felt a reaction from his core.
He focused on his core and what he saw made his jaw want to drop. It was moving. Spinning to be specific. It started slowly but even he could tell that it was picking up pace. He watched with part of him bracing for impact. He did not know whether what was happening was a good thing or not.
He watched as the core started gaining more spin and it vanished into an orange glow that kept spinning. This could definitely not be a good thing. Suddenly, he felt some pull from his core. Almost as though it had created a vacuum in its world.
Then a strange thing happened as he felt a surge of Elyria in his direction till he could feel it pressing onto his body wanting to get in. the pressure threatened to crush him but it was at that moment that the pattern in his palm activated and it too started spinning rapidly.
The Elyria that had all surged to him was suddenly sucked by the pattern and then it travelled into the channel in his hand. He could feel how fast the Elyria was being sucked into his body and it was all moving to the rapidly spinning core.
It was different having the channel that always drew Elyria from him suddenly draw it from the atmosphere into his core. Still, he could not tell whether what was happening was a good thing or not. Only time would tell as he felt as though his hand was expanding from the surplus Elyria that filled the channel.
He could see the core start sucking up the Elyria from the channel and the more it took, it spun faster and faster until he felt as though his arm was going to be sucked in the Elyria being drawn.
It was a strange experience. He could only be mesmerized by the wonders of the human body. It was astonishing how his body could keep that spinning fist-sized inside him and even as it spun, it did not even run on a rampage trying to escape…
Well, instantly, he took his words back as he felt the core start vibrating and it felt as though it was going to break out. There was no pain still and he could not help but wonder whether it was a silent death or it was just normal.
What seemed to change was that Elyria stopped pressing on him and that the pattern in his palm stopped spinning. He could finally feel his arm but whatever was happening in the core was far from over as it seemed to accelerate further and it appeared to be hopping.
One might have assumed that it was jumping in joy for it had drawn all that Elyria but was that really the case. If his sight was not misleading him, it appeared as though the orange glow of the core was somehow dimming…
Was that a good thing or was it bad? The core did not stop spinning for the next few minutes and as it finally came to a stop, Lyren was already on the peak of panic. It could not be that it had taken all that Elyria only for it to become smaller…
That was definitely not a good thing. Wasn't it supposed to become maybe…Larger? Also, why the hell was it dimmer than it had been before. A few minutes ago, before it all started, it was a bright orange but now, it was dim.
His young mind could not help but panic. Even he knew that if he ate a lot of food, his stomach would definitely become larger and not smaller. Why it was the opposite now was a mystery he needed to unveil.
But it appeared that he was not going to get the chance as he felt a crack in the region of the core. Now that was totally bad. Again, there was a blinding white light that appeared exactly just like when he had been able to start seeing his internal organs.
That was a good thing thankfully but he had to confirm it and when the light faded, it appeared as though the world around the core had faded into an even dimmer surrounding. This made the glow from the core appear slightly brighter.
Now he tried to make it make sense but he realized that it was only possible because it did not make sense. He chuckled at that thought as it did not even make sense.
'Huh! It got bigger…'
This came as a surprise as he realized that the world around the core had gotten bigger. Then suddenly, he realized that there was more Elyria in this place.
Before he could only feel the Elyria in his core but this time, he realized that even the world around the core had finally gotten some Elyria. Then it hit him. This must have been it.
"I advanced a level up…" Lyren said these words aloud in disbelief as that was the last thing he would expect from this situation.
Now he was in the second stage of the Awakening Realm. It was still in the early stages but yeah, he had just experienced his first advancement since he started cultivating. Well, he had just started cultivating but that was not the point.
The point was that he had advanced after what felt like ages though he was still 12. He realized just how important a role the patterns played. And what was even fun, he could feel he had Elyria inside him and not just the core.
And it struck him again that he had been drawing Elyria from the core rather than the world around the core. Just how many mistakes did he keep making and it appeared that they later turned out to be a narrow escape for him?
That also explained why he was only able to draw bubbles the first attempt. If he thought about it, it was probably he alone who had been taking energy alone from the core while everyone used to take it from the world around the core.
He really needed notes on how to go on with these things. Who knew when he would make an irreversible mistake?