CHAPTER 8: TESTING SPACE

[The training room wasn’t anything special at first glance.

Four walls reinforced with tempered alloy, smooth gray tiles on the floor, a faint hum from the mana stabilizers hidden in the corners.

It was no larger than an ordinary classroom, but once again this was a low end training room which meant there were training rooms that were higher in quality in this world, yes even gravity training existed here.

Lucius stepped in barefoot, shutting the door behind him.

His reflection wavered in the polished steel lining the far wall, a young man with hair newly trimmed to perfection and eyes sharper than any blade.

He stretched both arms out slowly.

His heartbeat steadied.

"All over the news... tomorrow the Awakening is going to be live-streamed."

His lips tugged into a grin.

"Good. In the novel, the idiot version of me was so desperate for validation he invited streamers in just to show off. They clowned him until Space appeared, then their numbers blew through the roof. This time..."

His grin widened, confidence rolling off him like heat.

"This time, If I’m going to awaken, I’ll do it in style."

The words echoed faintly, swallowed by the insulated chamber.

Yes, even though he could awaken the normal way, he wanted to put on a show for more social presence.

Lucius closed his eyes.

Immediately, he reached for it — that subtle hum he had sensed since yesterday, the strange pull around his body when he concentrated.

It wasn’t like mana in the stories he used to read on Earth.

No, this was more... fundamental.

He could feel space itself, an infinite ocean that wasn’t water but existence.

Tiny motes of energy, faint but distinct, shimmered all around him.

He imagined them like threads in a cloth, and himself tugging at those threads.

His breath deepened.

The world shifted.

Color bled out of the training room, draining away until everything was black and white.

The floor, the walls, even the faint reflection of his face — all muted shades of gray.

The only exception were the particles.

They glowed a sharp, ethereal blue, hundreds of them drifting lazily in the air, through the walls, even within his body.

Lucius’s eyes flew open, and his pupils reflected the azure glow.

"...Wow." His voice cracked into a whisper. "This is surreal."

He lifted his right hand.

The particles responded, like a school of fish swirling toward his palm.

With a thought, he condensed them into a flat plane.

The blue particles knit themselves together into a shimmering wall, no thicker than glass but it was clear that one wouldn’t be able to break through it easilyl.

Lucius flexed his fingers, and the wall expanded.

It grew wider, taller, until it was large enough to cover his entire body like a shield.

A flick of his will, and the shape shrank, compacting into something the size of a buckler strapped to his forearm.

"This is so fucking amazing..."

[A New Spell Has Been Registered: Spatial Shield [Lv.0]]

The notification blinked across his vision like a hologram.

He laughed under his breath.

The author of this world — the one who had written the original novel had described Space as limitless, bound only by imagination and understanding.

On Earth, he had spent countless nights daydreaming of magic.

Now, it wasn’t a dream.

It was real.

He dismissed the shield, letting the blue motes scatter, then paced in a slow circle.

"Alright. If the limit is imagination, let’s push it."

He focused downward, toward the floor.

With intent, he pulled the particles beneath his feet.

They gathered sluggishly, clumping into a faint disk of light.

Then, carefully, Lucius pushed his weight onto it.

His stomach flipped as his body began to rise.

Slowly, shakily, his heels lifted from the ground.

"I’m... actually levitating."

His laugh bubbled into the quiet, breathless with awe.

But the control wavered.

The disk tilted. Lucius spun half a turn in midair —

"Shit—!"

and promptly smashed shoulder-first into the wall.

The impact rattled his teeth.

He collapsed in an undignified heap, clutching his stomach.

Pain seared through his ribs, but instead of cursing in misery, he broke into wheezing laughter.

[New Spell Has Been Registered: Levitation [Lv.0]]

Lucius groaned, rolling onto his back. "God... I’m too overpowered for my own good."

For a long moment, he just lay there, staring at the sterile ceiling.

On Earth, he would have killed for a fraction of this.

This was truly his life now...

It was intoxicating, to be free in his favorite novel.

He forced himself up and dusted off his clothes.

"Alright... what next?"

He tried shaping the space motes into a blade.

Blue light shimmered, stretching outward like liquid crystal until a short dagger solidified in his hand.

He twirled it experimentally.

The weight was nonexistent, but the edge gleamed unnaturally sharp.

A strike at the wall left a thin gouge in the reinforced alloy.

Lucius’s brows shot up. "It’s really strong."

[New Spell Has Been Registered: Spatial Edge [Lv.0]]

"Not bad... not bad at all."

And for the rest of the day, he decided to use the rest of his Space spell in succession, after all the only way to increase levels were to gain experience in using the spell.