CHAPTER 174: MANA CORE REPAIR

The days passed without incident. The peak of summer was slowly beginning to fade, although the heat remained just as unbearable. The air was heavy and dense, as if even the atmosphere itself was resisting movement.

In the big city of San Martín, life continued without incident. The daily hustle and bustle filled the streets, the markets opened with the same routine, and caravans came and went under the scorching sun.

Nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be happening. For most, it was just another cycle, identical to the previous one.

However, beneath that facade of normality, the silence weighed its own.

The city remained the same, yes, but only in appearance. No significant event had occurred in full view of the masses. Even so, in the corners where the sun’s gaze did not reach, the threads of power slowly tightened.

Unless one belonged to those who knew the shadows of San Martín, one would never notice that the change had already begun.

Kael, for his part, carried out his work with ease. After threatening to kill the children, those who had not yet overcome the loss of Sister Mily, he made sure to establish order in his own way.

In his free time, he remained completely calm, devoting himself to a more important matter: finishing the repair of his magic core.

His core was already 99% restored. In practical terms, Kael was ready for action.

Now that he was going to interact with the high-ranking figures of the city of San Martín, he needed to do so not as a stranger... but as a presence that could not be ignored. His restored core was the first step toward that goal.

Showing his strength and dominance was not a whim, but a strategy. In a world where respect was only earned through power, weakness was equivalent to a death sentence.

"Mr. Rasen, I don’t understand this subtraction, by four numbers," said one of the children, approaching with a yellowed bamboo sheet in his hands.

Kael looked up from the book he was reading. He calmly set it aside, without the slightest annoyance, and took the sheet of paper. His gaze scanned the numbers patiently before he spoke, his voice calm.

"To subtract four digits, you just need to subtract the top numbers from the bottom ones," he explained slowly. "If the bottom number is larger than the top one, you borrow from the number on the left, and then continue the subtraction. And so on."

The boy listened attentively. A few seconds of silence were enough for him to understand. He nodded, thanked him, and returned to his seat, Kael resuming his reading with the concentration of someone who has just understood something for himself.

Kael watched him for a moment and then turned his gaze back to his book. Still, an idea crossed his mind.

Elemental magic... deep down, it wasn’t so different from an equation.

For example, the wind spell. Its simplest formula was expressed as follows:

[∇f(ρa⋅v²) + ∂t(ψv⋅Ω) = χa⋅(Δφ +

At first glance, it was an extensive and tedious set of symbols, a tangle of energy and movement. But for Kael, it was like looking at a simple four-digit subtraction problem.

With his understanding and mastery, he could strip the spell of everything unnecessary, reducing it to its purest form:

Fv = [χa + ψv] ⋅ (∇φ + Ω)

Shorter. Cleaner. And yet, it didn’t lose power; it even multiplied it. It was the beauty of simplification, the principle that governed all form: understanding to reduce.

Kael stopped thinking about spells and resumed reading. Outside, the summer sun fell on her body, gilding her figure in the light. A gentle breeze slipped through the leaves, cooling the air.

Time continued to pass. The clouds in the sky moved relentlessly, driven by a constant wind that brushed against the mountains.

The sun slowly descended, and the sky changed color again and again: from deep blue to gold, from gold to violet, until night finally fell.

Kael received a visitor. His slave bowed respectfully, bringing with him new information. He reported on recent movements and also arranged a meeting where Kael would meet with other cardinals.

Among the reports, he also mentioned the location of an entrance to the underworld of the city of San Martín, a place where anything could be found.

The cardinal left the two-story house, leaving Kael alone in the room.

Kael looked up at the moon floating high in the sky. That pale light bathed his face, but it failed to reflect any emotion.

As the night wore on, he silently reviewed his next steps, mapping out routes and possible outcomes with the precision of someone who has already learned that any plan, however perfect, only makes sense if it is adaptable.

With the meeting with the other cardinals, I can make use of some knowledge I have about this city. If I use it wisely, I will be able to gain more power and influence within its walls, step by step.

I also have to go to the underworld tomorrow. There, I may find a way to heal my soul. If I succeed, I will be able to put more of my plans into action and take another step toward Seventh Heaven.

I must heal my soul quickly. Only then will I be able to break through the barrier and reach rank 6.

Kael could not afford to be reckless. Seventh Heaven was a territory as vast as it was unpredictable. Its environment was hostile, its laws confusing, and every moment spent there could mean the difference between ascending or dying. Entering without a solid foundation would be tantamount to offering his life to death.

For future wars, that legacy left by the true Creator would be very useful to him and save him countless problems.

Putting those thoughts aside, Kael focused on the current situation. He had a meeting with the cardinals in three days. This was not a simple political meeting: it was an opportunity to observe, assess, and understand.

Getting involved in politics in this city meant walking among snakes, but it also meant being able to reap the greatest rewards. If he played his cards right, he could manipulate local forces to his own advantage; his profits would be great.

Things, from now on, would become quite busy.

But Kael did not see it as a burden, but rather as the beginning of a more complex stage.

Kael looked away from the sky. From one of his space rune rings, he slowly extracted a stone of origin. It was the size of an ostrich egg.

He held it with both hands. A slight current of power seeped through his skin, running through his veins to his core. He closed his eyes and turned his consciousness inward.

There, before his inner gaze, lay his mana core. A small, barely perceptible smile appeared on his face. Before, that core had been completely cracked, like glass on the verge of breaking. If it had broken, it would have meant his immediate death.

The cost of using the Reverse Flow Blood River had been devastating. Although he had survived, the price had been high, and his core showed it.

Now, with the stone of origin in his hands, the solution was before him. These stones had two uses. The first was to accelerate the refinement process, allowing him to level up much faster than by refining mana essence normally.

The second, much rarer and more dangerous, was to use them to repair what had been damaged: whether it was the core, the dantian, or the magic diagram.

The second function was the most important. For that reason, the origin stone was so coveted and, at the same time, so difficult to obtain. Its rarity lay not only in its power, but also in its unpredictable appearance.

Kael, with a single thought, absorbed the stone of origin. Immediately, a stream of golden energy began to flow from his palm. It was pure, dense, shiny like molten gold, and headed straight for his core.

Inside his body, the mana core, cracked and weakened by excess, began to slowly repair itself. The process was steady and methodical. Each crack that closed released a faint vibration that ran through his entire being.

The repair continued uninterrupted. The golden energy did not dissipate; on the contrary, it seemed to multiply with each cycle, expanding and repairing the cracks in the core.

Little by little, the cracks disappeared completely, until the mana core was smooth, perfect, and resplendent.

In the end, its core glowed with a golden intensity, firm and pure, as if it had never suffered any damage.

Then, after using the Reverse Flow Blood River, its core had suffered 90% damage, which was too much, and Kael knew that this damage was due to it being too weak.

So he deduced that to use the Reverse Flow Blood River in all its glory, he needed to become a demigod, because otherwise, every time he used it, it would damage his soul and mana core.

Kael, seeing his core repaired to 100%, smiled slightly, his consciousness returning to reality.

"I spent five origin stones to completely repair my core," he muttered, stretching his body slightly, thinking about what he had to do tomorrow.