Chapter 176: A Teacher’s Worry
The journey back to his villa was silent, yet charged with the thrill of regained power.
Daniel guided the Voidshadow sports car with a simple thought, the sleek black machine responding like an extension of his own body.
The neural interface, which had felt so sluggish and disconnected in his sealed state, now hummed in perfect sync with his mind.
The heavy burden of the manacles was gone, replaced by a profound and almost dizzying sense of freedom.
He felt the immense power of a Level 20 Awakened coursing through his veins, a deep, thrumming river that made the very air in the cockpit seem to vibrate.
He had succeeded. A month of exhausting, humbling work in the Eastern Medicine Garden, tending stubborn radishes and deciphering Old Man Hemlock’s cryptic lessons, had led to a Perfect Skin Refining that strengthened both his body and his will.
The second stage, the Perfect Bone Refining, had been an agony he wouldn’t wish on his worst enemy, but the results were undeniable.
His foundation was stronger, purer. He was ready for the next challenge.
His mind, however, kept drifting back to the last conversation he’d had with Principal Finch.
The old man was a mystery, a being of quiet, unfathomable power who had seen through Daniel’s immense strength to the flawed foundation beneath.
The memory of the jade tile, the brief, terrifying touch of nomological power, was a humbling reminder that there were still mountains to climb, oceans to cross.