Ares released a slow breath, long enough to feel as if he were emptying the depths of his chest from a weight he had not realized he was carrying.
The exhaustion weighing down his limbs was not just physical fatigue…
it felt more like a shadow that had passed through his soul and settled there.
He opened his eyes slightly.
The calm around him was not comforting…
it was the kind of stillness that comes before great transformations.
"Alright…"
he whispered inside.
"I've made it this far… now hesitation has no meaning."
His gaze settled into the emptiness, but his mind saw something else…
a path.
Long.
Unknown.
And no one returns from it the same.
"Let's begin… training in the Path of Eternal Ascension."
The moment the thought fully formed in his awareness—
the system's voice emerged.
Cold.
Precise.
Without any trace of life.
[First Realm of the Path of Eternal Ascension: The Realm of Human Ascension.]
The words were not only heard…
they opened inside him like a vast sky.
He felt as if the limits of his perception suddenly expanded, like someone who had been looking through a narrow crack… and then found himself on top of a mountain.
Three major stages appeared in his awareness, not as names… but as complete worlds.
Each stage contains three levels.
Core Purification Stage.
The beginning, where the practitioner faces a simple and harsh truth:
You will not ascend…
as long as you carry your impurities with you.
Interconnected Body Stage.
Where the body stops being a burden…
and becomes a weapon.
A vessel capable of enduring what humans cannot.
Spiritual Dominance Stage.
The stage where you do not need to show your power…
because your presence alone becomes enough to impose silence.
Then the system said:
[Whoever reaches the end of a stage awakens a special ability based on their understanding of energy, their capability, and the technique they follow.]
It was not a reward.
It was a mirror.
A pure reflection of what the practitioner had become after the path broke parts of them… and reshaped them.
Ares narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Can two people follow the same technique… yet awaken different abilities?"
A moment of silence passed.
Strange.
Even the system seemed not to answer immediately.
[Similarity is inevitable…]
[But identical results… do not exist.]
[Understanding changes the outcome.]
[And energy reveals what one cannot hide.]
Ares smiled.
A small smile… but real.
So the path does not reward copies.
Good.
He was not created to be a copy.
[Practitioners initially focus on forming the core, also known as the dantian. It is the main artery of Eternal Ascension practitioners during training. They work on shaping it and concentrating it first, then begin true training. But the host already possesses the Black Hole dantian, which according to analysis and information from the techniques is stronger and more concentrated than any other existing dantian. After forming the core or dantian, the practitioner can refine spiritual energy and control it.
After successfully forming the dantian, the practitioner begins the first level within the Core Purification Stage. The first level is called the Spark of Light. In this level, the practitioner starts guiding spiritual energy into the dantian and gradually strengthens the body with it. Energy begins to be born as sparks around the body, leading to enhanced strength, speed, and reflexes, slowly and steadily depending on the technique used.]
But the voice suddenly stopped…
then returned.
Slower this time.
[However… the host already has a dantian.]
At that moment—
he felt it.
Deep in his abdomen…
a vortex.
Silent.
Heavy.
Stable in a… disturbing way.
He did not need to see it.
Its gravity was enough to announce its presence.
The Black Hole dantian.
[According to analysis… its density and concentration exceed any known dantian.]
Then—
the system said nothing.
One second.
Two seconds.
As if the calculations themselves… needed time to comprehend the result.
Sometimes even silence… was more expressive than warnings.
First level of Core Purification: Spark of Light.
The level where light is born for the first time.
Usually…
practitioners approach spiritual energy carefully, like someone trying to hold the light of a candle without being burned.
One spark today.
Another after days.
And sometimes…
years before the light dares to remain.
But Ares—
had never felt that slowness suited him.
He sat cross-legged.
Closed his eyes.
And let his awareness fall inward.
To where that vortex spun.
The moment he touched the technique—
the calm vanished.
The energy was not drawn toward him…
it collapsed.
As if the balance of the world had suddenly been disturbed.
Spiritual energy rushed from every direction and fell toward him with behavior that was neither natural… nor reassuring.
His body trembled.
Then ignited.
His skin gradually reddened, heat rising from him until he seemed like a piece of metal forgotten inside a blazing furnace.
The pain was there.
Not sharp enough to make him scream…
but dense.
Crushing.
The kind of pain that does not attack you—
but surrounds you until you forget what its absence feels like.
But inside the dantian—
the vortex spun.
Faster.
And faster.
And faster.
Around ordinary practitioners…
sparks are born like shy stars.
A small flash… then darkness.
But around Ares—
there was no shyness.
The sparks exploded all at once.
One after another…
then dozens.
Then hundreds.
Until his body looked like a lamp lit in the heart of nothingness.
The air trembled.
A faint cracking sound slipped from the ground beneath him.
Even the energy itself…
no longer flowed calmly.
It surged.
As if it feared being left outside that gravity.
Suddenly—
the system's voice echoed.
But this time…
it was not completely steady.
[Absorption rate accelerating.]
A short silence.
Then again:
[Absorption rate… accelerating.]
Then—
[Warning: values exceeding expected pattern.]
Seconds passed…
or maybe minutes.
Near Ares…
time began to lose its meaning.
Then something happened…
that was not part of any calculation.
The sparks were no longer just forming—
they began to be pulled toward him.
Compressed.
Crushed.
Then vanished inside him.
As if light itself… were being devoured.
If someone had been watching now…
they would have felt only one primitive urge:
To move away.
Because what was happening…
was not training.
It was a birth.
The birth of something unlike the others.
Suddenly—
Ares opened his eyes.
In the depth of their darkness…
a flash moved.
It was not the reflection of a spark.
It was a spark born there.
Inside.
He breathed slowly…
but the dantian did not slow.
It kept spinning.
As if it had finally understood why it existed.
Then the system spoke in a rare, low voice:
[Standard spark density exceeded.]
Even the system did not analyze further.
As if some things—
cannot be understood the moment they happen.
As for Ares…
he sat within the exploding light around him, without realizing one simple truth:
He had not taken the first step on the path of ascension…
he had broken the way that step is taken.
And in distant places…
places he did not know existed—
ancient energies trembled.
As if something…
had awakened.