The aftermath of the ceremony was a storm of whispers that Cian navigated like a ghost. He could see the "Intent" of the people around him the greedy curiosity of the Overseer, the sharp suspicion of the rival House Blackwood envoys, and the deep, silent confusion of his father.
He retreated to the only place where he felt he could think: The Great Library of Valerius.
The library was a sprawling, circular tower with shelves that reached into the darkness of the rafters. To the rest of the world, this was a graveyard of "Scholarship" a place for those who couldn't fight. To Cian's Akashic Scholar talent, it was a warehouse of lethal potential.
[Passive Ability: Structural Analysis is Scanning...]
[Detection: 14,000 Data Points found. Categorizing...]
[Optimizing Knowledge Retrieval...]
Cian walked past the "Epic Poems" and the "Lineage Records," his eyes glowing with a faint, silver light. He wasn't reading the titles; he was reading the Mana Signatures of the ink and parchment. He could see the "ghosts" of the authors the logical paths they took, and more importantly, where those paths had failed.
He stopped at a shelf tucked in the dampest, darkest corner, where the wood was rotting. He reached for a scroll that was so decayed the leather was flaking like dead skin. In his past life, he had read this scroll and dismissed it as a "Broken Fragment" of an old martial art.
[Object Identified: 'The Breath of the Ironwood' (Fragmented Master-Rank)]
[Analysis: The original author suffered from a damaged mana-heart, leading to 'Logical Gaps' in the cultivation steps.]
[Divine Talent: Akashic Scholar is 'Patching' the Logic...]
[Success! Technique Evolved: 'Primordial Heart-Core Breath' (Supreme-Rank).]
Cian felt a jolt of electricity shoot through his spine. A Supreme-Rank breathing technique. In the Silverian Hegemony, such a thing was guarded by the Emperor's personal guard. Here, it had been sitting in the rot, waiting for someone who could see the truth behind the errors.
He sat cross-legged on the cold stone floor, the scroll spread out before him. He didn't just read the words; his mind projected a 3D model of the human mana-circuitry, showing exactly how the breath should flow to maximize efficiency.
Inhale. Hold for three heartbeats. Let the mana settle in the base of the spine.
Usually, it took an Awakened warrior years to refine their first core. But Cian wasn't normal. As he followed the optimized steps, he felt his mana veins previously thin and brittle begin to expand. The "Supreme" rank technique was like pouring liquid starlight into a wooden cup. It was violent, painful, and exhilarating.
[Rank Progression: 95% - 99.9%]
[System Warning: Physical Body has reached the 'Dormant' Threshold.]
[Final Step for Awakening: The First Kill.]
Cian opened his eyes. They were no longer the soft, hesitant blue of a boy. They held a sharp, metallic sheen. He stood up, his body feeling lighter, his senses heightened to a degree that was almost overwhelming. He could hear the scratching of rats in the walls. He could smell the ozone from the coming storm over the Abyssal Reach.
He looked at his status screen.
[Current Rank: Dormant (Peak)]
[Current Class: Beast (1 Core)]
[Next Talent Unlock: Sovereign Tutor (Locked until Rank: Awakened, Class: Monster)]
"I need to hunt," he whispered. "Before the Hegemony sends their 'Inspectors' to investigate the Stone's destruction, I must have the strength to stand my ground."
He knew exactly where to go. The Grey Weald a strip of forest that acted as a buffer between the Valerius estate and the true Abyssal Reach. It was filled with Tier-1 beasts: "Shadow-Stalkers" and "Blight-Hounds."
In his first life, he had been terrified of the Weald. Tonight, he would enter it as its architect.
As he prepared to leave the library, he stopped by a rack of practice weapons. He picked up a simple, steel training sword. To his eyes, the sword was full of flaws impurities in the steel, a slight imbalance in the hilt.
[Structural Analysis: Tool Optimization possible.]
He gripped the hilt, and for a moment, his mana flowed into the steel. He couldn't "fix" the sword permanently yet, but he knew exactly how to swing it to compensate for its weight. He performed a single, basic "Sentinel Strike."
WHOOSH.
The air in the library whistled as the blade cut through it with a precision that would have made a Master-Rank swordsman weep.
"I have the mind of a god and the body of a child," Cian muttered, a cold smile touching his lips. "It's time to balance the scales."
He vanished into the shadows of the hallway, heading toward the secret postern gate. The world of Oros didn't know it yet, but the Scholar was no longer interested in books. He was interested in the Source Code of power.