His torment lasted so long that he lost track of how much time had passed. With tears in his eyes, he spoke, "I think I've never been this close to death before."

  Tristan placed a hand on his head. Even with a terrible headache, he decided to reflect on what might have happened. He could only think of two possibilities.

  One was that his newly created breathing technique was poorly designed, which could result in an imbalance between the world's energy and his essence within his body, causing a collision that would damage his essence pathways.

  The other possibility was that his Light and Darkness breathing technique had been successful and was beginning to alter his essence pathways.

  ‘My essence veins, which were previously shaped by Fire cultivation, may have clashed with these alterations, causing part of my energy veins to be destroyed.’

  Tristan sighed. ‘I hope this damage isn’t so severe that it requires a divine physician to fix it.’

  He looked at the state of his body—he could barely move a finger. ‘It’s not as bad as being crushed to death, but the feeling is slightly familiar.’

  His sense of impending death told him he was holding onto life by a mere thread, and he felt he could die of exhaustion at any moment.

  He endured the agony until, after some time, the sound of his potential salvation finally reached his ears. The small feeding door opened after being shut for over a week.

  Tristan turned his small, battered body and began crawling, trying not to lose consciousness along the way.

  With great effort, he managed to reach the food plate. The 'food' was a mixture of flour, water, bones, cartilage, and fat that was no longer usable. Tristan grabbed that disgusting mass with his hands and began eating.

  He hoped this would keep him alive for the next few weeks.

  Tristan picked up one of the bones and started gnawing on it.

  ‘Should I continue practicing this new breathing technique? Even if I find a cure for my previous condition, this technique could cripple me by destroying my energy veins.’ For a moment, he doubted his goals.

  Tristan shook his head and punched the ground.

  ‘What am I thinking? I have no other choice; I must succeed!’

  His eyes glowed with conviction.

  ‘Besides, the Light breathing will increase my vitality, which will reduce my chances of dying from starvation.’

  When the bones were gone, and there was nothing left on his plate, he collapsed to the ground and fell into a deep sleep.

  Two weeks later, Tristan sat in his meditation position. He had spent the past weeks perfecting his breathing technique. Over time, he noticed small changes in his body. Because of this, he reached a few conclusions.

  First came the confirmation that his breathing technique was successful.

  His body had undergone changes that proved its success.

  Second, since the blockage in his cultivation had not yet been resolved, only the effects of a normal breathing technique would influence him. This meant there was now a connection between him and the elements of Light and Darkness. Theoretically, he could now create combat martial abilities and techniques.

  In this new scenario, his first goal was to master the Light element to create a diagnostic ability and discover what was wrong with his body.

  Stolen story; please report.

  (Light. Light represents order and change; Light is the element of life, nourishment, and fertility. Light is the structure that sustains the universe. Light is the beginning. Light reveals what is hidden and dark. Those who cannot find Light within themselves will never be able to master it.)

  After two months of studying and trying to interpret the information from the Divine Fragment artifact, this was what Tristan managed to understand. Although not everything was clear in his mind, he believed he had grasped the general idea. He split his new Light and Darkness cultivation technique to create a technique exclusive to Light to improve his focus.

  Another thing he developed was a foundation for his cultivation, something he learned while reading martial tales. It was that people who managed to relate a personal characteristic to one of the elemental foundations had an easier time learning cultivation.

  That’s why the Forest Sage told his apprentice, who would later become the renowned master Giant Slayer Axe, to become a nomad and embark on a journey, gaining life experiences that would enhance his martial arts comprehension.

  As the foundation for cultivating this element, Tristan chose the concept of 'Control.' After all, one of the things he desired most was to gain control over his own life. He knew better than anyone what it was like to have his life controlled by others.

  With all this, Tristan reached the following conclusions:

  ‘The upside of Light is that this element is very fast, revealing hidden things in an instant. However, this speed also makes it a difficult element to control, as it disperses easily. If one doesn’t have very strong control, the essence of this element will continue on its path against the conjurer’s will.’

  ‘Control and limitation.’ That was what he practiced, the key to mastering this element.

  "I think it’s time to put this knowledge into practice."

  Tristan stood up and began meditating. He repeated what he had learned about this many times.

  (Light. Light represents order and change; Light is the element of life, nourishment, and fertility. Light is the structure that sustains the universe. Light is the beginning. Light reveals what is hidden and dark. Those who cannot find Light within themselves will never be able to master it.)

  After a few moments of concentrating on what he had understood, he managed to feel the essence of this element within his own body and then made it resonate with the world around him.

  He extended his hand, and a small white light began to emerge from his palm.

  A broad smile spread across his face, and he celebrated in excitement. This made him lose focus, causing the light to disappear, but it didn’t diminish his joy because this was the possible first step toward healing his condition.

  Of course, things were still not easy. He found this element harder to control than Fire.

  Over time, his confidence in his new powers grew, and he decided it was time to develop a method for creating a diagnostic technique.

  He spent a long time working on this process and only concluded it five months after receiving his Divine Fragment from the Tales.

  The method he developed was simple but extremely difficult to execute.

  First, he needed to place his energy into an object. At this stage, he had to struggle with the power of Light to prevent it from escaping his control.

  The next step was to make the Light take the form of the object, then use his concentration to maintain the shape of the Light 'hologram' and guide it into his body.

  Finally, the last and most challenging step: he had to use his mystical senses to analyze the hologram while using another part of his concentration to prevent it from dissipating.

  All that effort was not in vain when he heard a sound he had never heard before confirming his success.

  [You created an ability]

  Tristan stood up and thought of the magic word to activate the runes.

  ‘Magush.’

  Then, once again familiar to him, golden runes appeared before his face.

  Name: Tristan

  Species: Human

  Age: 10

  Realm: Mortal

  Core: Solid Red (Blocked)

  Talents:

  Ability : [Tyrannical Eye]

  Artifacts: [Fragment from the book The Tales of the Creation of the Heavens and Earth]

  A great joy surged through his body; he fell to his knees, almost crying with emotion. If his heart hadn’t been broken so many times, he probably would have cried. For so long in his life, he thought he would never have an ability, and now he had one.

  Of course, it was a terrible ability, but it was still his. It had been earned with his blood and sweat while trapped in this filthy prison.

  "Let’s take a look."

  Ability name: [Tyrannical Eye]

  Rank: 1

  Element: Light

  His lips curled into a smile.

  A few more months passed, during which he tried to develop his diagnostic ability.

  Tristan discovered that the more he understood the elements that compose matter and their characteristics, the easier it was to analyze the holograms. This helped him compensate for his limited mystical senses.

  ‘All the contact I’ve had with biology since finishing high school came from doctor series and webtoons, but I doubt anything I learned from those sources is reliable. Fortunately, I took several chemistry courses in college.’ This proved vital for the process.

  After all his effort and dedication, he managed to improve the level of his ability.