Edward Vistro inscribed the fifth circle into his mana core, advancing to the mid level of the apprentice stage. In the Luminaris Kingdom, anyone would call such a feat impossible, physically incomprehensible to achieve in a short period of time. Even a talented young noble would normally spend months, sometimes an entire year, just stabilizing their first circle. They would study under tutors and consume costly potions to fix their mana channels, all to do what Edward did in less than an hour.
But as the fifth circle's light settled in his core, Edward wasn't happy. He just felt annoyed.
"Too slow," he said, his voice rough in the cell.
Anyone else would call that progress amazing, but Edward remembered a thousand lives. He was using a stolen cultivation technique from Elfheim he now calls the Refined Human-Elf Synthesis Technique. At its best, this Elven method could pull mana from the air like a star collapsing. If he opened his channels all the way, he could hit the Adept stage before noon.
But Edward cared about efficiency, not just strength. He knew his current body—a weak, 15 year old's frame—wasn't ready. Cultivating isn't just about mana only, it's also about how strong your body is. If he accelerated the flow any further, the friction of the mana against his untempered body would cause him to spontaneously combust from the inside out. Right now, he was held back by his own body.
To reach the speeds he was used to, he needed to temper his body, something he couldn't do at his current cultivation stage. So, for now, he'd have to settle for being a thousand times faster than anyone else.
Edward shut his eyes, checking his power. Before his most recent death at the hands of the Demon Lord, he had power few in history could even comprehend. He was at the peak level of the Mage Emperor stage.
Now, In the modern era of the seven kingdoms, the word 'Emperor' was a title of political rank, but for a real cultivator, it was a serious goal. To reach the peak of the Mage Emperor stage, you needed exactly one billion mana circles in your core.
It got harder and harder. The first ten circles were easy, but as your core filled up, each new circle needed more mana and a better touch. The core had limited space, so you had to compress the energy into harder shapes. By the millionth circle, the pressure in your core could crush a mountain; at a billion, it was like a tiny sun, held in place by your will.
Edward thought about the Western Continent. People here were like kids playing with toys. His father, the Marquis, was strong for the kingdom, but he was only at the peak of the True Mage stage, with just 1,000 circles. The strongest man in the kingdom, the High Priest of the Church of Light, was an Early-level Archmage, with maybe ten thousand circles inscribed within his core.
To Edward, that was nothing.
Testing his current limits, Edward released a pulse of his spiritual sense. The invisible wave of mental energy went past the cell walls and into the gardens.
He frowned. Just Three kilometers.
At his peak as a Mage Emperor, his spiritual sense could sweep across 100 million kilometers, allowing him to monitor the movements of demon armies across entire star systems if he so desired. Now, he could barely see the guards at the end of the hall.
He had reached that level in just eighty years in his last life, trying to stop the apocalypse of the Demon Lord. And he knew it was coming again. The Great Demon War would start in seventy-seven years.
He had time, but not much. The Demon Lord had beaten him before because he was simply weaker. But this time, he would build his core not just with a vast amount of energy, but with a quality far greater than anything he had ever reached before, no matter what it takes.
Edward now took a deep breath, the air in the cell getting cold as he began the intake for the next level. The world's cultivation stages were divided into five distinct levels: Initial, Early, Middle, Late, and Peak.
Importantly, the cultivation stages went like this, The first being the Apprentice Stage, which required one to inscribe 1–10 Circles within their mana core. Then follows the Adept Stage, with 11–100 Circles, True Mage, with 101–1000 Circles, High Mage, with 1001–10,000 Circles, Archmage, with 10,001–100,000 Circles, and so on.
To ascend through the cultivation ranks, one had to pull in mana, filter it, condense it into a thin thread, and then carve it into your core.
Edward started to pull.
The mana in the cell was pulled to him, making the dust on the floor glow.
He started Inscribing the Sixth Circle.
The pain came back, a burning in his chest as the ring tried to attach to his core. Edward focused, ignoring the pain. He used the Celestial Needle technique to weave the circle into the core with vibrations, instead of just cutting it.
The sixth circle clicked into place.
The pressure changed. A hum went through the floor. Edward didn't stop. He was close to the Apprentice stage's Late-level. Most people would stop here for a month to recover.
Edward just sat up straighter.
"In my six-hundredth life, I was a slave in the Solterra mines for ten years because I was too weak," Edward thought, his eyes flashing. "Such weakness is long dead."
He grabbed a lot of mana and compressed it into a liquid-blue drop.
This was dangerous. To reach the Late-level, the Seventh Circle had to go deeper, acting as an anchor. If the anchor was bad, the core would break when he reached the Archmage stage.
He moved the mana toward his core. The Null-Stones within the cell walls strained, trying to stop the energy.
Steady.
The Celestial Needle started working. Edward's heart beat hard from the strain of holding the power.
One percent... ten percent... fifty percent...
The Seventh Circle started to glow purple. It was bigger and more complex than the others, a combination of Elven and human skill. It wrapped around the core, connecting the previous six circles.
Ninety-nine percent...
BOOM.
A silent shockwave went out from Edward, blowing out the torches down the hall. The rats in the walls died, unable to handle the pressure.
Edward breathed out a cloud of vapor.
The Seventh Circle was done.
Inside him, the core grew, making a low thrum like a war drum. He had officially ascended to the Late Level of the Apprentice Stage.
He looked at his hands. They were pale, covered in impurities that had been pushed out of him during the ascension. His body was already beginning to change, he was getting stronger, his senses now shaper.
"Seven circles," Edward whispered, grinning. "Three more, and I'll be at the peak. Then, the Adept stage starts. And then... Just like before, I'll show my father what happens when you lock a god in a cage."