Above the pond that was Almond’s Soul Sea, in front of his soul avatar, Almond finally finished constructing a well with a whirlpool of soul energy spiraling inside it.
Soul Refinement Well. It took him three hours to build it after learning the sequences to create its formation.
The well absorbed all soul energy, so his soul sea was empty.
The absorbed soul energy in the well was going through changes according to the construction of the well, but it wasn’t over until he infused Wild Prana in it.
*Swoosh!*
The moment he added wild Prana in the well from outside, it turned into a hazy storm of blue-golden flames.
‘The scroll mentioned that a soul avatar must be dipped in the well and get refinement. There’d be pain, but that’s normal.’
Almond looked at the well and moved his soul avatar.
The flames raged like a storm within the well, and it wouldn’t stay like that for long.
It would stay for ten minutes, and he had to get as much refinement as possible in this session.
Usually, people would dip the soul avatar’s legs slowly because the pain could be hellish. However, Almond had different plans.
‘Fuck slow. I am going to dip my entire avatar in it.’
Without hesitation, Almond dipped his soul avatar entirely into the well. Read exclusive chapters at My Virtual Library Empire
“Arghhhhhhhh!!!”
Almond’s physical body lit up like a match with the same flames as he rolled around in the room with hellish pain tormenting every fiber of his body.
Maybe it was a bad idea to dip his entire soul avatar, but Almond was in no shape or form to do anything else as the pain had overwhelmed him.
The flames inside the well pierced through his soul avatar and wreaked havoc everywhere.
The worst that could happen to him at the moment was Soul Suspension—A type of death. His soul could literally move out of his body and vanish. Dead.
But Soul Suspension would only occur if someone wished to stop the pain and gave up… something which Almond was never going to do no matter how much pain tormented him.
This wasn’t even a brain-perceiving-pain type of pain, but his soul-burning pain. It directly reflected on his body, but the flames on his body were fake. They didn’t burn anything in the room, not even his clothes, as it was just visual connectivity of his body with his soul.
He screamed and rolled around in the room for five minutes, but not once did the thought of giving up occur to him as all he desired was getting stronger so he could return as soon as possible.
The flames in the Soul Refinement Well were diminishing slowly while his Soul Avatar was becoming more powerful in the process.
After the first five minutes, Almond was finally able to have clear thoughts as he got used to the pain a bit, but becoming conscious of thinking only fueled the pain more.
‘Fuck, fuck, fuck! GODDAMN, IT HURTS!’
Almond ground his teeth so much, that he actually broke his teeth and gums and began bleeding in his mouth, but that pain was nothing in comparison to the pain felt by his soul.
Still, he composed himself and sat down cross-legged.
He then sat still in silence for the remaining time until the flames in the Soul Refinement Well finished refining his soul avatar.
Almond could already feel powerful. His soul sea’s size, which was of a pond, had already become ten times bigger.
‘Wait, ten times bigger?’ Almond was taken aback and quickly checked his soul avatar before he was shocked and then overjoyed.
— Soul Constitution: 142
Almond clenched his fist.
The goal was to reach 1000 in all stats. Now that he reached a hundred plus in Soul Constitution, it was time to make progress in other things.
He shuddered a bit when thinking about the next soul refinement session, which was a perfectly normal response, but that was all.
Almond stood up and stretched his body before walking towards the door.
It was time to leave and enter the academy.
…
Academy’s Central Lobby.
It was a huge hall with different sections and many students coming and going through doors.
There were a lot of doors, but at the corner was a patch of doors. Five rows and five columns, a total of 100 doors with a distance of 5 meters between each of them.
People were coming out of the door, as these were called connectivity doors, allowing students to return to Central Lobby from other places.
People were emerging from the door every now and then and then came Almond from one of the doors.
Almond looked around, and he didn’t have time to get impressed either as he went to the central circular table with big letters floating on top [ Want Help About Anything? Come here.]
“…”
It was a desk for inquiries and to help with any issues for the student.
Almond arrived there and felt the gazes of many people. It appeared that people recognized him.
After all, he just took first place in the Newbie Survival Event.
Behind the desk, eight people were facing eight directions outward and helping students with their inquiries as they approached them.
Almond arrived in front of a lady with a fishhead and ten tentacles and said, “I want to get my rewards. First, I want to visit the Phantom Library.”
“Almond Crowshade,” the lady smiled and handed him a wristband. “This wristband is your student ID. Wear it.”
The wristband of the Survival Event had already vanished when he exited the event dimension, so Almond wore it in his right hand.
[Almond Crowshade]
-Lifeform Rank: Mortal
-Ability Power: SSS
-Academy Points: 10,000
-Facility Usage:
—> 50 Hours in Vitalis Crucible Tower.
—> 1 x entry in the Phantom Tower.
—> 1 x All-Facility Pass.
“You see that big black door with blue and gold patterns? The one that’s 20 meters wide? That will lead you to the Phantom Library.”
“Thanks.”
Almond left and entered through the open door that just showed hazy energy, mainly spatial.
Upon going through it, he arrived on a cobblestone ground with minor grass growing.
In front of him, a hundred meters away, was a massive black structure, looking regal and scholarly with its design and patterns.
Phantom Library.