Kain closed he eyes and gradually slowed his breathing.
With his eyes closed he was able to focus on his internal space and the shining white star within its center. It was almost invisible among the dense cloud of red spiritual power floating around it.
This loose spiritual power is what he’d need to condense to form a second star.
Gradually, Kain began to consciously control the free spiritual power and tried to drag it all to a spot next to his current star.
“Haa….Haaaa”
It was much more difficult than condensing his first star. He hadn’t even fully controlled all of the red gas to a single location but he was already sweating and gasping for air.
‘Bea officially reached red-grade, rewarding me with 100 GP. Should I have just bought the 2-star guaranteed advancement card’
‘No! Don’t think about what ifs! Focus on now!
Gritting his teeth he finally got all of his spiritual power into a ball that couldn’t be further condensed.
But he couldn’t relax for a second. If he did then the spiritual power he worked so hard to gather would immediately disperse
He slowly began to apply a rotational force to the ball he formed. The speed had to be just right to achieve the necessary internal pull so that the particles would not fly away and form a star.
‘Too fast!… Slower…slower…’ Kain eased up a bit on the strength he used to draw the spiritual power together and could immediately sense that they were about to disperse.
Quickly he exerted control again.
‘Argh! Now it’s too slow…No wonder it took Bridge over a day to finish condensing his second star’
He couldn’t sense at all how much time had passed in his mental space, but he was getting exhausted.
Rather than a test of spiritual power control, every advancement level is moreso a test in mental fortitude and perseverance.
Back and forth, Kain went through the agonizingly boring process of perfecting the speed of rotation before relaxing control to see if the spiritual power would disperse.
‘Argh! I can’t give up!! Just a little more!’
Finally, when Kain slightly relaxed control the star didn’t immediately begin to disperse.
Seeing this, he slowly began to relax the rest of his control over the star, hoping that it wouldn’t suddenly collapse.
Before his eyes was a spinning glowing red pearl.
‘So beautiful.’ Kain felt as though he’d cry looking at the second star. Whether it was actually because it was that beautiful or he was just overcome with emotion from finally succeeding, it was unknown.
Gradually he could sense a connection between his first and second stars.
The red spiritual power began to infiltrate the white star, making it red.
If Bea had been able to absorb spiritual power within the star space like the average contract, then she’d have experienced a boost in her cultivation speed at this moment.
In return, the energy of his affinity from the first star slowly began to transform the environment of the new star, making it inhabitable for future contracts that meet the conditions of his affinity.
However, unlike Bea’s star which was tailored to fit her, this star was in the same ambiguous state as right after his affinity ceremony.
As of this moment, Kain was officially a 2-star beast-tamer and could bind a second spiritual creature.
‘If I can find one…’
Relieved to finally be finished with the agonizing process, he opened his eyes and was immediately assaulted by a horrible smell—him
After the sudden increase in strength, his body must be trying to purify itself.
He hopped up to take a shower after making a call to the front desk to please come and change his bedsheets.
When he left the steaming bathroom he felt like a brand-new person, clean from the inside out.
He went to his cell phone on the dresser to check the date and time.
Thankfully, only one day had passed. It was now the evening before the entrance test. He hadn’t missed it.
‘Dinner time in the cafeteria should be ending, if I don’t want to go to bed starving, I better hurry down now.’
When he arrived at the cafeteria he was surprised to find Bridge still there eating dinner. He was chatting with the siblings he had left him with yesterday.
Kain quickly filled a plate up with what remained from the buffet, and headed over.
Bridge looked at him excitedly, “How did it go?!”
“2-stars” He replied while making a V with his fingers. He may have acted a little more smugly if there weren’t strangers at the table.
“I knew you’d be able to do it! Guys, this is the brother I was telling you about that got an S-rating. Kain, these are Addison and Aiden—twins” Bridge said while pointing at Kain and then the pair of boy-girl fraternal twins at the table.
They looked like male and female versions of each other with the same light blue hair and blue eyes.
The other 2 also looked at Kain curiously. After all, there were reportedly only 26 students to receive an S-rating this year.
They nodded at each other as Kain sat next to Bridge and began devouring his food like a starved beast. He listened as the others talked.
“It’s good that you advanced to 2 stars before the test, Kain. We were just talking about how the applicants this year seems to be higher than the last few years.”
Aiden nodded, “The exam 5 years ago that killed nearly 600 students, scared off a lot of potential applicants in the years that followed. Making Dark Moon have the second lowest number of applicants, only above Frozen Sun College in the north”
Addison continued, “The numbers have been gradually recovering each year and now they are almost at the level as before 5 years ago. Last I heard the 6000th applicant registered this morning”
“Do have any information on what the exam might be?” Bridge asked. After all, these twins seemed much better informed than he and Kain.