Inside a 100-square-meter enclosed chamber, a figure cloaked in gusts of green wind moved rapidly as hundreds of laser beams shot out at him from all directions.
Jumping, crouching, and dodging, the figure performed all sorts of movements at a speed impossible for ordinary level 10 warriors to even perceive. He weaved through the laser beams without being hit, gradually approaching the end of the room.
Suddenly, five laser beams fired at him simultaneously from every direction except below.
Azrael's Infinite Comprehension trait instantly began analyzing the moving trajectories of the beams, but even with his trait, it was impossible to calculate the paths of all five in less than a second.
At that moment, Azrael's eyes glowed with a faint white light and the beams that had been racing toward him like bullets slowed down in his perception.
At the same time, his visionary senses sharpened to an entirely new level, allowing him to see the beams moving in slow motion. His Infinite Comprehension trait quickly processed the trajectories and provided him with the precise results needed to dodge them.
Stepping a few centimeters to his right, he jerked his head backward to avoid the beam coming from his left. Similarly, he executed four more precise movements in rapid succession, narrowly dodging the remaining beams.
Because of high intensity movements, each dodge strained his muscles like coiled steel about to snap.
Even though his muscles strained to their limits after the dodge, he did not stop and immediately pushed forward.
While weaving past the other beams filling the chamber, he finally reached the end of the chamber and pressed the buzzer.
The instant his hand touched it, all the beams stopped firing and Azrael collapsed onto the floor, panting heavily.
The chamber he was in was actually a reaction training room located within his mansion, created specifically to enhance the reaction speed of its users.
It had been five days since he embedded the Nether Wind Substance. After doing so, aside from attending only a few crucial classes such as those teaching about the various regions of the world, the Eonrift, the other species, and methods to fight against them—he skipped most of the others, including close combat, weapon training, energy control, and more.
Normally, Ronald would never have allowed him to neglect so many important lessons. However, after Azrael demonstrated that he had already mastered all those subjects on his own, Ronald did not say anything further and simply allowed him to act as he wished.
One noticeable thing was that during the theory classes he did attend, his fellow students—those whom he had previously mocked looked at him with cold, hostile eyes, as though they wanted to drag him into some back alley and beat him to death.
Azrael, however, paid no attention to their reactions. He completely ignored them and only conversed with Felix.
On the second day after embedding the substance, Azrael had reached the entry level in the SkyRift Essentia Art. He progressed faster than expected, thanks largely to the enlightenment room in his mansion.
Not only that, but in these five days, he also learned the meditation technique Ashara had given him.
Unlike ordinary skills that possessed mastery levels such as entry, middle, high and more, the meditation techniques were different.
They had no levels. Instead, they were designed to cultivate one's spiritual power and soul. To do this, the practitioner had to create a Rune Symbol within their consciousness space, following the exact method described in the technique.
The meditation technique Ashara had given him was called the Sun Moon and Star Sutra. It was the Throne family's exclusive meditation art, and no one outside the family was ever permitted to learn it. Even among meditation techniques, it was considered a top-tier method.
To create the Rune Symbol of this technique within his consciousness space, Azrael spent more than thirty hours inside the Spirit Room of the mansion, which was designed specifically to aid soul cultivation.
Of course, thirty hours was considered shockingly fast. Normally, people of class level wouldn't be able to form even a basic Rune Symbol from such a profound technique within their consciousness, even after months of effort.
Azrael succeeded because of three things: his unusually high spiritual power, his Infinite Comprehension trait, and the most importantly, his unyielding stubbornness that refused to allow him to give up despite repeated failures.
Now, whenever he wished to increase his spiritual power, all he needed to do was gaze upon the Rune Symbol within his consciousness.
In turn, it would exert tremendous pressure on his soul, thereby strengthening it and increasing his spiritual power. The Rune Symbol itself would continue to grow stronger and evolve alongside his spiritual power, keeping pace with his growth.
After mastering the meditation technique, the next thing Azrael did was learn True Focus. Because skill acquisition was comparatively simple for him, he mastered the entry level of the skill in less than a single day.
Inside the reaction speed room, he had just tested the effects of True Focus and the results were even better than he had imagined.
Normally, he wouldn't have been able to dodge those five simultaneous beams. But by combining True Focus with his Infinite Comprehension trait, he successfully evaded attacks that would have been nearly impossible for even regular Epic-level warriors to avoid.
On top of that, thanks to the Nether Wind Substance, which doubled the strength of his wind powers, his agility had also risen considerably. The speed-enhancing buff provided by his wind powers was now far stronger than before.
After learning True Focus, he even attempted to increase the level of his Breathing Method.
However, he gave up after just a few hours. The reason was simple—his spiritual power was far too weak to refine the 41st primary energy vein.
He had successfully located the vein, but when he tried to refine it, he realized the process was agonizingly slow.
To complete it, he would need to persist for at least fifteen days, working six hours each day to fully refine the vein.
At this stage, wasting so much time on a single refinement was foolish. Once his spiritual power increased, the process would become drastically faster. Thus, he wisely decided to put the Breathing Method on hold for now.
In short, during these five days, he had worked even harder than cosmic donkeys and managed to complete most of the critical tasks he needed.
At present, he could not advance any further in the SkyRift Essentia Art.
Essentia Arts were fueled by a user's power, and for now, the entry-level SkyRift Slash was the limit of what Azrael's wind power could manage. To progress further, he would need to at least reach the Epic rank, which would make his cosmic energy far stronger and thereby enhance his wind powers as well.
As for True Focus, increasing its level at this stage would also be unwise. Once upgraded to the middle level, the strain it would place on Azrael's mind and eyes would increase drastically, making it difficult for him to use effectively before raising his overall level.
"Now, the only thing left is to increase my source core level and start practicing the Unyielding Body," Azrael muttered in a low voice as he stood up.
"But before that…" He pulled out his student ID card and looked at the message Mira had sent him five days ago.
"Today is the day I will be meeting her."