Lainus stared at the orb sitting in his palm.

  'Why the chest? Wouldn't the hand work just as well?'

  The question puzzled him. From the fragments of information he'd gathered while locked in the cage at the slave marketplace, he'd once heard some mystics saying they absorbed Spiritual Orbs using their hands.

  "Are you going to stare at it all day?" The instructor's voice came sharp. Her patience was clearly running out.

  Lainus took deep breath. 'I should ask her later when she's in a better mood. Getting on her bad side now won't help.'

  Without another word, he pressed the cool sphere against the center of his chest, right where he could feel the faint warmth of his newly formed spiritual core.

  The orb felt solid for a moment. Then Lainus felt pale white energy radiating from it — somehow similar to his essence in the Essence Stone.

  Lainus waited, uncertain. Nothing was happening. He'd thought it would be absorbed in a blink, just like it had appeared...

  Nina's voice cut through his confusion.

  "Are you feeling the radiating energy of the orb?"

  "Good. Now focus on your spiritual core. Give an internal command to your core— let the essence inside your Essence Stone flow outward toward the orb. Your essence will recognize what it needs to do."

  Her voice was flat, the tone of someone who had watched many trainees overthink simple instructions.

  Command the essence? Wait—how? Do I just think about it inside my spiritual core and the core will follow the command?

  Lainus lifted his eyes slightly toward the instructor. She was looking at him with a bored, impatient gaze.

  'More questions won't help. I need to try rather than overthink.'

  Lainus took a small breath and closed his eyes.

  He turned his awareness inward, following that familiar warmth he'd felt during his awakening.

  It took a few seconds, but then he found it — the small, fragile seed floating in the darkness of his inner world. The nine-sided crystal at its center glowed faintly with pale white essence, filled to almost halfway. Energies flowed around it like dancing waves, moving toward the Essence Stone but not being absorbed, they continued overflowing, circling aimlessly in the surrounding space.

  Once again, his consciousness was inside his spiritual core.

  ''Now... let the essence flow out.'

  His consciousness gave a small command, focusing toward the small seedling.

  At first, nothing happened.

  'I guess it isn't as easy as this...'

  Then—

  Suddenly, the essence inside his Essence Stone moved.

  It was sluggish, reluctant, like trying to push water uphill. But it moved.

  A thin thread of pale white energy flowed out from the Essence Stone, traveling through the hollow seedling and going outward through the invisible channels that connected his spiritual core to his body.

  Lainus felt the essence flowing outward from his chest, but it wasn't going anywhere. He focused more, sending it toward his skin.

  The moment it touched the spiritual orb—

  The essence pouring from his chest began to revolve around the small sphere, surrounding it slowly.

  As more pale white essence poured out, completely enveloping the orb, something felt different. The Spiritual Orb began to stir. It didn't change shape or strengthen; instead, it began to weaken, its form fading under the strain.

  Seeing this, the instructor gave a small nod of approval.

  "Not bad. You're a fast learner. Now send more essence to weaken the orb further. When it's very weak, try to draw the essence backward to your core—with the orb inside it."

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  'Draw the essence backward? At least try to be more detailed...'

  Undeterred, he commanded the seedling to pour more essence outward.

  Lainus noticed the essence inside the rice-sized crystal was draining slowly, losing more with each command he gave to send it toward his chest. But he continued regardless, pouring his essence into the slowly weakening spiritual orb, repeating the same grueling process.

  Several minutes passed. It wasn't a long time, but it was agonizing — Lainus had to maintain constant focus inside his core.

  The Essence Stone inside had been depleted to only ten percent. The energies circling inside the core began to be absorbed by the Essence Stone to refill it slowly. As the stone drew in more energy towards it, new energies appeared from the invisible channels, filling the depleted space.

  The spiritual orb in Lainus's hand had already weakened greatly. After being infused with over thirty-two percent of his essence, its once vibrant aura had dulled significantly. The small green wolf inside trembled, curling in on itself as if trying to hide — like a cornered beast losing its will to fight.

  Lainus could somehow sense through his essence that the orb was very weakened. He waited for Nina's instruction, hoping for more detailed information about the next step.

  But no voice came.

  Confused, Lainus opened his eyes quickly.

  The muscular woman was gone.

  The other slaves were still training with their weapons in the courtyard, but the instructor was nowhere to be seen.

  'Huh, where is she? Did she get bored and leave? That bitch... I'm at the most important step...' Lainus couldn't help but feel irritated every time he thought about her sudden disappearance.

  Realizing he was alone and had to proceed without a clear guide, he quickly closed his eyes again, moving his consciousness back into the inner world of his core. He didn't want to find out what would happen if he stopped pouring essence toward the spiritual orb.

  'I guess I have to do this alone... I need to absorb the essence backward toward my core. It sounds easier than it actually is.'

  He commanded his seedling inside the core: 'Draw the essence.'

  Nothing happened.

  He tried to command it in other ways. Still nothing happened.

  'The core isn't responding... Do I need to do it myself? But how?'

  He took a calming breath while keeping his eyes closed. He could still feel his essence on his chest, warmly touching his skin. He imagined sucking it backward in his mind.

  Something trembled.

  His core began drawing back the essence he had poured out, reversing the stream, channeling the flow backward.

  The spiritual orb in Lainus's hand shimmered faintly, its resistance vanishing. Bit by bit, it unraveled into raw essence, flowing through his veins like liquid flame, pulled through invisible roots toward a channel inside his body that led inside to his core.

  Lainus was shocked. He hadn't expected it to work.

  'What... It actually worked? It was simpler than I thought. I just had to imagine it.'

  The liquid energy of the dissolved orb flowed inward, streaming through invisible channels back toward his chest. It entered his spiritual core like water finding its way home — unhurried, inevitable.

  Lainus expected it to be absorbed by the Essence Stone, just like the other energies that came from outside the core. But instead, it flowed past the crystal entirely.

  The small, hollow, leafless seedling began to absorb it.

  The hollow seedling floated in the darkness as before, but now it was slowly drawing in all the orb's essence around it — gluttonous, hungry, pulling everything the dissolved orb had toward itself.

  The seedling's surface trembled. A subtle shift, barely perceptible — like the first crack in an eggshell from the inside.

  The essence swirled around the seedling surface, condensing, taking shape. The pale-white and shadow energies merged, layered, crystallized into something new.

  And then—

  A single, small leaf sprouted from the seedling's surface.

  It was translucent, ghostly, tinged with faint traces of purple and shadow. Within the leaf's surface, Lainus could see the faint outline of the small wolf, curled in slumber, wisps of shadow flowing through leaf veins, one golden eye still half-open, watching.

  The leaf glowed with a pale white aura that pulsed faintly around it, like breath.

  Lainus stared at it in curiosity, his consciousness hovering in the darkness of his inner world.

  It was done.

  The spiritual orb was finally absorbed.

  Why a seedling? A leaf? Those questions came to his mind, until a voice from outside broke through his concentration.

  "Oh, you've finally absorbed the Gloom Wolf Orb. I thought you were going to take all day."

  Lainus opened his eyes.

  Nina stood before him like a towering mountain. The moment she saw his eyes open, she tossed another spiritual orb toward him without ceremony.

  It hit the ground near his feet.

  "Take it. That's the Spitfang Viper Orb. It'll give you another spiritual ability called Toxic Slime, lets you spit poison when you activate it. You can coat weapons with it or put it in food to kill someone." Her words were rushed, clipped. She clearly didn't want to waste more time on this new slave. She'd already helped him more than necessary.

  She crossed her arms, her expression hard.

  "As for the first one I gave you was the Gloom Wolf Orb gives you an ability called Shadow Step. It lets you move instantly through shadows. Short-range teleportation, basically. Fast movement when you need it."

  Her tone was flat; she spoke fast, matter-of-fact.

  "You activate them the same way you absorbed the orbs. Give the command. Focus. Intent matters more than words. Train yourself to use them before the competition, you'll need to do it properly if you want to survive."

  She paused, her gaze darkening.

  "With that, the basics are done. Unless you're really stuck while training or dying, don't you ever dare to bother me, especially with stupid questions.Try to figure things out by yourself. If you waste my time..." Her eyes narrowed. "I'll break every bone in your body. Understand?"

  Lainus tried to absorb every word she said with his already exhausted mind.

  'At least explain things slowly...'

  But outwardly, he nodded quickly, his expression fearful and compliant.

  "Y-Yes, Master. I understand. Thank you for... for guiding me."

  She turned away without another word, walking back toward the other trainees.

  Lainus watched her go, his dark eyes cold.