Chapter 78: Vacuum

Eren’s heartbeat raced as he felt a coldness at the bottom of his feet.

His soles were freezing. A complete contrast to the warm sensation that covered his body whenever he used Ræzoň Reinforcement.

It was an entirely new sensation. Excitement bubbled up in his face as he realized what this meant.

Finding more courage in himself, Eren heaved himself up. He put all of his strength on his right leg to propel him diagonally upwards.

Slowly, his other leg lifted off the ground.

Eren found himself floating, with nothing but his right foot anchoring him to the wall. His entire body shivered. Like a muscle overworked and his nerves overstimulated from this new exertion in his body.

Negative Reinforcement!

It was a disorienting sensation. With his other foot off the ground, the wall now became his floor. It was where he felt most stable, as if gravity had turned completely sideways only for him.

But because he wasn’t used to this sensation, his body tried to use his muscles to overcompensate. It felt like he would fall if he didn’t tense his muscles.

Of course, that was only in his mind. A pure mental side-effect.

If he simply straightened his body, he’d find himself ’walking’ on the walls as if it was normal. Ræzoň ensured he wouldn’t fall.

As long as he Reinforced the top part of his foot, his soles would create an opposite force that would keep him ’vacuumed’ to the walls.

He knew his line of thinking was theoretically correct. Even the Venerable Ursine King’s personal account gave proof to the words he tried to convince himself.

But knowing it and experiencing it was two completely different things entirely.

The stiffness in his body and slight tremors from his overcompensation caused his foot to tip ever so slightly to the right.

It disrupted the perfect seal of the Negative Reinforcement vacuum. His feet lost all of its anchoring power to the wall, causing him to tumble awkwardly back down to the floor. It was a painful lesson on the back of his head.

"Heishtå," he cursed, scratching the aching sensation in his skull.

He wasn’t frustrated with the pain. But instead, he cursed at his own ability. He was so close! If he had only planted his other foot on the wall, he’d have perfectly utilized the Primal Step!

Eventually, he calmed himself down. Exhaustion had made him impatient.

He was resigned to practicing for three days straight before he thought he could achieve his first successful Negative Reinforcement.

But instead, he did it on his first try! It was a vindicating moment. He’d long thought his cultivation progress would forever be hampered by his lack of talent. It made the road to the pinnacle look farther and farther away.

This gave him hope. It put him on the same starting path as other cultivators in Immoræ. Comparable even to that of the Venerable Ursine King himself!

Amarantha would be proud of him; she always supported his dreams of reaching the pinnacle. Athan would be annoyed. But it didn’t matter. He was starting to feel like a real cultivator.

And it was all because of his new Aspect.

The [Primordial Fire] was the main cause of his success. It imbued his Reinforcement with a fiery effect, strengthening the Ræzoň he used, and in turn, caused the vacuum to become stronger as well.

The stronger the fire, the stronger ice. Two sides of the same coin, as the Venerable Ursine King said.

I underestimated the effects of the [Primordial Fire]. I didn’t think it would have such profound effects in my cultivation.

It strengthened his desire to obtain more of those Quintessence Fruits. Luckily, he’d already made an impression with the Lindbergs. If he ever met them, it’d be much easier to manipulate them into giving more of those ’useless’ fruits.

Anyway, there was a high chance he’d stumble upon one of their loot boxes as he continued along the License Exam. He just had to make sure he was the one who got to them first.

Focus, he reminded himself.

He hasn’t achieved Lower Proficiency in the Primal Step. He’d need to demonstrate a reliable display of Negative Reinforcement to achieve that rank of mastery.

Attaining that still required practice, repetition, dedication, and even more practice.

Satisfaction should not be achieved from simply standing on the walls. He made a mental resolution to never leave his room until he was able to walk along the wall’s surface with ease.

It was the lowest requirement. The Subterranean Burrows weren’t designed for examinees to demonstrate their skills. It was made to test them. It was made to push them to the limits and cull those who were not worthy to become an Awakener.

If his guess was correct, they’d be forced to traverse even harder terrain than a vertical wall.

He needed to master the Primal Step if he wanted to stand above others. To prove to these wanna-be cultivators what real cultivation looked like.

How dare they consume the fruits of their world?

Eren’s fire burned fervently. Armed with this motivation, he stood back up and enveloped his feet with Ræzoň, and his sole with Negative Reinforcement.

He took a step. And this time, he was able to steady himself.

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Three days had now passed since the conclusion of the First Test. Eren hadn’t left his room since yesterday.

A bead of sweat pooled from Eren’s forehead, before flowing sideways and dripping to the floor in a perfect 90 degree angle from his body.

He took a step forward. Then another, and another.

The walls of his dorm room were now smudged with scuff marks from his shoe. It was a masterpiece pointillism painting depicting his dedication during the past 24 hours.

Then, he jumped, landing perfectly a few feet in front of him, and still sticking on the side of the walls. It was a skill that he had only just mastered an hour ago.

He had officially achieved the Lower Proficiency rank of the Primal Step!