"Now, do you understand why I told you to stop practising Alchemy?"
Without hesitation, I nodded.
Alchemy had become perilous with the awakening of the Dead World.
I gazed at my father—with his long silver moustache and shining bald head, he looked like a brutal, fearless warrior.
So, imagine the terror of an existence that could frighten even a man like my father.
Without looking back, my father began putting on his coat.
"Theo, if you think this is the extent of the contamination, you are mistaken. If it weren't for the Abyss, we would have been affected far more."
After finishing with his coat, he turned to me with his usual cold expression.
"You know, Theo... the Abyss is forced to protect itself."
After a moment of hesitation, I finally asked the question that had been haunting me:
"Father, who defeated the Dead World and forced it to close?"
My father turned, spreading his hands to his sides.
"I don't know him, but I bet he is incredibly powerful."
Certainly, anyone who could defeat such an entity must be terrifying beyond measure.
My father's voice interrupted my thoughts again.
"Theo, you must not mention or speak of that entity once the barrier is down."
"Why?" I asked in surprise. "We are talking about it now and nothing has happened."
My father's shoulders slumped, and a look of awe appeared in his eyes.
"Are you stupid, Theo? We are inside the barrier right now; that's why you aren't affected."
I curled into myself from sheer embarrassment.
I couldn't understand why I was so distracted today.
It was painfully obvious why the barrier existed.
It seemed my father's goal wasn't to embarrass me, as he immediately deactivated the barrier.
As he prepared to leave, he said, "Theo, for these next two days, stop reading Alchemy and stop training. You are not allowed to sleep—especially since you read Alchemy today. What bad luck, man; the disaster struck on your very first day with Alchemy."
Truly, how unlucky can I get?
As I stood there, the sound of my father's footsteps faded away. He had gone.
Now, I had to figure out what to do for the next two days.
First, I had to clear my schedule: no training, no alchemy.
Honestly, without sleep or alchemy, things were going to get dull, especially without any training.
But I had to use these two days to obtain at least thirty energy points.
I immediately followed my father before he departed.
I caught up with him as he sat inside the carriage, ready to leave.
I spoke to him about the servant Cameron and his wife's illness; without hesitation, my father assured me he would take care of it within hours.
After that, I requested potions for mental recovery.
Once he gave me the potions, I left him and went to the servants, asking them to bring food to the training room.
After completing everything and washing up, I entered the training room.
As usual, it was desolate, with its dark well and liquid darkness.
I sat near the well.
Honestly, I started having hallucinations that eyes were watching me from beneath the well, but I immediately ignored those thoughts.
I sat in a comfortable chair—after all, who is the fool who would sit on the ground?
Eventually, your muscles would ache from the strain, and you'd be forced to break your concentration.
I began to meditate with my eyes open.
Meditation here was different; it required you to gather all your thoughts into a single idea, rather than the opposite.
Emptying your head of all thoughts is a very dangerous thing.
If you empty your mind, you become like a blank page, and anyone with a pen can write on those pages.
What makes it worse is closing your eyes.
The eye is considered a gateway to the soul and a defence as well.
When you close them during meditation, you are shutting down that gate.
Even if you survive, over time you will face insomnia, sleep issues, and mood swings.
Thus, those are fatal mistakes—especially emptying your mind of thoughts.
I began to gather all my thoughts into one: attracting that energy.
Immediately, that energy began to gather around me.
As it entered my body, I filtered it with my Green Flame.
After an hour of this, I stopped meditating.
I began to feel mental fatigue; that flame was consuming my mental capacity.
Although I could use my magical energy, there was no point in doing so, as it would leave me without any combat ability.
Especially since I can recover mental energy through potions, but I cannot recover my magical energy the same way—it is different from any other energy.