Three and a half hours later
"I'm almost there…"
He was close to what would become a turning point for Seran.
"I just need to find the right acceleration rhythm and that's it…"
His pupils, already silver, began to take on a reddish hue.
His cells seemed to go mad, his metabolism accelerated, muscle recruitment became faster.
"There it is… I can feel it, my body…"
And inside him, a surge of energy was taking place. If someone had performed an ultrasound on his body, a silver flow with red glimmers would have been seen coursing through him, completing a cycle within.
"Thum… Thum… Thum…" a drum in his chest.
Pulling out a core,he began the absorption.
A new surge of energy flooded his system.
They seemed to have become tiny black holes, ravenous for nourishment.
But this time, his mitochondria never stopped throughout the entire process.
A sense of wonder filled him, an euphoria that ran down his spine.
For achieving something that could overturn the very principles governing the Tower world.
"AHAHAHAHAHA" echoed through the mana chamber.
And as if seized by a fit of madness, he began absorbing cores one after another.
An efficiency impossible for any other Tower.
After a few minutes, he stopped.
Deep silence, still shaken by what he had achieved.
"10 months… No… 6 if I also count the mana absorbed from the air…"
Standing up, he looked at the watch he always wore on his wrist.
He still had an hour and a half left.
"If I can accelerate my homeostasis, why not slow it down…"
And biting his finger,blood began to flow.
Reversing the flow of energy within his body,bluish glimmers appeared within his silver.
And the bleeding from his finger visibly slowed down,almost stopping.
"If used properly, this new technique isn't just useful for my saturation… it could directly change my fighting style…"
After several experiments, he understood how to best exploit this new technique.
"By accelerating, I can improve my body's physical capabilities—faster muscle recruitment, quicker healing… while by slowing down, I can reduce bleeding and lactic acid production…"
His creativity and ingenuity became the next limit to overcome.
But like all mana-based techniques, energy consumption remained an obstacle.
His vessel, if overstressed, would build pressure due to this artificial rhythm.
Using the last half hour at his disposal, he pushed his mind, body, and mana to their limits.
"Chrono Cognition."
Everything slowed—except his mind.
He raised a hand.
The time between thought and action was in a ratio of 1 to 3.
"Myoforce Resonance."
As he named his new technique, a red-stained silver colored his eyes.
The gap between mind and body shrank to a ratio of 2 to 3.
And by coating his hand in neutral mana, that difference disappeared entirely.
"Balance between perception and action… finally."
Satisfied with the result,
If he fought the T2 again, he would be able to keep up with far less effort and pain.
He began to move.
One step.
The air shifted.
Another.
The speed at which he moved was something entirely new.
He had reached the speed of a T2 while still being an F1.
And if increasing speed means greater acceleration—
And if physics still existed in this world beyond humanity—
The force of his blows increased as a natural consequence.
Rotating his torso, legs firm, shoulders relaxed,
He threw a punch into the air.
A sound followed the movement—the air itself seemed to tear.
And he continued wildly, carried by this new sensation of power.
"Beep… Beep… Beep."
An alarm rang through the Mana Chamber. Time was up.
Shutting off his mana, fatigue crashed over Seran. The excessive use of two techniques and mana had taken its toll.
The water within his vessel had been drained.
And as if pierced by a thousand needles, his container ached.
"Prolonged use still isn't sustainable…" he thought to himself.
Struggling out of the Forge, he returned to his apartment.
During the taxi ride, uses, approaches, and tactics tangled in his mind.
"Short bursts to break the rhythm…"
After showering and making himself comfortable, a terrifying hunger struck him.
"Grrr…"
He ordered takeout: 5 burgers, 2 pizzas with fries, 3 chocolate lava cakes, and a large cola.
"Looks like my appetite increased too…" he smirked to himself.
Scrolling through his phone while lying on his beloved couch,
He accepted a contract for the following day.
Simple. Nothing complicated.
Something that could serve as a test of his current abilities.
100 T0 kills.
Outside patrol block Theta.
With a full stomach, the fatigue from the day's training caught up to him as he reached his bed.
And thinking, he said:
"Three things I gained today: time, Myoforce Resonance… and greater control over my mana…"
Shortly after, he fell asleep.
A forest familiar to him appeared before his eyes.
This was where he had faced his Trigger.
The vegetation was dense and green, just as he remembered it, sunlight struggling against the thick canopy of branches.
Glancing at his phone, he reviewed the contract details.
"3 km west, a canine settlement…" he muttered, puzzled, knowing well these creatures were solitary and highly territorial.
Running through the trees, senses alert to any threat, after 15 minutes a wide open plain appeared before him.
The sight before him was unusual.
Sharpening his gaze, he spotted around a hundred docile T0s, who had created a calm and peaceful habitat.
Studying how to approach the fight, he noticed several T1s at the center of the group.
"Probably the alphas of this improvised pack…"
Centering his breath, the massacre began.
"BOOOOM"—the air lashed as he passed through.
Drawing a backup sword, inferior to the one he had lost,
Fountains of blood sprayed into the air.
Heads, throats, limbs were severed like grass under a gardener's blade.
Chaos ruled among the creatures.
All they could perceive was a silver blur playing among them, killing them.
A trail that intermittently shimmered red.
"So slow… so easy…" Lag thought, dodging the attack of three canines in advance.
A roar filled the air.
The T1s were about to act.
Five beasts that individually posed no threat—but together, with what remained of the pack, made things more complicated… and more exciting.
"Now this is more like it," he said aloud.
Ramping up, he launched himself through a group of T0s blocking his path.
Like an arrow, he split them apart.
Flesh and entrails trailed behind him.
With his free hand, he launched a wave of mana at the first T1, blasting it away.
He threw a grenade toward the rest of the group to divide them.
An explosion struck them, leaving them stunned.
He quickly drove his blade into the head of the first canine.
Four remained.
But something changed.
A yellow aura wrapped around them, their eyes glowing with the same color.
Their bodies expanded, as if pumped full of steroids.
"First time I've seen something like this…"
Suddenly, they began moving in his slowed world.
"They got faster!!!"
For the first time, his untouchability ended.
A claw struck the blade defending him.
"What the hell?! Why are my contracts never what they're supposed to be?!"
Enraged, the fight turned into pure violence, strength, and ferality.
With a slash, he severed a limb from one; a sidestep and thrust took another's head.
In response, the remaining three mutated further.
Their aura intensified, claws lengthened, physical power increased.
"Again?!" Lag exclaimed, dodging their increasingly ferocious assaults.
They had reached a movement speed close to his.
His defense began to falter over time, small wounds appearing across his body.
His breath grew tighter.
"At this rate, I'll have to retreat…"
The numerical disadvantage was dictating the rhythm of the fight, but human intelligence and his equipment kept it nearly even.
Another explosive grenade cushioned the pressure of the mutated T1s.
Searching for a solution, Seran's mind raced.
"I could go faster… but I'd risk running out of energy…"
He deflected another strike.
"What if I don't need to be faster… but make them slower?"
Inspiration struck.
Stepping back to create space, he released his time mana into the air.
A sphere no larger than 5 meters surrounded him.
Just like his internal cycle, he moved the energy with the same rhythm.
A silver mana field, tinged with blue, was formed.
The moment a T1 entered it, its once deadly movements slowed—like moving through gelatin.
Only Seran moved freely within it.
Like a fish in a river, while the beast was a rock sinking in water.
In less than a second, his blade was soaked in blood once more.
"Incredible… it's like the world stopped outside of me…"
With a gaze lit by this new power,
He moved again.
The remaining three monsters, despite their mutation, could do nothing.
Lag was no longer just the master of his own time—
but, in part, of others' as well.