Arian was overjoyed when her son, who had announced his very first night away from home, returned that evening. But when she heard that Kyle had successfully begun practicing a mana cultivation method, she went beyond being overjoyed and actually jumped into the air.

“The Violet Lightning Heaven-Striking Art?!”

“Do you know it?”

“N-no, I don’t.”

Arian was a spirit practitioner who had never studied martial arts. She smiled sheepishly for a moment, then beamed and swept Kyle into her arms.

“I don’t know what it is, but the name alone sounds impressive!”

“It’s a grade-three lightning mana cultivation method.”

“Amazing, simply amazing! My son really is a genius!”

Even without studying martial arts, she knew how remarkable it was for a ten-year-old who had only awakened his spiritual root that day to begin practicing a grade-three cultivation method from the grand library.

“I need somewhere to practice.”

“Use the basement!”

“But that’s our pantry.”

“I’ll move the food stores outside and have the basement converted into a cultivation room. No—actually, we should build a new cultivation room in the backyard instead. Don’t worry. Gladiheim has no shortage of craftsmen!”

Arian bounced up and down with Kyle in her arms. Only after she had spent quite some time doing so did he manage to escape her embrace.

Since his training room wasn’t ready yet, Kyle returned to his bedroom for now.

He didn’t lie down on the bed. There was still something he wanted to try. Sitting down on the floor, he tapped his thunder crystal necklace.

“Hey, come out.”

With an immediate crackle, the purple snake poked its head out. Kyle gazed into its eyes and extended a finger. As always, the snake coiled around it.

“Can’t you talk?”

[“F-finally.”]

As though it had been waiting for the question, the snake flicked its tongue and whispered.

[“Spiritual root, awakened. I... waited, long time.”]

“You’re not much of a talker.”

Kyle gave a dry chuckle and propped up his chin.

[“I young, and small.”]

“I know.”

Kyle had spent five years learning about spirit arts from Arian.

Spirits fell into four broad categories: lesser, intermediate, greater, and spirit kings, who ruled all spirits of a single element.

These were only broad classifications. Just as some lesser spirits were in the process of growing into intermediate spirits, below the lesser spirits were newly born infant spirits.

This lightning snake, drawn to the lightning energy in the thunder crystal, was an infant spirit born not long ago. That explained its limited intellect and poor command of speech.

“Mom told me that with my talent, there’s no need for me to make a contract with an infant spirit like you.”

[“I, I waited, long time.”]

“Now that I’ve awakened my spiritual root, I feel... reborn, I guess. Even before, if I concentrated, I could sense something in the wind, the earth, things around me... But now, if I listen closely, I can even hear whispers.”

Kyle tapped his thunder crystal necklace.

“It rains in the Sword Tower sometimes, but there’s never any lightning. They say rain can be pleasant to watch now and then, but thunder is too noisy. Outside the Sword Tower, though, there are thunderstorms occasionally. If I went out on a day like that, I’m sure lightning spirits would come flocking to me.”

[“Ooh...”]

The snake lowered its head dejectedly. It might not be much of a talker, but it was quite expressive. Kyle chuckled and stroked its head.

“I’m just saying. Let’s make a contract.”

[“R-really?”]

The snake lifted its drooping head.

[“I young, and small. You really... make contract with me?”]

“I’m more sentimental than I look.”

He had been feeding it mana stones for five years, after all. It was also the first spirit that had ever sought him out.

Young and small? That wasn’t much of a problem. He could simply feed it plenty and raise it. Arian had recommended that approach as well.

High-ranking spirits were proud and difficult to handle. But an infant spirit that hadn’t even become a lesser spirit yet was easy to train, and he could raise it to suit his tastes perfectly.

“What’s your name?”

Kyle asked, gazing steadily at the snake. Its little body trembled.

Every spirit received a name the moment it was born. It shared its true name and received mana in return. That was how a spirit contract was formed.

[“My, name... Jorm... ungand.”]

The snake whispered, its body quivering. Kyle nodded and drew mana up from his lower energy center, guiding it through his circuits to his fingertip.

CRACKLE!

Purple electricity sprang from his fingertip. The snake stared at it in rapture, flicking its tongue.

“Jormungand. That’s too long to say, so I’ll just call you Jorm. Any objections?”

[“N-none.”]

“If you eat this, you’ll be making a contract with me.”

Kyle slowly brought his fingertip toward Jorm.

“I’ll become your master. Understood?”

A spirit contract was a relationship in which a spirit practitioner provided mana and a spirit fulfilled requests. It was not a master-servant contract.

Yet Kyle insisted on making his contract with Jorm precisely that. Since he was taking on the burden of raising an infant spirit that hadn’t even reached the lesser rank, he was entitled to ask this much.

[“Under-stood. Master.”]

“Good. Eat up.”

At Kyle’s broad grin, Jorm opened its mouth wide and chewed up the electricity, swallowing it.

ZZZT!

Jorm’s little body grew noticeably larger.

When they first met, it had been the size of Kyle’s little finger. Now it was as big as his palm. Its growth was incomparable to the gradual gains it had made from eating mana stones.

[“D-delicious, delicious, Master.”]

“Now that you’ve eaten, let’s get to work.”

Kyle intended to put his talent for spirits to use in his future growth.

The idea wasn’t entirely his own. His mother, Arian, had awakened a wind spiritual root and contracted with a wind spirit, rapidly accumulating mana as she learned magic.

‘She said magic starts with learning a cultivation method too.’

Of course, martial artists’ cultivation methods and mages’ cultivation methods followed different systems. Mages used cultivation to store mana in their bodies, then used that mana to manipulate external mana and produce the phenomena called magic.

But martial artists and mages alike were bound by their spiritual roots and circuits. Grinning, Kyle whispered to Jorm.

“Try turning the mana in this room into lightning energy.”

Spirits were living beings made of mana. The conditions of their birth remained unknown, but elemental mana became a spirit when it developed a sense of self.

Thus, spirits were close to mana itself and could impose their own properties on non-elemental mana to transform it.

[“Understood, Master.”]

Jorm coiled up and shivered. The non-elemental mana drifting through the room began to resonate with its lightning energy and change.

The change was faint, not enough to call an electric current, but Kyle found it more than satisfactory. Immediately focusing on his spiritual root, he activated the Violet Lightning Heaven-Striking Art.

Mana surged through the room, drawn in by his breathing. Kyle concentrated on the mana flowing through his circuits. The mana Jorm had converted into lightning energy offered almost no resistance, like baby food prepared for easy digestion.

Flowing through his circuits, the mana reached his lower energy center and began to be refined.

It contained fewer impurities than when he had practiced in the grand library’s cultivation room, and less mana was lost as well. Kyle’s lips curled into a grin.

‘It worked.’

This approach used a spirit as a filter before cultivation, something ordinary martial artists could never do.

Talent for spirits was exceedingly rare, and a spiritual root like Kyle’s was rarer still. In other words, Kyle alone in all the world could make use of this method.

‘For now, I can only process the lightning energy of the Violet Lightning Heaven-Striking Art, but once I have more mana and my body develops, I should be able to contract with more spirits.’

His awakened spiritual root had been given the grandiose name “spiritual root of chaos.” Since it was unprecedented, his training would have to be unprecedented as well.

This was his first time learning a mana cultivation method, but... to wield a sword well, he first needed to build a solid body.

‘Other people only learn cultivation methods that match their spiritual roots’ elements, but I don’t need to.’

He had plenty of circuits and was confident in his ability to regulate mana. Kyle decided what he would do at the grand library starting tomorrow.

First, he would browse through the cultivation methods, pick out the ones he liked, and take only their essence.

‘Using several cultivation methods simultaneously would be inefficient and a nuisance.’

So he would combine them.

‘My spiritual root is the world mixed together, the potential to become anything. My circuits developed to match it, so there’s no reason I can’t.’

It didn’t matter to Kyle that he had never tried it before. If he hadn’t, he simply had to try. And if it didn’t work? He would keep trying until it did, and if it truly proved impossible, he could humbly admit it.

“Good.”

Kyle stopped circulating the Violet Lightning Heaven-Striking Art and opened his eyes.

“I’ll call it the Primordial Chaos Circulation Method.”

Rather than the word for haphazardly mingled chaos, he preferred the term for the primordial whole that encompassed the world. Having named the cultivation method before he had even created the blend, Kyle stood up.

[“Master... tired...”]

Jorm, hanging limply in the air, wriggled toward him. Perhaps because it was still an infant spirit, its stamina was terrible.

“Have something to eat.”

Kyle drew some more mana from his lower energy center to his fingertip.

CRACKLE!

As highly pure purple mana gathered there, Jorm eagerly opened its mouth and gulped it down. Its electricity, which had faded almost to nothing, crackled anew.

Jorm transformed mana, Kyle absorbed it, and he used the absorbed mana to raise Jorm. Neither of them lost anything. Grinning, Kyle stroked Jorm’s head.

“Grow big and strong.”

Those words were meant for Kyle himself as well.

* * *

The next day.

Kyle woke at his usual time and stretched as he approached the window, only to pause at the sight outside.

People had gathered in Rose Manor’s courtyard. Looking closer to see what was happening, he decided they must be craftsmen from Gladiheim, summoned to build a cultivation room on the manor grounds.

“Good thing I was reincarnated into a rich family.”

Muttering to himself, he went downstairs, where Arian spread her arms and exclaimed with a radiant smile.

“Grandfather sent you another present!”

Nelia must have informed him that Kyle had begun practicing the Violet Lightning Heaven-Striking Art yesterday.

The box Julius had sent contained five fruits mottled with gold and purple. As Kyle tilted his head at the unfamiliar fruit, Arian gave a disbelieving laugh beside him.

“Thunderbolt fruit? He sent five of something this precious...”

“What is it?”

“A spiritual fruit that grows very, very rarely on trees struck by lightning. It’s a precious elixir coveted by people who have awakened lightning spiritual roots.”

Good thing he had been reincarnated into a rich family. Thinking that once again, Kyle picked up a thunderbolt fruit. Merely holding it made his palm tingle as though he had received an electric shock. On closer inspection, the fruit was filled with highly pure lightning energy.

“Can I eat them all?”

“No! Eat them one at a time, over several days.”

Elixirs were masses of highly pure mana, incomparable to mana stones. Too much of anything was bad, so Arian’s warning was only natural.

‘I think I could eat them all.’

Judging by his internal circuits and the size of the opening to his lower energy center, he felt he could somehow digest all five. But he didn’t want to worry Arian, so he obediently bit into a single thunderbolt fruit.

CRACKLE, CRACKLE...

Electricity sparked in his mouth every time he chewed the flesh. His spiritual root responded naturally, activating the Violet Lightning Heaven-Striking Art. The lightning energy swirling in his mouth then flowed down through his circuits.

[“Master, Master!”]

The air shimmered, and Jorm poked its head out. Its eyes were so pleading that Kyle broke off a piece of thunderbolt fruit and offered it to the spirit.

[“Hooray!”]

Cheering, Jorm swallowed it in one gulp. Kyle had been looking forward to seeing how much bigger it would grow—but its size barely changed. Chewing and swallowing his own mouthful, he said,

“You’d be better off just eating my mana.”

“Kyle! You made a contract with a spirit! Why didn’t you call me?!”

Arian looked crestfallen.

“I wanted to surprise you, Mom.”

Kyle answered calmly as Jorm wound around his hand.

“Its name is Jormungand.”

“So you went with that infant spirit after all?”

“Yes. I’m going to raise it—”

THUMP, THUMP.

Before he could finish, someone knocked on Rose Manor’s door. Soon Seril, the manor’s head attendant, came to them with a stiff expression.

“Lord Varkas wishes to visit.”

“That great oaf?”

Arian’s brows drew sharply together. He was someone she would rather not deal with, but she couldn’t ignore him when he had come in person.

“Kyle, will you go up to your room?”

“I think he’s probably here because of me.”

Kyle took another bite of his unfinished thunderbolt fruit before continuing.

“Besides, wouldn’t it be strange for me to stay in my room when my uncle’s visiting? It’s not as though I’ve done anything wrong.”

“But...”

“We shouldn’t keep him waiting. Let’s go, Mom.”

Arian hesitated briefly at his answer, then nodded. Her son was right. Far from having done anything wrong, he had nothing but virtues to his name. Why should he hide? Steeling herself, Arian went to the manor’s front door.

“What brings you here so early in the morning?”

On the other side stood the hulking Varkas and Bruno, who was smaller than his father but still enormous for his age.

“How am I supposed to endure all this racket first thing in the morning?”

“Oh, please. We’ve taken proper soundproofing measures.”

“Your older brother has sharper ears than you think.”

Varkas answered gruffly and glanced at Kyle. The instant that menacing gaze fell on him, Kyle grinned and offered a greeting.

“Hello, Uncle Varkas. Hi, Bruno.”

Bruno Alastor. Five years ago, Kyle had punched this cousin in the solar plexus. Enraged, Bruno had summoned his aura, only to be stopped. Now fifteen and a knight cadet, he normally didn’t live in the Sword Tower, yet for some reason he was here in the residential district on the fourth floor.

“That uniform looks good on you. Wow, you’ve really filled out, too.”

“Arian. Who did your son get those appalling manners from?”

Varkas asked with a scowl.

“He’s addressing his cousin, who’s five years older, by his bare name. Don’t you have anything to say about that?”

“If he wants to be treated like an older brother, he should act like one.”

Arian snorted.

“In that respect, I really am a fool. I keep calling someone my older brother when he’s never acted like one. Fortunately, my son didn’t inherit his mother’s stupidity.”

“You’re not stupid, Mom.”

“See? He even has a kind heart. Unlike someone’s son, who flew into a rage and tried to kill his younger cousin.”

At her counterattack, the furrow between Varkas’s brows deepened further.

“So, brother. Did you really come because of the noise? With your son, who’s so busy training, no less?”

“I came to strengthen our family ties,” Varkas spat.

“Your son awakened his spiritual root yesterday. Now he’ll begin studying martial arts in earnest as an Alastor pureblood. So my son Bruno, as a knight cadet who took up the sword before him, and as his older cousin...”

“Aren’t you going to give me a birthday present?”

Kyle asked, biting crunchily into his thunderbolt fruit.

“It was my birthday yesterday. But you didn’t even wish me a happy birthday, Uncle.”

“...”

“If you give me a present now, I won’t feel hurt that you didn’t wish me a happy birthday.”

“You... what are you eating?”

Varkas stumbled over the question.

“This? It’s a present from Grandfather. Apparently it’s called a thunderbolt fruit, but it doesn’t taste very good. Sort of tingly and bitter?”

Kyle crunched into the thunderbolt fruit again.

“Thunderbolt fruit... Yes, thunderbolt fruit. Why are you eating that?”

“Oh, so you didn’t know, Uncle.”

Nelia had said that the Librarian knew how to keep her mouth shut. True to her word, Varkas knew nothing of Kyle’s initiation into the Violet Lightning Heaven-Striking Art yesterday.

“I started practicing a cultivation method called the Violet Lightning Heaven-Striking Art yesterday.”

But Kyle saw no particular reason to hide it.