Born In Ashes: The Enigma

Ashara and Azrael stepped out of the room where Azrael had activated his powers.

"Here, you just need to drink this and you will become a class level warrior," Ashara said, handing him a small bottle filled with a green colored vial.

Azrael took the bottle from her and examined it carefully.

"How does this thing work? Why do I need to take this to become a class level warrior?" He asked, a curious look on his face.

"This vial is nothing but a potion made from certain materials that contain a lot of wind power," Ashara explained, pointing to the bottle in his hand. "Since your source core is related to the power of wind, in order to break through from level 10 to level 11 and become a class warrior, you need to cultivate your source core for quite some time and accumulate a large amount of wind element within it. You can naturally accumulate wind element in your core through regular cultivation, but it takes a lot of time."

"But by turning wind powered items into a consumable potion and drinking it, you can accumulate enough wind element in your core without the long process of cultivation and quickly break through to level 11." Ashara paused briefly before continuing.

"The materials required to create a potion that enables class level advancement aren't rare or expensive, so people usually use them instead of wasting time cultivating their source cores the normal way. Once the source core gathers enough power through the potion, you can immediately break through to class level and receive your class. This process is also referred to as the class ritual."

Azrael raised an eyebrow upon hearing Ashara's explanation.

"Does that mean you can use these kinds of potions to break through to higher levels, like epic or legend level as well?"

Ashara nodded in response to his question.

"You can, but the materials required to make potions for higher levels are much rarer than those for class level. So, most people usually accumulate enough energy by cultivating their source cores instead of relying on potions once they reach higher levels."

"I see..." Azrael nodded thoughtfully and shifted his gaze to the vial in his hand.

"I just need to drink it, right?"

Ashara gestured for him to sit on the ground.

"After drinking it, use your source core to absorb its energy," She instructed, then suddenly remembered something. "Also, take out that class change item of yours. Keep it in your hand during the breakthrough so that you receive the class linked to it, instead of a random one."

Azrael nodded at her words and sat down on the ground, taking out the balance scale from his storage ring.

Holding the balance scale in his right hand, he gulped down the entire potion Ashara had given him in one go and immediately felt a surge of energy coursing through his body.

He quickly activated his source core to absorb the potion's energy and instantly felt the rampaging power move toward it.

As his source core absorbed the potion's energy, Azrael could feel a massive amount of wind element condensing inside.

These wind elements stimulated his source core and began pushing it toward the next stage— from the warrior apprentice rank to class rank.

Even though Ashara had said the materials used to create the potion weren't rare or expensive, the quantity of wind elemental energy it held was no joke.

Despite absorbing the potion's energy as efficiently as he could, the amount of energy didn't diminish.

Time passed, and nearly two hours went by.

Finally, the potion's energy within Azrael's body began to decrease, and the amount of wind element within his source core reached its peak.

Ten more minutes later, his source core had absorbed all of the potion's energy. The moment it did, the condensed wind elements inside the core began to tremble, as if they had reached a boiling point and were about to burst out.

Suddenly, a faint cracking sound echoed in Azrael's ears, and he noticed a crack had formed on his purple colured source core.

After the first crack appeared, many more followed, and soon his core was covered in a network of fractures.

A sharp pain coursed through his entire body as his source core began to shatter, but such pain was nothing to Azrael, for his tolerance for physical pain was extremely high.

Within seconds, the cracks on his core reached their limit and—

Bang!

His purple colored core shattered into countless fragments.

However, the powerful wind element condensed within his core due to the potion quickly enveloped the fragments and began reshaping them into a new core.

As the reconstruction began, Azrael's aura surged upward, breaking through the warrior apprentice rank and ascending to the class rank.

At the same time, the light-golden scale— cracked and worn in his hand— began to glow. It slowly disintegrated into golden particles of light, which seeped into his body and merged with his newly forming core.

A faint shadow of a majestic scale appeared behind Azrael the moment the scale began fusing with his source core to bestow him a class.

When Ashara saw the shadowy outline of the scale, a primal urge to bow surged within her. It was as though she couldn't look directly at it—or more precisely, as though she couldn't defy it, as if it was something absolute and supreme.

'As expected, the class that this item is giving him is definitely far stronger than my witch class…' Ashara thought, her eyes filled with awe and joy as she watched the faint shadow slowly fade and merge into Azrael's body.

The moment the shadow fully fused with him—

Boom!

His new source core fully condensed, and a powerful aura of a class level warrior erupted from Azrael, causing the air around him to tremble.

As soon as he successfully advanced to class level, numerous notifications flashed before his eyes, relaying information about his newly awakened class.