Successfully Absorbing the Lightning Element

It seems there is a reason why mages must be trained from a young age; on one hand, they lose their natural advantage once they grow up. On the other hand, adults have been tempered by the trials of life, making their minds far too cluttered.

Especially for someone like Matthews, who had lived through the information age, his mind was filled with too much knowledge and distracting thoughts. It was incredibly difficult for him to reach that state of deep meditation!

After a whole night of trying, Matthews did not succeed.

It wasn't until the following evening that he finally succeeded in meditating for the first time. He saw colorful specks of light, and some purple and blue specks slowly drifted into his body with each breath he took.

The moment Matthews grew excited, he snapped right out of his meditative state.

"Brother, did you succeed?"

Mia had been teaching him for an entire day, and children naturally have short attention spans. Seeing Matthews struggle to enter meditation for so long, she was starting to get anxious!

"Hahaha, your brother is a genius, after all. Of course I succeeded!"

Hearing Matthews say this, Mia finally let out a sigh of relief.

"Pfft, I succeeded in meditation in just one hour. You took a whole day and you still call yourself a genius? I think 'silly brother' is more like it!"

"Right, my little sister is the little genius, and your brother is the big genius."

Mia gave Matthews a look that told him to figure it out for himself, then continued, "Brother, let me teach you how to absorb magic elements."

"Mm-hmm!"

Matthews nodded excitedly, only then hearing his sister Mia's stomach growl.

"Oh, it's already evening. Let's eat first."

Matthews got up to cook, and after dinner, Mia resumed her teaching duties. With the experience of his first successful meditation, Matthews succeeded again very quickly the second time.

Absorbing the magic elements was completed in no time. As his consciousness followed the absorbed magic elements into his inner vision, he saw his meridians filled with lightning. The water elements that entered were immediately expelled from his meridians, while the lightning elements merged directly into those tiny sparks of electricity.

As the lightning sank directly into his dantian, a ball of lightning took form within it. His consciousness was then jolted out by the impact of this lightning.

"Hahaha, I knew I couldn't possibly be without a cheat."

"Brother, what kind of nonsense are you spouting? What is a 'cheat'?"

Looking at Mia's concerned eyes, Matthews smiled and said, "Your brother is just happy that he succeeded in absorbing the elements."

"That's good. During this time, I also went to the lightning magic class to take notes on a first-rank spell, the Thunderball Spell. I'll explain it to you now."

Hearing Mia's words, Matthews' excitement faded. This sister of his, who shared no blood relation, was actually willing to delay her own cultivation and waste time attending classes for an element she had no talent for just to take notes for him.

"Don't do that next time, okay?"

Seeing Matthews' face turn cold, Mia asked in confusion, "Don't do what?"

"Sigh, don't go to the lightning classes anymore. You'll only delay your own cultivation. Don't do it again."

"But, Brother, you don't have magic..."

Matthews hugged his adorable sister and patted her shoulder, saying, "Brother won't be happy if you do that, so don't go again. Brother is waiting for you to become strong enough to protect me. If you do this, you'll delay your progress and won't be able to protect your brother properly!"

"Mm, I'll remember that."

Matthews flicked the little one's nose again. "Go to sleep now. We'll continue learning magic tomorrow!"

"Mm!"

In the quiet of the night, bright moonlight shone through the window, illuminating the floor. Despite the peaceful atmosphere, Matthews' heart was not calm. A beam of bright light had shone into the dark, anxious depths of his soul, which had been filled with uncertainty ever since he arrived in this world.

No matter how silly he acted or how happy he appeared before, he had been shrouded in the fear of not being able to control his own fate. Now, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"Brother, I'm off to school."

"Mm, go ahead. But don't go to the lightning classes anymore; I don't lack magic for now."

Mia waved her hand. "I know, you silly brother, you've said that at least ten times already."

After Mia left, Matthews instantly dropped his previously cool and collected demeanor.

"Oh, omnipresent lightning elements, under the witness of the great lightning gods, please listen to my call. Thunderball Spell!"

As Matthews finished chanting the incantation, a lightning ball the size of a fist appeared in the open space before him.

"Hahaha, I really am a genius. I succeeded on my first attempt at using magic!"

He hadn't had the chance to try the spell while his sister Mia was around. Like a curious child with a new toy, Matthews played with the only spell he knew to his heart's content.

Getting what one wishes for is easily addictive. In the month after Mia left, Matthews spent most of his time meditating and absorbing elements.

Now that he had tiny strands of lightning within his meridians, he didn't need any battle qi cultivation techniques to absorb lightning elements and grow stronger. This feeling was incredibly satisfying.

"I haven't done any blacksmithing in a while. I should clean things up a bit."

Now that Matthews had a path to grow stronger, he no longer needed to forge weapons and prepare for adventures in the Magic Beast Mountain Range. He could just follow the steps to absorb elements and improve. Furthermore, because he had a ball of lightning in his dantian, he didn't even face the bottleneck of liquefying battle qi to advance from the sixth rank to the seventh.

He suspected that the ball of lightning in his body was the very same bolt that had struck him, and perhaps because of the changes in the world, the laws of the Coiling Dragon universe had compressed that lightning—which hadn't yet dissipated from his body—directly into him. Now, that lightning had become nearly tangible.

This ball of lightning was now like his own magic beast core; as long as he absorbed elements, he would grow stronger.

As Matthews swept his broom across a pile of sand and dirt, a glimmer of light caught his eye.

"Hmm, what is this?"

Matthews brushed away the sand and dirt to reveal a small, glass-like object stuck to some charred, black debris.

"Glass?"

Matthews held it in his hand to examine it for a moment, and he soon realized that this was caused by him accidentally dropping molten iron solution onto a pile of sand while refining artifacts, which had heated the sand.

"Snap, that's right. I haven't seen any glass products in this world, and this stuff is easy to make."

"Now that I can cultivate and become stronger, there's no need to risk my life for money in the early stages. I can just make a few glass items and sell them. That should be enough to get me through this initial period!"

"Brother, why are you so happy today?"

Matthews smiled and said to his younger sister Mia, "It's nothing, how have your studies been going lately?"