When Alex woke up, it was 4.30 am. He freshened up and was ready at the same time as the old man. He described what he had experienced the last night as he was exploring his inner world.

The old man Ren nodded. "So you found it. Take a leave from your school for a week today. We will go to a place."

Alex nodded and sent a mail to the school asking for a week's leave due to personal reasons. Later in the day the old man and Alex had arrived at a scientific research inst.i.tute.

Alex was confused why they were here, but quietly followed the old man. The old man greeted the chief of the research inst.i.tute as if they were good friends, before the research chief led them to a special room.

The old man turned towards Alex. "This room is an acoustically sealed chamber. Absolutely no sound will enter from outside, it can even said to be one of the most silent places on earth. You will spend a week isolated inside this room. The food is in this bag. Don't worry about bathing for a week.

I suggest trying to sit in a lotus pose to meditate and try to enter your inner world. Your goal is to try to form a bond with the statue."

Alex sighed. This was a peculiar training, but he agreed as always without making a fuss, and entered the room. Behind him, the room sealed up and suddenly Alex felt that it was unnervingly quiet.

As instructed, he sat down at the center of the room in a lotus pose, trying to enter his inner world. However, the silence had become unnerving.

After a few minutes he found he could hear his heart beat as well as various other sounds his body made, like his stomach. The constant beating heart thumped loudly in his mind, unnerving his concentration.

One day pa.s.sed with Alex struggling to make peace and enter the inner world. However, near the end of the day he finally discovered the black smoke again and slowly made his way through the thick wall of smoke.

Two more days pa.s.sed. Alex had found pa.s.sing the smoke wall much harder than before, but he finally managed to enter the clearing and find the statue of himself. Now he had to form a connection with the statue. He found that the closer his consciousness went to the statue, the harder it became to approach it.

Alex didn't panic and continued to slowly move forward with gentleness but firmness. Three more days of such slow progression continued, until he could finally come in contact with the statue.

Six days in total had now pa.s.sed and he had established contact with the statue, but he still didn't feel like he had formed a connection with it. He continued to try to move forward, trying to enter the statue itself.

Finally on the seventh day, Alex felt like lightning struck in his mind and he felt like he had a connection with the statue within his inner world. Alex then retreated from the inner world, but now he felt like he could enter the inner world whenever he wished and directly appear in the clearing beside the statue thanks to the connection with it.

On the seventh day Alex finally came out of the acoustic chamber. The old man looked at Alex with a smile. "How did it go?" He asked.

"This room is amazing. I was able to form a connection with the statue and can freely enter the inner world depths now." Alex said. "I did not realize the absence of sound created such a fear within myself in the beginning."

"You did well. You have now reached the first level of exploring the inner world by forming a permanent connection with the statue. This level is called controlling the senses." The old man said.

Alex was surprised. "First level? We can go deeper?"

The old man nodded. "There are three levels in the inner world. Controlling the Senses, Merging The Minds and Hearts Becoming One. What you have achieved now is Controlling the Senses. " The old man said.

Alex understood and nodded. The old man continued. "If you want to begin sensing the source energy, you could begin now. But I would suggest at least trying to reach the level of Merging the Minds to have an exceptional foundation."

Alex thought for sometime. "I'd rather have the strongest foundation I can get than rush to build a weak tower." He said.

The old man nodded. "In that case, your training will only get tougher."

Alex sighed in distress, but he knew nothing came for free. He was not very talented in path of card manifestation amd hard work was the only solution.

Finally after a week, Alex returned to school. The discipline committee questioned him on his absence and after explaining that he had taken leave because of some special personal reasons he was let off.

When Alex came to cla.s.s, he noticed that the atmosphere seemed considerably deteriorated than before he took the leave. Clearly something had happened.

Alex went to his seat and asked his desk mate, a guy named Chris who was also an outcast like Alex, about what exactly happened. Chris explained that Luke amd some students from the commoners group had entered a brawl with the carded family outside the campus.

The members of the carded family were fewer in number and were hurt. Apparently Luke had formed his base card already."

When Alex heard that he shook his head in disappointment. He was shocked how radically his once best friend had changed from before. He decided to cut ties with Luke from that instant.

During the cla.s.s break, Luke arrived at Alex's desk. "Hey Alex, where have you been the past week? Missing cla.s.ses, do you think you are a special person?"

Alex was stunned. Did Luke decide to bully him now? "I took a leave for personal reasons." Alex perfunctorily replied.

"Have you at least sensed the special energy yet?" Luke asked.

Alex shook his head. He had actively ensured not to search for the source energy. "No I haven't."

Luke suddenly banged his hand Alex's desk. "With such a poor performance you dared to take a week to holiday? Do you know that losers like you are besmirching my name by bringing down the overall performance of the cla.s.s?"

Alex looked at Luke with cold eyes. "Besmirching your name? Luke, hubris has gotten into your head and rotten it to the core. Do you really think temporarily being a little ahead of a subset of the cla.s.s and bullying others outside school by ganging up on them meant you are some kind of genius? p.i.s.s off from here and mind your own business!"

Alex was completely disgusted by Luke's sudden behavior.

Luke was temporarily stunned as was the rest of the cla.s.s. The four from the carded families also looked at Alex with surprise.

"You....!" Luke yelled.

"I what? Are you going to beat me like you beat up those four? That's the meaning of being genius? Ganging up on people and beating them? Do you think rus.h.i.+ng to form a base card from a barely formed seed makes you special in some way?" Alex snorted and sat down, completely ignoring Luke.

Luke snorted. If Alex wasn't his childhood friend, he might have really beat Alex up at this moment. He also did not want to commit a misdemeanor in school.