The morning after the incident at the Graveyard of Gears, the Kingdom of Valerion was in an uproar. A Commander had been "emptied"—a fate worse than death in a society built on magical status.
Kaelen didn't hide in the shadows. He did something bolder.
Using the last of his stolen energy, he activated the [Void Step] to bypass the outer wall's sensory wards and slipped into the servant's quarters of the Aurelian Academy. He found what he needed: the uniform of a Mana-Sweeper—the lowliest class of workers who cleaned the residue left behind by the students' spells.
With the wide-brimmed hat pulled low and his "Void Core" suppressed to its most dormant state, Kaelen looked exactly like what he had been his whole life: Nobody.
[Current Core Capacity: 0.45% - Draining...] [Warning: Suppression of the Void Core increases hunger. Efficiency of next meal will be increased by 20%.]
"Hey, you! New recruit!" a harsh voice barked.
Kaelen stiffened. A senior floor-manager, a man with a tiny spark of Earth-mana, shoved a heavy, runic broom into his hands.
"The elite disciples in the Hall of Resonating Jade just finished their morning spar. The floor is covered in mana-shards. Clean it up before the High Proctor arrives, or I'll have your wages."
Kaelen bowed his head, hiding the flash of purple in his eyes. "Yes, sir."
As he entered the Hall of Resonating Jade, his breath hitched. The air was thick with it—fragments of fire, ice, and wind mana scattered like broken glass across the marble floor. To the students, this was trash. To Kaelen, it was a five-star banquet.
He began to sweep, but as the broom touched the shards, he channeled the [Absolute Consumption] through the wooden handle.
Sip. Sip. Sip.
[Absorbing: Fragmented Glacial Mana...] [Absorbing: Residual Gale Essence...] [Core Capacity: 0.6%... 1.2%... 2.5%...]
The feeling was electric. Each shard was a memory of power. But as he reached the center of the room, he saw something that made his heart stop.
A young woman stood there, bathed in the light of the stained-glass windows. She was Liora Valerion, the Princess of the Kingdom and the Academy's "Golden Phoenix." She was practicing a high-level spell, a sphere of compressed Light mana hovering between her palms.
"It's not enough," Liora whispered, her brow furrowed. "The density is too low. If I can't reach the Fifth Nebula rank, the marriage alliance with the Shadow Empire will proceed."
She let the spell dissipate, and the sphere shattered into thousands of high-purity Light shards—far more potent than anything Kaelen had eaten so far.
Kaelen moved closer, his broom moving mechanically, but his core was screaming. Eat. Eat it all.
"You there, Sweeper," Liora said, her eyes turning toward him. Her gaze was sharp, like a blade of sunfire. "I haven't seen you before. Why are you staring at the light? Don't you know the residue of a Valerion spell can blind a commoner?"
Kaelen didn't look away. He realized that the Princess wasn't just a target. She was a reservoir.
"I'm not blind, Princess," Kaelen said, his voice steady. "I'm just admiring the... waste."
Liora's eyes narrowed. "Waste?"
"You're discarding more power than most people see in a lifetime," Kaelen said, sweeping a pile of glowing shards toward his feet, where they vanished into his shadow. "If you can't control the overflow, you'll never reach the Fifth Nebula."
For the first time in his life, Kaelen wasn't the one being looked down upon. He was the only one who saw the truth: the "Gods" of this world were leaking energy, and he was the one who would catch it.