Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

'Where am I?'

Alex felt utterly confused as he asked himself this question.

One second, he was standing among the flames, feeling each and every cell in his body be ripped apart, burned to ash, and regenerate hundreds of times every second.

Then the next second, all of that pain and suffering was gone, as he felt his soul suddenly be sucked into this place.

'Is this…?'

He looked around, and the place seemed oddly familiar to him, but he couldn't quite put a name to it.

His mind was a little bit messy after he had been exhausted by the breakthrough to the first stage of his Heart of the Phoenix technique.

But strangely, while in this place, he felt himself become rapidly more energised.

He felt his mind feel a lot more rejuvenated.

'This is my inventory space! But why, and how am I here?'

With his mind now clear enough to think straight, Alex had finally recognised where he was.

But that only brought more questions to light.

He looked around himself, but the place just looked as empty as it always did.

It had been over a month since he had come back from the Primordial Expanse, and he had already exhausted his reserves of Soul orbs long ago.

Without a constant source of beasts to hunt, his progress halted and he could only focus on other aspects of his strengths, hence why he was so focused on practising his Heart of the Phoenix technique.

It was also the reason why Alex wanted to go on a mission to a Floodgate so badly, as that right now was still his only option to gain more Soul orbs and rank up.

'So… What am I supposed to do in this place? Why exactly am I here?'

But Alex was still stumped on the reason for him being transported to this place all of a sudden.

Even though he couldn't think of a reason for being transported there though, he could still make valuable use of the time he had there.

After all, it was the only moment of respite he had over the last few hours since the pain had started.

And he decided to use this time to strategize.

'I need to rank up, I can't just stay as a D tier forever… But how am I supposed to take on a mission? The university denied my request to take on a mission the last time I tried, so why would it be different the next time?'

This was true.

Alex had already tried to apply for missions, but as a first year he was required to go through a screening process before he could accept any.

However the response he got back from them was immediate.

'It's too early to go out on any missions, focus on your training for now.'

Was what the committee overseeing his request said.

But that just sounded like some bullshit to Alex if he was being honest.

What 'too early'? He was the first ranked freshman for god's sake!

Realistically, he was stronger than 80% of the second years already, so what the hell was stopping him from going out on missions other than the stupid committee?

He had been meaning to take this up with someone even further up the university food chain, but he hadn't had the time yet due to how packed his schedule was over the past week.

The Principal didn't joke when he said that everyone's training would be kicked up multiple notches, though Alex himself always took it a step further and trained himself even harder than the university required him to.

That's just what he was used to already.

However, Alex already had a plan for taking on missions, and he was already currently in the process of executing that plan as he sat there, floating in the midst of his empty inventory.

His plan was a two stage process.

The first stage of this he had already achieved, it was to break through to the first stage of Heart of the Phoenix, giving him a boost in both his power as well as increasing his energy reserves.

But he just needed to survive whatever was happening to him at the moment…

The second stage of his plan was much more complicated.

It was to gain more comprehension into souls and reveal more about his Soulforge.

He was hoping that he could gain this comprehension from the next Soul studies lecture he would attend, which happened to be the next day.

But because of how unknown and uncertain the whole thing was, he couldn't be sure of this.

The best case scenario was that he could gain the comprehension he was looking for tomorrow, and finally have more information about his Soulforge be revealed to him.

But the worst case scenario… He didn't want that to happen at all.

If he were really that unlucky, he could be stuck in this weird limbo for months. Attending each week's Soul studies class, but not gaining any comprehension into souls even after months of learning about them.

However one thing was for certain.

He had to make it through this damn painful ordeal before he thought any further about these plans!

***

Over an hour had passed now, yet Alex was still in the same state as he had been since those mysterious flames had erupted from all over his body.

The Principal had already given up on trying to actively help, and could only stand on the sidelines with Mira to watch Alex closely, documenting every change and small detail in dramatic detail in his mind.

This was a never before witnessed or experienced phenomenon as far as he was concerned, so this could be some very valuable research material, whether Alex survived or not.

"Please… Please come back to us Alex!"

Mira silently hoped and prayed to herself. Her tears had long already dried up and run out.

All that was left was a despondent look on her face.

"Something's different…"

But word from the Principal brought her thoughts back to reality as she looked on with the small amount of hope she had left.