The split focus caused his internal energy to waver, making him unable to repeat what he had done just moments ago.

"Tch, forget it," Uhtred hissed, losing his patience. He gave up entirely on trying to balance the two things at once and instead emptied his mind. He surrendered his complete attention to the external environment, pulling the metallic flakes in the air and sand closer to his skin, letting his core act on pure, ravenous instinct.

Just like before, time dissolved. The world went perfectly silent until the connection suddenly ceased a second time.

When he opened his eyes, the second core was gone, dissolved into dust. The sun had shifted very slightly through the sky, proving that time had truly passed in a blur while he was immersed in that cultivation state.

But Uhtred’s focus was no longer on the time. He was now fully focused on trying to actually draw those metallic flecks to himself successfully. Despite devouring two of the high-level cores back-to-back, Uhtred realized he still hadn’t been able to actually move or manipulate the metal fragments in his surroundings.

He paused, letting out a short breath, then stood up abruptly. A grunt escaped his lips as pain flared from the cuts on his body, however, it was much more bearable compared to when it was fresh. In fact, Uhtred could feel some of the cuts hardening slowly already, a layer of scab forming over them.

With the third beast core in his hand, he strode downriver slowly, careful to prevent any of his wounds from reopening. His target was the fourth wolf beast. He hadn’t harvested its core yet and he needed to for what he was about to do.

He reached the body, harvested the core with the extraction artifact, then sat on the ground right there beside its body.

He was about to begin, when he suddenly shook his head and stood again, walking over to the riverside instead. For this attempt, he wanted to be directly on the sand where he’d felt the metallic flecks rather than on the grassy floor of the sparse treeline where the connection was not as direct.

Now with the last two cores in each hand, he sat and let out a light breath. He was going to attempt cultivating with two cores at once.

Closing his eyes, Uhtred initiated the process. The exact millisecond his core began to siphon the energy from the two cores, he reached out with his mind, latching onto the tiny metallic flecks pulsing through the environment.

Despite cultivating with two cores simultaneously, there wasn’t the slightest bit of fluctuation. Uhtred had expected some level of difficulty at the very least, but his core accepted the dual input seamlessly, greedily breaking down the boundaries of both spheres simultaneously.

I keep underestimating just how versatile this thing is, Uhtred thought wryly.

Shedding his remaining doubts, he anchored his absolute focus onto the metallic flecks in the sand beneath him and the air around him, pulling them toward his body with unyielding intent.

For what felt like a long, agonizing stretch of time, the motes remained stubborn, floating heedlessly in the environment. But Uhtred refused to yield. He channeled the entirety of his willpower into his frustration, tightening his mental grip around the ambient particles and dragging them inward by sheer force of will.

Gradually, the tide turned. The flecks in his immediate vicinity began to shift, vibrating slightly before gravitating toward him.

He pushed his focus to his absolute limit, honing in on one single mote — the nearest one, as it drew closer and closer to his bare chest. The moment the microscopic speck of light made contact with his skin, his core drank it in greedily.

The sensory impact was instantaneous. The taste of this metal elemental essence was entirely different from anything his core had devoured before. It was very unique and refreshing, sinking deep into the bottom of his core.

The moment that single mote settled in his core, the remaining particles around his body suddenly became much easier to attract, as if drawn to the metallic signature now humming inside him.

A second fleck entered his body, then a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth...

By the time the seventh fleck melted into his center, the connection the wolf cores provided him abruptly cut off, and Uhtred was violently jarred back to the present.

His eyes snapped open. Sweat poured down his forehead, stinging his eyes, and his chest heaved as he panted for air. Yet, a large, triumphant smile broke across his face.

The two high-level Epicyon cores in his hands had completely disintegrated, but this time, the gray ash didn’t blow away like before, instead they were devoured by his greedy core just like with the Monitor Lizard essence cores.

Right on cue, the blue System interface popped up in his view, sending a stream of notices and messages, all of his titles and rewards for the achievements he had made.

[Notice!]

[Congratulations! You have successfully created a low level metal cultivation technique]

[Your proficiency in the metallic aspects of cosmic essence has increased significantly]

[New Skill Developed: Basic Metal Sense (Level 1)]

[Quest Completed: Trial Of First Blood]

Reward: +300 Multiversal Tokens.

[Congratulations! You have reached Level 9] +2 Merits.

[Congratulations! You have reached Level 10] +2 Merits. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

[Titles Gained]

Pioneering Mind : 3rd in world to create a cultivation technique. (+60 Merits)

Titan Slayer : 1st in world to kill a beast a minor realm above you. (+200 Merits)

Scourge of the Pack : 1st in world to kill four beasts a minor realm above you. (+600 Merits)

Apex Ascender : 1st in world to reach Level 10. (+200 Merits)

Total Merits earned: 1,407

Uhtred stared at the massive block of text floating in his vision, his jaw slightly slack. The sheer volume of merits was staggering, completely eclipsing everything he had earned from his entire lizard kills.

But more than the numbers, it was the profound transformation to his body that grabbed his attention.

The moment he received the Level 10 notice, as if his core was finalizing the gains from his cultivation session, a massive wave of revitalizing energy erupted directly from his center.

The feeling was soothing and unique, like a pure, structural restructuring helped by the System itself.

The deep, agonizing lacerations on his back began to itch furiously as the torn muscle fibers knit themselves back together at a visible pace.

The biting pain at his side vanished, and the raw, skinned flesh on his hands and all over his legs smoothed over into fresh, tougher skin.

He could feel his bones reinforcing, his muscles expanding with dense, compacted power, and his senses sharpening to a degree that made his previous Level 8 status entirely pale in comparison.

[One time World Pioneer revitalization, used]

[Congratulations on crossing a minor realm... Pioneer, continue to forge onward on the Path of Ascension]

Uhtred read the message and stared blankly. That last bit by the system had felt almost personal, as if the System had high hopes for him as the number one leveler on the planet.

"Speaking of levels... I wonder how my attributes look like now," Uhtred stood up first, shaking the river sand from his now-bare ass. He was practically buck naked from all the fighting. While the system had helped revitalize his body, his clothes had not received the same revitalization...

But Uhtred didn’t care. His focus was on the surroundings. The world looked different now. Clearer. Sharper. And through his newly acquired Basic Metal Sense, the riverbank felt alive with tiny, glowing pinpricks of elemental potential.

Uhtred grinned, feeling the power coursing through his veins, then with a calm breath, he spoke:

"Status."