The Elixir's Awakening: Lahan Transcends to the Transcendent
The clear, pristine Fairy Lake shimmered under the filtered sunlight, its surface calm as a mirror. Estella adjusted her pointed witch’s hat with a playful flick, her long black hair catching the breeze.
“Whoa! This is the Fairy Lake!”
She stood with Charlotte, having slipped away from Lahan in the Elf Forest, now gazing at the lake nestled just behind the trees.
“That’s the World Tree…?”
Even from a distance the lake looked ordinary, but beyond it rose a hill where an ancient tree stretched toward the sky. The World Tree. The very one Lahan had described in his dreams.
Charlotte nodded, her blonde half-elf hair swaying gently.
“Yeah.”
Estella tilted her head, violet eyes sparkling with curiosity.
“It looks fine from here, but…”
Charlotte shook her head slowly, her long legs stretched out before her in a perfect eleven-shape stance.
“It’s not. Get closer and you’ll see.”
Estella took her words to heart and stepped forward, drawn by the tree’s presence. As she approached, the World Tree’s bark began to show faint signs of withering, the once-vibrant green now tinged with dry, brittle patches.
“It’s really withering,” she murmured, eyes fixed on the dry trunk.
Charlotte let out a weary sigh, concern etched across her face.
“If it lasts that long, maybe a few more years to over a decade.”
She had roughly estimated the tree’s remaining lifespan.
Estella said nothing, her gaze still locked on the slowly dying tree. She reached out and gently ran her fingers over the cracked, dry bark, as if checking a beloved friend’s pulse.
Charlotte sat down on the hill beside the lake, her elegant legs extended, and watched the fairy lake where the tree’s roots plunged deep. Yet the roots seemed unable to draw the life-giving moisture they desperately needed. The natural decay of age had finally caught up.
She turned her head slightly toward Estella, who was still tenderly touching the World Tree’s bark, and asked softly.
“By the way, what is that man doing right now?”
Estella glanced back over her shoulder, her expression softening.
“He’s drinking the Elixir of the Elves you gave him.”
“Our elves’ Elixir? Dad decided to give it to him?”
Charlotte’s eyes widened in surprise. She hadn’t heard the full story yet.
Estella nodded, smiling faintly.
“Yeah. That’s why he hasn’t left right away. Lahan’s personality—if it wasn’t the Elixir, he would’ve set off immediately, right?”
Charlotte let out a small chuckle, her gaze returning to the lake as she spoke in a dreamy tone.
“He… what kind of man is he, really?”
She stared at the lake, thinking of the Lahan she knew—Estella’s first lover. Every story, every image, every glimpse of his actions and personality that Estella had shared over the years.
Estella finally turned fully, flashing a bright smile at the blonde elf sprawled beside her.
“This is going to take a while, huh?”
Charlotte shifted her gaze to her with one eye, a playful smirk tugging at her lips.
“He’s… pretty interesting.”
* * *
“Haa…”
Lahan sat cross-legged on the wooden floor of the simple cabin prepared for the elves. The Elixir of the Elves stood beside him, its ornate bottle empty and forgotten.
He took a slow, deep breath. The mana in the air began to surge violently.
‘It’s starting.’
He absorbed the Elixir’s true effects one by one, storing them deep within his core like precious treasures. The third and final phase arrived exactly as he had anticipated.
‘Here it comes.’
With eyes closed and in full lotus position, a brilliant flame erupted from just below his navel. It swirled outward in a perfect circle, then surged through his entire body, racing along every blood vessel like blood injected into the arteries of a dying man.
“Hup!”
The sudden surge of pain forced another sharp inhale. His eyelids and eyebrows trembled violently.
‘First Heaven established. Now moving straight into the second.’
The fire-like energy from his lower dantian spread through his meridians, rapidly transforming into aura that glowed first blue, then pure white.
A thunderous boom echoed inside his body.
Another explosion followed.
‘Pushing through the lower dantian into the middle dantian, heading straight for the heart.’
Impure substances were flushed away in an instant. The massive mana whirlpool that was now aura slammed powerfully into the vicinity of his heart, forcing its way through the constricted blood vessels to reach the organ.
‘It’s working.’
The heartbeat grew louder, more intense, filling his ears like thunder.
‘Now… I’ll break through the upper dantian!’
Lahan lifted the surging energy even higher, past the lower and middle dantians, all the way toward the brain—the upper dantian.
‘Body Rebirth. In human anatomy, only by passing through the brain can the true circulation of all meridians be completed, and only then do the additional benefits arise. This is merely one phase of the process that true circulation can achieve.’
Circulation without the brain was not true circulation. It was an extremely dangerous shortcut, nearly impossible. Most warriors, mages, or knights in this world avoided it, choosing safer methods to cycle mana or aura.
But Lahan was not most people.
He had chosen the harder path.
‘Once more I transcend myself.’
This was the same brutal daily discipline he had endured alone during the time without his masters—Logan and Carlson. His iron will and unyielding focus had finally paid off.
He had achieved the Three Dantians.
Simultaneously—
Whoosh!
Lahan’s body began to float upward, suspended in mid-air.
Soon he had—
──Reached the realm beyond the Superhuman: the Transcendent.
Crack…
White flowers bloomed in the empty space above his head. A single absolute being had been born there.
* * *
Alarms rang without pause.
Lahan slowly opened his eyes, a fierce light burning within them—sharp and brilliant, as if he could see the very flow of fate itself.
Thud, thud.
He shed his clothes and the old, withered skin as though peeling away layers of a rotten shell. Fresh, vibrant skin now covered his entire body.
He stood quietly, taking in his surroundings, then casually burned away the foul odor lingering in the cabin and the impure residues on the floor with a simple palm technique. A three-flame seal had been summoned in an instant and consumed everything.
Unlike normal flames, however, these were pure white—blindingly white.
White flames. Aura of his own making, forged by overwhelming power.
Flare!
Every trace of impurity was instantly consumed. The white fire gently subsided and vanished into nothingness.
Lahan inspected his body. The improvements were visible from the outside: muscles and abs now carved with sharper definition, radiating an almost inhuman vitality.
He closed his eyes again and probed deeper. The internal state was perfect—vast, steady energy flowed through every meridian in absolute calm.
He could no longer estimate it, even in his own mind.
“At this point, I’m probably on the level of a knight in one of the kingdom’s knight orders.”
Lahan still felt a strange sense of unreality. He had lived in the twenty-first century and never truly understood the exact power level of “normal” knights in this world. Yet he knew, in his heart, that even ordinary adventurers would be considered far above average by modern standards.
But because he had been raised under the guidance of two unusually powerful elderly masters—Logan and Carlson—his perspective had grown warped. His measuring stick was no longer ordinary.
He had seen them secretly training in the backyard during his growing years, and he owed them for the exceptional standard he now held.
He could still hear their voices ringing in his ears.
[Hahaha! Lahan! Do you really think you can become a knight like us? You’re still far, far away! Keep pushing harder every single day!]
His gaze sharpened as he recalled the lesson.
“Haa… Even in a fantasy world, my standards are completely different. A normal hunter these days would be considered quite strong by our old rules.”
He thought of the one person he trusted most—Estella. Had she not always been his benchmark for strength?
‘Estella also had quite a bit of power.’
Lahan rested his chin on his hand, lost in thought. He remembered how Estella, despite being his senior among adventurers, relied solely on detection magic to sense hidden movements around her. He had assumed she was simply a mage rather than a warrior, and had never questioned it.
‘…Still, this level is pretty strong in the context of this world’s general scale.’
Yet doubt crept in. He decided to test it himself.
‘Let’s see how I compare to the elves here.’
He had decided to spar with the young elf Log, who was said to be the strongest in the village. After quickly changing into the spare clothes he had prepared, Lahan stepped out of the cabin, ready for battle.