Chapter 241: End of the Vacation [2]

Chapter 239

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Episode 61 - End of the Vacation [2]

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"Aah—!"

I let out a sigh as I wiped the drops of water from my body with a towel.

I sat down on the bed and finished drying my hair. Finally, I got dressed and went to make myself a cup of coffee.

About two minutes later, I was sitting on the sofa in the living room of my dorm room in the cadet dormitories.

After returning from the Atlas Seminar, I quickly went to take a shower.

There was no particularly important reason.

In any case, after taking a sip of coffee, I muttered.

"Master, you can come out now."

My voice contained Mana; it was a way of communicating with someone specific.

As soon as I finished muttering, a Spirit literally flew out from my chest.

’I can’t feel anything, but it’s still way too strange.’

All this time, my Master had been inside the artificial Spiritual Sea created using the Spiritual Manipulation Trait.

"Ugh! Ahhhhh!"

She yawned as if she had just woken up from a pleasant dream.

She looked around before turning her attention to me.

"It felt like several hours had passed. Are you already back from the Atlas Seminar, or haven’t you gone yet?"

"I already came back."

Apparently, there was a significant difference in the flow of time between the Spiritual Sea and the outside world.

Of course, the Spiritual Sea only had the function of ’storing’ a Spirit, which was essentially equivalent to them sleeping.

"Um, by the way, where’s that Fairy?"

"Liora? I think she’s out right now. For some reason, she hasn’t been with me lately."

"Mhm, looks like someone’s cheating on you."

"Ah, choose your words carefully, please."

"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, then you won."

"Of course. See for yourself."

I extended my hand and, with a thought, took the Golden Elixir out of my Inventory.

I had kept it stored away since I could break it in the middle of a battle.

My Master flew in front of my hand and examined the Elixir.

"It’s a Divine Quality Elixir, isn’t it?"

I nodded slightly.

"Yes, it increases Mana by a total of 40%."

"Even in my time, it was quite rare for an Elixir to increase Mana by 40%."

Of course, this Elixir only increased Mana by 40% in those who had no resistance to elixirs.

My body was already developing resistance to elixirs, especially those that increased Mana.

’Maybe 25 to 30%.’

That was what I could make use of from the Golden Elixir.

Currently, my Mana was at 76.78%, so if I gained 25% Mana from this Elixir, it would take me to the peak of Five Stars.

’It’s been seven months in total since I advanced to Five Stars.’

Of course, I had managed to achieve that progress thanks to the time I spent inside a Memory Gate.

Considering that my Divine Body had been absorbing Mana all on its own, my growth had been incredibly fast.

However...

’... From Six Stars onward, it will be different.’

Understanding the concept of a Awakened’s Mana "%" was simple.

The heart was the container for Mana. A Four-Star Awakened could easily have a total of 100 stat points.

That would completely fill the heart.

Then, a Five-Star Awakened would have to rebuild that heart and expand its capacity.

This was called a Core Heart. Its total Mana capacity increased from 100 to 1,000 points.

Then, once the Core Heart was filled with 1,000 Mana points, advancing to Six Stars meant expanding that Core Heart.

But that only worked once. It was impossible to expand the Core Heart indefinitely.

So, at Seven Stars, an Awakened had to create a Core Heart superior to the one they originally possessed.

This was called a Crystal Heart. The name might have sounded strange for something that was supposedly larger and more resilient.

But the effect of a Crystal Heart was that the Mana within the heart crystallized, giving it enough resilience to store even more Mana all the way up to Ten Stars.

’Of course, I have no idea what the heart of an Eleven-Star Awakened, also known as a Demigod, would look like.’

Because the amount of Mana a Crystal Heart could contain was even greater, absorbing enough Mana to reach the goal of 99.99% and advance to Eight Stars was much more difficult.

If it had previously been 1,000 for Six Stars and 10,000 for Seven Stars, then Eight Stars would require 100,000 Mana points.

"So, are you going to drink it now?"

Coming out of my thoughts, my Master asked at that moment.

"Of course. There’s no reason to delay it."

My goal was to reach Six Stars within the next three or four months.

Chapter Three began in late November and early December.

That would be the second-semester examination period.

’In three days, it’ll be July, and the vacation ends next week.’

Each semester lasted a total of five months, with an entire month of vacation between each one.

June was the month off—the vacation that came after five months. Finally, December was the second vacation for the cadets.

Then, in January of the following year, the first semester of the second year would begin.

In any case, after stating that I was going to drink the Elixir, I got up from the sofa and walked toward a large, open area that I used to absorb Mana.

I sat on the floor and crossed my legs. Finally, I took the Elixir, uncorked it, and...

"....."

"Wow, that smells pretty good."

My Master said this as she smelled the spot where the bottle’s cork had been.

"I can’t smell anything."

"That’s because you’re not a Spirit, but with your Trait, you should be able to see the Mana emanating from it, right?"

"Yes."

Indeed, something resembling vapor rose from inside the bottle.

Although I couldn’t smell Mana, I had the strange ability to "see" it, so without wasting any time, I brought the bottle to my lips and downed it in one gulp.

"...."

I felt my throat turn completely cold. Then...

"...?!"

Mana flooded down my throat before descending into my stomach.

’Now I need to send it to my heart.’

My Mana Sense began working, and without any trouble, I guided the Mana from my stomach toward my heart.

Through the Mana Circulation channels, the Elixir’s Mana entered my heart, and I quickly stored it.

In the process, I felt a large portion of the Elixir’s Mana escape as it encountered resistance upon entering my heart.

"Aah—!"

I inhaled, then slowly exhaled.

Then, a notification appeared in my mind.

〖Mana has increased +26%〗

Then, a second later, another notification appeared.

〖The Core Heart has reached its maximum Mana capacity〗

〖Attempting to forcibly absorb more Mana will cause the Core Heart to explode〗

’Ah, here we go again. Once more, my Mana will be stuck at 99.99% for a while.’

At that moment, I couldn’t advance to Six Stars right away.

First, I had to awaken the Unique Trait: Higher Mind and unlock the first Innate Skill: Zone of Isolation.

The Unique Trait, Higher Mind, was necessary to create the Zone of Isolation and, later, at Seven Stars, integrate both Higher Mind and the Zone of Isolation into one.

The reason was to lay the foundation for Eight Stars and create a Domain in order to advance to Nine Stars.

"Master, how long did it take you to awaken Higher Mind and create the Zone of Isolation?"

At my question, my Master, who had been drinking juice through a straw, briefly glanced at me before answering.

"Five months to awaken Higher Mind and one month to create the Zone of Isolation, and that’s considered a record in my time."

"Even so, I think you can do it in three months."

"Three months to awaken Higher Mind?"

However, she shook her head.

"No, three months to awaken Higher Mind and an extra week to create the Zone of Isolation."

"Why do you think that?"

I tilted my head curiously. Although I was aware of my rapid growth, that was still far too fast.

"Just so you know, using the Third Form of Inverted Heaven, for someone with talent equal to or greater than mine, would take a year. That’s assuming we only consider the fact that I managed to use it once, yet it took you around two months."

"....!"

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. Then, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

’Come to think of it, I’ve felt like I’ve been learning things faster.’

During my first month after awakening in this body, I had naturally learned many things quite quickly, such as learning how to use a sword, for example.

However, compared to back then, when I was a novice who had just begun learning, naturally, everything had been difficult for me.

But even the things I had considered difficult back then, now that I had experience, I could learn new things much faster.

’It’s not experience. It’s more like my talent has grown.’

It had only become noticeable now, but my body and mind could understand anything at least 0.8 times faster than before.

End of the Vacation Arc.

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Author’s Note.

With this, we now only have three more Story Arcs left in Part One of Three of this story.

I think the next Arc could begin around Chapter 250 to 260.

So, in the meantime, before starting the next Arc, the upcoming Chapters will focus on everyday life, relationships, and interactions between the characters, and there will be a surprise waiting for our protagonist when Second-Semester Classes resume.

By the way, if you’d like, you can go read my new novel.