Zeke took out two of the body tempering materials inside the spatial ring. One was the Firecloud Fruit while the other one was the Aquaember Pea. Zeke pondered on what to devour first.
'Since Firecloud Fruit only contains Fire element, it'd be much easier than Aquaember Pea where Fire and Water coincide.'
Zeke stored the Aquaember first before focusing his gaze on the Firecloud Fruit. After a few minutes of steeling his mind, he chanted the syllables for the devouring.
Instead of just directly swallowing it, Zeke utilized the devouring technique of the Mad Dragon. If he were to directly eat it, he wouldn't be able to absorb the entirety of the energy inside and some will leak out of his body but if he used the innate technique of the Mad Dragon, not only would it absorb 100% of the energy inside, it would also distribute the energy equally throughout the body, saving time for Zeke.
Strands of fiery energy seeped out of the fruit one by one as it directly went inside each of Zeke's body parts starting from his forehead up to his toes. Each strand contained a terrifying amount of energy that even one or two of them is already enough for Zeke to absorb for a day. However, there were more than five strands of energy currently surging towards Zeke's whole body, filling it with energy. If it were another person besides Zeke that tried to absorb all the energy of the Firecloud Fruit in one go, he/she would probably explode from the overload of energy.
While he was absorbing the energy, Zeke felt a tinge of pain all over his body. However, Zeke didn't pay attention to it as his whole attention was on his whole body. He could already feel that each and every part of his body is slowly brimming with power. However, even though he already felt full with energy, the energy was still going while his body was still getting filled. It felt like his mind and body weren't in sync. His mind already considered his body full but his body looked like it still wasn't and continued absorbing the energy. Fortunately, it didn't last long as the energy converged into one slightly bigger strand that travelled directly through Zeke's stomach. As if it was done with Zeke's body, it then started to convert the raw and pure energy of the Firecloud Fruit into pure mana that goes to his Perfect Mana Core, nourishing it greatly.
Soon, the strand of energy had noticeably gone thinner while Zeke was still immersed with the feeling of euphoria.
Then, a sudden light feeling enveloped Zeke's body. His mind was on cloud nine as, just like his body, he also felt something pleasant in his stomach. When he inspected it, he found out to his shock that the feeling of pleasure actually came from his Mana Core. He noticed that not only did his mana change in quantity, but it was even purer than earlier. With this, Zeke then got hit by another good news.
His Low Tier 2 Mana Core had now risen to Mid Tier 2.
What shocked Zeke more was that it was only because of a single fruit. Although he had already been a Low Tier 2 months ago and was slowly consolidating, it was still a cold fact that a single fruit increased Zeke's mana core by a small tier.
Even after breaking through, there was still a thin strand of energy seeping through Zeke's stomach, continuously nourishing his mana core. By the time the Firecloud Fruit has already completely evaporated, Zeke not only nourished his whole physique but also increased his Mana Core's tier.
Zeke stood up and tried to cast a few of his spells. To his surprise, casting Tier 1 spells like [Fireball] or [Wind Step] not only became easier and more efficient in terms of mana usage, their might also increased. After thinking for a bit, Zeke found it reasonable as his Mana Core was different than others. Not only did it contain quite a lot more mana than others of the same tier, but it can also pump out mana of all elements.
Zeke also noticed that his Dragon Force's overall capacity had increased. Not only that, but the might of his Dragon Force had also increased by a little. He could also discern that the illusory dragon head had become slightly bigger and lifelike.
After a few more seconds, Zeke decided to continue absorbing more body tempering materials. Unbeknownst to him, although it felt like a short moment, Zeke actually took a whole day to absorb one body tempering material. However, if the public knew of this as well as the fact that Zeke absorbed 100% of the fruit's energy, they would find this piece of news shocking and unbelievable. Who would imagine that a 10-year-old could this?
The reason people would find this unbelievable is because the notion of absorbing a hundred percent of a raw material's energy is almost impossible. This is why people would first get the materials to a pill refiner or a medicinal expert to convert it into a pill that could allow them to ingest and absorb almost if not all of the raw material's energy. Of course, this is easier said than done as pill refiners would need a certain amount of skill and knowledge to be able to make a pill like that. Most of the time, a portion of the energy would be lost but in exchange for that, the pills created would be easier to ingest and less painful than Zeke's way of absorption.
***
A whole month and a half had gone by and Zeke had already absorbed almost half of the raw materials he had. Rare materials like the Firecloud Fruit and Aquatic Pea took Zeke at least a day to fully absorb, while even rarer ones like the Aquaember Pea and Aching Stickweed took Zeke at least two days.
He stored the other raw materials in his inventory while Zeke put out a pill bottle. This pill bottle contained one body tempering pill that Zeke felt had multiple times more energy than the materials he absorbed.
He had planned on absorbing as much raw materials as he did first to ensure that his body was strong enough to handle the rampaging energy inside the pill. Also, he figured that if he took the pill first, the other raw materials might lose its effectiveness on him so he decided to absorb the raw materials first.
Only after absorbing almost half of the materials did Zeke's body reach a high level enough to reduce the materials' effectiveness. At first, he noticed that he benefitted greatly from the materials, but the more material he absorbed, the lesser its effect on him. This only meant that Zeke's body was already strong enough to void the effects of the materials. Since he wouldn't get any substantial increase anymore, he decided to store it back and move on to the pills.
According to his clone back in Dragonsoar City, there were still a month and a half left before Zeke's 10th birthday. However, Esteban reminded Zeke's clone that they will depart a week before so he could celebrate his birthday with his parents and to finally introduce him to the whole Flamehaven Royal Family. Since Zeke's main body is connected to his clone, he naturally received that piece of news as well. With that, he still had almost a month and a week to absorb the pill.
Zeke didn't dally anymore as he poured the pill to his palm and directly swallowed it. It was a direct way of ingesting pills as he knew his Mad Dragon's absorbing technique wouldn't decrease its absorbing time. This is because pills are already processed and designed to travel throughout the whole body and equally distribute the energy, whereas raw materials are, well, unprocessed.
As the pill went in his stomach, its exterior melted, releasing a terrifying amount of energy inside his body. However, Zeke didn't feel pain unlike when he absorbed raw materials. The energy of the pill was actually meek and submissive. It was only that its quantity is far more than raw materials that it was considered terrifying. Also, due to its quantity, the time it takes for Zeke to fully absorb it is longer than when he absorbed raw materials.
During the process of absorption, Zeke didn't have the concept of time. His whole attention was focused on the changes in his body. Even after absorbing so many raw materials, Zeke still couldn't help but be stunned by how his body's drastically getting strengthened.
When he focused, he could faintly feel that each and every cell of his body was being strengthened at a fast pace, while his bones and muscles were being hardened. Also, this increase seemed to be multiple times more effective than a few raw materials combined. When he absorbed raw materials, he also noted that his body didn't improve this much.
After what seemed like an eternity, Zeke opened his eyes. He then let out a loud roar of excitement as he felt the changes inside his body. His body strength had multiplied by almost a fold while his body felt like it was being overwhelmed by boundless vitality and energy. Zeke casually punched and kicked the air to stretch for a bit when he felt like the air was getting ripped apart whenever he moves.
It's been half a month since Zeke started absorbing the pill. He didn't feel the need to eat or drink since the energy within the pill had already nourished his whole body that it didn't feel the need to eat anymore. Since Zeke still had a month or so, he thought of devouring one more pill.
He then pulled out one more pill out of the nine remaining pill bottles while he immediately swallowed it and ran his absorption technique. This time, the terrifying amount of energy wasn't as overwhelming as before. Although it was still the same amount as the first one, Zeke's body had already evolved and can now take in more energy than before so handling the entirety of the pill wasn't a problem anymore. It went smoothly until Zeke woke up after another half a month. However, instead of feeling joy, Zeke slightly frowned.
'The effects are halved.'
He felt it. Unlike the first one, the second pill only gave him as much as 50% of the benefits of the first one. Although he indeed got stronger again, there was still a 50% loss. Since it's like that then would consuming a third pill reduce it more?
After a few seconds of pondering over it, Zeke calmed his mind and thought of it as possible and reasonable. One, his body and mana core had already improved significantly in the first one, so it was natural for a pill of the same level and power to lose quite a bit of effectiveness when used on a stronger person. Second, it would indeed be unfair and illogical for someone to continuously devour the same pill over and over again and still improve at a constant rate. He remembered something about pills from his book knowledge, and it was that there were some pills that will only work on a person only once or twice, and it would already be impressive if the pill would still have the same effect and potency after three intakes.
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Ezekiel Flamehaven
Male; 9 years old
Pure Blooded Half-Dragon
Titles: Otherworlder; Unrestrained; Pandora's Champion; Perfect Mana Core User; Undying;
Mass Murderer; Ruler of Dragons;
Level: 15(10500/1500)
Str: 6850
Agi: 7045
End: 6990
Int: 2450
CP: 6040
Skills: [See System-learned skills]
[See Self-taught skills]
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'I'm a bit strong now, huh.'
After getting tempered from the fights with strong forest beasts, to awakening his two Dragon Bloodlines, to absorbing body tempering materials, Zeke had achieved a massive surge of increase in power.
'Not only my body, but my mana core has also improved. From the looks of it, looks like I'm a Peak Tier 2 now.'
Zeke smiled. Just by consuming two pills and a couple of body tempering materials, he had risen his mana core from Low Tier 2 to Peak Tier 2. If someone were to know about this, they would probably find this hard to believe. After all, breaking through two subtiers in the span of a month could be considered heaven-defying. Most people would take a couple of months or even years for them to even advance in one subtier but Zeke had done so twice in just a month. One could clearly distinguish how fast Zeke's growth rate is.
'It's time. Let's see if you still have the guts to chase me.'
A cold gleam flashed through Zeke's eyes as he started collecting his things.