Xol went toward the library of the school soon started going through the books that talked about side jobs. While this was happening inside the sealed room in Zestari office.
'I wonder why everyone gave me that look when teacher said I wait for her in the sealed room for my class change.' Richter thought as he waited for teacher Zestari. He was anxiously walking around the room as he couldn't wait to cultivate again.
*Creak
"Teacher." Richter clasped his hands and welcomed principal Zestari.
"Oh, someone is anxious to class change." Zestari teased.
"Before that there a couple of things we need to get sorted." Zestari said
"What, I thought I already made all the required things." Richter said with a perplexed look taking a step back.
"Don't worry, they don't take long and by the end of the day you will be already in the path of mana cultivation." Zestari gestured Richter to calm down.
"First thing, please take this crystal and send your mana into it." Zestari took a nonagon chiseled clear crystal. It was 15 cm long and 5cm wide and had pyramid like edges up and down.
Taking the crystal Richter started sending his mana into the crystal. Some minutes later the crystal started glowing and Zestari took the crystal back. She took out a stone tablet similar to the one Richer had used to measure his mana sensibility with the others, but this one had more runes in the sides and a carving to place a crystal. Placing the crystal into the carving, Zestari started reading the information it was shown.
*Sigghs
'Well, figured special constitutions nor special bloodline grow in trees. At least the tool works as intended.' Zestari sighed and stored both items in her inventory.
"Uhm, teacher can you explain what the crystal was for and your sigh." Richter anxiously said.
"Oh sorry, this are some tools I got to detect if someone was born with some special qualities mainly to test Xol and try to find what caused the event Jun commented. As I already got the tool I also wanted to see if you have some qualities to benefit you Mana cultivation path, but it didn't report anything significant about your case." Zestari smiled.
'So, she wanted to see if I was born with a special constitution or a bloodline like Kingo, well its an already a rare case to find a constitution and my family hasn't dipped in Mana Cultivation nor it related to a demi humans to have a bloodline.' Richter thought.
"Well onto the main event. Have you heard of the term Mana Pool?" Zestari said as she glanced at Richter with some concern.
"I have, from what I understand it's the total mana the system displays right?" Richter nodded.
"Partly correct, each person has a Mana Pool that is the reservoir of mana in the body, is located in the center of your chest. The MP displayed by the system could be a portion or all your mana pool depending in some factors. I would explain this a little later." Zestari shook his head and gestured Richter.
"For now, we must create a set of meridians in your body coming out from your mana pool." Zestari continued.
'I see in this world there also meridians and we can create them first in contrast to my old world. Maybe I can use some cultivation concepts from my old world with this set of meridians.' Richter thought as happiness build inside him hearing a familiar concept.
"Meridian are pathways that connect all your body to your Mana pool similar to blood vessels. Please eat this pill and the ingredient in it would do the rest after some time, also it may sting a little so try to endure it." Zestari took a moment before continuing explaining, and took golden pill from her inventory once her explanation finished and gave it to Richter.
Hearing the explanation Richter took the pill and soon understood the glance he received before entering, pity. He prepared himself first as he understood meridians connected most of the acupoints in the body ,so the process should be quite painful. Taking the pill, he waited for the effect to came forth.
'I knew, it is quite painful process.' Richter closed his right eye feeling the pain. 'But compared to the eight-lightning tribulation that I survived this is a breeze.'
"Don't lose conscious nor contract yourself, the more you endure the pain the better meridians you will get. Assume a natural posture, once this end you will only need to select the mana cultivator class from the class up options." Zestari said seeing Richter closing his eye and contracting a little.
Hearing the comment Richter, closed his eyes and adopted a natural posture. All his body was using the bare minimum in force to stand, not moving a single muscle. He has endured many painful experiences and could suppress the pain as he remained standing like an emperor, unmoving before anything.
###
As Richter was undergoing his meridian creation process, Xol had finished reading about the side jobs in the school library and had assigned priorities based on how interesting he found them. He also discovered other side jobs but there weren´t books detailing them, nor he could find a side job related to a drop he hoped monster could have.
'Seems I do need to go to the library in the city to understand those other side jobs. There goes some contributions to exit the academy.' Xol sighed as he exited the library and went to the academy main entrance.
'Currently Botanist could achieve part of what I need and if I take this side job added with tea ceremony, I could make some mind relaxing tea to help me with the mana recreation of the academy.' Xol pondered as he walked, soon he was in the academy entrance.
Xol paid the contributions to exit and asked some directions for the library. Taking his leave Xol continued onto the path the city, roughly 15 minutes later he was in the city, showing his ring of the academy and the path he was coming, the guards near the city entrance let him in without problem. Xol entered the city and quickly started following the directions the academy gatekeeper gave him.
'Now that I think of it, apart from the time Jun took us to eat, I haven't really seen the city.' Xol though seeing the buildings.
Taking a few turns Xol, exited an alley and could already see the library, as the gatekeeper had said from here he could see the four white towers and the red rooftop of the library and should be able to reach it pretty easily.
"Stop Thief! Someone catch him!" a shout sounded.
Glancing at the origin of the shout, Xol could see a man chasing a clocked man that was running toward him. Xol created some invisible chains behind him connecting the walls and walked toward the side.
The thief ran even quicker seeing Xol moved for him and sent him a smile as he passed.
"YOU –"
*Blarg
Hearing the sound and seeing the thief stopped, Xol created many chains binding him completely.
"–LITTLE… SAVIOR." The man was stunned seeing the development.
"Where the thief!?!" Some guard were running from another direction following the shout.
"Here!" The man shouted and pointed to the alley
Arriving to the alley the guards were surprised to see him chained in mana. They got close and knock him out. Seeing this Xol made the chains disappear. The guard took out a special bracelet to retrieve items from another person´s inventory.
"Sir, please wait some minutes, the bracelet takes a whole minute to retrieve an item at random so you may have to wait a little." A guard reported to the man.
"I see, many thanks" The man nodded and walked toward Xol.
"Thank you, young boy, you really saved me." The man said bowing toward Xol.
[Smith Dagger Scion LVL 45]
"No problem sir. What did that thief take?" Xol replied with some curiosity.
"A knife I custom made for a friend, it very important and took me too much to make. I´ll be in a pinch if he got away and wouldn't hear the end of it from my friend if that happened." Smith said as he glanced at the guards.
"Young boy has you already eaten? If not and has the time, let me invite you some food in the restaurant I was heading before he used the steal skill on me to repay the favor." Smith glanced at Xol snapping his finger at the idea.
"Sorry, I'm heading to the library to search for some books." Xol politely declined
"I see, then let me give you this as a token for your help. Please accept it." Smith said as he pulled a wooden box and hand it to Xol.
The box measured 35 x 25 x 10 cm. Opening the box he there was some meat wrapped in a cloth, taking all the space in the box.
[Yuan Life Mammoth Meat
Meat cut from the Yuan Life Mammoth, due to his high diet in Magical Plants is highly nutritious once prepared and eaten.]
"Sir I don't think I should accept this, I only helped as I don't like thieves and wasn´t expecting anything, less something that sounds valuable." Xol quickly tried to return the box.
"Don't worry this is a small gesture compared to helping me retrieve the knife." Smith said with a smile. Xol couldn't said no hearing his insistence and felt it would be wrong to reject his gesture after already trying once. He quickly stored the box in his inventory.
"Sir, where do you get that meat? Do you have a side job that make monster drop meat?" Xol asked tilting his head.
"Call me Smith please, I bought it from a Beast Hunter in a country west of here." Smith replied.
"I see many thanks, I´ll be going. I hope you recover the stolen knife." Xol bowed and turned with a wide smile.
'I knew there had to be side job to get meat from the monsters, added with Botany I should be able to cover my food expenses by hunting in dungeons, growing some vegetables and herbs.' Xol thought as he ran toward the library wanting to know more of the side jobs.
"Thanks to you Xol!" Smith shouted seeing Xol running off, then he turned and waited to recover the stolen knife.
###
[Richter Mana Cultivator LVL 10]
"Congratulations, on your successful class change." Zestari said seeing Richter updated information.
"Many thanks teacher." Richter replied with a smile after his class change ended.
"Now then your status will have some new functions and stats plus you will have unlocked other system features, but first please sit in a lotus position and I´ll explain the basic of mana cultivating." Zestari said and pointed to a meditating cushion she has set up as she waited for the class change to end.
Richter nodded and sat in a lotus position. Zestari pulled another cushion in front of him, sitting in it, she asked him take one of lightning beast core she had asked him. Taking out the core Richter hand it.
"I´ll like to teach you first with a bad example of what not to do, don't worry with me here nothing bad will happen. Close your eyes and focus on feeling the center area of your chest. We will enter your mana pool for the next part." Zestari said with a sweet smile.
Nodding his head Richter did as he was told. Zestari extracted the lightning mana from the core and shaped it in a ball in her right hand. After she placed her right hand in Richter chest and close her eyes. Focusing her mind she pulled Richter´s and her consciousness into Richter´s Mana Pool.
Opening his eyes Richter could see a ocean made of mana below him, scanning the area he found principal Zestari. She had a spectral translucent figure and was glancing at the ocean, in her hand there was lightning ball.
"I will first show the basics with a low level cultivation technique, this isn't the technique I have chosen for you. Mana Cultivators can change their mana cultivation technique if they find a stronger, more suitable or if you create your own. As a mana cultivator the amount of stat point you gain is dependent on the technique, so I want you to understand how to switch to a better down the line." Zestari said glancing at Richter, once she examined the Mana Pool.
"I see, many thanks Teacher. What do I have to do." Richter nodded.
"I will first demonstrate and show the bad example. After the I will monitor you once I hand you the cultivation technique I have chosen."
"There are various steps so look closely, first you manipulate some mana from your mana pool and surround the lightning mana you extract from a lightning beast core. I will explain the extraction technique later." Zestari said as he manipulated the mana, she took mana from various points she had examined and surrounded the lightning ball in a half sphere.
"Now you slowly transform the mana focusing on the lightning mana according to the cultivation technique. Come closer and examine the mana, you should see some black spots floating in it." Zestari said as she gestured Richter, nodding he came closer and saw the black spots.
"This are impurities your mana has, there are some ways to clean them but for now watch what happens if you grab and use mana with impurities." Zestari said and soon started transforming the mana resembling the lightning ball in the center. Soon the mana looked like a floating spring with the bottom part dripping lightly toward his mana pool, the black spots Richter saw previously had expanded greatly inside the spring.
"This is one of the mistakes I wanted to point, the impurities would grow exponentially and become harder to purify once the mana transforms harming your foundation. I grabbed mana with some high concentration of impurities making quite obvious the flaws, even when one chose the mana carefully there would be impurities that slip by and hide as you transform and keep hidden in your attunement." Zestari said as she pointed to various places. Richter was bewildered because it took him some time to detect an impurity she pointed.
"Depending on you cultivation technique you can detect some of the impurities that slip by and then you can take some steps to erase them. Now then this one of the mistakes I wanted you know." Zestari said as she glanced to Richter.
"Un, what would be another mistake?" Richter glanced at Zestari.
Zestari said some incantation and some green mana began irradiating from her.
"The other mistake would be this." Zestari said and flicked Richter shoulder with a finger.
Richter felt a discharge in all his body and his body fell unconscious. Zestari opened her eyes and saw Richter passed out laying in the floor.
'I see, so he reincarnated from another world that also had cultivation. Now I understand why he didn't ask right away what meridians were, has good martial arts, knew what I referred as lotus position, knew many exotic pills and alchemy ingredients.' Zestari nodded sensing the memories that were flowed through her after she flicked Richter.