Sitting in the Lotus position, Arthur watched his mana slowly absorb and fuse that thread of energy. It dissolved and strengthened the mana. Despite being just a little, Arthur could feel the difference. It was like instinct telling him that.
He also noticed this when his intense struggle to stop the remaining red energy from passing through diminished in intensity. That meant the barrier was stronger.
With this new experience in hand, Arthur decided to try to let two threads of energy through. He slowly released one, and just when he was in full control of it, did he release another. That seemed to be his current limit.
Not that he was too weak, or that his mana was lacking in any way. In fact it was quite the opposite. Arthur was feeling much stronger than before, with more mana and energy than usual.
It was actually the concentration needed to absorb this red energy. It was violent, and if not kept in check, it would feed on Arthur's pure mana and only grow out of control. That way, he had to split 80% of his concentration and Strength, along with a lot of mana, to prevent energy from passing through. The rest was being used to assimilate this powerful energy.
This energy he absorbed now felt like a drop in a bucket that was constantly being filled. About 15 minutes passed when he finished assimilating the two energy threads.
Just as he was going to continue to do that, his nose, which seemed more sensitive than usual, finally gave the sickening stench alert.
"Dude, this stinks as fuck! Now I know why Amanda went to bed late that day..." When he was sure his mana barrier wouldn't break, Arthur started to get up off the ground. He was currently in his training area, and it was stinking and dirty.
With shaky, slow movements, Arthur walked to the elevator, promising to sort out the stench issue later.. He was focused on maintaining the barrier, so his movements were awkward. He couldn't even walk straight, let alone clear a huge area.
***
"It's nothing, keep walking..." Arthur spoke through slightly clenched teeth at Thomas.
"Okay..." With a strange look in his eyes, Thomas watched Arthur climb the stairs like an old man before sighing and helping him up, despite his insistence.
"What the fuck was that?"
"I show you later. Now go eat, order lunch too. I think I'll need two or three days to get back to normal. Take care!" When they reached the bedroom door, Arthur ruffled Thomas' hair and locked himself.
'Is he taller? Oh, come on... I'm going to eat ice cream!' Thomas only now noticed that Arthur looked taller than usual. He also remembered now that Arthur seemed to have gone on a growth spurt recently.
***
Turning on the bathtub faucet, Arthur focused on the barrier again and let a thread of energy through, starting to assimilate it like all the others. This process seemed to have become smoother as he got used to the procedures.
By the time he finished assimilating, the tub was already full. He threw in a few pieces of flavoring and soap. The water smelled really good. He learned from all the times he was stinking and he had prepared this in advance.
So, spending the next two hours in the bathtub and assimilating the energy threads, Arthur lost himself in this incredible process. Each thread brought a huge amount of benefits, although the differences between each were a little different.
He associated this with his mana being empowered, so the amount of food needed to be higher.
At the end of these two hours, the mana barrier was firmer and more robust, no longer suffering such intense pressure. There were about 30 strands absorbed and completely integrated. Arthur noticed that for every two strands of energy, the absorption time decreased by one minute.
He could have increased the amount of energy he could have absorbed, but he was trying to find the maximum efficiency mode through repetitive training. Increasing the load was good, but knowing how to do it is much better. That way, he can increase the load later, and have a much better result.
Wearing some baggy clothes but running out of shirt, Arthur sat on a cushion he placed on the bedroom floor. He sat in the lotus position, as that no longer felt like a playful position and was actually very efficient at circulating mana.
Taking a look at his Mana Core, the most notable change besides its expansion was that it was now a little more reddish. It was a very faint hue, but you could tell thanks to its pure white before. Arthur was not afraid of this, as he associated it with assimilating red energy.
Taking a deep breath, Arthur let a thread of energy, at least twice as thick as the previous ones, enter his core. Like a summoned beast, the red thread swam for mana as it engulfed everything. It seemed that with Arthur's constant feeding, his mana seemed to have become a better meal for these threads, which was indicative of improvement.
Time slowly passed, with Arthur assimilating more and more red threads, more and more thick and merciless. One was more powerful than the other, as well as more nourishing to his mana. The once white core was now a little pink. In contrast to the vibrant red, it still lacked a lot.
The stronger Arthur's mana, the less concentration the mana barrier required, as well as a lower amount of Force. Thus, assimilation took on a vertiginous speed the longer it went on like this.
For two whole days, from Friday night to Sunday night, all Arthur did was assimilate this energy and make it run through his body.
It wasn't until noon on Saturday, when he was already used to the process, that he noticed that the mana in his channels was still the old white and weak one.
It was at that moment that he realized that it must be like the kidney's blood cleansing process, making the mana go back to the Core through full circulation and washing the body of all that weaker mana.
He also noticed that his mana remained pure, and that had nothing to do with it color. It was just that it was of a more basic and simple energy that was being blended with a more powerful energy that was also pure. Both were compatible and would merge completely.
With this constant circulation of energy, a part of Arthur's attention was again withdrawn and this reduced the assimilation time. But that would be for the best, as it would be good for the body too.
As he took a deep breath, Arthur opened his glowing eyes in the dark room. There was a faint rosy light in them before it withdrew and faded away. This was the mana that circulated through his new open channels.
When he was ready to get up and get some movement after two days, an interesting notification popped up in his vision.
...
It was only one, but it was enough for him to be shocked.
"Can I absorb energy normally now? I don't need shock anymore!?" Almost excited at the thought of giving up the hellish shock treatment, Arthur settled back into the lotus position and continued doing what he always did.
It was at this point that he decided to pay attention to his environment. With his eyes still closed, he circulated mana through his body. When he felt a pleasant heat build up on his skin, the mana seemed to steal that warmth as it passed by. Everywhere on his body there were these hot spots that were stolen by the mana that passed nearby. Almost all the channels in contact with Arthur's skin had been cleaned, and only the innermost ones in his body were still with the impurities.
...
Just as he imagined, after absorbing a few dozen of these hot spots, the notification popped up in front of him.
"It's an incredibly miserable result, but it's already acceptable. I can go faster with the shock treatment, but now I can at least gain experience when I'm not training!" With excitement in his voice, Arthur decided to celebrate with a good meal.
It was then that a bold idea popped into his mind.
'If now I can gain experience just by circulating, can I advance the cleaning process too?... It doesn't hurt to try...' Jumping back into his Lotus position, Arthur calmed down from his excitement as he returned to a meditative state he'd learned to control in those two days. It was just a state of getting rid of most thoughts and focusing the rest on his body, nothing too deep.
Taking some of the newly empowered mana, Arthur guided it to a mana channel with some impurities in it. It was technically open, but there were still a lot of impurities in it.
Using his Force, Arthur commanded the mana to attack the black goo, and it turned out to be successful. Like a sharp mini-sword, the mana cut and diced tiny pieces of black goo that were taken up by more mana and eventually expelled. It was such a small part that it seems like it did nothing. When it came out through the pore of his arm, it looked like a little black mole that had just been born.
But that didn't do anything to dampen Arthur's excitement. This black goo was previously like a disgrace that caused him pain, but now he had a way to get rid of it without needing to level up. And if he was correct, when the energy blast coursed through his body again, the energy spent cleaning would be less and would be used to break the seal faster. It would be two birds with one stone.
Rising from bed excitedly, Arthur looked like a different person from two days ago. Before he could barely walk, but he suspected he could even run now. The concentration to maintain the barrier was still boring, but he was already able to do normal activities.
As he ate the lunchboxes Thomas ordered for him, Arthur was more or less organizing what his daily routine would be from now on. He needed to get stronger to face the dangers that can and will come, and he wouldn't lose his rhythm to keep getting stronger.
After eating a lot, almost 7 lunchboxes full of protein and carbohydrates, Arthur went back up to his room.
Starting mana circulation again, Arthur was ready to test the current limits of his mana abilities, and also if it could get out of his hands. He's been training for this for a long time, and he's even been injured already. So now was the time.
But just as he was about to start practicing, new messages appeared in his mind and visible changes were about to take place in his body.