During the last week that Ingredi and Hilda closed for their attempt to advance I have not received any news from them, but I believe they must have been successful the Menfis family must have invested a generous amount of gold coins to buy various supplements and maybe even magic tools that will help them advance.
Last week I spent my time in the Emerald Forest I did more than a dozen institute missions and with that I gained a considerable amount of contribution points that I only saved twenty percent of them
I spent most of my earnings exchanging for resources to improving my cultivation most of it was spent on medicinal ointments to speed up my mana uptake.
I used to use a diluted version that lasted longer and longer than the original product, but it also had a weaker effect than the original. When I used the full version of the ointment, I felt the difference immediately because when the mana started to be absorbed through my skin and with it came pain, I felt every pore of my skin burning, my flesh felt like it was being pierced by hot needles, my bones felt like they were being cracked and my internal organs felt like they were being stitched up by the mana that was entering my core.
As I concentrated on my core and tried my best to ignore the effects of the ointment, my aura was being reset at a speed that was almost triple normal this state will last four hours so good to enjoy I spent my aura to strengthen so much my body as my core.
After going through the first time using a quality ointment, I felt that my body strengthened was equivalent to at least two four days of training as my core strengthened at normal speed, it seems that using the ointment has more advantages than I expected. The speed that my body is absorbing my mana is much faster than normal, I believe this is not a direct effect of the taking but rather because of the mana that was seeping into my body.
Unfortunately, I can't repeat this training today because my body is still suffering from the effects of having too much mana going through my body, in the manual that came with the ointment it said that the first few times I use the ointment I will suffer the side effect for a few hours after using the ointment only after my body gets used to mana passing through my body will i be able to use the ointment up to three times a day if i focus on spending my day strengthening my body and core.
Unfortunately, the pain I feel when using the ointment will not actually decrease when my body gets used to mana the amount of mana that will pass through my body will increase and with that the torture I will have to endure will increase as well. This is one of the reasons that people tend to use this type of ointment for a short time and come back only after their body normalizes to start using the ointment again.
I plan to find out how long I can keep using the ointment constant, the longer I last, the faster my body will strengthen and the less time I will have to spend strengthening so I can concentrate on other forms of training.
While I was doing misses and torturing myself with my training, I ended up spending little time with my teammates, but as they were also concentrating on their own training as it was twenty-seven days before the test started.
When I was recovering from my training, I finally saw Hilda approaching me with a smile on her beautiful face, I didn't even need to look to her core to realize she had succeeded in her advance.
"Hi, did you miss me?"
"Of course, did everything go well during your advance?"
"Yes, Ingredi and I had a full head start, it was a little slow, but we didn't have a problem until the end."
"Slow?"
"Yes, it was a slow process to cleanse the core, it took me several hours to clean my core, I was destroyed by my mother trying to cleanse my core as much as I could before I ran out of aura. In the three days after I had advanced, I still felt that my core was still being cleansed by the aura that my core created."
"My aunt told me that the more you can purify the core, the passive purification process will last for more days and the longer it lasts, the better the quality of your aura."
"Very interesting, but during the passing of the gray core stages doesn't it continue to be purified?"
"Yes, but the more you purify the first time, the less work you'll have later, and if you purify a little, you'll have a harder time progressing in cultivation."
"I feel that my preparations for my advancement are not enough to help me."
"I have full confidence that you will pass smoothly when the time for your advance comes."
"Thank you for your confidence. But now that you've advanced how are you feeling?"
It took Hilda a few minutes of deliberation to be able to answer me honestly.
"Actually, I didn't feel that much of a difference physically, but I believe my body is still getting used to my new core. But the difference that is shocking and the amount of aura I have now and adding that to her new quality my offensive power has increased a lot, but unfortunately I couldn't separate my aura from my body but I feel like I'm close."
"And your elemental seed?"
"She is just like my body the gray core is purifying and nourishing her according to my aunt the seed will slowly purify during the first two months and only when complete will I be able to season my elemental seed using external elements, but I have to choose well now that if I absorb low quality elements or absorb external elements too often my elemental seed can be contaminated and cleaning it is very expensive and difficult."
"I'm glad you're so excited about your progress and I'd love to talk more about it, but I have to ask about Ingredi we don't have much time before the test and probably before the test starts the nobles' troops will be back vying for the locations of resources again."
"Are you really excited about stealing from your friend's family?"
"First stealing is a very strong word, according to the Yates family owes me for helping to unmask the negative intentions Benjamin had towards Vania and third and last the emerald village was attacked by two families I doubt the Yates family will retain ownership of the green wheat at the end of the nobles' confrontation."
"I only hear excuses from a thief who doesn't like to be called a thief. Was the village really attacked? As far as I know, it doesn't generate any money to be disputed so early in the conflict."
"That's because you're not seeing the value of the village, the wheat that is produced there and unique, but as there are products with similar characteristics on the market, it doesn't have such a high value, just that for several nobles from all over the kingdom who like green wheat. The family that controls the green wheat is not going to be focused on selling the wheat but on using it as a gift to create reactions with various powerful nobles in both the sense of military and economic power."
"Why do you know so much about what's going on in Ulric village?"
"It's natural to pay attention to her as I want to acquire the source of the life element and having Torris as the source of the news makes it really easy to stay abreast of what's going on in the village."
"Purchase? Are you really going to avoid using the word robbery?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, we're just going to acquire a natural resource that's buried near someone else's property. But the most important question is whether you were successful in convincing Ingredi to go before the institute test took place?"
"I managed to convince her to go steal the source of the life element before the test happens, she only accepts because we have more than three weeks to do it, how much time do you think we're going to spend on the trip?"
"At most a week no longer than that, but that depends on how fast Ingredi can safely dig. We can't make a tunnel without a decent structure because I believe that nobody has the plan to die under the ground."
"Ingredi is confident in being able to dig a lot faster if she had help, from Torris the tunnel will be safer and the digging will go faster."
"But the problem with calling Torris is that he might not like the part that the village will lose its importance and his family will lose the green wheat."
"But you didn't say that the Yates family will end up losing ownership of the village so if the green wheat disappears it won't be the Yates family who will be harmed but who will steal their village.
Maybe we can even give the family the idea to sell the village to an enemy so they earn something by selling the village that will lose its value in a few months"
"Hilda you are missing a very important point if Torris doesn't like the idea and warn the family they will spend their time looking for the source of the life element and even if they can't they will try to extort the location of min and this will attract even more problems I've already been the target of an assassination attempt I want to avoid being targeted again."
"I understand your concern, you really do attract a lot of Ulric trouble and the chances of you being targeted by assassins again are pretty high. But if we don't go call Torris, what excuse are we going to use to leave him behind he'll think it's weird if he's the only one left behind"
"So just leave more people behind Hilda and a stealth mission then have fewer people and the better in my opinion the group would be me, you, Ingredi and Raziel as your shadow element would be useful if we run into trouble when we're underground. The only risk we have during the trip is being attacked by magical animals and if we are very unlucky, we may encounter a magical beast."
"I understand, I'll talk to Ingredi and confirm with her and we'll go out tomorrow, you convince Raziel."
"OK. Agent meets at night to confirm the trip."