At first, Nami was surprised that he knew nothing about mages and Mana Regulator and all the cultivation stages. At this point, she started to suspect that even though magic existed in this world, the people weren't very well informed about the existence of mages, if at all.
And so began Nami's lecture about the different cultivation stages a mage went through to become more powerful. He still didn't know the term 'mage', since it was in a different language. But he could still follow her explanation, nonetheless. It took a while to decipher everything though, since no words were used even once. It was all done through mental information and meanings transmitted to his mind. Max then translated all of that into words in Elysian language.
The first and probably the most crucial stage was called 1st Ring Formation. Crucial because without forming the first ring, a person could die from mana poisoning. The body would be overflowed with mana, overheat, and would eventually be destroyed from within. A person's heart transformation was usually gradual, and back in Nami's world, there would normally be someone guiding them to build the first ring. The heart's transformation process indicated someone's Awakening.
Well, Nami had used her fairy dust not only to turn Max immortal, but also to make him go through an instant Awakening. That was why his heart's transformation was so rapid. And she just thought he would immediately know what to do. Max couldn't help but shake his head when thinking back on it.
As of now, even though Max had already formed the rough foundation of the ring, he still hadn't truly reached the 1st Ring Formation stage. He would officially be there when the ring was finally whole, solid, and refined, without even a single hole left in it. And he had no choice but to reach this stage, unless he wanted his body to implode.
The second stage was called 1st Layer Formation. To reach this stage, Max had to expand as well as condense the mana around his heart, starting from the top and bottom edge of the ring. The first ring was formed within a horizontal axis, so the mana would expand vertically. Eventually, the mana expansion would form a layer of condensed mana that covered his whole heart.
With the first layer in place, his mana storage would already be several times larger than a normal human's. And Nami finally confirmed his suspicion; he wouldn't need mana conductors to perform any mana-based activity anymore.
The next stage was called Horizontal Rotational Friction. To officially reach this stage, Max had to start rotating the mana layer. Well, to be more precise, he had to speed up the current rotation.
The ring foundation he had formed was already rotating, orbiting around his heart, albeit at a snail's pace. All he had to do was increase the rotational speed, until a friction was created between the layer and the stray mana going in and out of his body due to his heart's gravitational force. The friction would then give more power to his mana output, making any technique he used stronger.
The Rotational Friction was divided into three sub-stages, namely Initial, Intermediate, and Advanced. They were based on the speed of the rotation.
After reaching the Advanced stage, Max would finally be ready to form his second ring. This would deliver him to the next stage, called 2nd Ring Formation. The process was exactly the same as the formation of the first ring. The only difference was the axis. This time, the ring would follow a vertical direction.
The 2nd Layer Formation stage would also be the same as the previous one, with the exception in that the mana expansion went horizontally.
And once the second layer entered the Vertical Rotational Friction stage, Max's overall level of power would jump several times. This was due to the fact that the second layer's rotation was in a direction perpendicular to the first, creating a friction stronger than the first one.
After going through the same three sub-stages within the Vertical Rotational Friction stage, it was time to create the third ring. And once the whole process repeated, there would be the fourth and final ring. Both the third and fourth rings and layers followed two opposite diagonal directions—left and right. They would also rotate in those very directions.
That was all the magic cultivation stages that Nami knew about. She wasn't sure if there was more after that. Well, Max couldn't be bothered about what lay far ahead in the future, anyway. He just wanted to focus on the present.
And the present dictated that he needed to eat. He could feel a slight rumbling from his stomach. The sun had fully risen over the horizon a while ago, and he couldn't remain in the alley forever. He also still needed to think about how he could get away with canceling the deal he had with the black market dealer. He didn't have the heart to just toss Nami back into the wooden chest and hand it over to him.
'Say, if I'm immortal now, why do I still get hungry?' he asked Nami.
Nami stared at him as if he was the dumbest person in the world. 'Yes, immortal. But still hungry, still get hurt.'
Ah, it would appear Max had confused immortality with invincibility. He may have stopped aging, but he could still die from starvation or getting injured.
Suddenly, Nami said something out of the blue. 'That, absorb.' She was pointing to the white mana stone on his glove's wrist. 'Way to cultivate. After, stone gone.'
Max raised one brow. Did she just say that the only way to cultivate was to absorb the potential mana within the stone? And that meant him losing his newly-upgraded mana conductors. Hell no.
Besides, wasn't there an alternative way to go about it? It should be obvious, right?
He activated his gloves, and with his mana viewing mode on, he stretched a hand and just...literally grabbed a handful of mana waves, and then straight up shoved them into his chest.
"Huk!"
He grunted slightly, feeling a sudden increase in mana that was immediately attracted to his heart. However, he soon hastily organized it and used it to fill the holes within his mana ring.
Watching that happening, Nami's jaw dropped. What kind of monster was this boy in front of her?! As far as she knew, no living being could just grab mana from the air and put it into their body. Mages were supposed to rely only on mana stones to cultivate! Well, they could also use mana that was naturally attracted to their hearts, but that usually took too long for their liking. Condensed mana within mana stones was faster and more efficient to utilize.
But that wasn't the case for Max, apparently. What was this novelty she was currently witnessing?! Besides, she had never seen nor heard anyone 'catching' mana from the air before. At most, mages could only slightly strengthen their heartbeat using a technique to manually attract more mana into their bodies, but that was it.
Nami was starting to feel like she had gotten tangled up with someone who might bring her either the greatest fortune or the gravest danger.