It was now afternoon, and Verum was famished, strenuous exercise really consumes a lot of energy. While eating, he was browsing through his profile to see what stats he should add his points to when he noticed something.
[EXP: 412/500]
A smile appeared on his face. 'Research complete, result: positive. I really can level up by training.' He continued browsing through the system when something attracted his attention in the chat area.
[Goldmine: Man, I sure wish I had that amount of money]
[Croak: You said it, damn I want to join them. Do you think they will take me?]
[Mightman: You? No way, It should be someone as mighty as me!]
[Croak: Putting them aside for a bit, what do you guys think about that weird request that was sent?]
He looked about for a bit before coming to a conclusion, there seemed to be two topics on their minds right now. One was that someone had made a faction with 6 members, and from the looks of it, all of them had good troops, making them a formidable force. And the other was about a request for a trade that had appeared on the world chat. The reason that they were discussing it was because the request was for 2000 wood, in exchange for something called 'Earth quintessence', it seemed to be a liquid, because it was offered as five bottles of it.
Seeing as he had a lot of extra wood, Verum decided to trade for it, after all, the word 'Quintessence' meant the refined extract of something. It might be useful for research purposes, even if it wasn't, there was no loss. He could 2000 wood in a matter of time.
[Trade complete, you have received 'Earth quintessence' x5]
[Earth Quintessence]
[???]
[???]
[???]
'Tch, can't appraise it.' Verum clicked his tongue before withdrawing one to observe it.
It had a lot of mana in and around it, the mana around the ground seemed to become a bit agitated as well, so he decided to open it, and let a drop out. When the drop hit the ground, it seemed to rejuvenate it, making the surrounding mana gather and empower that patch of stone, and as watched, some grass grew out of the stone as well, baffling him.
'Grass? Where did the roots come from? Or did the drop make the roots?' His thought process, however, was interrupted by the system.
[You have learned the skill, 'Regeneration']
[Regeneration] [Lv:1] [Passive]
[Increases your HP regeneration to 0.2% HP per second]
[Can be upgraded to Higher regeneration]
"Ooh, That is very nice." Verum said, then his gaze became curious as he looked at the bottle in his hand. "This thing is powerful, one drop to learn a skill, damn." The person who had traded with him had the alias of 'winter wind', he had added them to his friend list, and said that if they needed anymore wood, just message him.
With this out of the way, he went back to the hall, and began training his men in mana manipulation, as well as meditation.
After some time, he let them do it on their own, and started his own training. He first started by trying to feel the mana around him, and when that was done, he started to guide small amounts of it towards him. On contact with his skin, the mana got absorbed into his body, giving him a refreshing feeling, however, as time went on, it was slowly replaced by discomfort.
'Hmm, seems like I can store more than the indicated amount of mana, if I'm correct, then the pain will probably start soon.' And he was correct, for soon the discomfort got replaced by small amounts of pain, and it kept growing. He also started feeling like he couldn't get more mana in him, however he continued.
Only when the pain increased to the pain where it felt like he was going to explode, did he stop gathering mana, and tried to concentrate on keeping than mana inside from dissipating, it was tough to concentrate when it felt like he was burning, but he managed to keep the mana from dispersing for about a minute before he let some of it out because of the increasing pain.
He kept on releasing a bit every few minutes as the pain became unbearable, and after keeping this up for half an hour straight, he finally let all the mana disperse, bringing him a great amount of relief as most of the pain disappeared immediately. He took a few deep breaths before opening his eyes.
"That was a painful experience, wonder if it was worth it." He thought out loud, summoning the status board to take a look.
[Name: Verum Apeiros Voidborn]
[Lv: 10]
[Exp: 456/500]
[HP: 120/120]
[MP: 240/240]
[Ki: 120/120]
[STR: 10]
[DEX: 18]
[AGI: 13]
[DEF: 11]
[CON: 12]
[INT: 24]
[WIS: 35]
[Unassigned stat points-45]
"Dayum! Increased by 3? Worth it! Completely worth it!" He exclaimed, as a happy expression appeared on his face. He looked at his status for a while, before deciding to train his magic.
'I have a trump card, what I am lacking is something that can be used a lot, or many things which have low cooldowns.' Thinking so, he started with the fire element, which was the most used out of all his magic, and tried to make more spells from it.
He first took his flamethrower, and tried to make it thinner and more concentrated, while also increasing the range.
[You have learned the spell 'Fire Stream'!]
He took the Fire bolt, and made it longer.
[You have learned the spell 'Flame lance'!]
He then made fire ball split into smaller balls, it exploded.
Tried again. Failed.
Again, Failed.
Again, Failed.
Again, Succeeded.
[You have learned the spell 'Fire bullets'!]
He took his new spell Flame lance, and made it even longer, and made it more durable and thick.
Went out of control.
Again, Stabilized it. Failed.
Again, Succeeded.
[You have learned the spell 'Flame spear'!]
He made mana condense itself into a spot, then made it ignite.
Dissipated.
Again, Dissipated.
Again, Dissipated. (x12)
Again, Succeeded.
[You have learned the spell 'Ignite'!]
In this manner, he continued to learn more and more spells, for quite some time, only stopping to replenish his mana.