When Max regained his consciousness, he was lying on his bed. His first thought was to see what had happened and if everyone was fine.
He looked around and saw Lilly sitting on a sofa on the right side of the bed, her eyes closed and chest heaving up and down evenly. He sighed in relief seeing her safe.
Max got out of the bed and approached her with light footsteps so as not to wake her. He leaned down and gently put one of his arms below her knees and one arm under her neck and lifted her up and took her to the bed.
He gently laid her down on the bed and covered her with a blanket. Feeling the comfort of the soft bed, Her expression visibly changed and a slight smile appeared on her lips.
"It seems I was out for quite a while." He murmured and stretched his body. He then opened his status screen.
[ Name: Maxwell Garfield ]
[ Age: 18 ]
[ Strength: 10 ]
[ Agility: 10 ]
[ Stamina: 10 ]
[ Vitality: 8 ]
[ Intelligence: 15 ]
[ Mana: 1331/1331 ]
[ Element: Fire ]
[ Lust Points: 5 ]
After sleeping for what seemed a full day and night, his mana and stamina were restored.
"Huh?"
Max frowned when he noticed his vitality points were only 8 now. He then recalled the system warning he got when he increased his mana by almost a thousand points.
"Can't I see what was that message now?" He wondered aloud and suddenly another window popped out which had all the previous notifications and messages.
"Oh! Nice. I just need to think about it just like the status window. It's very convenient. Let's see what was that warning." Max exclaimed in surprise when the notification window appeared and proceeded to check the warning.
[ Ding. Warning! The host has exceeded the 1000 mana points threshold. The host's body can't bear that much mana. The host will lose 2 vitality points per day. The host is advised to form his mana core to avoid eventual death. ]
'Hmm, It seems my body isn't able to hold this much mana by itself and needs a mana core.' He mused.
When you becomes a one-star mage, your body reaches its limit to hold mana inside it that is 500 mana units in normal cases but to become a two-star mage or stronger, you have to increase your mana and to do that you have to form a mana core inside their body which works as a container of mana.
If you can form a mana core in your body successfully, You have chance to become stronger if not you can only remain a one star mage for the rest of your life and if you forcefully increase your mana in your body same as Max did, your mana will start to corrode your body from inside out and you will gradually lose your vitality which will result in your death.
Mana cores are also divided based on concentration of mana in it which indicate your mage level.
For example, when you form your mana core it's colourless which indicate that you are still a one star mage who can cultivate or mediate to refine more worldly mana into your own and store it in your mana core.
When you have accumulated a thousand or more mana units, your mana core turns red. As you more refine and purify mana and increase mana count, the concentration in your mana increases and when your mana surpasses the minimum threshold to become a three star mage, it turns orange and as your mana count, mana concentration and purity increases its colour gradually change.
Mana core, apart from giving the capacity to hold much more mana also provides easy access to your own mana which lessened the consumption of mental strength and made it easy to control inside your body because when you have yet to form a mana core, the mana is scattered in your body which is obviously harder to control but when you have formed a mana core your mana has a fixed place to stay which is much easier to control.
'I need to find my father to know about the situation of the beast tide and to ask how to form a mana core or I would only survive for four more days at this rate.' Max decided. He first wanted to know that he and his family members were safe.
Although he didn't care about others apart from his father, he still didn't want something to happen to his family especially Esther and Amelia who were the mothers of Emily and Anna respectively.
'I wonder if Amelia is alright.' Max suddenly remembered that Amelia was injured when he reached there to help them.
He then went out to look for his father to know the current situation.
...
He walked the hallway looking around. Many were working in the manor to rebuild and renovate the destroyed parts of the manor.
He quickly arrived at his father's study where he usually could be found. But today he wasn't there. He was wondering where he was when he saw Esther who was directing workers.
He went toward her. She also noticed him coming toward her. There was a slight change in her cold attitude when she looked at him.
Max walked to her and greeted her casually "Hello Esther, I was wondering where is my father. I couldn't find him in his study."
When heard him calling her by her name, she raised an eyebrow at him but didn't say anything about it and answered "Your father went to the city to report the situation to Count Wiley and request for a team to hunt three-starred beasts."
"Oh! Okay." Max nodded and turned to walk away when he remembered that she was also a two-star Mage.