After waking up, I almost immediately start meditating to test out my idea. My idea was simple. I wanted to split my mana blobs into two and move them simultaneously to increase my cultivation rate, possibly even automate it.
So sitting down, I eject all my mana and then try to split it, but I soon run into a problem. Instead of splitting, it stretches, which I find exciting, and I try to stretch it to the limit to increase the collection area for white mana blobs. Still, I find out that it's not easy to move while stretched, so after returning the blob to my body, I start trying to eject two individual blobs simultaneously. Still, instead of being two different entities, they were attracted like magnets and combined back together.
Saddened that I couldn't split my mana blobs, I stopped meditating and started working out, and after finishing, I noticed that my muscles were more tired than before and realized that it was my mana helping me increase my muscles. I read about it back in the hospital. The increase in training speed from mana was the traveling mana in my mana circuit, providing energy and nutrition to my muscles. Still, the cost was that when my mana ran out, it stopped helping and made me a lot more tired, and it wasn't like I could control my flow of mana; I was doing this subconsciously.
My current problem was the regeneration of mana. To fix it, I would need the skill [Automatic Mana Regeneration], but to get that, I either needed to buy the skill book or buy a ton of mana stones to train up the skill. Both ways cost more than 10,000$, and I didn't have the money, so I currently didn't have a way to regenerate mana without meditating. Yet again, I came up with a plan that could work, but the likelihood of working was low, but I still hoped.
My plan was simply to use the skill [Data Mind]. According to the skill, my mind is like a computer, and in theory, I should be able to make a program and automatically collect mana, but the problem was that I could be taking the description literally. Still, if it did work, I could save a lot of time.
So I began programming the program with the help of the internet, but even if I used the internet, my progress was very slow. It could probably take me the whole summer to build a full version. Still, I currently was happy even with a minor increase to my mana regeneration, so instead of making it fully automatic, I went for semi-automatic.
The next day I repeated the routine, but instead of doing pushups and situps, I went for a run, and while running, I got a system notification which surprised me. Checking the notification, I almost don't shout in shock.
[Killed Ant, Gained 1 XP]
I was surprised to see a path for me to level up, but what shocked me more was that I didn't kill a single bug in the eight days I had the system. I mean, how the hell didn't I kill a single mosquito.
I immediately get distracted, and instead of running, I begin to look for bugs or even the 'legendary grade' anthills.
After an hour, I managed to kill some bugs and checked the logs.
[Killed Ant, Gained 1 XP] X47
[Killed Fruit Fly, Gained 1 XP] X7
[Killed Fly, Gained 1 XP] X3
I laugh because I probably looked so weird hunting bugs.
After returning to the hunt for bugs, I managed to spot an ant trail, so I followed it, and it brought me to an anthill. Looking around, I familiarized myself with the surroundings. Returning home, I picked up some lighter fuel and some matches. I was planning to burn the anthill for experience, it was childish, but I didn't care it seemed cool.
After returning with everything and even sunglasses, I apologized to the ants and began pouring the lighter fluid down the anthill. And after 30 seconds of pouring, ants start swarming out, but I left them alone because they weren't my main goal. Pouring half the bottle, I put on my sunglasses, take out the matchbox, and throw the match in a cool way, and the anthill started burning.
My ears were ringing from all of the system notifications, but I laughed at the sheer chaos. I still made sure the fire didn't spread and then swiftly escaped, predicting that I would most likely get in trouble if I stayed there, and I was right. There seemed to be a group of adults walking around, probably to have a picnic or something like that, but I wasn't interested in them, so I just sneaked away back home.
After returning, I checked my stats.
[Name: Oscar Blake]
[Rank: G]
[Level: 4]
[EXP: 800/0]
[Status]
[Health: 110/110] [Stamina 23/100]
[Mana: 1/12] [Satiety:43/100]
[Corruption: 0.3%] (-1.7%)
[Buffs: None] [Debuffs: Mental Barrier Cracked, Duration: 4 Days, 7 Hours, 2 Minutes]
[Attributes]
[Attrbute Points:17] [Strength:12]
[Agility:10] [Intelligence:14]
[Mana:2.6] [Charisma:13]
[Physique:11] [Reflexes:9]
[Remark: Is it I or is he growing too fast? Well don't worry he'll reach his first bottleneck at F+]
After returning I'm saddened by the fact that I didn't get more XP, but it kinda made sense because I outgrew them so ill have to find a new way to level up. I was also happy by the fact that I was no longer an H-Rank, but it didn't mean I'll train less, in fact, ill most likely increase my training when my mana increases more.
After eating I remember that I still haven't made an application to the academy, but before I could do that I had first to get tested and assigned a proper rank and obtain documents to apply to the academy, but the next examination was in about three weeks so before the test I needed to increase my rank as soon as possible.
As the day finished, I decided to finally test the skill [Data Mind], and the thing I wanted to learn was piano. I know, it is a useless skill, but it was just a test to find out more about the skill, it was definitely not to brag. Plus I had a piano at my house.
After downloading a ton of videos of people playing piano at different levels, and even the information on how to use a piano. I used the skill and got prompts.
[Please choose what you want to learn.]
[Learn how to play piano]
[Learn how to play the songs selected]
[Remember all knowledge in the file as video and text]
I smile, seeing the skill work even better than expected. I chose the first prompt and got a warning.
[Warning!! Host's corruption will increase by 7.34%. Do you wish to continue?]
I got a bit worried about the high corruption rate, but it should heal quite fast. Before accepting to learn the skills I check the two other choices.
[Warning!! Host's corruption will increase by 13.7%. Do you wish to continue?]
[Warning!! Host's corruption will increase by 2.1%. Do you wish to continue?]
Thinking about it, it made sense that it wouldn't increase much when memorizing because it just uploads the information and does not alter my experiences, but I didn't know why learning the songs would increase my corruption so much I still needed to figure that out.
Pressing the first prompt I get the final prompt.
[Uploading knowledge please wait... 1%... 3%... 9%... After it hits 50% host will fall asleep, please get in a comfortable position.]
"Looks like I can't avoid this, so might as well get in bed comfortably" I laid down comfortably on my bed, and watched the progress slowly increase. And soon it reached 50%, but instead of falling asleep as I assumed, it was like my consciousness was switched off.