The next day after the guild meeting.
Cersei was training in the Black Phoenix guild training field, when Alice cried out in panic "My lady, bad news! That guy is coming!" and the guy being Jon who was standing right behind her.
"It's you?" Cersei stops her training.
"Hey, my lady. Have you been training hard." Jon asked with smiling with a wave of his hand as if he did nothing. This gained him odd looks from Cersei and Alice.
"Some time ago, you seemed to be having a great time writing your 'The Young Married Woman Cersei', so why don't you continue to do so, 'my dear'?" Cersei asked not buying his act.
"My lady, again with your jokes! It's obvious that someone set me up on purpose!" Jon said coming close to Cersei.
"Quit your nonsense! What do you want from me?" Cersei cut to the chase.
"Then I will get straight to the point. I hope you can offer me some guidance in practicing the 'Mana Guardian'." Jon had no other choice but to ask Cersei. Personal guidance required deep connection and trust, and miss matriarch was too busy to do it, so he could only go to Cersei for help.
"My lady, Jonathan made a bet with the chief executive that he would compete with her last direct disciple tomorrow. If Jonathan loses, he will be beheaded for trespassing into the ancestral crypt." Alice whispered in Cersei's ear.
"It seems that you want something from me?" Cersei decided to play with Jon a little after getting to know the situation he is in. Alice was standing by Cersei with a childishly proud expression for providing the information to her mistress.
"For better or worse we are in this together. If I am to fail the challenge, after they are done with me, they will come after you for being the matriarch's lineal disciple." Jon was confident that Cersei will help him. This was also the reason for Jon's trust in Cersei's personal guidance.
"So the naïve you from before was really just an act." Cersei concluded.
"There is no harm in me teaching you, but what would be in it for me?" Cersei was not goanna let this chance slide.
"How about I promise you that there won't be any more sequels of 'The Young Married Women Cersei'?" Jon offered. 'I don't want to continue to write porn anyway, so I'll just use that as a bargaining chip.'
"Deal!" Cersei cared very much about her public image, so she swift to take the deal.
"Then let us begin!" Jon was eager to get started. After all it was his life which was at stake.
.
After a few hours.
"… What I just told you is how to circulated your mana. You should get better at it with experience." Cersei instructed correcting his stance from behind, with her chest touching his back as she leaned in to correct his hands.
"My lady, you seem to have grown bigger again." Jon commented in regards to her b***s.
"If you have time to crack jokes, then it means you understood." Cersei wasn't bothered even a little by the comment.
"But even if you understand the basics, you're still no match for Sigyn. Only if you achieve a minor improvement in the Mana Guardian, will you have a chance to keep up with her for even a few minutes, but how could something like that happen in such a small amount of time." Cersei was skeptical about Jon's survival.
"Minor improvement? Cersei you don't seem to get it. My talent is like my face, unparalleled in the entire world!" Jon said with an unparalleled confidence and arrogance.
Jon continued to practice the Mana Guardian even after Cersei left.
Late at night he was successful in reaching the introductory level of the Mana Guardian skill. After that he left for his residence.
Sitting down on the bed, after taking a bath wearing only a towel, Jon decided to open system panel.
"Now let me have a look at my achievement as a eunuch porn writer." Jon said opening the system panel.
[ NAME: JONATHAN DAYNE ]
[ REALM: ONE STAR INITIAL STAGE ]
[ SKILLS MASTERED: (EXPAND) ]
[ SOURCE POINTS: 276.789 POINTS]
"Let's take a look at my skill."
[ BLESSING OF MANA (SKILL): HEALING TOUCH
SKILL LEVEL: LV.2 +
CURRENT EFFECT: HEALS ALL INJURIES OF THE TARGET AND REVITALIZE THEM, ABLE TO SEE ALL THE ILLNESS OF A PERSON.]
[ SKILL MASTERY: MANA GUARDIAN
CURRENT LEVEL: LV.0+
CURRENT EFFECT: USES MANA TO NOURISH THE BODY, AND SLIGHTLY IMPROVE THE BODY'S DEFENSIVE POWER.]
"It's better to upgrade the Mana Guardian skill for the upcoming battle." Jon decided to upgrade the Mana Guardian skill. "Now give me my upgrades" Jon said pressing the '+' on the system panel multiple times. As soon as it was pressed Jon felt energy welling up inside him and golden red light started to emit from his body.
"Oh crap, I can feel mana welling up all over…" Jon shouted in pain all over his body.
The mana and the light kept on increasing and Jon lost his consciousness for a few seconds.
When he woke up, he was laying on the bed, the welling up of mana has stopped and the light has disappeared.
"That was scary. Just now, it felt like I ate 50Kg of meat all at once. I felt incredibly dizzy!" Jon was still numb all over his body. 'Probably an after effect of upgrading too fast…' Jon thought, trying to sit up. But ended up accidently breaking the bed.
"my goodness, what the hell." Jon shouted falling sideways with the broken bed.
"My strength increased so much that I am having a hard time controlling it…" Jon exclaimed looking at his hands, which seemed a bit different.
'What? Where is the mirror?' Jon ran towards the mirror looking at himself in it.
"Mamma mia, This is some upgrade. I can barely recognize myself!" Jon said looking at his, now ripped athletic body.
Generally speaking, when a skill that strengthens physical defense is practiced to the extreme, it will cause some changes to the body. A person's whole body will expand by 1 or 2 sizes, his muscles will grow all over the place and things like that…
'Not bad, not bad at all… Thank goodness, I didn't become a bodybuilding freak and my extreme handsomeness is still there.' Jon thought admiring him self in the mirror.
"Even though my appearance hasn't changed much, I've definitely been reborn! System panel!" Jon said bring up the system panel to look at his status.
[ NAME: JONATHAN DAYNE ]
[ REALM: THREE STAR INITIAL STAGE ]
[ SKILLS MASTERED: (EXPAND) ]
[ SOURCE POINTS: 26.789 POINTS]
"I Reached the 3 star initial stage? Just like that?" Jon was pleasantly surprised by the results.
"Let's expand the skill panel and see by how many levels the Mana Guardian skill has gone up by." Jon said opening the Mana Guardian skill in the panel.
[ SKILL MASTERY: MANA GUARDIAN
CURRENT LEVEL: LV.7+ (LEVEL CAP EXCEEDED)
CURRENT EFFECT: CONVERTS THE MANA THAT PERMEATES THE INNER BODY INTO AN INVISIBLE ESSENCE WHICH ACTS TO WARD OFF PHYSICAL ATTACKS. UNTIL THE MANA RUNS OUT, IT CAN WITHSTAND ANY PHYSICAL DAMAGE AFTER EXCEEDING THE LEVEL CAP, THERE'S NO NEED FOR CONSCIOUS ACTION, THE ESSENCE PROTECTING THE BODY HAS THE ABILITY TO AUTOMATICALLY DEFEND IT. ]
"I can't believe it upgraded all the way over the level cap! Looking at the effect description, it's indeed very powerful, and I won't take any damage until I've used up all my mana! What's even better? It's a passive skill!" Jon was overjoyed with what he saw.
"Even though I spent 250 source points, it was completely worth it!" Jon said releasing all his 3 star worth of mana to gauge the amount of mana he possessed as a 3 star initial stage mage.
"If I established 2 stars in a single night at the initial stage, how much further will I go next!" Jon was feeling invincible after the mana rush.
.
---------- END OF CHAPTER ----------