As soon as Kai left the room, Aria turned to look at Max. Her gaze was the same as when she looked at Kai, but Max immediately understood this expression. It was the expression that she had been caught doing something she should not have been doing.
He was embarrassed that a brat like that had been able to completely see through him, but after looking at Aria, his heart skipped a beat.
"A- Aria, you-"
But before he could finish, Aria swiftly vanished from her location, making use of a movement spell of the Second rank. This was something Max did not have, as his movement spell was only of Rank 0, so it was of no comparison to Aria.
However, he had noticed the look in her eyes, and a smile somehow forced its way onto his aged face.
'After 60 years… has she finally decided?' Max thought to himself.
…
Meanwhile, closer towards the centre of the Sect, Aria appeared in a flash of green as the wind was pushed away from where she had appeared.
Her heart was beating just as fast as Kai's, but for very different reasons. Kai had already been removed from her mind as she only thought about one thing.
'Damnit! How could I have been so careless? Obviously he noticed! This is bad! But wait! What if he didn't? And what if he thinks that I hate him? Will he hate me too? Aaaaaaah!'
…
As Kai returned to his room, he immediately opened the Meditation technique that was placed inside the ring which had been given to him.
[Bluefire breathing technique]
This was the technique given to him, and Kai immediate instructed the System to use its remaining processing power to analyse this thoroughly, and then compare it to the [Santok Meditation Technique] which the system had created by combining all the meditation methods inside the Santok Magic Tower.
About 10 minutes later, it was done, and Kai noticed something. The [Bluefire breathing technique] was inferior to the [Santok Meditation Technique] by a bit, and combining them resulted in only a slight improvement compared to the [Santok Meditation Technique].
Therefore, Kai decided to take a different approach, and told the system to combine not the two of them, but to use the [Bluefire breathing technique] as the base, and use all the technique from the Santok Magic tower to supplement and improve it, since it was by far the best of them all.
For comparison, the meditation methods from Santok were all 1 star, while the [Bluefire breathing technique] was 2 stars, and the [Santok Meditation Technique] was 2.5 star. The combination of the two was only around 2.6 stars, with almost no difference.
This time, the system took almost an hour to complete the combination, and Kai was satisfied. This technique would be around 3 stars, which was the best he could have for the moment. Kai decided to name it the [Santok Bluefire Breathing Technique], for obvious reasons.
From now on, even Yu would begin to utilise this method as it was better than the one he was currently using.
Before actually trying the technique, Kai went out of his dorm and towards Fred's dorm.
"Kai! How was your mission?" Fred asked, genuinely happy to see Kai.
"It went well. I got a lot of Mana stones. Enough to begin a business."
"Great! Let's go purchase the production method!"
"Alright."
Kai and Fred went towards the marketplace with serious expressions on their faces.
Although Kai now had fixed pocket money, as well as a very good meditation method, he would still need to rely on potions.
Only after checking how much progress Yu had made, did Kai realise that he could not solely depend on the meditation method. Yu had been using it for quite some time, but he had yet to get enough Spiritual Energy to inscribe two spells into his mind.
If he went by this method, based on the time it took to get Spiritual Energy, he would die of old age before he got enough Spiritual Energy to reach Rank 1… therefore he needed to rely on potions as well.
Therefore, his plans and preparations had not gone to waste, and he would now follow through with them.
"Also, I became a direct disciple of Madam Aria, an Elder of the Battle Hall, so we should be able to use her name to scare off any troublemakers… I think."
Kai had been trailing behind Fred since Fred knew exactly who to go to for their business, while he did not. Kai noticed that Fred had stopped walking as soon as his words were spoken, but he did not stop.
Walking past the frozen Fred, Kai turned around and began walking backwards; away from Fred.
"What's the matter? The esteemed Mage Merchant is at a loss for words, just because I got a mentor? What will happen to you when I do more fantastical things?"
These words caused Fred to come out of his shock as he chuckled softly as himself before following behind Kai, and then taking the lead after catching his breath.
'I really need to get him to become fit…' Kai decided in his mind.
Soon, the duo arrived at their destination.