After a certain amount of time and making sure that he's not being followed Kerren finally left the city.
"His" mountain range wasn't too far from, but it was still a considerable distance. Even if he ran at the speed he used initially, which was around 250km/h, he would need two hours to get to it.
Of course, you might ask how is that not a considerable distance, but if i say that it's not - it's not.
Kerren thought the same. Of course, he wont be able to maintain that speed for a long period of time, as it worked a little strange.
To get to that speed he would need ~5% mana, maintaining it was a whole other thing! It's 0.1%/minute, so even if he wanted - he could run there.
That, however, was only speed, he needed to reinforce his body aswell, since it couldn't bear that speed for a long period of time...
As such, Kerren decided to take a bus to a village that was near the mountain range. He took that one every time he wanted to get there.
To past Kerren going there on his own wasn't an option at all. Of course, it'll take more time but so what? It's not like he was in rush.
Thus, a day or so passed. Kerren was in the mountain range!
To his surprise the cabin that he loved so much wasn't there! It meant that it wasn't as old as he thought it is!
Previously he thought that it was abandoned for decades, but in reality it wasn't even there 30 years back!
Kerren didn't care about that, since he could always build another one.
Of course, that'll waste lots of his mana as he's not planning to do anything using his hands... but so what? He's fine with wasting 10-15% of mana just to build a place that was like home to him!
As such, an hour or so later it was finally ready.
It was just a normal cabin u'll see in forests, it was built using logs and some complicated carpentry... initially.
Kerren didn't know carpentry, thus he used magic to compensate for that. Instead of using it, he simply welded it together with magic. It wasn't crude as he was trying to make it look as good as possible...
The interior and furniture took Kerren some more time, as the first chair that he made simply broke under his weight.
He wasn't heavy or anything like that, but he still wondered why that happened.
He thought that there's a problem with his way of welding wood together, thus he re-checked everything several time so that the cabin doesn't collapse.
After finishing up it was almost night. Kerren didn't know what time it was, but he knew it was the perfect time to gaze into the horizon!
The view was as beautiful as ever, Kerren was happy with his life now.
Previously, he lived here when he was not feeling too well physically or mentally, he even hid from his numerous pursuers here!
Alas, this time was different. He finally arrived here for a different reason!
As such, he simply enjoyed the view and thought about some nice things to rest.
When Kerren snapped back it was already morning.
He decided to not waste any more time and start doing what he's supposed to do.
He took out some material and made a time-slowing array. It was as crude as before, it's not like Kerren had time to improve it...
After completing it he took out the permit and used it!
He didn't activate the array immediately, as he could see that nothing really happened when he used it...
However, as he continued to observe it started showing sings of change! When he saw it, Kerren immediately used the array with that permit just lying inside of it!
As he observed it he couldn't see anything of use. It wasn't some complicated work of art nor it was a perfect magical spell that summoned mana from somewhere...
It worked like a damn skill! However, it wasn't of any use to Kerren, as this particular one was too hard for him to see anything of use.
Kerren wasn't disappointed because of that. He already knew that it could happen since it was somewhat obvious. He was far from being a genius, how can he grasp anything from something that is several levels above him!?
However, judging by the look of this spell... The old man that summoned him after the feast wasn't strong enough to use it!
It's not like Kerren could see his full potential or power or anything like that, he just felt like it was the case.
Yeah, that old man was strong, insanely strong. But not to the extent of being able to summon such an amount of mana he felt!
Above him was a damn mana-tunnel that came from god knows where! It looked like a giant torrent that eguljed everything around Kerren!
He was protected from this torrent, however... It's not like he wanted to be. He quickly left to bathe in that mana!
It was insanely painful. He didn't feel that much pain in a long time, so this experince felt new to him!
After some time his body was almost completely destroyed, only then he went back in the protection barrier that the permit set up.
He didn't do it because he is a masochist or anything, it was to test if it was beneficial to him...
Guess what, it was! He was just mana after all! It wasn't to the extent of being like a godlike elexir, but it did some good to the purity of mana in his body.
He, however, felt somewhat sad that he didn't have much more time as the torrent became smaller and smaller, eventually turning into a simple ray of light that pierced the sky!