Kyle was starting to go insane, being trapped alone in a separate space without knowing when he was getting out, yet he persevered.
Kyle sat down again to activate his breathing technique in hopes of finding any mana remaining in the atmosphere, as he's already reached his limit and any longer would only harm him.
After the technique was activated, Kyle didn't absorb mana from the atmosphere but from the artifact. The structure of the artifact seemed to be made from mana, and so he absorbed it.
The walls surrounding Kyle started to dissipate as they were being absorbed by him. Kyle opened his eyes and was surprised to see that the surrounding structure no more, however, being made by a 9-circle mage it would still take a lot of time to completely absorb it.
Kyle decided to stop his technique to preserve the mana around him for future use.
However, Kyle suddenly had a thought, 'What if I can get out of here after absorbing all the mana in the artifact' and so he did, he reactivated his technique and continued to absorb.
A couple of minutes later, nothing around him could be seen, it was as if he was in a pitch-dark room.
After absorbing a certain amount, Kyle's body started burning up and felt that he was going to blow up from the amount that he has absorbed so he tried to stop his technique, yet he couldn't. He no longer had control over his technique and mana kept entering his body as if trying to take over it.
Kyle let out a sharp shriek of pain that rang throughout the artifact but tried to regain focus, he knew that if he loses control or passes out, he'll die from mana overload.
It was as if water that was being blocked by a dam was let loose overflowing into his body, breaking his internal organs. Blood was flowing out of everywhere, his mouth, nose, ears, and eyes. If anyone viewed this scene they'd think he was suffering from some severe curse.
By the time Kyle had absorbed all the mana in the artifact, he passed out.
5 hours later, Kyle woke up in a different place than before, so different he thought he had left the artifact and was carried to some fancy room judging by the ceiling, yet he was still inside the artifact but in a different space altogether.
Kyle found himself sleeping on a big luxurious bed, one made for Royals, so he quickly got up and realized the change in his rank, 'I can't believe I've finally broken through, not only that, I broke through straight to the mid-tier of the 3rd rank. Now that I think about it, it only makes sense for me to break through as the condition for becoming a 3-circle mage was absorbing enough mana to expand their core.'
Kyle got out of bed and searched around the room for an exit, one he couldn't find.
'Maybe there isn't even a secret technique, maybe it was just an opportunity for a breakthrough. But why would a magic emperor leave nothing but a meager amount of mana that even a 2nd circle like me could absorb in his inheritance?', 'There's something wrong, maybe I just need to search more...'
Kyle searched all over the sealed room for about an hour but couldn't find anything. Just as he was about done searching, a shining light descended onto the bed, looking like an angel descending from Heaven. Kyle was mesmerized by such a scene and rushed to the bed to see what just descended.
However, after the light dimmed what Kyle found was not an angel but a ragged book, a book so ragged you'd think it was used as a cleaning tool, yet its introduction proved otherwise.
He quickly picked up the book and cleaned off the dust found on it carefully, scared that he'd accidentally tear it.
The words 'Mana Devouring Technique' were found on the book's cover indicating its name.
Kyle was confused by the name as it said 'devouring' and not 'absorbing', he opened the book and was stunned by what he just saw, trembling as he read through the technique as such a thing would turn the magic world upside down if it got out.
The technique was a breathing technique so great, that even the advanced breathing techniques of high nobility would be no more than playthings compared to it.
When absorbing mana, the mage tends to absorb everything in the atmosphere and then get rid of the impure mana while only making use of the pure mana, a fraction of what he absorbs. This makes the mage waste a lot of time absorbing impure mana and increase the time it takes to advance.
But this technique can devour and purify even the impure parts of mana making absorbing mana much more efficient and increasing his speed in advancing.
The moment Kyle finished reading the technique, it shot up to his head and disappeared, with the same shining light it had when it first appeared.
It all happened in less than a second, which made Kyle unable to even think about dodging it.
He checked his body with mana and luckily, it didn't seem to have any effects on him.
'It's good that nothing happened to me but what should I do if I want to revise the technique' Just as he thought that, he entered an empty space with nothing but the book in front of him.
Kyle was still confused about how all of this unfolded but was relieved that the technique didn't disappear and that he can gain access to it with a mere thought.
Kyle only noticed after he finished reading the technique that a door had opened opposite the bed, he quickly rushed to it in hopes of getting out of this place after being stuck there for about 30 hours, but was blinded by the bright sun in the middle of the sky.
"He's out! He's finally out!!!" screamed one of the Assistant Professors on duty.
That scream was heard by everyone including Hugo Chronos and Theodore Chronos, who instantly arrived before the library.