A week later, as soon as Kayden woke up, he tried to get up. Today was another day at work and he couldn't waste time. But before taking any action, he smelled a very strong sour smell. Looking down for the source of the odor, he found nothing. Ignoring this situation, he went to the bathroom and after splashing some water on his face, he woke up completely.
Like a bolt of lightning, memories flooded back to his mind. The first thing he did was check his body. His mana heart was beating and had grown a small path of veins that barely reached 5 centimeters inside his body. But that meant the experiment was a success, as it was running autonomously. He tried to circulate the mana through his body and noticed that he still had the same difficulty as when he was a rank 1, but this time it was slightly easier.
As he began to impose mana on his heart, he noticed that it started to beat faster and push the veins a little faster. It was a strange process, as the boy was able to feel the veins growing inside his body. Stopping taking tests, he decided to get ready to see David. He didn't know how long he slept and he was starving. After taking a shower, he noticed that the bad smell had come from him. Kayden had no idea why.
While getting ready, He looked in the mirror for a moment and started. His face had changed, it was somewhat more detailed, and there were no dark circles under his eyes that always accompanied him. Taking heart as a side effect, Kayden went upstairs to see David. As soon as he walked through the door, he saw the scientist eating soup and reading a book.
"Kayden?" The scientist was startled by the appearance of the boy. "BOY, come here, let's run tests, I've been waiting for this for a week." The scientist was so excited that he threw his plate of soup back and didn't even bother with the sound of it breaking, just set the waste on fire.
"One week?" It took a while for the boy to sink in. He had been sleeping for quite some time. "Wait David, I need to eat something first." As if to prove his point, the boy's stomach rumbled.
David disappeared and reappeared holding a plate of soup, which he placed in front of the boy and urged him to eat. The problem was that it was hard to concentrate on eating when you had someone surrounding you with their eyes to get you to finish it quickly. Once Kayden had eaten the last spoonful, the scientist simply burned the plate and silverware to ash and peppered the boy with questions.
"How are you feeling? Are you in pain? Have you tested your mana yet?..." Kayden was bombarded with questions, so many he couldn't even remember the first ones.
"Calm down, David, let's break it down. I haven't tested it in depth yet, but I'm back to first rank with a slight improvement in the ease of gathering mana." Then the two began doing various tests. A few hours later, Kayden asked for some time to rest and organize his winnings.
His heart gathered mana while he was doing other activities and condensed it into it. The creation of mana veins only occurred when the heart was overloaded with mana. For better use, he had to decide for himself the paths of the veins. He could control where the growth would go by redirecting the mana. Each cycle took 30 minutes and increased by 0.1 centimeters in length in a single direction. That's what they managed to find out in a few hours. David was reading books and thinking about the results, and Kayden was sparring with the sword.
Stepping outside, he began his usual routine of basic exercises. After a few minutes, he noticed that he was stronger. It was barely noticeable, but he managed to swing the sword 2 times more than before. That was a success, not only did his mage rank increase, but his strength was also gradually improved.
The next day...
Kayden was organizing his things to go home. The time his father gave him to pursue his goals was finally over. He didn't have much, it was just clothes. Kayden finished his suitcase and took a deep breath, remembering everything he'd been through in that house, how much he'd had to fight to achieve what he set out to do. Making a small bow to his room, the boy walked out the door.
"David, it was a pleasure working with you." Kayden liked the scientist's style. "I hope to stay in touch…" Before he could continue, David, who had been drinking coffee, abruptly stood up.
"Of course, you'll keep in touch, kid. I want every detail of your progress documented for me to study." The scientist exploded. Laughing a little, Kayden replied, "Okay, David, just remember we have to keep this a secret until I'm strong enough to defend this secret." This was a topic they had already decided on together.
"Relax, kid, I know how the world works." The scientist was depressed for a few seconds.
After a few minutes of talking, the two heard the doorbell ring. Kayden got up and grabbed his bag. David opened the door and saw Han. As soon as the old man's mana senses touched Kayden, he noticed that the boy had dropped in rank, but didn't notice anything beyond the ordinary beyond that.
"Kayden, what happened?" While saying that, he let some of his mana leak out, scaring the scientist. O
boy hurried to resolve the misunderstanding.
"Calm down dad, I was the one who chose to regress. I needed this for what I wanted." Kayden didn't go into too much detail, but he was keen to stress that this action was necessary.
The old man glared intently at David for a moment. As soon as he calmed down, he called Kayden to leave. "Come on, you tell me what you want along the way." The man levitated Kayden's suitcase and walked down to the cab that was waiting for them.
"Bye David, I'll keep in touch by letter." Kayden hurried to follow his father. David didn't even have time to respond and found himself alone in the lab.
As soon as he got in the car, he noticed the sound barrier that the old man put up and went straight to the point. "I succeeded. I think I will surpass all my peers within 1 year." Kayden said confidently. The old man had never seen that air of unwavering confidence in the boy before.
"Very well, I won't ask you in detail what you did, but I hope you can demonstrate that you didn't waste any time." The old man nodded and pulled out a book to read. Kayden stayed the rest of the trip organizing his future.
A month later, Kayden returned to school and was in his fourth year. Unfortunately, due to going back to the first apprentice rank, he was unable to attend classes and was dismissed until he reached at least the second rank. Most of his peers were at the peak of the second rank or, a minority, at the third rank.
Most people felt sorry for the boy, even his classmates thought he was too pathetic to bully him. But none of that even scratched Kayden's mental stability. His progress was ridiculously high, he was once able to extend his veins up to 5 centimeters in 5 directions. The most laborious was not the expansion, but the detailing of the veins to support the passage of mana.
Today, Kayden was having a small memory lapse. His situation had happened to him before. The boy was in the clearing and Heimer was gathering mana for him. Similar to his advancement as a conventional mage, he was gathering mana in his heart. The difference is that now the man went to each vein and back, similar to an electrical circuit.
On his first time, it took him a while to get the hang of it, but the breakthrough came naturally. This time he had already used twice as much mana and still nothing.
AN: Hello hello , it's me again with my daily thanks, this time I want to thank Kyle_Beatty_6817 and ISEKAI_Fan