"Yes, but it is funded by the government. They have a dogma of nurturing talent as much as they can. You may have already noticed this from the student and elite accommodations, and we are not even from the best schools."
The government had strong youth nurturing. Practically everything was aimed at creating elites, even private schools were nothing more than a means of nurturing these talents. Even if you were a commoner, you could enter them as long as you demonstrated a certain degree of talent.
30 minutes later, the officer entered the room as agreed. He easily caught Kayden with a giant hand created by wind magic and led them out in silence. Astolfo accompanied his friend to a spot with two chairs and an umbrella inside the rectangle of grass.
"I'll be here if you need anything," the officer seemed helpful as he retreated to a distance that wouldn't disturb the two.
Within seconds, the mayor appeared above the rectangle wearing the same attire from the municipal competition. Looking as excited as before, he caught everyone's attention with a round of applause.
"Hello everybody. First, I would like to congratulate them for being among the best in the region. I believe the prize has already been explained to you, so I won't beat around the bush too much. Do your best for the next six hours. Good luck to everyone."
His speech was short again, but it served its purpose. As soon as he finished, Kayden felt a plethora of mana surge around him. It was simply absurd concentration. He could fill all of his mana vessels in less than 20 seconds. This was simply surreal. His biggest limitation was himself in this case, which mana he had in abundance.
For a few seconds, the boy focused his mind. he was calm and focused. Simple things like mathematical calculations could be done almost instantly in your thoughts. This level of clarity was something he had never experienced before.
The boy started absorbing mana like crazy. This was an opportunity for him to advance. With this clarity and constant amount of mana, he could fix all the problems his base had.
First, he emptied all the mana in his body and began to absorb that from the surroundings. He should first solidify his foundation and fix all the mistakes he could. This time, he simply didn't care about losing mana.
In case of a mistake, he would just release all his mana and redo the move, without worrying about anything other than improving his cultivation and mana paths. Fix imperfections here, fix imperfections there.
"Five hours left," a voice announced to everyone. She couldn't even wake Kayden from his stupor. The boy had never been so focused before, apart from his epiphany, but this time it was more of an absolute trance.
'What is this kid doing?', the officer couldn't understand what Kayden was doing. The boy simply absorbed a ridiculous amount of mana for his rank and then released 99.9% of what he absorbed.
Oblivious to these thoughts, Kayden continued fixing every imperfection he found on his body. Every mana vein was being looked at and turned over from top to bottom to find small errors in its wall.
His heart was being forced to beat in different tunes so that he would find imperfections. Everything was being tested and observed.
"Four hours left," the same voice from before announced. Kayden was barely in the middle of his deep analysis and didn't even notice that time had passed. He didn't even hear the voice.
His entire focus was on progressing his base little by little. He had been in this state for two hours, and instead of starting to lose his concentration, he was entering a sort of trance.
To search for.
Meet.
To assess.
To repair.
"Two hours left," the voice rang out as Kayden was on the last steps of his improvement. The boy made a month's progress in just a few hours. Without a doubt, this prize had already been worth it for him.
The boy still hadn't lost focus. There was very little left for him to finish his stabilization to a perfect base, at least perfect within his capabilities. Kayden wasn't arrogant enough to say he knew all the details he needed.
The boy opened his eyes for the first time since he began to concentrate. He was ready to try and break through to the sixth rank. Looking around, he saw Astolfo focused with his eyes closed and the officer not far away.
"One hour left," for the first time, Kayden heard the voice announcing the time.
"Has it already been five hours?" Kayden hadn't even noticed the passage of time. It felt like only a few minutes since he closed his eyes for the first time.
It was now or never. Kayden closed his eyes again and began to mentally prepare himself to break through to the next rank. Again, he began to draw mana into him.
This time, Kayden looked like a black hole absorbing mana. The first meter around him simply felt like a zone with no mana at all.
"What the fuck?" This time, not only was the officer strange, but even the mayor who had his spiritual radar covering the entire area was confused. The boy was simply using an amount that for his rank shouldn't even be possible.
He was only at the fifth rank, but the mana around him was pulled as if it was a breakthrough to the eighth or ninth rank. It felt like a bottomless hole, and the worst part was that it didn't seem like it was going to stop anytime soon.
Twenty minutes later, Kayden was sweating like he was in a sauna. The amount of mana he absorbed in this period was simply colossal compared to his rank.
It was enough for the mayor to ask for Kayden's file, but he quickly lost interest after seeing that he only had an innate talent of level 1. Most likely, the rampant mana usage was just to even out his poor base.
He didn't even understand how Kayden got to this award, but that wasn't his problem.
Another twenty minutes later, Kayden began to stink so much that the officer had to create a bubble around him so as not to disturb the others. This was common around here, considering that people who cultivated their bodies released impurities in their advances.
The problem was that Kayden kept releasing a lot of impurities. It felt like his entire body was going to fall apart.
"Circle," his mind was calm as he continued to force forward. His body was simply boiling. It felt like he was being cooked alive and all of this was because of the insane mana circulation he was having in every vein in his body.
All the mana that the officer saw Kayden absorb was being circulated in his body and then thrown into his muscles and bones. The very capillaries that were naturally made in his body were correctly irrigating each part.
Fifteen minutes later, Kayden reached the apex of his advance. He wasn't even aware of how much time he had left. None of that mattered now. It was just the incessant circulation.
Little by little, his body began to bleed from the holes. This was a sign that his breakthrough was not to happen yet. But this had nothing to do with its base.
It was a problem he had noticed since his first advances. His body dyad was limiting how far he could go. Probably no other wizard in the world has had this problem. But...
The beasts certainly went through this all the time. It was because of this reason that a strong magical beast that was only a few months old was not seen, regardless of its diet.