By the start of the new day, a very good number of us out of the hundreds who drank the Elixir had awakened.
But then again, we are fewer than that number when the matter switches to those who had gotten their Skills along with their Awakening.
…While Awakening following consumption of the tonic was almost a guarantee, the acquisition of a Skill was not.
Nonetheless, the good thing was that the lack of a Skill was not a death sentence given how vast the prospect of Essence Cultivation had become in the world today.
Most of the trainees were clueless about how to use the benefits that came with their Awakening.
Well, I couldn't blame any of them since they didn't know how it worked.
Most of the trainees, at this moment, had no practical experience of gathering Essence nor did they know how to use their Skills, for those that received them.
Although they were clueless now, a few of them would come to understand how their Skills worked little by little until they had a mild grasp of it, enough to at least manipulate it at a basic level.
After investing hours of meditation into absorbing Essence, I was only able to gather just six units (6U) of the peculiar energy.
That in itself was disappointing.
I examined my body and sighed, almost laying all the blame on it for such a meagre amount of Essence.
Six units of Essence wasn't encouraging but I had a good grasp of why it happened.
Even though my mind was mature because I had access to knowledge of untold and yet-to-unfold events, my current body remained the same as it was at this age in my previous life.
I had only just disvirgined my Virgin Body Constitution with Essence. Naturally, it would take some time before my body gets used to this unique energy.
My body was still weak and acclimating to the concept of Essence and because of this, I couldn't absorb much more than the six units which I already did.
Even if I tried, it would be a waste of my time because my Pool of Essence was still too small.
If I decide to push it and take in more than I could handle, I would suffer a leakage and it would be detrimental to my body.
…A completely shattering outcome that I wouldn't want to be a victim of.
*********
I woke up around ten o'clock that morning feeling exhausted after what had transpired in the early hours of the same day.
I looked around the room and discovered that I was alone.
…My roommate was nowhere in the room.
Bright had gone out to whatever business he had that day, none that I barely knew of at this stage of our relationship.
We do get better anyway. Trust me.
I rubbed my eyes and yawned, trying to fight back the urge to lie back down on the bed.
'Visible Mode,' I voiced, issuing a command to my Cube ID as it appeared in front of me, floating in the air.
I looked at the black item and smiled.
'Status.'
—––
[Profile]
Name: Luxane Enstar
Skill: Jack of all Trades
Stage: Ore Stage
Step: Initial
Essence: 6/200
—––
[Statistics]
Strength: 1
Agility: 1
Focus: 4
—––
Looking at the status window that reflected what my performance level looked like in numerics, I massaged my forehead and gave my point distribution a little more thought.
It was going to be a bit of trouble not to beef up my [Strength] and [Agility] at this early stages but it was going to be worth it in the long run.
I had given it a considerable amount of thought and I came to the conclusion that my [Focus] Attribute had to be higher than my [Strength] and [Agility] Attributes for now.
The reasons for this were simple.
First and foremost, it was because of the kind of Skill that I had received during my Awakening called the [Jack of all Trades].
[Jack of all Trades] from my experience in the past was an Essence-consuming Skill, meaning it took up more Essence than most Skills around.
Secondly, to make up for the requirement of Essence I needed to find a way to absorb more and the [Focus] Attribute played a major role in that.
Simply put, the higher your [Focus] Attribute, the more Essence you can make your body absorb and the more conversant you can quickly become with it.
So to use [Jack of all Trades] at its best possible level, I had to have a matching or even a higher level of [Focus] Attribute compared to my mastery of the Skill.
Sigh–
'I wouldn't be able to absorb more Essence until tomorrow,' I thought with a sigh, having distributed the six units of Essence that I had gathered already.
'I'll just have to wait till then to increase the other Attributes. That still works out fine. After all, by the time everyone that is meant to awaken does so, I will have about thirty units worth of Essence to distribute.'
[Strength] and [Agility] were pretty straight forward and from their names alone, one could guess what they were for.
However, with [Focus], it was a bit different.
[Focus] determined how a Hunter controlled the Essence within their pool.
This also included the mental tenacity involved in absorbing it, the process of absorption itself, its condensation, manipulation and basically every other minor process that had to do with the turning over of the energy directly.
Since I intended to widen the capacity of my Pool of Essence and expand my ability to absorb more units of the energy, I would need to increase my [Focus].
…That was why my [Focus] was a priority now.
With that distribution of Essence points to my attributes done and out of the way, I got off my bed and headed to the bathroom to prepare myself for the day.
Within the next couple of minutes, I was done and ready to head out.
'Key Card Mode.'
Shutting the room, I headed out, making my way to the gym.
"I should be able to gather even just one good one today…"