As Rio opened his eyes and saw the blinding light that was a vast contrast to the cave Rio was in, Rio tried looking around trying to figure out where he was.
"Oh, it seems sleeping beauty finally woke up from his lap", Rio heard a mocking tone coming from the door.
Rio's eyes landed on a tall, well-built, boy with fiery-red hair and golden eyes, leaning at the door with his arms folded.
Rio leaned up trying to see who was talking. "So, it's you, Daniel. What happened, why was Rio in the infirmary?", as Daniel scoffed at his question, "why are you asking me why YOU'RE in the infirmary, everyone got teleported out and you were there just laying on the floor unconscious."
After a second of remembering the last things Rio did, he realized his predicament and why he was in this situation.
"The doctors say that although there was no physical damage done to you, a lot of stress was placed on your mind, you've been unconscious for about three days now". Daniel said after realizing he was lost in thought.
Rio slumped back unto the bed, with his forearm on his head, then thought about the core, Rio looked into his ring and still saw it there shining dimly, 'luckily, I placed it into my ring before passing out, if I left the core there, I might as well just go back to sleep forever' Rio let out a sigh of relief.
'There should be ways of using this core, it is also an element that I am compatible with, so it shouldn't be too hard to find a way to use the core to increase my strength. The rise in rank itself is already a fruitful harvest, this was just an added bonus.'
There was still so much burden on my mind, but since there was no physical damage, why waste time lounging around in the infirmary, with that, said, Rio stood up slowly trying to get myself prepared.
"You should rest more, they said it's recommended you stay here for another day or two after you wake up to settle your mind," Daniel said slightly worried
"No need, it's not going to kill me, and I have things to do, so I'll see you later" Rio said after dressing up and leaving
"Sigh, this workaholic is going to keel over due to overworking sooner or later" Daniel rolled his eyes helplessly.
Closing the door behind me, Rio made it to his room, however before he started probing the core trying to see how it could help him, Rio should go over what he gained from the realm.
'system'
[Ding!]
Name: Rio Casmir
EXP- 38,000
Class: 3rd rank Mage
Subclass: 1st Rank Hachidan Martial Artist
Strength: 54.6
Agility: 57.8
Endurance: 52.0
Mana: 200.0
A slight smirk appeared on his face before disappearing, although his strength is increasing, the speed could be quicker, hopefully, Rio could reach the peak of the mage rank using the core.
After going over what happened in the secret realm, Rio started probing the core and started to stimulate his Dantian, making the dense liquid-like essence start swirling and splashing around the core while making the mana purer, even though it was ever so little, it was discernable.
After a couple of hours of cultivating using the mana core, the effectiveness seemed to have doubled, so these couple of hours worth of cultivating resulted in half a day of cultivating, though it seemed like little effect, building up this little cultivating time could result in ascending quicker.
Due to the secret realm, and multiple injuries and causalities, nobody had to attend class for a while, so though there were some knocks from Daniel to check how he was, most of the time was spent cultivating.
a week passed quickly, and after using the mana core to cultivate, Rio noticed that although his mana increased quicker, Rio sensed the pure and dense mana that was gradually being filled in his Dantian
'system'
[Ding!]
Name: Rio Casmir
EXP- 38,000
Class: 3rd rank Mage
Subclass: 1st Rank Hachidan Martial Artist
Strength: 54.6
Agility: 57.8
Endurance: 52.0
Mana: 205.0
Though the week passed very quickly, the result seemed very promising, gaining 5 mana from this week's cultivation seemed very fruitful, however, it seemed that Rio could use this core for about another three weeks before it runs out.
It also seems the threshold of ranking up has been increased, Rio could instinctively tell he had to have at least 300 mana stats before ranking up into becoming a 4th Rank mage. It would take some time to get that number, and even hunting would probably give a similar result as cultivating with the core, however, it wouldn't be as pure.
Though Rio didn't know the exact value of having purer value, it should clearly be a benefit, Rio made estimated guesses such as it probably helps with chances of promoting, or greater power when casting mana, but Rio can't really be sure until Rio researches more about it.
As if interrupting Rio's thoughts, a knocking sound came from the door. 'Sigh I told this guy to stop disturbing me, can't I ever have peace, this is the reason I hate having people around me'
As Rio opened the door expecting to see the tall gold-eyed boy, a boy with long jet-black hair and eyes as deep and black as his hair.
"What do you want, Xander?" Rio said calmly but internally he was confused and raised his guard, there was always someone coming to look for trouble with him even though he tried not to stand out. Rio's mind started thinking of possibilities why he came here but the main conclusion was he came here to start trouble, so Rio was preparing for an attack any moment.
"I just want to speak with you, you don't need to be so cautious" As if sensing Rio raising his guard at him, he tried speaking calmly,
"I don't think we really have anything to talk about, we're not related in any way"Rio replied still raising his guard
"I haven't made trouble since that incident, there's no need to be so hostile, I know you are more powerful than you come across, I have a proposition for you," Xander said helplessly
'More powerful than I come across? What does he mean by that? Does he know something? I'm not necessarily more powerful just have some combat experience and origin magic, nothing else really stands out about me.'
Rio started brainstorming about what he meant since Rio didn't want to stand out too much until he got more powerful. All he really needs now is time to farm EXP and cultivate and eventually, he would become stronger in a safe environment.
While all these thoughts were going on in Rio's head, Rio kept silent whilst showing a stoic face, making it impossible for Xander to read him, because at this moment Rio was not sure if he was bluffing or really does know something.