After taking time to learn from the npcs to be capable of using skills the way they could Ezekiel left to find a quiet area to meditate.
He wanted to make his mana cultivation soar before he began his path as a player, the first step was the expand his mana sense.
Feeling the mana in the area he looked for a place with higher density as it would make his absorption faster if he had more to us.
Right at the edge of the city he found a tree that had a very healthy amount of mana surrounding it so he sat down to absorb it.
He had already gained the skill with the help of his teacher but now he wanted to go further.
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Mana Core lv1 (N)
Increases base mana pool by 1%.
Naturally regenerate .5% mana per second both in and out of combat. (Passive)
Naturally regenerate 1% mana per second out of combat. (Active)
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Inside of his body Ezekiel could sense that a small spectral ball of mana had been condensed but it was barely the side of a grain of rice.
When examining the little ball he could sense that it was starting to condense mana into a kind of vapor inside of it but he had to help it grow further.
So he began to cultivate his mana.
Minutes turned to an hour then multiple hours and then half a day, the game's time dilation was set at 1-5 meaning every hour in the real world was five in the game but spending so many hours just to cultivate would shock players.
Ezekiel truly did not care about leveling up currently as he brought his mana core skill higher and higher until he felt a strange sensation.
His body felt as if the amount of mana was to much.
He had read the novels before and even played a few of the games from the chinese cultivation genre and he had a suspicion about what his next step should be.
Trusting his gut he took his mana manipulation to push at the core in his body.
He felt it shrinking down, condensing.
He saw through his mana sense as the orb of mana shrunk bit by bit until he felt a sharp pain inside of his chest where the orb itself was.
Looking carefully he saw that the orb was bulging unevenly and when the orb bulged in other places he felt severe pain making him lose his grip on the skills.
For a second there he panicked but once he let go the pain was gone.
The he could only try again but being more careful this time.
This time he was very slow to ensure he evenly covered the core in his mana control before beginning to compress it.
The core reached a stage the same as before where it began to fight back but this time it only pushed against his mana control as it had no gaps to push itself out of.
With this new discovery he tried to push even harder and compress his mana down to the smallest point he could.
As he compressed it further and further he eventually got it down to such a small space that it actually resembled the same grain of rice size as before but with liquid mana.
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Congratulations!
Skill: Mana Core lv10 (Novice) has increased in tier!
Mana Core lv10 (Novice) -> Mana Core lv1 (Apprentice)
Increases base mana pool by 10%.
Naturally regenerate 1.5% mana per second both in and out of combat. (Passive)
Naturally regenerate 3% mana per second out of combat. (Active)
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This was a new tier and with it came improvements.
Previously when he leveled up his mana core skill the amount of bonus mana he had would go up by one percent until it actually maxed out at ten percent.
The mana regen aspect of the skill also only went up by point one percent every level until it maxed out at one point five percent regen with the active version doubling to three percent.
Ezekiel was genuinely curious to see what his new stat growth looked like for this skill but it would have to wait.
He had other skills to practice.