"This is boring."
Kaiser craved action now. He wanted to fight.
His body was feeling better than ever and he had this mana resource that, well, he didn't know how to use yet.
He'd been walking for 6 days straight with no new scenery or a clue to get out of this world.
"This is my life. Consumed by a void worm. Destined to never kill that stupid devil."
Randomly another person's face came to mind. Taz.
"And what's that guy's issue anyway? It's not that much of a hassle to show me to my room."
Kaiser took a deep breath.
"I'm going to show you, you overconfident kid."
After his tantrum, he sat back down.
"It doesn't make sense for me to continue like this. It probably never ends because it's a void worm."
Meaning what?
'Time to get more mana!'
He started his technique while on the floor again and was about to use it like normal when a thought occurred.
'Before I was taking specks of the outside mana and making it mine permanently, but that was slow.'
His technique required him to be careful when taking the outside mana as it could destroy your body easily. The book also stressed this fact, but Kaiser was feeling defiant.
'I'm going to beat that kid.'
Instead of controlling his technique carefully, he let it loose. It ran wild. Mana rushed in much faster, almost instantly completing the second cup he'd been working on.
His body in this world started shaking and convulsing periodically.
Kaiser realized his body couldn't take this much and reeled back his control. Stopping the technique entirely, but he was still focusing on making the rushing mana inside him docile.
If he couldn't make it his then he would die.
Plain and simple.
He fought for 20 minutes, with sweat building up on him, which was strange as you weren't supposed to get tired here.
10 minutes later he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Finally."
He was ecstatic. Regardless of the fact he almost died, he just doubled his mana capacity. For some reason, this feeling was magnificent. The improvement upon himself was more than he could have ever imagined.
It was addicting. So addicting that he did it again.
He activated the technique but did a smidge less outside mana than before. Just so he could manage it with a little less risk, but where his gains were massive.
30 minutes later he had another cup of mana within his body.
If he ever used any mana it would recover by itself, so the more he held within his body the better.
He continued to do this for the rest of the day, or at least what would have been a day. Earning himself 46 more cups, totaling 48.
Kaiser didn't have a clue on how to use the mana but felt like that was a lot, at least for him.
"I don't think this will be enough. I should continue and get as much I can."
As he started using his technique, the world around him shattered into fragments as if refusing to let him grow anymore.
His mind returned to the body in bed, the smell of dried sweat taking over.
'I guess that's all I could get. It should be okay for now though.'
He looked around and saw the old man wide-eyed.
"What?" Kaiser called out.
"How did you gather so much purified mana?"
Kaiser was confused. "It's been a full week. What are you talking about?"
"It's been 6 hours Kaiser." The old man replied, also confused.
He smirked, 'Sweet. That was a lot of mana for the time that passed here. Although I think I had the whole week for meditation.'
He closed his eyes and thought about how much more mana he could have gotten.
Disappointed he explained what all happened to him.
"Incredible." The old man said in thought.
He'd never heard this side of the worm. Who knew that the void worm was the opposite of the void, containing so much mana?
"You should be careful using that method of meditation. Many youths have died thinking they were better than everyone. One small error is all it takes."
"Of course I will, but I have to grow stronger."
He thought for a moment.
"Hey teacher, what are ranks?"
The teacher was surprised. He didn't think Kaiser would know about that yet but maybe he overheard someone.
"They're a way to determine physical strength and quality of mana of a person. The world uses stars as a measurement, not the ones in the sky. It ranges from 10 to 1 star."
The old man pointed at Kaiser, "You're a 10-star. This means you have the lowest quality mana that can be obtained, but that goes for everyone when they initially store mana inside them. So don't worry too much."
"But teacher, I have a lot more mana now so shouldn't I be classed higher?" Kaiser asked as he was a little lost by it all.
"No. You must reach a certain amount of mana inside your body and train your body to withstand said mana to then achieve an evolution, which can be done in a few different ways. I'll explain that some other time though."
He walked to the door and said, "Come with me."
Kaiser jumped up out of bed and put on shoes that had been laid out for him.
He walked beside the old man in silence, only thinking of his ring which was ranked 10 stars as well.
'I wonder how I would level you up? More mana?"
He decided to try that out once he knew how to use mana.
They walked for a couple of minutes. It was mid-day so it was bright outside, but not too many people could be seen going around.
Eventually, they came upon a training ground where all the guards and descendants of the branch family trained.
This was practically where they grew up.
In the middle of the training grounds stood Taz, with his back taunt, and his gaze confident.
"Kaiser, you will fight Taz every day at noon for a month. You may have mana now, but the essence of fighting always starts from your body. You can't take every hit your enemy throws. Read the last book and follow the basic exercises, fight Taz for this month, and then I will start teaching you how to use your mana."
Although Kaiser wished to start his mana training sooner, the old man was right. His body needed to be strong.
'Besides, my body has to be strong so that I can improve the quality of my mana. This is just training before training.'
He walked across from Taz, understanding that what the Teacher said was to be done now.
Kaiser transformed his ring and it turned into a sword this time. He learned that it changed according to what he wanted, not just what suited to him.
"No, no, this month will be hand-to-hand combat. After that, you are free to use weapons and don't worry about getting hurt. Our elite healers returned so go crazy.
Kaiser sighed, undoing his sword.
He had 0 combat experience so this was bound to be a hurtful month.
He raised his arms, looking sharply at his opponent.
'I may not win this time, but I'll learn and try the next time.'
The old man stood a little away from them and said, "Fight."