Chapter 47 - Tower Level Three

Soeyoon was silently contemplating and her narrow brows were knitted together.

Kiel looked up on the timer:

[18 hours 18 minutes 17 seconds]

 (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

Damn 1 second slow, his OCD tendencies made him itch and irritated.

Ignoring Soeyoon, Kiel called up the system:

"Show available basic equipments"

A green translucent window opened up around him with multiple selections of outfits.

Only 5 kinds of equipment were available, priest robe, battle robe, leather armour, scale armour, and a t-shirt and jeans.

Looking at that, he recalled a time where there had been many who decided that they should not forget their roots and wore t-shirts and jeans during the level break.

Until a bastard went nuts and killed a bunch of people who did not manage to react in time to put on their armour.

From that incident onwards, everyone made it a point to always put their armour on everywhere they go.

Looking at the remaining time, Kiel decided to get some ground work done.

Kiel motioned for the girls to come closer and went on explaining the basic of spell casting:

"Sit, we shouldn't be wasting time like this.

Until 2 hours before we enter the next level, you girls will learn the basics of spell casting and try to pick up some skills and spells that would help you.

Your current weapons will eventually be replaced but keep it as a basic tool to protect yourself before you are strong enough.

Lets see:

Xue Er had "Advanced Spell Casting(A)"

Soeyoon had "Basic Spell Casting(C)" & "Meditation(E)"

I'll start with the basics, both of you will learn:

Basic Mana Sense(C) for better feel and control over your spells and magic power.

Then Xue Er you try to learn:

Meditation(E), this will allow you to speed up your practice

Then if we still have time, I'll teach you Basic Water Bullet(D)."

Kiel then explained his understanding of "Basic Mana Sense(C)" to both girls.

He had both of them close their eyes and focus on the feeling of mana circulating within them.

"Feel the mana, or the strange warm energy in your body, from your right chest circulating throughout your body.

Feel the energy moving along your body following their designated mana pathways.

Let go of everything and feel the energy inside, feel it flow. Don't try to control it, for now just focus on feeling it.

You already learned spell casting, it means your bodies are already adjusted to be able to cast spells and the mana pathways are already there. 

Different grades just meant that the pathways are smoother, wider and stronger."

Kiel himself also focused on sensing his mana pathways and imbuing them with his mana while performing "Meditation(E)".

The hall was a special place. It was filled with dense neutral mana that seemed inexhaustible.

It was simply a perfect place to recover mana and to practise and learn how to operate mana or even practise spells.

Kiel nearly slapped himself for wasting so much time. 

He needed to remind himself again that he was now very weak and back to the lower levels. 

All the things he took for granted on the higher level for the past 30 years had to be reorganised to give him maximum benefit in upgrading and powering up himself.

For the next dozen hours, he would try to level up his meditation level and other skills if possible.

Both of the girls were indeed geniuses. When the timer hit around the 6 hour mark, both of them succeeded in learning "Basic Mana Sense(C)".

Kiel had Soeyoon use "Basic Mana Sense(C)" then alternated casting "Meditation(E)" on and off.

This would help her attain better understanding of the "Meditation(E)" skill and would let her better understand how mana flows within her body.

After giving instructions to Soeyoon, he personally guided Xue Er on the mana circulation of "Meditation(E)".

In just an hour, Xue Er got the basics down and had already started to practise by herself.

After an exhausting 3 hours, Xue Er finally learned "Meditation(E)". 

Even Kiel was surprised by her progress while Xue Er excitedly told him that she used to practise Yoga, pilates and meditation a lot.

'Rich woman,' In Kiel's opinion, only rich people could afford those fancy exercises. 

When he was young, he could barely afford rent and eat, he simply did not even have time to take care of himself. 

Inside, Kiel laughed at the absurdity of being jealous now that she had to rely on him instead.

He then told Soeyoon to stop what she was doing and carefully explained "Basic Water Bullet(D)" to both of them.

Kiel went so far as to perform the skill in front of them, and asked them to sense how the mana moves when he casted the spells.

Kiel emptied his mana pool as he slowly repeated casting the spell in front of the girls.

When he was down to his last drops, he stopped and told them to practise on their own as he had run out of mana.

He had Soeyoon practice casting the water spells against the pillar, while Xue Er focused on meditation and mana sensing for at least 2 hours to get used to the skills before practising the water bullet spell too.

Then he left the girls to their own devices while he tried to level up "Meditation(E)". Being on the same skill level as them made him feel uncomfortable.

Time flew by and Kiel finally made the breakthrough he wanted.

"Congratulation, Meditation(E) is upgraded to :

Mindful Meditation(D): Mindful Meditation, out of combat regenerate 25 Mana/minute"

Smiling, Kiel looked at the girls and saw both of them were hard at work practising their water bullet and meditating to refill their used mana.

Soeyoon was visibly exhausted while Xue Er had some semblance of water balls at the tip of her fingers.

Kiel Looked up the dome and found that the timer was only 

[1 hour, 17 minutes and 23 seconds]

The time was running out. 

He had them stop and rest while he continued to spend the last hours casting and exploring every single spell he had while having his "Extreme Mana Sense(S)" on.

Finally having the time to really look deep into the operations of all the skills he had, Kiel had some idea on what he could do but decided to leave it for next time as time was tight.

Before long, he heard the fateful prompt amidst the voices of the restless crowd:

"Welcome to the Tower of Extinction, Humans. 

Our Universe is facing invasion from the Apocalypse. 

All worlds must contribute to survive. 

But your species are pitifully weak. 

So the gods will give you a chance to gain power.

Fight . Clear the tower. You live. 

Fail. Die. Extinction.

Only the worthy will survive.

Level Three trial will begin in

Ten 

Nine

…

Three

Two

One.

Level Three begins"

Everything turned white as usual and when Kiel spawned, he could feel the sands beneath his feet and the sound of waves hitting the shore.

He opened his eyes to be greeted by the gloomy clouds and rolling sea.

Storm was coming.