66 Perseverance

Now that Lucas knew what to do. He began the preparations. He prepped his mana and started running it through his eyes. Even though his skill level was weaker than average. Lucas could see much more than what he could see before. He could see things clearly that were 50 meters away. The colours livened up as well, it was like he was finally seeing the world for what it truly was. Because of human limitations. He could not see it before but now the veil had been torn in two.

Lucas continued to funnel mana into his eyes. Once he did he looked around. Looking 50 meters ahead then right in front of him. He noticed his focus time had decreased. Usually when you look far away the lens of your eye has to accommodate for such a change. So then when you look at something close to you it is blurry for a second because your lens is still accommodating for far vision. Then the lens changes again allowing you to see what is in front of you. But because of Lucas's mana-eyes, this delay was almost non-existent. He could focus between far and close without any delay. This would prove invaluable in a fight where he is fighting multiple people from close and from afar. Lucas kept practising it over and over. As he did his proficiency became better and better. He was also using his knowledge from his previous world to increase so rapidly. Instead of just surrounding the mana around his eyes he was imbuing his rods and cones with mana. He even imbued his white and yellow spots with mana. Because of this, his fovea centralis allowed for even better vision. Also, he no longer had a blind spot.

The last thing Lucas wanted to test was his vision in a dark environment. So Lucas changed the time of day to midnight. Once he did he looked around while using mana-eyes. And he could see it was not as good as the combat system. But even in the darkest of rooms, he would be able to navigate himself around the place without bumping into walls.

Once Lucas got the hang of mana-eyes, he decided to move onto the next order of business. This was multitasking. Lucas knew how terrible he was when it came to multitasking that is why it was so hard to bring up the four magic circles at once. Multi-tasking is crucial to a Mage. As with multitasking, Lucas would be able to make four magic circles at once rather than creating four singles ones. This would save a lot of time and would be a lot more practical when it came to battle. After reading the book Lucas learnt that in order to multitask you need to send mana to the brain. This allows you to think at a higher speed. When you think at a higher speed you can divide your brain to allow you to do things at the same time. With 25% of your brains processing power you could create a water magic circle. With the other 75%, you would create the wind, fire and earth magic circles. This would happen all at once saving you four times the time. As well as possibly saving your life 4 times.

Once Lucas knew what to do he began the multitasking training. He sent his mana through his brain. Once he did he felt his processing power increase dramatically. Lucas was already a smart guy due to his Int stat but now due to the influence of all the mana: It was as if all that intelligence was available for use. It was as if he could use every ounce of his intelligence. The neurons in his brain were meshing together perfectly so he was able to retrieve and memories from the past as well as store a lot more information in this state.

After experiencing this awe-inspiring feeling he began with mattered most. Multitasking training. Again he injected mana into his brain and he began delegating tasks to himself. It was as if he as programming his brain to do things. He started small and programmed his mind to do the bare minimum. He separated his processing power into two parts. The one was going to conjure a wind spell and the other was going to conjure an earth spell.

He prepped his mana and then he lifted both his left and right hands at the same time. When he did a green magic circle appeared on his right hand then a white magic circle on his left hand. Once the magic circles appeared Lucas cancelled the spell. With that, the magic circles disappeared but Lucas wasn't happy with the results. Even though his speed had increased by leaps and bounds. It wasn't the desired outcome. While multitasking he couldn't keep his processing power at 50/50. As a result, his right side had formed the earth magic circle before the left could finish the wind. Both spells were the same level of difficulty so they should be completed at the same time. Currently, he was doing a 60/40 split. Lucas sighed at this realisation but then he revealed a smile shortly after as he realised nothing in life worth having is achieved in 20 seconds. Plus, he didn't mind the extra work. It was fun.

Once Lucas got his spirit back. He began round two. He prepped his mana and went in for it again. He lifted his two hands at the same time and began the respective spells. However, this time the wind spell on the left finished before the earth spell on the right. Because the earth had finished before the wind last time. Lucas wanted to compensate for it by putting more processing power into the wind but he ended up overdoing it again. Now instead of 60/40, his processing power was split 40/60. Again Lucas sighed and then revealed a faint smile as he began round three. Round three proved to be no better than the two rounds before it but he pressed on and went to round, 4,5,6,7,8,9, and then 10. Each of them proving to be no better than the last time. He had tried slowing down the spell but that seemed to be futile too.

He had tried a varying up the spells in many ways but that didn't change anything either. So Lucas figured this could only be accomplished by some good old perseverance. Once Lucas got a good enough feel for it after many repetitions he would be able to tell how much processing power he was putting in and then shift it to the desired outcome. Once Lucas came to that conclusion he began the 11th round and then 12th,13th,14th all the way up to the 20th round. It was at the 20th round that something felt different. The results were still the same. But he felt that he knew that he was splitting it between 70/30. This was an important step for Lucas.

So with a wide smile, Lucas began the 21st round. And just like before he could sense that he was putting to much power into one side so he adjusted the scales but it still felt over the top so he adjusted it again. As the scales came closer and closer to 50/50 his doubts were getting higher because this was land yet to be walked on. Once he was unsure of whether he was going above or he asked Thea where he was at.

[ You are at 55/45. So far this is the furthest you have come. Just a little bit more. And you will have this child's game done.]

" Easy for you to say. Multitasking has never been my thing."

Once Lucas realised that he was at 55/45 he lowered it even more until he got to a stage where he just instinctively knew it was 50/50. But he still asked Thea if he was correct and she confirmed it to be true. Once he realized he had finally achieved a 50/50 he rejoiced. Then got back to work. He released his spell and began over. He wanted to to be able to tell whether he could get 50/50 without Thea's help. Lucas prepped his mana and again sent it to his brain. Then he split the processing power. But again he felt he was overdoing it on one side. So he decreased and decreased until everything felt right. Once he got to a certain stage he was uncertain again so he asked Thea and she said he was currently at 52/48. Then with her help, he adjusted it to 50/50. Once he achieved 50/50 he stayed in this state for a while. He wanted to become accustomed to it. Once Lucas felt he was ready. Lucas repeated the process. And again at 52/48, he felt he had achieved the correct weight distribution. Until Thea said he was wrong.

Again Lucas realised this was an issue that would only be ironed out through repetition. So he repeated the process another 10 times. Until finally, he could achieve a 50/50 state without Thea's help. Once Lucas was able to achieve the 50/50 state. He started all over again and added the last step. This was, of course, releasing the two spell that was being conjured. But this was the easy part since he had been using spells every day since he came to this world. On his try, he was able to conjure and release the earth and wind spells at the same time. At this feat, Lucas shouted a roar of celebration clenching his fists tightly. Lucas had finally achieved what he sought out to do. The next action would be splitting his processing power into 4 equal parts. This would be 25/25/25/25. But he decided to leave that for another day as the test only required you to be able to do two at the same time.

Plus Lucas didn't know how long it would take to accomplish such a feat. It took 6 hours just to do a split between 2. But that was another day's worries. He had accomplished everything he needed to do. So Lucas looked at the tab and pressed the red button on the tab. When he did the grassy plain returned to the blue room and the door reappeared. Once he was done he came out of the simulation booth. But when he did he got a lot of envious looks. Which was understandable. Lucas had a whole booth to himself. He could use this booth for as long as he wanted. Where others had to stay in a line for hours just to get 15 minutes of time. Lucas sighed at the realisation. This place was really run in a weird way. Being weak granted you fewer opportunities than if you were stronger. If that was the case, how were the ones on the bottom supposed to catch up with those on the top? If anything this system would just create a bigger gap between the weak and the strong...

The system did have its perks though. For in certain cases the lower students would get fed up with the unequal treatment and would train harder. So they could improve their rank. This way the school created the want and the desire to be on top. Which would prevent things like strikes. Instead of yelling unfair and burning the place down. The students at the bottom would work harder than normal so that they could gain the benefits of being on top. So that they could look down on others like the ones on top of them looked down on them. Thus establishing it as a proper system. Upon that realisation, Lucas frowned but he was benefiting from it so he wouldn't fight it.

Lucas just walked passed all the glaring students and wondered what he wanted to do next. It was already night time. He also realised that he was starving. He was so in focus that he didn't realise it. Lucas already ate the breakfast he got from the official during recess. So Lucas had two choices. To either go see if Tamara Everly was still working and eat with her. Or go and eat at his dorm. Lucas thought a bit and decided he would rather go to his dorm. He felt if he was going to eat with her in the evening it would feel like a date and that wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to make sure that no mixed signals got mixed into their relationship. "Platonic is key". Lucas nodded his head at that thought.

It only took a few minutes to get to the guest dorm. Once he got there many people were already in the cafeteria eating their food. He hoped he wouldn't receive another round of applause. And just like his hope nothing happened. Nobody stared at him they just continued with their conversations and ate the food in front of them. Lucas smiled when nothing happened. Then walked to the line to get his food. He knew he could just walk past them but he wanted to feel like a normal student. He wanted the normal student life so he didn't want to cut in line at this point in time.

In no time the line cleared up and he got his serving of food. He sat down and at his food. Once he was done he went to his room. As now was the perfect time to sleep. He had a big day tomorrow. But before he went to sleep he wanted to see what it was that he got from the official this morning. So he reached into Thea's storage and pulled out a pouch. Once he opened the pouch he saw more gold than he had ever seen in his life. He wondered where the gold came from and why it was given to him. But then he remembered he had just increased his luck stat. Maybe because of the increased luck stat he got lucky and someone decided to give him gold. This thought made him smile. But he wanted to know exactly how much gold he had received. So he emptied the entire pouch on his bed. When he did the weight of the gold made his bed sink in. But he began counting the gold. After counting it twice he was certain that he got 700 gold from this pouch alone. This was a tremendous amount. The blood in Lucas's body started pumping. He began thinking about all the things he could buy. It then dawned upon him that one of his rings needed a Blacksmith to repair it. And it needed to be a B rank Blacksmith and above. Now that he had a lot of gold he was sure he could afford it even if he didn't know the cost.

After thinking of all the possible things that money could buy he realised that he wouldn't be able to sleep by himself in this state. So Lucas said, " Thea can you do that thing where you can make me fall asleep instantly."

[ Sure I can. Do you want to sleep now.?]

" Yes. Well, of course when I climb into bed first. So wait until I'm in bed then turn the lights off."

[Sure thing. But before that. Don't you want to read the note that came with the pouch?]

" Note?"

[ Yeah the note you are sitting on.]

Lucas stood up and he saw where his bum is, there is a note. So he picked it up and read it. This was the second time he received a note in this world. The first one was from Layla Palmer. Now it was from someone else. He knew this because he didn't recognise the handwriting at all. The note said.

" Here is half of the gold I earned by betting on you in the tournament. I knew you would win so I betted on you from the start. I earned A LOT of gold because the odds were against you. I'm giving you half of the proceeds cause that only seems fair. And you were fair to me."

After reading the letter. Lucas knew it could be none other than Tamara Everly who sent this message. She did say he would win. And no matter how much times he said he wouldn't she just knew. Also related to the fair part. Lucas could have cheated her. Instead, he told her that the potions were all high-grade potions instead of low, mid, and high. He guessed that this was her way of saying thank you.

Once he figured that out he climbed into bed. Then clapped his hands two times and the light turned off. After that, Thea turned his lights off and he fell asleep.