17 Advancing
Days continued like that in routines.
Aside from making cakes for his goddess, he was also training really hard every day.
After a week, Marie finally could find him some cocoa beans. He immediately made a chocolate-berry cake for his goddess. Even though he need a lot sugar to reduce the bitter taste of cocoas, but his goddess loved the chocolate cake so much he kept asking where the chocolate from.
By the way, he also could finally find his goddess's journal about Aether.
A long of thousand billons years ago before this world was born Aether was just a material energy that filled the regions of the universe above the terrestrial sphere. They came from the center of universe in the quintessence. After a long time, they then came to consciousness and gave birth to Chaos and Order thereafter.
Chaos and Order was always maintaining balance of energy in the regions of universe. From their combination, they were giving birth to this world's core. Thousand years continued and they kept trying to improve their creating. So this world was born, followed by elements of magic. Earth was then created, followed by sky, heaven, mountain, ocean, living organism, demon, human, beast, till it finally was born as a perfect world where he was living in right now.
No matter what the living creature did in the world, the aether was always recycling itself. All living things were born by aether, so when they finally died, they also came back to the aether again. From birth then living, from living then death, from death then coming back to aether, before eventually rebirth as new living being. This continued without stopping forming a large circle. As long as balance of chaos and order was maintained, then the nature of this world would be remained in perfection.
Maybe this was why his goddess was so angry at human about corrupting the balance.
But Vincent didn't really know what human did to break the balance and his goddess didn't want to elaborate it. So it left him to learn them on his own when he finally visited the human continent.
Vincent kept his daily activity with making cakes for his goddess and training all night.
Training hard every day was tiresome. He felt a heavy mental exhaustion. There were also countless fails in his training. But he didn't had a slightest thought of giving up.
Even since he was child, he knew he wasn't anything special. He didn't have any special talent. His intelligent was also only above average. Even though his appearance was also a bit above average, this wasn't anything at all in the face of his finance. He was really poor. His luck also wasn't anything good.
But he only had one thing that he believed in himself.
It was a hard work.
Even though his life was really hard and caught in large debt. He never thought of giving up. He kept working hard every day to earn more money. He believed someday his hard word would pay off.
Therefore, although this magic training was really hard, he didn't give up at all. His goddess said his refining speed was slow. Then it must be slow, so he had to keep work hard in increasing them.
Even so, he somehow didn't feel a bit dull at all. Because seeing his goddess smiled adorably everyday was really a joy to his heart.
..
Vincent opened his eyes calmly after he was done with his meditating today.
It was finally a month since the first time he came to this world. Strangely he didn't feel miss a bit about his world at all. Well, maybe he missed a little about the technology of his world. But they really couldn't hold a handle with a magic of this world. Beside he really didn't have anyone important in his world. He was always alone in his world.
Even though he said that he was kidnapped to this world. He really didn't feel a bit of resentment. Instead he felt a thankful for his goddess. Because if not for him, he didn't know what would happen to him if he was caught by mafia guys. He already heard enough about people that was unfortunately sold by them after all.
Beside in this world…
The most important thing was he could see his adorable goddess every day!ヾ(≧∇≦)ゞ
That's right! There was no other thing that was better than seeing his beautiful goddess!!!
Vincent nodded firmly.
By the way, after a month of gruesome training, he finally had a really really tremendous improvement!!
He felt his mental capacity really improved. He now could hold his concentration in four focuses for twelve hours straight! A few hours even more if he forced them out. He also could hold six focuses for at least 5 hours. But the more focuses he held the harder he kept his concentration.
He tried to train himself in holding more focuses. But he only got improvement keeping seven focuses in two hours, and eight focuses for only twenty minutes!
It was really difficult!
He wanted to improve them even more, but his goddess said to not really bother them. His mental capacity would automatically improve with the increasing of his magic cultivation. Beside the most important thing was increasing his mana capacity.
That's right!
With his four focuses, he refining speed was now 100 ml mana liquid per second!
If he increased his focus, he could increase his refining speed for a few hundreds ml more of mana liquids. But his mind would really felt so exhausted.
By the way, he also found a way to keep training without keeping his concentration in meditating.
Where he got this idea, you say?
It was because someday, he suddenly realized his goddess never meditated. Because when else the goddess would meditate as he was always with him from early morning till night. He knew his goddess always slept at night, something about letting his body grew healthy.
"What about sustaining your body? Did you need aether as body nutrients?" Vincent asked curiously.
Noctis raised his face at him in puzzlement. "What would I need meditated for? Just absorbing casually is enough."
"Casually is as in doing other things at the same time?" Vincent widened his eyes as he never thought of it before.
"Right, beside as you level grow, your body will automatically absorb aether without we ordered them." Noctis said waving his hand casually.
"What about your magic cultivation, Master? You don't keep increasing them?" Vincent asked in curiously.
"I don't need them. It is already at a bottleneck. I need my body to mature first before I advance again." Noctis explained in disinterested tone. His focus was already on his large book again.
Didn't that mean his goddess needed to wait several decades first before advancing a level?
Even though he was curious, he decided to not ask anymore question. He knew that magic cultivation was private things after all. He would also didn't want people question his own too much.
Therefore after this discussion, Vincent decided to try splitting his focus for doing daily activities and mana refining at the same time without concentrating in meditation.
At the first time he did, he kept lost concentration, and his goddess kept angry at him for dazing like idiot, especially when his cooking process was longer than usual.
After countless time trying, he finally able to hold it all day without losing his concentration and dazing like an idiot. But his refining speed was really slow and he only could hold one focus in refining.
However, he didn't give up and keep trying them again.
After a month of training, he finally able to keep two focuses in mana refining and other of his concentration to do daily activities. Although his refining speed was really slow and he kept lost his concentration each times he caught off guard by something.
Still, it was better than nothing. With this he could do other things while kept refining mana slowly.
So with all of his gruesome training, his mana capacity was finally nearing a bottleneck.
…
…
…
Vincent looked over all mana liquids that he refined after a month of hard works
His little puddle of liquid finally looked like a mana pool.
But he knew he hadn't reached the peak of his mana capacity.
Actually, he could just use the mana liquids now to create a mana pool and awaken to initial stage. But his goddess ordered him to keep refining until he really reached a perfect peak. He said the perfect peak would create a perfect mana pool so he couldn't rush them.
He needed maybe a few more days or a week before he finally reached the peak of his mana capacity.
Vincent stood from the bed and stretched his body with a groan. He would train again later tonight. For now, his goddess must be already awake and was demanding his cakes.
As if hearing him, the door of his room slammed open, and his goddess really appeared at the door. His bright rosy eyes stared at him in a demanding look.
Vincent just chuckled fondly as his goddess dragged him to the kitchen.
Even since he introduced the chocolate to his goddess, his goddess kept demanding to make him a chocolate cake. Vincent even made him some chocolate bars as snacks. But he still needed to mix them with a lot of sugar and milk because his goddess hated the bitter taste.
"How is your mana refining now?" Noctis asked after Vincent finished cleaning his face and hand which had cream messes.
Vincent reluctantly rubbed his goddess smooth face for once more time before he let go of his face. "Well, I am reaching a bottleneck in few days." He replied.
"Oh." Noctis's rosy eyes brightened pleasantly. "That's good." He nodded approvingly. "What don't you try use your mana now? I want to see them."
"I can use them now?" Vincent widened his eyes in surprise. He thought he had to awaken to initial stage before he could use them.
Noctis frowned lightly. "Of course. I never said you cannot use them now. You should have enough mana to use a little magic."
Well, that's true… Vincent realized stupidly.
Vincent then concentrated at his mana liquids. He remembered to use them he had to direct them outside his body. With his trained focus, he could easily move the mana to his right hand. He immediately felt warm energy flowing in his right arms. He focused them in his palm then tried to imagine that he was creating a fire from the mana. His magic core was immediately spinning fast as he tried to use his mana.
Cold sweats immediately fell on his forehead. He narrowed his eyes as the burning hot was quickly felt in his palm. But the fire hadn't come out yet. He narrowed his concentration further and further before—Poofff!
A hot smoke suddenly exploded on this palm…
"…"
"…"
"…"
"I guess I expected too much from a worthless human bug like you. You should try again after you awaken to initial stage." Noctis frowned in disappointing.
Goddess, why did you called him a worthless human bug again?!! (ToT)
"I-I will try them again!!" Vincent said not giving up.
Noctis just frowned further. "No need. Just awaken first."
"But—" Vincent's words was cut off when his goddess suddenly grabbed his right palm. Noctis stared intently at his hand and rubbed them here and there thoughtfully. Vincent blinked in confusion as his goddess then looked at him from his head to toe.
Noctis hummed thoughtfully. "Just awaken to the Initial Stage first. You wouldn't do much even you kept trying," he said before dismissing him as he went to his study chamber.
True to his goddess's words, he really couldn't do anything even when he kept trying them at night. It just kept exploding smokes uselessly.
Vincent sighed heavily. Maybe his body really didn't have any talent in magic. He couldn't even create a small fire. So with a heavy heart, he decided to keep refining until reaching the bottleneck.
A few days later, his mana capacity finally reached the peak.
..
..
..
Vincent took a long calming breath before closing his eyes. After resting for a day, he was finally prepared to advance to initial stage. His goddess said for him to do it confidently without even a slightest hesitation. Otherwise, his mana pool would become imperfect.
The sight of his magic core then appeared in his mind.
His magic core looked really different from the first time he saw it now. It was blazing really bright. He even felt his old magic core looked really dull compared to his magic core right now. He also noticed the darkness color in the flame also became more visible. It was blending with his red flame completely, making the fire almost dark bright red. They almost looked like hot lavas.
Each time he added a new fire element to his core, it would become brighter and brighter. He even noticed that its spinning become really smooth and fast.
Below his magic core were his mana liquids. They were really pure and transparent, making him thought them as mirror instead as his magic core reflected perfectly on them. They filled all the space in his naval dantian. His so called peak was actually directly below his magic core. They only separated by an inch.
Vincent took a deep breath before narrowed his concentration to create a mana pool.
All Chaos aethers surrounding him were inhaled quickly into his body. They were surging in a heavy flow toward his magic core. His core was spinning really fast. With a familiar motion, pure mana was quickly refined by him. He immediately used them to awaken his magic core.
There was suddenly a loud sound echoing in his mind, followed by his space mind that was then slowly crumbling. The dark space in his mind was cracking loudly. Bright light was slipping into each crack.
Vincent immediately brought all his mana to create a mana pool as soon as the space changed. It was as if the darkness night had changed to bright day sky. The dark space that was crumbling was disappearing one by one while a bright sky was quickly encompassing his mind. His narrow and dark space mind suddenly became so bright and wide that he almost couldn't see the end.
Then there was also a crackling sound from his magic core. Outer layer of his magic core was crumbling quickly revealing a smooth and solid bead inside them. A blazing dark flame then quickly enveloped the bead, spinning wildly in a violent flow.
While the space below the core was also crumbling. All mana liquids in his mind quickly spread all over the space and created a huge pool that was occupying all the space of his mind below the magic core.
All of his mana quickly absorbed by the pool before with a loud sound they was spreading all over to every inches of his body.
Vincent took a shuddering breath as he felt warm energies quickly changing his body.
After for a while, the incredible feeling was finally done. Vincent then slowly opened his eyes.
In the dark night, his pair of dark eyes was flashing bright. A spark of red color became more visible in them while his slit pupil became sharper.
A bright smile then curved on his lips.
He finally was an Initial demon! ヾ(≧∇≦)ゞ
