Millions of mana

Five years flew by,

In the practice room's heart sat a young man, seemingly in his twenties, his silver hair shimmering like the finest diamonds, his face chiseled as if crafted by the gods themselves. Yeah, that's Zack. Right now, he's got his eyes shut tight, lost in some deep meditation. As the seconds tick on, the mana in the room starts to stir, almost like they're waiting for their commander.

Then, following the cues of the mana particles, Zack snaps his eyes open, revealing a pair of clear, sky-blue gems that sparkle brighter than the fanciest aquamarines you've ever seen. He extends his hand and murmurs, "come forth, [Chronos Heart]!"

Boom! A massive surge of mana rushes from his core into the empty space before his palm. And before you know it, that mana twists and turns into this strange yet stunning shape about the size of a basketball. Its hues dance between the light blue of his eyes and pure white. And if you look real close, you'll see it's not just one shape; it's like a whirlwind of patterns and smaller shapes constantly shifting at lightning speed. Each flicker of the pattern feels like lightning branching out, making it seem like a condensed storm in form.

One glance at this thing could drive a regular Joe insane. But a wizard with enough guts to hold its gaze for more than a second would feel time itself slowing down, revealing the very essence of the sigil it represents. Yep, this right here is Zack's completed 'speed' sigil. Finally, after five long years, he's nailed it.

The moment that sigil popped into the air, all the mana in the training room turned still, like Zack had just hit the remote control on the whole place. It was as if he could command not just the mana but every tiny particle around him. So, he decides to flick the switch on his sigil. Boom! Suddenly, an invisible wave spreads out from him, reaching the farthest corners of the room and beyond, forming a 500-meter bubble around him. Within this bubble, he was the ruler!

He points at this metal helmet chilling in the corner, and whoosh! It starts floating up, then picks up speed until it's a total blur, spinning around Zack. The faster it goes, the louder it screeches, like the metal's in some serious pain. But here's the kicker: despite all that speed, not a single breeze stirs up because Zack's got the whole place on lockdown.

Then, as the screeches hit their peak, the helmet bursts into flames. And as it spins faster and faster, it eventually crumbles to ashes.

Zack takes a good look at the pile of ashes and nods, "not bad." Then, he shuts down his domain and disperses the sigil. This was just a quick test to ensure everything was running smoothly. Sure, he already knew it would, but hey, it never hurts to double-check.

Then, he strolled out of his quarters and made his way to the practice hall. As he ventured deeper into the hall, he finally reached the room where he'd ascended to level 2. Stepping inside, he took a good look around, eyeing the defensive formations lining the walls. After getting some feedback from Sir Cedric, he learned that last time he hit level 2, things got a bit dicey—the room was on the verge of collapse from all the mana and pressure he'd let loose during his advancement. That's when Sir Cedric had to step in and reinforce the walls manually. So, Zack teamed up with him to beef up those formations, making them even sturdier than before.

Now, after spending years buried in level 3 formation books in the library, he'd finally mastered them. But he hadn't exactly gone "beyond" level 3, so his skill level was on par with Sir Cedric's. Since even among folks who've mastered a path, everyone's got their own style and strengths, Zack figured he'd play it safe and asked some help from Sir Cedric to make sure those defensive formations were top-notch.

Yep, he had his sights set on advancing tomorrow, so today was all about making sure everything was shipshape before the big day. After chowing down on dinner like always with Fannie, he decided to skip the meditation routine tonight—even though it wasn't his usual rest day. He wanted his mind sharp as a tack for tomorrow's big move. And naturally, wherever Zack went, Fannie was sure to follow suit and hit the sack.

Peering down at Fannie nestled in his arms, Zack couldn't imagine hitting the hay without her by his side. With a satisfied sigh, he closed his eyes, slowing down his body and mind until sleep finally took over.

The next morning, he and Fannie whipped up some breakfast together before heading off to the advancement spot. Trailing behind them were three figures, their heads hidden beneath hoods. Before Zack made his way to the middle room—the actual advancement room—he swung by the left one to greet the level 2 wizards already there.

"Morning, fellow wizards," Zack saluted the group. Lady Evangeline, Sir Cedric, and Sir Archibald returned the gesture. Lady Evangeline piped up, "Are you prepared for the advancement?'"

Zack nodded. "Absolutely."

Sir Cedric jumped in, "No worries, lad—uh, I mean, sir. you'll definitely succeed."

Zack couldn't help but smirk inwardly. 'Nice try, Sir Cedric. Pretty sure "lad" almost slipped out there.'

Lady Evangeline caught on and shot Sir Cedric a glare. He coughed awkwardly, shrinking a bit.

Sir Archibald, observing the scene, shook his head. With a calm demeanor, he patted Zack's shoulder. "Don't worry, we all have faith that you will succeed."

Despite witnessing Zack's presence within the tower while another enigmatic wizard engaged the paladin in combat, the three level 2 wizards remained convinced that the mysterious wizard was Zack, solely due to their matching wizard levels. During the confrontation with the saintess, there was an absence of concept, and at that juncture, Sir Zack had not yet grasped a concept. However, by the time the mysterious wizard clashed with the paladin, Sir Zack had just comprehended a concept and was able to conjure a sigil, mirroring the mysterious wizard's actions.

Thus, the level 2 wizards persisted in their belief that Zack was the enigmatic figure. They conjectured that Zack might have employed some clever ruse to appear within the tower while simultaneously engaging in battle against the grand paladin. Consequently, they maintained their respect for Zack.

Not knowing what was inside the level 2 wizards, Zack gave another salute. "Thanks, everyone, for the encouragement. I'll make sure to succeed" Then he gestured to Fannie. "And hey, fellow wizards, could I ask you a favor? Could you keep an eye on my disciple here, Fannie?"

"Greetings, respected ones! I apologize for the imposition; please take care of me!" Fannie saluted, giving a bow to the level 2 crew.

Lady Evangeline swiftly intervened to prevent Fannie from bowing too low. "Hahaha, no need to be overly formal, Miss Fannie," she chuckled. "We've met several times before; you could almost consider us your elders. I treat you as if you were my own niece." Lady Evangeline smiled warmly at Fannie, occasionally glancing at Zack.

Sir Cedric and Sir Archibald also extended greetings to Fannie. Then, Sir Cedric thumped his chest confidently. "Don't worry, Sir Zack. We'll ensure that no harm comes her way. You can rest assured during your advancement."

Zack nodded his thanks to the wizards. "In that case, I'll owe you guys one. Oh, and speaking of which," he paused, motioning to the hooded figures behind him and Fannie, "don't mind these three. They're just friends tagging along to witness the show." The trio pulled down their hoods and introduced themselves.

"Hey there, wizards, I'm Gandril."

"Greetings, wizards, the name's Mystara."

"Hello, wizards, I go by Arcanis."

Each of them had faces as plain as day, the kind you'd see anywhere on the continent. Stick them in a crowd, and they'd blend right in.

The three level 2 wizards from the Lightning Tower eyed the newcomers with curiosity. They knew all about Fannie, but these folks were a mystery. They couldn't even gauge their wizard levels—they seemed to lack any mana, like regular folks. But Lady Evangeline, Sir Cedric, and Sir Archibald felt a sense of unease, as if tangling with these newcomers wouldn't end well.

They waited for the newcomers to spill the beans about which tower they hailed from, but when nothing came, the two level 2 wizards awkwardly returned their salute after a bit of an awkward silence. After the brief intro, the newcomers just stood there with these small smiles, but their vibe screamed "stay away." So, despite their burning curiosity, the level 2 wizards kept their distance, forced to bite their tongues.

Zack didn't offer any more info either, simply thanking the level 2 crew once more before heading out of the room.

The level 2 wizards couldn't help but feel a bit let down. They'd hoped Zack would shed some light on the situation. But as they watched Zack enter the advancement room, their disappointment faded. They refocused on him, knowing Zack wouldn't vouch for anyone shady. And since Zack was bound by contract to the Lightning Tower, they trusted he wouldn't do anything to jeopardize it.

Inside the advancement room, Zack settled cross-legged in the center, feeling his mind unwind while staying razor-focused. All the usual distractions melted away, leaving him in awe once again, 'man, no matter how many times I'm here, I'm always blown away by this place, especially how it hones in on your focus.'

He'd heard that the floor material, green jade, was crazy rare and pricey across the continent. Apparently, it had this knack for keeping you cool, calm, and collected, free from any pesky distractions. And then there was the intricate formation covering the room, designed to channel all that green jade effect right to the center. Zack couldn't wrap his head around the whole mechanism—this formation was top-tier rare stuff.

Shaking off those thoughts, Zack took a deep breath, inhaling the mist swirling around the room. The mana in here was thick, dense enough to form a mist. Sure, it was like fifty times more concentrated than outside, but Zack wasn't all that impressed. Even if they cranked it up to a hundred or a hundred fifty times, it still wouldn't cut it for his advancement. Nope, the real reason he was here? That mind-calming, focus-boosting ability.

Taking a deep breath, Zack summoned his status window, and there it was, right in front of him. His eyes zeroed in on the mana point section, and a chill ran down his spine. "This is exactly why the concentration in this room will never cut it for me," he muttered, staring at the string of zeros on his status window. Even Zack couldn't help but feel a twinge of terror at his mana capacity—or lack thereof.

He couldn't help but think back to five years ago. Back then, he'd been all about creating as many mana cores as possible, but boy, had he messed up. Sure, he'd confirmed that each new core couldn't be instantly filled with mana and had to grow naturally. But to create that infinity mana shape, he had to cram a hefty dose of mana into each new core. That meant every core ended up with at least 3000 mana.

Sure, he could've created normal cores without going for the infinity shape, but then they'd only hold about 1000 mana each. Problem was, those wouldn't resonate with his old core. And even though he didn't want an overflow of mana, he still wanted that extra computational power from the resonance. Having normal cores just felt like a waste when resonated ones were a hundred times faster. So, he was stuck making every new core infinity-shaped, packing them each with 3000 mana.

As the realization hit him like a ton of bricks, Zack couldn't help but do the math in his head. "So, imagine if I'd stuck to my plan of creating 10 mana cores per day. That's 365 days in a year, times 5 years, which gives us 18,250 days. Multiply that by 3000 mana per core, and you've got... 54,750,000! Fifty million!! Fifty freaking million mana points!"

The moment it all clicked was on that tenth day of core creation, when he noticed the mana points in his status window skyrocketing. At first, it was just a measly 3000 among his 200,000 mana, barely a blip. But after ten days, it hit him like a ton of bricks. He nearly fainted right then and there.

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Name: Zack

Age: 35/300 (1,095,000)

Occupation: Official Wizard - Level 2

Contract: [Lightning Magic Tower - Official Member]

Hidden Contract: -

Mana: 4600/4600 (54,750,000/54,750,000)

Overt Talent: [Low Mana Manipulation Correction], [Low Mana Sensory Correction]

Hidden Talent: [Limitless Mana Well], [Advanced Mana Manipulation Correction], [Advanced Mana Sensory Correction], [Advanced Intelligence Correction], [Enhanced Computation Power] 

Hidden Boss Abilities: [Hidden Strength], [Thousand Faces], [Cosmic Weed]

HBP: 2

HB Progress Bar: 40/100% 

Expand Hidden Boss abilities Store? yes/no

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