Chapter 3

Author's note:

'Thoughts'

"Dialogues"

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Arthur was lying on his bed, he had in his possession a high level mana crystal, the path to take was obvious, but even so he refused to think like that.

'I should sell this mana crystal, but that would reveal that the cave can produce mana crystals. I don't want to have to deliver something that good to the empire.'

By law the empire has the right over all mines of mana crystals, if Arthur tries to sell a high level crystal, he would have to explain where he got it.

His initial plan was to use the pill to speed up mana gathering, and the elixir in the last week to purify his body and core, but he wasn't sure if he could complete his core with just that.

At the Imperial academy everyone is accepted, but there is classification for each class and Arthur wanted at least to be among the best. The higher his class level, the greater the resources the academy distributed among students.

'With this mana crystal I will definitely form my core, but it's a big waste, high-level crystals should be used to aid cultivation, after the blue core.'

High-level crystals have the purest and densest mana, absorbing a high-level mana crystal doesn't leave impurities the same as low-level ones, and Arthur would use it to form its core, even an emperor would cry about it.

As he thought, Arthur remembered something from the accessory shop, a ring that made cultivation twice as difficult, it was used to increase the number of mana channels in the body, only a few people who had great mana circulation techniques used it .

Arthur went downstairs, made a quick lunch of wolf meat and headed back to the shopping area. He had only 13 silver coins, after buying the pill and the elixir his savings had run out, but he was more than happy, because now he was sure that he would be able to stay in the best class in the academy.

The academy held a test to separate the best children into rooms, A, B and C the resources were distributed accordingly, students from room A received the best Mana Circulation technique and that was why Arthur was risking everything to stay in that room .

When he arrived at the store, Arthur managed to buy the ring, for 13 silver coins, the store owner asked for 15 coins, but when he saw that Arthur had a contract with a beast, he thought that Arthur was from some great family and decided to make a discount .

Now with everything ready, Arthur just had to convince his mother and his teacher that he would train alone for the next 3 months. His plan was simple, he prepared a big feast, invited his master and with an Oscar-worthy scene, he apologized for bothering Lucious for three long years, and said that he needed to train alone until he joined the academy to prepare.

Arthur never gave big problems, so his mother and master accepted it even though he knew he was planning something. And the reason was obvious without having to train Arthur Lucious had more time to spend with Helen.

"Hey you could have at least disguised the joy of getting rid of me!"

Arthur thought it would be a problem to convince the two, but he had forgotten that they had a romance that was supposed to be hidden, but the whole town already knew.

"COF, COF…" Hellen choked on her food and got up to catch Arthur, who was already closing the bedroom door.

"Sometimes I wonder if this boy is really only 11 years old…"

Lucious was helping Hellen, who had been choking while thinking aloud.

Lucious and Helen went out drinking after dinner, Arthur put on the ring and removed the crystal, absorbing a high level crystal with his current mana circulation technique would take about a month, and with a ring that time would be twice as long.

Two months passed in the blink of an eye, he absorbed crystal night and morning, while in the afternoon he did his physical training and hunted some low level beasts.

'Today is the day…'

Arthur took his coffee and ran to the forest, as he didn't want to condense his core at home, to avoid questions from his mother and master, he decided to do it in the cave, when a person condensed his core he suffered a lot some more others less.

Arthur was sitting cross-legged inside the cave while holding the mana crystal that was now half of its original size. He wanted to absorb more, but his body was on edge, he had to form his core to continue absorbing the crystal.

'According to what Lucious once told me, I have to concentrate all my mana in the center of my chest and start absorbing as much as I can.'

Arthur began to circulate mana and focus on the center of his chest, he could feel something the size of a baseball and began to absorb mana from the crystal. The ball began to swell and Arthur felt like his chest was being ripped open and something was being shoved inside, pushing everything in its path.

Arthur still had the ring that doubled the difficulty of absorbing mana, as he didn't tell anyone that he was about to form his core he didn't know he had to remove the ring, as it was impossible to gather so much energy to form the core while using the ring , even if I will possess the best technique.

Since no one had ever spent a high-level crystal just to form a mana core because it was such a waste, no one had discovered that this practice doubled the number of mana channels through the body.

The more one trained the body with mana, the number of mana channels in the body increased, now Arthur had more mana channels than a child his age should have.

These mana channels were responsible for carrying mana through the body, while cultivating and using techniques, the only way to increase their numbers, was with years of training or like Arthur using a training ring and a high level mana crystal.

Unaware of this, Arthur was screaming in pain as he struggled to keep himself in place. After two hours he fell unconscious on the floor with his whole body sweating.