Extra's Abyss-Chapter 18: Training[2]

It's been a few weeks since Noctis started to train under his aunt Ericka; each day the so-called light exercises increased, pushing him to his limits both physically and mentally.

During his breaks, he would study magical theory with Lira's help. It took him a while, but he was about to learn the theory part of magic on a basic level; he hadn't yet cast a magic circle.

Ericka didn't allow him to do so, reasoning that his focus should be on his physique. Not the reason he needed, but he complied.

Noctis looked at the highly appealing monster meat in front of him, but he knew it was only a facade. He cautiously took a piece, almost choking on the taste as he sipped water. 'I still can't get accustomed to this; she wasn't kidding. The meat might look alluring, but the taste is like biting on a vinegar-soaked rubber.

This combination was unthinkable to him; even worse, he was now attempting it, and it was awful. The meat he was eating for his diet provided the best benefits at the expense of its unpleasant taste.

He struggled as he swallowed a piece. Glancing at the remaining meat, he gulped out of nervousness.

"Lira, say, does all monster meat taste like this, or is it just a specific kind?" Lira gave him a quick overview of the various sorts of monster meat that are edible.

"Only a few types taste as unpleasant as these; the remaining ones taste just like normal meat or better than them."

Moving on, this continued on despite his pleas as he begged his aunt for better food; all he got was a straight refusal to his face.

The one thing he realized was that he was growing a lot faster than he had expected. He had considered it, but experiencing it firsthand was quite different.

Initially, the focus was on improving his core strength and stamina. The intensity increased to gain muscles on his body along with improving endurance.

Each day, he could feel his improvement, although it would decrease as it went on, and since he was starting from a weak body, it would be a sharp spike at the very beginning before it gradually starts to decrease and maintains a stable slow growth.

Only after 5 weeks of constant training was he able to take whatever tasks his aunt assigned; he could complete them without getting too tired or faint, just like on his first day.

Both the physical and nutritional diets resulted in increasing mana. It was quite the surprise that it had improved just like that.

He glanced at his summoned window.

[Mana: 860/860]

Once his mana reaches the 900 mark, he will reach the F+ rank.

'The minimum rank required for Ethereon University is an E, and the average would be E or E+ for most students," he recalled the details from the game while he was running around the training hall with the gravity-enchanted equipment he had commissioned.

'Soon I will experience the feeling of linking; I need to be thoroughly prepared for it. Shaking his head to ease the nervousness, he finished his last lap, stopping a few meters from his aunt.

Ericka stood up, eyeing him from head to toe as she rubbed her chin, with raised eyebrows. "Haha, look at your height. Why haven't you grown a single inch? Don't tell me you want to stay as a short boy, Nox," she smirked, teasing him.

"As if! I refuse to be a short person, and what about you? Are you going to slack off every day again? Should I call Mary and gladly say that her boss is free?" Noctis scoffed at her remark and returned one back to her, her eyes twitching at the mention of Mary. freёwebnoѵel.com

After his weeks of training, he was no longer skinny; he had lost his remaining baby fat, and he had faint muscles starting to form on his body now. But only his height remained unchanged.

It hurt him a little knowing that he would stay shorter than his peers.

'To be honest, it really doesn't matter anyways.'

This past few weeks he spent his training with his aunt beside him. They have bonded well and have gotten much closer. Every so often, they'd toss playful or sharp jabs at each other.

They joked around for a bit, but soon after, Erick's face turned serious. "You have likely learned about mana cores and the ranks, correct, Nox?" Noctis nodded as he stood with his arms crossed.

"Let's do a quick rundown on how you upgrade your rank." Besides her, a board appeared, likely from her storage ring. Ericka started drawing a rough figure of a human body outline.

She spoke while still focusing on the board, "At the age of 12, everyone awakens their mana core naturally, and at the same time they resonate with their core, which leads to awakening their respective Resonance element."

Noctis hummed to her words, "After awakening, you would start at the E-rank, with a pitiful amount of mana present in the core. To reach the next rank, F, there are two requirements you will need to do. Firstly, increase the amount of mana your core can store to the limit, and second, Turning around, her fingers pointed at the chest area with an x mark right on the heart's position.

"Mana Links, there are a total of 6 mana links present in everyone's body, one in the chest area, four present across our four limbs, and the last one present in our head," pointing at the 6 x marked points on the diagram.

Ericka glanced at his chest," You are now at the F-Rank, you have linked your heart to the core."

" To increase our mana pool, we would need to absorb it either from the world, or from mana crystals. the latter being the best option with half of the efforts put in the former method".

"As you might guess, mana crystals are scarce now, resulting in the invention of large-scale magic circles, their sole purpose to gather mana from the surrounding and form a space with dense enough mana to rival that of a mana crystal, we have one here in the mansion, each universities along with people with enough Bits and few connections would have it".

Noctis stared back at her, nodding his head as he thought back to the order of connecting links part and questioned her, "So is there any order in which we have to follow to connect our core to mana links, or is it just random?"

Smiling at his question, "Yes, there are orders, only three: first comes the heart, then any of the limbs, and third- the mind. Also, if you're wondering if the mind link can be connected to the core after the heart, then no", shaking her head, she a drew few lines across from the core to the heart besides it, the first line stopped at the heart, and then four lines extended from the core to the limbs.

"From Rank E to Rank B, the order of connecting your mana links doesn't matter, but most prefer the ones present in their hands and later the legs due to the closer distance."

Pointing at her head, she explained, "There have been cases of crazy mages trying it, but all of them ended up blowing their heads off." He winced at that, a vivid image of heads exploding flashing through his mind, sending a shiver down his spine.

"You may not have felt it during your first linking; connecting mana links to the core is a very cumbersome process. Achieving an equilibrium state between the previous links and the next one you will be connecting." Her eyes furrowed as she explained the complexity of connecting mana links firmly.

"Moving on, upon successfully connecting the mana link, the mana present in our core undergoes compression and becomes denser. Each mana link increases a ranker's mana absorption speed, mana recovery, and slight benefits to the body."Ericka stopped for moment to let noctis process everything she had said.

After a few moments, she continued, explaining, "Each rank has three stages regarding the amount of mana you have in the corresponding rank: F- for initial, F for advanced, and F+ for peak."

Ericka turned back to the board and wrote down the ranks from E to S.

"These are the official ranks that have been decided after the other races have joined us. Before, it was in the order of initiate, adept, acolyte, master, grandmaster, sage, and emperor. We mostly still use them even now. This is enough for you now; the rest you will learn in the 2nd year."

Ericka looked at her ring for a moment before she pulled out various weapons, including the ones he had commissioned, which had arrived a few weeks ago.

"You must be tired from just exercising for so long; now let's speed up the pace and try actual combat," her grin widening for each second, staring at him intently.

At the mention of combat, noctis got excited as he looked at the various kinds of weapons suspending in the air by Ericka's mana.