Serena fought through the excruciating pain and did exactly that.

The rapid flow of mana between the two of them slowed down significantly as she diverted energy to heal her damaged veins. Her mana veins were constantly being attacked by Adrian, and instantly being repaired by herself.

Adrian did not bother telling her to attack his mana veins in return. He already knew that since her own mana pool and output were on a vastly lower level than his own, it was basically impossible for her to actually damage his sturdy, D rank mana veins.

So he just kept his mouth shut about his own body. He did not tell her to do anything else.

The only person actively benefiting and ranking up from this specific dual circulation was actually her.

He just continued the ruthless process. He kept the painful cycle going until Serena started swaying a little. She felt completely faint headed, and her body just began swaying around as she hit her absolute limit.

Adrian immediately stopped the circulation.

He rapidly pulled all of his mana back into his own body and completely cut the magical connection. He pulled his palms away from her.

Then he quickly reached out and grabbed her shaking hands.

"Come back." Adrian said loudly. "Come back to me. Just breathe. Take a few deep breaths and do not pass out."

Serena started tipping forward. Her eyelids fluttered and began sliding shut.

"Do not pass out!" Adrian yelled. "You still have a lot of work left."

Her eyes snapped wide open. Adrian grabbed her shoulder and shook her slightly just to keep her conscious.

"Yes... yes." Serena gasped frantically. "I am trying."

Adrian quickly reached into his spatial ring. He pulled out a cold glass of fresh water and pressed it directly into her hands.

She drank the water, her entire hands shaking violently as she did so.

"Now." Adrian told her, his tone a bit more serious than usual. "You just use this downtime and the excess mana that is already trapped inside you to completely repair all the remaining cracks. Do that right now, and you will feel the pain fade away."

Serena gave a weak nod. She squeezed her eyes shut and threw all her focus into the slow and time consuming recovery process.

It took her almost two whole hours to patch up every single crack in her magic pathways. And when she finally wrapped it up, she realized that Adrian told her the truth. He hadn’t just told her that it’ll all be fine just to make her work harder.

She actually did feel drastically better now. And in a weird, exhilarating way, she could feel that her frail mana veins had actually gotten a little bit thicker and sturdier.

She grinned. A massive, genuinely happy smile broke across her face as she finally opened her eyes.

And then she blinked in total surprise.

Because Adrian was no longer sitting right in front of her.

He sat a few feet away on the stone floor. He had two mana crystals gripped tight in his hands and he was was totally focused on his own personal training.

’Okay.’ Serena thought quietly. ’It is definitely better not to disturb him.’

So she just sat there in silence and did her own slow, steady mana breathing to fully recover her exhausted reserves.

She did her mana breathing for a few quiet hours.

But then her empty stomach suddenly let out a loud growl.

Serena flinched and immediately opened her eyes. She looked over and saw that Adrian had also opened his eyes.

And he was staring straight at her.

Embarrassment hit her immediately and her face turned bright red.

"I am sorry!" Serena blurted out quickly. "I am so sorry for interrupting your training."

"It is fine. I just wanted to use the free time." Adrian shrugged. "But let me know the second you finish recovering. We have to jump right back training since we’re focusing on you."

He looked at her seriously.

"You are the first priority right now." Adrian stated. "And we are not going to stop this training until you successfully reach the second circle."

Serena just looked at him. She stared straight into his deep, red eyes.

She honestly had no clue why she even opened her mouth. But she just could not stop the words from spilling out.

"Why are you helping me this much?" Serena asked quietly. "What do you actually get out of this?"

Adrian about the question for a second.

"Well. You are a good person. And I feel like I can actually trust you." Adrian answered honestly. "And you are the daughter of a friend who I trust a lot. So you can be a great, powerful ally to me in the future."

"Oh." Serena whispered. "Okay."

She sounded incredibly disappointed by his completely logical, political answer.

And inside her head, she started beating herself up over it.

’What was I even expecting?’ Serena thought miserably. ’Why would he even be romantically interested in me? He really is just a kind person. He is not helping me because he looks at me in that way. He just wants an ally... why doesn’t it want something more? Does he only see me an an ally?’

A wave of disappointment crashed over her. It was obvious that he did not see her in a romantic way at all.

But Adrian was totally oblivious. He honestly did not know what was currently going on inside her anxious mind. So he just clapped his hands together.

"Okay then!" Adrian smiled. "Since you are done recovering, let’s continue with the second round."

And this time, Adrian changed the setup.

He reached into his spatial ring and pulled out a thin, heavy sheet of pure steel. A highly complex magic circle was carved right in top of it.

He dropped it onto the stone floor. He walked over and sat down directly on top of the first magic circle.

"You sit down on that one."