Chương 135: Chapter 132 - Progress

After reaching the longhall, I addressed the Tier-2 of my squad.

"Barry, Kael, Varric, and Garran, we have a mission for tomorrow. Our mission is to eliminate a barbarian patrol squad. Remaining details I will share with you in the morning," I said, and they simply nodded, not caring too much about the details. I could hear Barry whining in the background about being tired from the march, but I simply ignored him, then turned to the Tier-1s.

"While we are out tomorrow, I want you five to continue training like we did at the clearing. Get some sparring in the mix as well. My suggestion would be to push as much as you can. You will no longer have to conserve mana to be ready for wild beasts," I said.

"Any other questions?" I asked. None of them replied for a few seconds, but I could see some type of nervousness among the Tier-1s, especially Oren, who was looking around as if struggling to make a decision, then Silas pushed him to the front.

"What's going on? You all are behaving like you have killed someone. Did you guys break any rule?" I said, releasing some of my mana, focusing on Oren. I myself tensed up a little. If they had broken any rule, it would be hard for me to protect them from punishment. After all, unlike Fort Darrow, I do not have Lieutenant Cicero's support here.

"Umm… no… I have reached peak novice class and am close to a Tier-2 breakthrough. If I could get one mana crystal, I should be able to break through and clear the trial by tomorrow," he said. Listening to this, I relaxed, removing my mana pressure.

"It is nothing urgent, I can break through after reaching Fort Darrow," he hurriedly continued.

"Here," I said, tossing one of the three mana crystals I had before he could say anything else.

"Why are you all behaving like this?" It was unexpected for Oren to be this nervous. Even though he did not talk with me that much, I would like to believe I have behaved impartially with everyone. But he did not answer, only looked at the mana crystal in surprise and around at everyone, as if hoping that someone would help him. Thankfully, Silas stepped up.

"Barry told him no sergeant would allow a criminal to break through, saying the mana cost for the mana oath will increase, and if he really wanted to progress, he should try to steal a mana crystal," Silas said, throwing his own superior under the bus, who was staring daggers at him right now. Barry turned to me, noticing my gaze, and simply shrugged.

"Well, good, new members are reaching Tier-2. Maybe a few of the new members should combine to teach some lessons to the older members," I said, wiping the smile from Barry's face. Looking at the Tier-1s, I continued.

"But seriously, you all do not have to worry about breakthroughs and level-ups. I have enough mana to handle all of you even at Tier-3," I said, giving them a wink. Instead of giving false promises of not using the mana oath, which no one would believe, I wanted them to know that their growth would not make me afraid of them. I currently have enough mana to handle five Tier-3 and six to seven Tier-2 at the same time. By the time I reach Tier-3, I should be able to handle a whole squad of Tier-3.

"Anyone else close to a breakthrough?" I asked. After all, when they joined the squad, almost all of them were near the peak of novice class, but their mana cultivation was not up to the mark. Civilian life does not provide too many mana-rich sources or mana crystals. After joining the army, especially at Fort Darrow, they have been getting mana-rich food sources. While on the expedition, we also preserved meat of specific elemental beasts and provided it to people with those elements.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. I had expected Oren, Daren, Brakk, and Rokan to make the most cultivation progress. All four of them had earth element affinity, and we fought two Tier-3 earth element beasts. Though none of them had more than 25% elemental affinity, affinity-rich food and meat do make a difference.

"I am," said Barry almost instantly, but once again I ignored him, knowing it was a complete lie. By now, his antics no longer bothered me. He performed well in fights and followed orders well enough. More importantly, after nearly a month in the wild with him, I had developed a tolerance for his interruptions. And he had developed a tolerance for punishment. Usually, I would have assigned him something like heavy labor. But with the mission tomorrow, even that was out of the question.

"My class level is at level 20, but I need some more time, at least one month in mana cultivation," said Silas.

"Same for me," Brakk added.

"We both have one level to go and at least two months of mana cultivation," said Daren, pointing at himself and Rokan.

"Good. After tomorrow's mission, I will go and talk to the quartermaster about mammoth eggs. Hopefully, we will get enough mana crystals for everyone, even our Tier-2s," I said. I hadn't simply given away that mana crystal to Oren. We had just completed a successful mission and defeated a barbarian unit. Combined with the mammoth eggs, we were in for a significant reward in both mana stones and military merits.

As a death squad, our rewards were directly tied to mission success, so recovering the cost of that single crystal wouldn't be difficult. While I was all for my squad's progress, I was no saint. One low-quality mana crystal costs 10 gold. I would never dream of giving it to my friends, much less my subordinates. Ending the discussion, I moved out of the longhall to meditate in peace. I found a spot, and I took out one of the low-quality pure mana crystals.

In the last few months, I had tried meditating with wind-element crystals. After all, the lieutenant had given me two of them for the silent step rune, but it turned out it did not work for me. When I tried using it, I had the same effect as trying to absorb mana from the captain's hall on the second floor of the command building in Fort Darrow. Forcing it even caused pain in my nodes, so after that, I used only low-quality pure mana crystals.

Later, I learned from Sergeant Cole that high-quality affinity mana crystals are almost useless for people with less than 50% elemental affinity, and they can only use low-quality elemental crystals or pure mana crystals. This fact also provided me with a research topic. I wanted to find why bodies are unable to absorb high-quality elemental mana, and more specifically, why my body cannot even absorb low-quality wind mana.

I began absorbing mana from the crystal, condensing it into a thin, hair-like strand before guiding it toward my root node. Slowly, I coated it layer by layer, then directed the flow upward to my crown node. The process continued in a steady loop, drawing mana from the crystal to the root node, then to the crown node. Mana nodes and veins existed in every human body. Cultivation was the process of refining them, almost like coating those nodes and pathways with mana. I maintained the cycle for nearly an hour.

Then suddenly— My connection to the mana crystal snapped. Both nodes felt completely coated, covered in a thin, white film of mana. Even so, I maintained the loop between the root and crown nodes, just as the manual instructed. The rotation began to accelerate. In less than two minutes of maintaining the loop, I felt a simultaneous click in both nodes. The flow stopped. I knew what it meant. My two nodes… were cleared. I opened my eyes. Before checking my status, I tried to feel my body and the changes within it.

I stood up, taking deep breaths. I released my mana and immediately felt sharper control over it. As it flowed around me, I shaped it into different forms until I could maintain a complete circle like I was able to before clearing the node. Pulling it back, I jumped in place before breaking into a run, noticing a lightness in my steps even then. After running for a while, I realized that clearing the crown node and the root node simultaneously gave a small advantage.

Nothing long-term, but the increase in spiritual stats helped me get used to the boost in agility very quickly. I had planned to spend four to five hours practicing and limit my sleep to only three hours to get used to the increase in stats, but it looked like I no longer needed to. Still, after a few minutes of running, I grabbed my spear and shield. My new shield and spear not only allowed me to do some physical exercise but also allowed me to play with mana and manipulate it around the spear and shield.

Honestly, I feel like both of them are good for training [Mana Manipulation], so whenever I get free time, I practice with them. Finally, after an hour of solo drills, I checked my status: Mana Cultivation: Tier 2 (28. 5/100) (+1. 5) Mana Nodes: 2 / 7 Physical Attributes Constitution: 58. 7 → 58. 8 Strength: 44. 9 Agility: 38. 7 → 43. 8 Spiritual Attributes Intelligence: 67. 1 → 69. 7 Wisdom: 55. 3 → 57. 9 Willpower: 59. 3 → 59. 5 HP: 588 / 588 HP Regen: 147. 5 (+5. 2) per day MP: 2300 / 2416 (+67) MP Regen: 237.

6 (+5. 4) per hour [Unbroken Stride (UC)] – Level 40 → 41 [Mana Manipulation (UC)] – Level 45 → 46 The stat gains were expected. I gained five points in Agility and two and a half each in Intelligence and Wisdom. The surprising part was gaining one level in [Unbroken Stride (UC)] and [Mana Manipulation (UC)]. But if I had to guess, both skills could have been on the edge of leveling up, and the stat increase was enough to push them over the edge.

Happy with my progress, I closed my status and made my way to the longhall. After my promotion, this would be my first night sleeping in the longhall.