Chapter 97: Back to Cultivation
The term element was actually a little misleading. It wasn’t limited to things like fire, water, wind, or earth. In theory, almost anything could become an element as long as mana could materialize it.
Even concepts.
Death.
Killing.
Karma.
Causality.
Yin and Yang—or, more accurately, the concept of duality itself. The problem was that concepts were vastly more difficult to turn into Mana Rings than ordinary elements.
Conceptual mana rarely existed naturally in the world. Even when it did, it usually only manifested under very specific conditions. A battlefield that had witnessed countless deaths might produce traces of Death Mana. A place tied to extraordinary fate might gather Causality Mana. Finding them was difficult.
Understanding them was even harder. To form a Mana Ring from one of those concepts, a mage first needed enough insight into it to comprehend the corresponding runes.
Max could at least imagine himself understanding concepts like death or killing someday. After all, those were things a person could experience, witness, and gradually come to understand.
Karma?
Causality?
Yin and Yang?
Those were a different story. He had no idea where someone was even supposed to begin. Sure, he have unusually high affinity for understanding runes. But even Max doubted it could simply hand him an understanding of concepts that countless mages spent entire lifetimes pursuing.
If it could...
That would be a little too overpowered. By the time Zerena came back downstairs, Max had already finished drinking the first potion.
His eyes remained closed as he carefully guided the concentrated mana through his mana veins, allowing it to circulate throughout his body first. As it flowed, the foreign mana gradually absorbed his personal imprint, becoming indistinguishable from his own.
Only then did he direct it toward his Mana Heart. The newly refined mana gathered around his Mana Core, circling it in a slow, steady rotation. The core didn’t absorb it.
That was exactly what was supposed to happen. Without rushing the process, Max continued feeding more mana into the rotation, letting it orbit the Mana Core over and over. It was actually a remarkably elegant method.
A Mana Core was nothing more than an extremely condensed sphere of pure mana carrying its owner’s unique imprint. Because of that, it naturally attracted any mana that shared the same imprint, even if it refused to absorb it.
The Mana Core couldn’t absorb it.
The attributes were simply too different. Instead, the mana continued revolving around the core, pulled in by the shared imprint but kept at a distance by its different nature.
As more of the same attribute entered the Mana Heart, the rotating stream gradually stretched into a thin band. With every new influx of healing mana, that band widened ever so slightly, drifting farther away from the Mana Core while never breaking its orbit.
Max simply continued feeding it.
One bottle after another.
Over the next few hours, all three potions were emptied. The familiar heaviness returned to his Mana Heart.
Unlike when he had formed his Mana Core, however, this heaviness came with a constant strain. Creating a Mana Ring wasn’t about condensing mana into a single point. It was about forcing the Mana Heart to expand outward, making room for a new layer of mana to continue circling the core.
The process wasn’t pleasant.
Nor was it painful.
It simply demanded patience. As more healing mana joined the growing ring, Max began noticing subtle changes throughout his body. A refreshing sensation spread through him, as though every breath carried a little more life than before.
At the same time, something inside him seemed to be growing. It wasn’t a feeling he could properly describe. The change felt slow enough to be almost imperceptible.
Yet somehow...
It also felt immediate. The strain was constant, but beneath it lay a strange sense of comfort, as though his body instinctively recognized that it was becoming just a little more complete.
As the rotating band of healing mana finally stabilized, it settled into a steady orbit around the Mana Core.
It didn’t stop there.
The ring gradually began drawing in the scattered healing mana drifting around it, gathering the faint, cloud-like particles little by little. With every rotation, the mana within the ring grew denser, its loose structure slowly binding together until the once-hazy band became a far more defined hoop.
It was still slightly cloudy. But it was unmistakably a Mana Ring. The process was complete. Max slowly opened his eyes and let out a long breath.
Just as he’d expected...
He was drenched in sweat.
His shirtless body glistened under the laboratory lights, making him quietly wonder whether he’d spent the past few hours cultivating mana or boiling himself alive. Looking up, he was mildly surprised to find Zerena still awake. She was sitting nearby with a book in her hands.
The moment she noticed him move, she looked up. "Done already?" she asked, sounding faintly surprised.
Max smiled and nodded.
The surprise lingered on her face for another moment before it faded back into her usual composed expression.
"Congratulations," she said simply as she closed the book and stood up.
Then she looked him over once.
"Now go take a bath before getting into bed."
Max had quietly hoped there might be a little more waiting for him. Maybe a congratulatory kiss. Or, if fortune was feeling unusually generous, two.
Unfortunately...
Zerena’s reward system appeared to operate on a strict budget. Still, he consoled himself with the thought that he’d probably get to sleep hugging her later. That wasn’t a bad consolation prize.
With that hopeful thought, Max headed for the bathroom. Not before picking up one of the Minor Healing Potions again. The moment he focused on it, his eyes widened slightly. He could sense the healing mana inside far more clearly than before.
More than that...
It felt diluted.
Not weak.
Just... incomplete.
As though the potion contained only part of what the herbs had originally been capable of giving. Ideas immediately began surfacing in his mind. How to extract more of the herbs’ essence.
How to reduce the impurities. How to prevent mana from escaping during the brewing process. It almost felt as though he instinctively understood the herbs better than before—how they grew, where they stored their essence, and which parts held the highest concentration of healing mana.
None of it felt forced. The knowledge simply... made sense.
Max wasn’t particularly surprised. He’d read that this was one of the benefits of forming an elemental Mana Ring. Healing Mana Rings were uncommon, but not exceptionally rare. There was always demand for healers in the army and among hunting parties that ventured out to fight magical beasts.
Unlike Healing Potions, a healer with a Healing Mana Ring could treat injuries directly, far faster and with considerably greater efficiency. Max could do the same thing to himself.
Curious, he made a small cut across his thumb with a knife. Before a single drop of blood could even escape, the wound closed almost instantly. At the same time, he felt the Healing Mana Ring lose a small amount of mana.
So it wasn’t limitless.
Even so...
It was more than enough to give him a considerable advantage. If he ever found himself in a fight, he could shrug off injuries that would’ve forced most people to retreat. And, considering he was the main character of this world...
Getting dragged into trouble sooner or later felt less like a possibility and more like a job requirement. This was definitely going to help on his path to becoming the world’s protector. The only minor issue...
He still had no idea what exactly he was supposed to be protecting it from. That thought didn’t stay in his head for very long. It was quickly replaced by another.
If everything went well, he’d be going to bed with Zerena later, hugging her like usual. That sounded considerably easier to look forward to than worrying about some future world-ending crisis.
With that, Max headed off to take a bath.