Chapter 44 - 43 : Magical Growth

Chapter 44: Chapter 43 : Magical Growth

Chapter 43 : Magical Growth

He sat on the bed and held the crystal in his palm, then drew a small part of the mana out of it.

The energy entered his body roughly, different from the mana the marrow regenerated on its own. For a moment he felt the same resistance the book had described. The raw mana didn’t move with the blood easily, like something foreign the body was trying to get rid of. It was close to the feeling of drinking dirty water and it brought on the urge to retch.

But instead of forcing it out or trying to refine it into the blood by force, Noah began steering it, along with the mana already in the blood, toward the Magic Marrow.

The mana moved into the usual path, and the instant it entered the Magic Marrow, Noah’s eyes opened a little.

The rejection he had expected didn’t happen.

The mana that had been flowing through the blood like something unstable settled into the path much faster, and it flowed towards the first space he had filled long ago, before the Magic Marrow began the refining process and pumped it back into the blood.

This... was different.

He drew out more and the density in his blood kept climbing at an insane rate before the light vanished from the magic crystal and it turned into an ordinary stone.

Noah closed his eyes and started making his conclusions.

This had matched close to a month of regenerating mana with the blood. But there was a limit to what the Magic Marrow could refine from magic crystals in a day. About three stones at most.

Using the mana stones had spared him the constant draining and regenerating of his blood to increase its mana density. Instead it packed the mana in and regenerated it at a high density far faster than the Magic Marrow could regenerate it in the blood. At this rate he might break through to middle-grade mage far sooner than he’d expected.

Noah directed the built-up mana toward the second barrier.

He didn’t try to force more through all at once. He’d learned since his earliest attempts that a mistake here didn’t mean just a failed spell. The marrow wasn’t something he could easily repair if he wrecked it with his own hand.

He took the second crystal.

This time he was quicker at steering the raw mana away from the blood and into the Magic Marrow. The pressure on the second gate repeated, and he felt a stronger response, but the barrier remained.

When the second stone was done, he sat still a while, watching his condition.

There was no abnormal pain.

No disturbance in the blood.

And the mana he’d brought in hadn’t disappeared in the manner the Academy’s books described.

He looked at the third stone.

For mages, using a magic stone was a waste of resources, especially for middling efficiency. Even potions weren’t that efficient because most of the effect went to the blood and was wasted there instead of directly raising power.

If Noah explained it by the principles of traditional cultivation or magical progression from his past life, it was close to pumping spiritual energy or mana into the blood vessels and leaving the center, the dantian, to draw it out on its own, while most of it dispersed with no purpose and stayed only for use in spells.

Noah’s main focus was keeping the mana in the Magic Marrow, which ensured that it was easy to replace once it was pumped into the blood for use during a fight. But if it stayed in the blood for a long time, it would leak out past the replacement rate of the Magic Marrow. Constant drawing of the blood would push the Magic Marrow to its limits and produce mana along with the blood, a surplus that, if not used, would naturally go toward supporting a forced breakthrough.

At last everything became clear. Based on the foolish cultivation method, this strongly explained why lower-blood holders lagged and why humans had no ability to cultivate at all. Their Magic Marrow stayed below the minimum eligibility, and they might die before making up the surplus.

He lifted the crystal between his fingers and turned it over idly.

Then he began the third attempt.

With the last push of mana he felt the pressure set in on the second barrier from the inside, so he held it steady instead of striking it hard. It went on for a few minutes, then he felt something that hadn’t happened in the two attempts before.

The barrier’s resistance changed.

It didn’t open.

But it was no longer as solid as before. It was close to the feeling of breaking through to the low-grade mage rank earlier.

Noah relaxed the pressure slowly and opened his eyes. He stayed sitting without moving for a while, then checked the path again to make sure he hadn’t imagined it.

Noah thought, "The second gate really is starting to loosen," with an edge of excitement in it.

He looked at the remains of the three crystals on the table, then at the pouch that still held most of the hundred.

Then a mad smile appeared on Noah’s face. Going by this, if he went into seclusion he might manage to reach the peak of middle-grade mage far sooner than he had thought.

If he could feed raw mana into it like this, then the crystal was no longer just a currency or a fuel for him.

It was a direct route to the second gate, or even the third.

Noah smiled a little as he closed the pouch again. He’d already hit his limit for the day.

No need to hurry.

With only three stones, the barrier that had kept him back all this time was starting to give.

Ninety-seven stones left, and it seemed earning stones wasn’t all that complicated, or the exam supervisor wouldn’t have given him this many without any clear strings attached.