Chapter 96 (1/2)

Chapter 96: Playing with Fire

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

In Bale’s Mage Tower.

…

After receiving threats from Darris, Link made sure to keep under the radar and did nothing that might arouse suspicions.

In recent days, he did not interact with anyone, nor did he even contact Herrera and Eliard. Instead he stayed cooped up in his room all day and all night, ostensibly to prepare magic scrolls.

He’d been consistently producing 15 first-rate magic scrolls a day, and all of them were handed to Derek to manage. He got three gold coins for each of them, thus earning 45 gold coins a day.

From the sales of magic scrolls alone, Link had so far earned nearly 300 gold coins. But wealth wasn’t the only thing he gained recently.

Because he didn’t have to worry about his safety once he was inside the academy, coupled with the adequate nutrition he got every day, the regular intervals of work and rest and his young age, Link had now also gained considerable weight. He no longer seemed so frail and thin, but had actually grown quite muscular, nicely filling out the tall and lanky stature that he had previously. All in all, Link now looked more pleasing to the eye than he ever did.

And so, five days passed with no incidents.

On the fifth morning, Link felt his body was completely rejuvenated to a point where he felt he was at a different plane of existence. His consciousness and perceptions had now become unusually acute.

He could even hear the spider weaving its web in the corner of the room and the whistling breeze blowing through the window. He could feel the various elements flowing in the air so vividly he could almost see it with his naked eye.

These were the effects of Elemental Sight. It was an ability that a Magician naturally developed once their power advanced to a certain extent.

Check body statistics. Once the thought emerged in his mind, there was a flash on the interface.

Link Morani (Nobleman)

Level-3 Elite Magician

Rate of Mana Restoration: 5 Points per hour.

Maximum Mana: 660 points.

Current Mana: 150 points.

Weapon: Matchstick Wand.

Current Status: Ailing Mana effects subsiding.

Just as I expected! After three long months, the Ailing Mana effects were finally going to be over.

The process of the Ailing Mana effects subsiding would last a full day, and in every hour, Link’s Maximum Mana would gradually become higher and higher.

However, because his Mana restoration rate was so slow, his Mana could only recover 9.8 points per hour even under ideal conditions. So even though his Maximum Mana was continuously increasing, his Mana still needed more time to catch up, so he had to be patient and not do anything rash.

At eight o’clock in the evening, the Ailing Mana effects finally disappeared completely.

By then, Link’s Maximum Mana was at 1480 points, and his current Mana was at 220 points. In order to completely restore his strength, Link had to wait more than 130 hours, which was more than five days.

My Mana restoration speed is too damn sluggish, Link lamented.

He knew that a Magician with decent Mana strength and talents would only need a day of absolute rest to completely replenish their Mana, yet he needed six long days to do the same. He realized that his Mana restoration rate was the biggest stumbling block to his progress.

Link was carefully considering the best strategies to take while lying in his bed. Finally, he chose to spend his Omni Points, which were currently at 125 points.

70 Omni Points to increase the Mana Restoration rate, he silently thought.

Then, a dialogue box popped up on the interface.

Confirm?

Confirm, replied Link.

Suddenly, Link felt a heat rising from inside his body. It felt as if something had exploded. Soon after the initial burst, a stream of heat then flowed rapidly to his extremities and he felt numb in every spot that was touched by the heat. Moments afterwards, the numbness turned into stinging pain and then the stinging pain morphed into excruciating pain. The pain was so unbearable that Link couldn’t hold in his groans and beads of sweat began to form on his forehead, which then dripped down his face in streams.

What was going on? Link was petrified. He had only chosen to increase his Mana Restoration speed, so why was he suffering such a frightening level of pain? Nothing like this had ever happened before.

Then, a notification popped up on the interface. It was an explanation from the gaming system.

Player’s choice has exceeded the Innate Talent limit of the physical body. Gaming system is currently modifying player’s physical body to accommodate the new changes.

Innate Talent limit? Link had never heard of the term before.

The gaming system then provided a vivid metaphor to explain.

The physical body is like a bucket and Mana is like the water inside it. There is an inlet and an outlet on the bucket, and the limit for the physical body’s inlet is 30 Mana points per hour, while the outlet’s limit is 500 Mana points per hour. The moment these limits are exceeded, the system must modify the bucket to adapt to the current changes, and this process can cause pain to the player.