Chapter 194: A healthy body breeds a healthy mind
"I wouldn't like somebody else's things in my room anyway," Aur thought as he took out a cushion from his storage ring and sat cross-legged, holding a high-grade mana crystal with a thoughtful expression.
The crystal had a crack in it and was slowly dimming out.
Although without the crack, one would think that the high-grade mana crystal was completely normal unless one used it for their own cultivation.
This was the reason that Aur was able to pull off his scam and use it masterfully.
Unless one cultivated with the high-grade mana crystal, nobody could find out since normally when one cultivated with a high-grade mana crystal, the crystal would crack the more time one cultivated with it.
The completely intact high-grade mana crystal was a guarantee already that there was full pure mana in it, but in actuality, due to time, the mana in it has long been slowly drained away and it could only be comparable to a middle-grade mana crystal at most now.
The moment Aur sat cross-legged, in an instant, he fell into deep meditation.
A healthy body breeds a healthy mind, Aur had noticed, as his muscle attribute increased, he fell into meditation quickly and easily.
The cells in his brain became active, and thoughts flowed steadily through his mind. This was also one of the effects of increasing his muscle mass.
While intelligence attributes did enhance his comprehension and understanding ability, and even bolstered his defence against terrifying mental attacks, however it didn't improve his cognitive ability or what people might call IQ.
Aur sat calmly, focusing on refining the mana taken from the high-grade mana crystal.
The pure burst of mana entered his mental space, and Aur immediately concentrated his full attention on refining the mana to funnel it into his mental space.
One breath, two breaths…
After about ten breaths had passed, Aur had refined about a fistful of light blue mana.
"The efficiency has increased by at least ten times when I don't use a high-grade mana crystal," Aur muttered with some excitement in his heart, which quickly calmed down as he focused on refining the mana.
This was the reason why resources were so important. Just using the high-grade mana crystal made Aur's mana refining process ten times faster.
Imagine a high-grade talent whose absorption of mana was already considered monstrous, experiencing a tenfold increase?
It was exactly the same for Aur, since his absorption rate at the moment, without any assistance, could be comparable to that of a high-grade talent.
After meditating for half an hour, Aur promptly stopped, slowly opening his eyes.
The crack in the high-grade mana crystal had widened even more.
Aur's brows knitted together in a frown as he observed, "These high-grade mana crystals would only last me twenty-four hours at most."
However, looking at his mental space where a slight amount of light blue mana had formed into puddles, he felt slightly satisfied.
Aur quickly did some calculations and found that he had filled three percent of his mental space.
Though this might not seem like much, it was significant, especially in just half an hour's time.
If he could maintain this efficiency, he could fill his mental space by one-fourth in no time. At that point, he could break through and advance to the mid-tier one wizard realm.
Then, he would have to break through the barriers of his mental space again to gain pale blue mana!
Unlike in the wizard apprentice stage, one didn't have to break through the barriers of the mental space in each minor realm.
However, after the wizard apprentice realm, in every single minor realm, he had to continuously break through the barriers of his mental space, which would become stronger with each breakthrough, even in minor realms.
In the early stage of tier one, Aur possesses light blue mana. In the mid-stage, his mana refined by the mental space will be pale blue mana, and then in the high tier one, it becomes normal blue mana.
When he reaches the peak of the tier one wizard's realm, his mana will turn dark blue.
As one progresses from the lower sub-realm to the higher, the mana would turn darker and darker.
This progression is the same for tier two and tier three as well. As for the other tiers, Aur didn't know.
That's why talent is so important. With a vast mental space, one could have a huge reserve of mana, significantly increasing the chances of a breakthrough to a terrifying degree.
Aur could feel it himself. If he hadn't had a continuous stream of mana into his mental space from the high-grade mana crystal, his breakthrough wouldn't have been so relatively easy.
"Since I have reached the tier one wizard realm, William must have reached it as well," Aur muttered as these thoughts flashed in his mind. However, he didn't dwell on it for now.
No matter how strong William is, Aur hadn't forgotten what his biggest reliance was.
"Muscle system."
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[Muscle System]
[Name: Aur Cromwell/ Auriel
Talent: Future Seer (Major: 1; Minor: 1)
-Muscle mass: 5.16 (+) [Tier one (high)]
-Intelligence: 2.0 (+)
Stat Points: 48
Storage space: 0.32/1 cubic metre
Quest: Daily (completed)]
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Instantly, the blue panel flickered in front of him, materialising once again.
"I am very close to reaching six points in my muscle mass. I wonder if my strength could be increased by another level if I do so," Aur contemplated. Then, his gaze shifted towards the intelligence attribute.
Ever since he reached two points in the attribute, he had stopped upgrading these attributes any longer, as he didn't need it for now. Although it could provide mental defence against the terrifying mental attack spell dreaded by most.
There were very few artefacts or even spells that had the ability to defend against the most vulnerable part: our consciousness.
Once affected, in the best scenario, a person's reaction time and thought process would slow down. In a terrifying case, one would become a mere shell, losing their mind to the mental attack.
But for now, Aur needed immediate strength.
As he looked at the talent points he had acquired.
Once he broke through the tier one wizard realm, he now had one major future seer point and a minor one.
"Let's try the minor one first," Aur thought after contemplating for some time.
With a single thought, the panel flickered, changing in front of his vision.