The villa that felt foreign to him at one time became a rather familiar place. Over the past few weeks, Arthur came here a dozen of times whenever he had the chance to. Master Ronin was the ex-principal of Jerano College, making him one of the best people that could teach Arthur about mana.
Their first lesson started before Arthur went into the trial, and they have resumed them after he was back. It was mostly about mana control, how to increase his mana, and how to replenish it through breathing.
Breathing was the path to immortality.
That phrase was often used by Master Ronin. Arthur didn't know about immortality, but if breathing would make him stronger, then breathing he would do. It seems this process accelerate the infiltration of mana to the body.
That's why Arthur learned how to control mana over the past three weeks. How he would allow his blood to carry his mana. How it was easier to let mana run through your veins and arteries instead of through bone. How to not accidentally rapture those blood vessels causing internal bleeding.
Arthur still remembers how his head almost exploded trying to achieve all of these together. However, that was still not all as there were things like how to get better at using his skills through 'Gates Control' or how to alter their usage.
He had no idea how to do that. He did sense his mana going somewhere when he used skills, but he couldn't sense these Gates at all. He attributed it to his lack of training and talent.
However, training could be done and talent didn't matter in Arthur's case. His runes were versatile enough to allow him not to care a lot about skills. Most people only had their abilities, the thing they used to fight the most, in addition to skills that were essential to fend against different foes.
Arthur's ability itself was about versatility. So even if he couldn't use skills well yet, he can make up for it through his runes. As for his runes' strength… He had no complaints after gaining his Fire rune.
"Hey Arthur, come in." Melania casually greeted him and Arthur made himself at home. He headed toward the garden where Master Ronin always sat and he, as usual, found the old man there.
"Arthur! Have a seat," The old man greeted warmly and Arthur sat in front of him. "What brings you here?"
Arthur hesitated to answer, as this subject was related to his growth. However, he had no other way to safely evolve than Master Ronin's guidance.
"I've reached a bottleneck in my strength." Arthur could see Master Ronin's eyes flash with surprise. "My mana feels like it's overflowing." Arthur hesitated and said.
"I see, it seems Si made the right choice."
Arthur felt uncomfortable at the praise Master Ronin said, he felt like his cards were being shown. It was the cautiousness he developed over the years of being around higher-ups in work and awakeners.
"The process of evolution is not a secret, but its details are. To raise your rank to the next stage, there are certain requirements. Some of them can only be achieved naturally, others need an agent. For neo-rankers to become a rei-ranker, they need to condense their mana."
"Condense?"
"Yes, condense. A qualitative change in mana. For neo-rankers, mana is an ethereal form of energy. There's a certain limit to how much energy could be hosted in your body. However, there's a way to go beyond that limit by turning mana from its ethereal form into a more materialistic substance."
"What kind of substance?"
"A semi-ethereal, semi-liquid substance that we call manablood. It's by converting manablood to mana and condensing mana to manablood, you will be able to break through the limit of how much mana you can store in your body. By giving mana a physical state to exist in your body, it will become reliant on mana for its growth that you'll need fewer nutrients as long as you breathe."
"Is that why you said breathing is the path to immortality?" Arthur pondered and asked.
"You can understand it this way." Master Ronin nodded. "Condensing your mana is widely considered as the first step to becoming invincible. You're shedding your skin for a superhuman to emerge.
"Then, what do I need to do to condense my mana?" Arthur nodded his head as he already had a general idea of what to do. However, he was never able to find a proper and authentic method of doing it. Master Ronin looked at him for a second before answering something entirely out of Arthur's mind.
"There's no specific method, you simply choose your way." Master Ronin saw Arthur's confusion and doubt. He proceeded to explain. "Some people, the general public, do it by gathering mana below their navel, in an area called the mana sea. It's where most of your mana tend to gather because it represents the core of your body. They keep gathering it until they lose control of their mana, and redo it over and over until a manablood is formed."
"Doesn't that mean it would take time?"
"It would, yes. The manablood produced would also be of a lighter shade."
"Shade?"
"The darker the color of manablood, the more condensed mana it would have. It would also depend on how much mana you can gather."
"Doesn't that mean if I want my mana to be abundant in the future, I need to keep condensing it?"
"It does, but it's also not by choice. Manablood is a higher form of mana. Once formed, it would attract the surrounding mana and turn it into manablood. If you condense your manablood through breathing alone… I fear you'll have a disadvantage against others. There are secret ways to refine your manablood in every family."
"That…" Arthur became speechless. If what Master Ronin said is true, then… "It means the powerful people will keep getting powerful."
"Yeah," Master Ronin sighed. "However, it cannot be helped. These families became families because of their secret training methods and abilities. Even if it was unfair to the general public, it keeps the world going. What do you think would happen if every criminal out there got his hands on a high-class training method?"
Arthur nodded his head in understanding, but it still felt a bit bitter. He wasn't a part of any family or anything like that. He raised his head and looked at Master Ronin expectantly.
The old man received Arthur gazed and laughed. While stroking his chin, he shook his head.
"I can't leak any secret training methods. However, there's another way to condense your mana to a high degree."
"What would that be?"
"Mana condensing agents."
"Wait, uh…" Arthur tried to remember something Hazel told him before. When they were together in a quest to get her legacy, she told him the reason they were hunting in the swamp before.
"Mana bloomer?" He blurted out when he remembered the name of the plant.
"Mm, that's one of the good agents out there." Master Ronin nodded. "There are better options, but mana condensing agents are rare."
"How do I find them then?"
"You can wait until you get to Jerano College, or you can…" Master Ronin looked toward the villa and Arthur followed his gaze. Over there inside, Arthur could see Melania having a verbal fight with a brown-skinned man.
"There's a reason why his family is one of the Seven Families despite them having fewer combat abilities than others." Master Ronin smiled mysteriously. "They can find things that help them get stronger through their ability."
"I don't think we should interrupt them now." After one glance at how irritated Melania was, Arthur decided it was best against calling Si over now.
"Yeah, even I fear her in that state." Master Ronin coughed and Arthur could see some sweat over his bald head.
"Is everything okay between the two?"
"Mm, let's say that Si's mind-reading ability had made him quite popular with the ladies."
"Oh…" Arthur's head blanked as he never realized Melania had such feelings. The fight kept going until Si was kicked out into the garden.
Bang!
The sliding door was slammed and the whole house was shaking. Cutting a sorry figure, Si walked over to them downcast.
"Uh-hum, hello Arthur." He tried to look composed and dignified as nothing happened. Arthur gave him an 'I have seen it all' stare that made Si cough in embarrassment and Master Ronin burst into laughter.
"You shouldn't have allowed it to get this far, Si." Master Ronin said with an amused expression. Seeing his image crumble, Si sulked on the side until Master Ronin broke the news to him. "Arthur needs to go through Rebirth."
"Already?" Si's expression morphed into one of surprise and delight. Arthur nodded his head and Si laughed while grabbing his shoulders. "I knew there was something about you!"
"Yeah, yeah. My shoulder will be dislocated." Arthur grumbled.
"Haha, my bad. Then…" Si let go of him and turned to Master Ronin.
"We need your help." Master Ronin nodded his head. Si, on the other hand, sat crossed-legged in front of them and grinned at Arthur.
"There's a reason people follow me," He said while keeping eye contact with Arthur. "I always give them what they need." Arthur could feel the excitement in his eyes. "I heard you're going to participate in the Runes Apprentice Cup. After you're done with that, I'll let you meet my family. Not the bastard who abandoned me, but my sworn brothers and sisters. Together with them, we'll get you one of the finest condensing agents out there."