Hours turned to days, and days turned to weeks. Adam's life at the academy had become steady and unchanging. As a third-year student, he didn't have to take as many classes as he did compared to before, however, the difficulty of classes was gradually increasing.
Although Adam didn't find it hard at all to understand these complex theories, he considered it to be a drag nonetheless. So he only put the bare minimum effort to score just enough marks to pass the class.
On this day, the youth had finished with the last class of the day and headed back to his house. After advancing to the second year, he moved out of the academy like all students were required to.
Fortunately, he had more than enough money to buy his own villa in a posh neighborhood in the South Ward. Moon City was an expensive city to live in. Students usually rented houses here, but Adam decided to buy one instead.
Back when he used to do odd jobs for nobles in his hometown, many a time he'd overheard them saying that buying land and property was always a good investment. Thus, after confirming this with Berger, he bought his own property.
As he walked on the sidewalk of his peaceful neighborhood, from time to time he greeted his neighbors with a smile. He looked up at the sun that was about to set on the horizon and felt grateful.
When he left the Cormier Kingdom, he was but a commoner with barely enough money to sustain his livelihood. But now, thanks to the white lotus, he was able to learn Herbalism and make more money than he knew what to do with it.
As he pondered upon how drastically his life had changed in the last three years, he had already reached his villa.
It was a white, two-storeyed building and had a simple outward appearance. Adam was never one to bother about appearances, so he bought this house that was simple and elegant both inside and outside.
The first floor of the villa had a large living room, two guest rooms, and a kitchen. Whereas the second floor had Adam's master bedroom and a study. Moreover, the youth had also constructed an underground floor and turned it into his laboratory.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})If there was one thing that Adam cherished the most in his villa, it would be his lab.
Upon entering his villa, he was greeted by his butler and a few servants. These people were personally handpicked by Edward. Initially, Adam had protested against this, but his good friend insisted.
And now, it turns out that having a few people to help with the household chores was very convenient. At the very least, he didn't have to bother about the menial tasks and could focus on his personal things.
Without even resting, the youth straight away went to his underground lab. This was his usual routine.
He would practice mindfulness for a couple of hours in the morning, attend classes, come back home to experiment with herbalism, and practice mindfulness again for a few more hours before finally sleeping.
This is how diligent Adam was. The only time he would hang out with his friends would be on the weekend. Other than that, he invested all his time into furthering his magic studies and strengthening himself.
Adam's lab was properly organized. One side had shelves that were full of magical ingredients, another side had a workstation that he would use to pen down his research.
The workstation had piles of scribbled parchment papers stacked up together, tomes on herbalism, as well as various diagrams of magical plants and beasts stuck to the wall.
There was a separate area where he kept all the apparatuses and other tools that he required for Herbalism. And finally, at the center of the lab, there was a large cauldron as well as a table where he'd prepare the ingredients.
Adam looked around at his lab and his lips involuntarily curled up into a gratified smile. A couple of years ago, he had seen Berger's lab for the first time and said to himself that one day he would have a lab of his own.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})And now he did.
The youth felt a sense of accomplishment. He walked toward his workstation and started jotting down all the ideas he had throughout the day, mostly about brewing potions with different methods.
Then, he started brewing potions. After a series of failures and successes, Adam finally tidied up everything and went back upstairs a few hours later.
On his way to his bedroom, he instructed his butler. "Barry, have my dinner brought to my room in an hour."
The butler, a middle-aged man with greying hair, respectfully bowed. "As you wish, my lord."
Adam went to his room and lazily lay down on his bed. Then, he shifted his consciousness to the mysterious space inside the white lotus!
Over the past year, the youth had been constantly visiting this place and absorbing the souls. Since then, he had absorbed hundreds of these bright motes of light. And as a result, his spiritual force had increased exponentially.
Adam was able to come up with a few theories in regards to this. He speculated that the amount of souls he could absorb was directly related to how strong his body was.
This theory was confirmed when he advanced to the Bone Stage in the past year. His capacity to absorb souls had increased directly after his advancement.
If the body was compared to a vessel, and the soul was the water stored inside of it, then how much water could be stored depended upon how big and sturdy the vessel was.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Going by this logic, Adam believed that as long as he continued to strengthen his physical body and continued to advance in Magus ranks, then he would never reach a bottleneck while devouring souls.
However, it was easier said than done. After all, advancing through Magus ranks became progressively harder.
Adam swam toward the nearest mote of light and gently grabbed it with both hands. Then, he started to absorb it at a steady pace. The light orb became smaller at a speed visible to the naked eye.
After the orb had vanished, Adam swam toward the next one, intending to do the same.
But suddenly he felt something peculiar happening in his spirit sea and instantly shifted his consciousness out of the mysterious space.
The next moment, he found himself hovering over an extremely large body of water. And in front of him was a pristine white lotus surrounded by three, round, verdant leaves floating on the surface of the sea.
"It can't be!" The youth struggled to contain his excitement as he flew toward the white lotus.
A gray-scaled egg could be seen placed atop one of the round leaves of the lotus. It had nestled against the white petals, seemingly enjoying it very much.
Just a moment ago, Adam had felt the egg vibrate ever so slightly. And now when he came close and intently stared at the egg, he could clearly hear it…
The sound of yawning!
