It had been four months since Adam's first journey to the Spirit World. Unfortunately, no matter what the youth tried, the creature inside the gray egg simply refused to hatch. It didn't even respond to his call.
At one point, Adam had become so frightened that he even thought that his familiar had died for some inexplicable reason. But after Berger confirmed that the creature inside the egg was indeed alive, Adam finally calmed down.
Still, seeing his friends around him grow with their respective familiars, Adam couldn't help but feel a little downcast. He was still a fifteen-year-old boy after all. Controlling emotions wasn't easy for him.
Other than that, he continued to attend classes in the academy and also got to learn many things about spell-casting. However, he was no longer the first-ranked student in the batch of first-years. Lisa and a handful of other students had already overtaken him.
It couldn't be helped, he wasn't the best at test-taking. He excelled at the practical side of spell-casting, not the theoretical side. But to be honest, it wasn't that he wasn't proficient in theoretical tests, but more so that he simply didn't find it interesting.
That's why he didn't care about his rank falling.
However, he had great gains in the field of herbalism. So much so, that even Berger was full of praise. After having sold so many potions to the gnome, Adam had naturally accumulated a substantial amount of wealth.
But despite having so much money, he wore the same simple clothes that he used to wear, refusing to spend a coin over something that he deemed unnecessary. It was a force of habit, one that he had developed over the course of his harsh childhood.
But there was one thing, however, that trumped even his improvement in herbalism. And that was the rate of growth of his soul!
Over the past couple of months, he had been absorbing souls inside the mysterious space of the white lotus almost every day. And as a result, his soul had been strengthened tremendously.
So much so, that now he was once again close to reaching a bottleneck!
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Adam knew that the only way to overcome this bottleneck was to advance in ranks as a Magus. However, advancing in ranks became progressively difficult.
He was still a Rank 1 - Muscle Stage Magus.
And he was one of the few who had reached the second minor stage. The majority of the students in the first-year batch were still in the Flesh Stage.
But Adam wasn't disheartened in the least. After having strengthened his soul to such a degree, he could finally consume a soul that contained a deceased expert's memories!
Although he was very close to a bottleneck, Adam could feel that he could still barely manage to absorb this expert's soul.
Adam, who was currently floating in the mysterious space amidst the thousands of motes of light, looked at the bright sphere of light in front of him with sheer excitement.
This sphere of light was a little smaller than the size of his head, and its surface shone with a multicolored hue from time to time. He'd had his eyes on this sphere for a long time, but he didn't dare absorb it because he feared he would gravely injure himself.
But now he felt that his soul was strong enough to devour it!
As he stared at the white orb in front of him, he couldn't help but involuntarily lick his lips like a gluttonous beast.
"The last one gave me knowledge of herbalism. I wonder what this one will give me…"
The next moment, with a wide grin on his face, Adam pounced on the bright sphere of light!
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})…
Outside, in the real world, Adam was sitting cross-legged on his bunk bed. Meanwhile, Johnathan and Edward were in the living room, drinking wine and playing a game of cards.
The burly youth with the kind face, Jonathan, played his hand and won the round. "Hahaha! Thanks for the money~"
"Tsk!" Edward grumbled and he took a swig of wine directly from the gourd. "Rascal got lucky again."
"Hehehe, whatever helps you sleep at night, brother." Johnathan chuckled. He then thought of something and asked playfully, "By the way, you've lost some weight. Is it for a girl?"
"Hmph!" Edward's face flushed red. "D-Don't talk rubbish. It's for personal development."
Johnathan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, whatever you say."
As he dealt the hands for the next round, he asked playfully, "Do you know what I said to Shelly that instantly made her fall head over heels for me?"
"What did you say?" Edward asked immediately.
"Hehe, I was like, 'Shelly, you have such kind eyes and a mesmerizing face. Oh, what I'd give to be able to wake up to them every morning.'" Johnathan replied while grinning.
"Ohhh!" Edward was impressed. He praised while secretly memorizing this pick-up line. "Not bad, John! Not bad at all. And how did Shelly respond?"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Johnathan laughed gleefully. "Of course, she—"
But the words got stuck in his mouth. From the corner of his eyes, he caught a glimpse of Adam's body intensely trembling. Despite that, he seemed unconscious and was about to fall from the top bunk bed.
"Adam!" Johnathan was alarmed. He instantly got to his feet and shot towards the bunk bed. Fortunately, he was just in time to catch Adam before he hit the floor.
Edward followed after him in a panic and tried to wake up his roommate. "Adam! Adam, are you alright? Answer me!"
However, Adam didn't reply. His body continued to convulse and his face was contorted in agony, drenched in sweat.
Edward and Johnathan were extremely flustered. They didn't know what to do, moreover, this was the first time something like this was happening to Adam—that they were aware of, at least.
Just when Edward was about to go out of the dorm room to call for medical help, Adam's eyes snapped open and he took a large mouthful of air.
GASP!
Edward and Johnathan were dumbstruck. By all rights, they should have been relieved to see Adam come to. However, they were instead slightly scared.
"A-Adam… why do you have that look on your face?" Edward gulped nervously.
Although Adam was having a severe headache after having absorbed the expert's soul with memories, he completely ignored the pain. Instead, he began laughing maniacally.
"HAHAHAHAHA!!"
He clenched his fists and grinned like a madman.
I was hoping to find some spells, but instead, I found something much more valuable!
