Meanwhile… on the uppermost floor of the tower…
"Master." A person respectfully bowed in front of the old man.
"In a minute, there will be a corpse in one of the lower levels. Go fetch the stone tablet beside that corpse." The old man waved him away.
He then grunted and stood up to walk away. He opened one of the rooms on the topmost floor and entered it. Inside there were myriad treasures…
The old man's eyes glimmered as he eyed all of his prized possessions lovingly. In a second, there was going to be a new addition.
However, just as he was thinking about this, suddenly there was a loud knock on the door. Another disciple stood at the door this time and he had an anxious expression on his face.
"What is it?" The old man asked gruffly.
"Master… another one of our formations has collapsed."
"What how is it possible? Do you know how expensive it is to make each one of them! What happened this time?"
"Master… all the mana was completely sucked out."
"WHAT!" The old man trembled in anger. More than the formation running dry and cracking, he was concerned about what it actually meant.
That moron had pulled through somehow!
And not just that, he was still continuing to absorb mana, sucking his next formation dry! How is this possible?
The old man then remembered the pond, Liam was still standing in.
"It has to be because of the stone tablet. It is indeed an amazing treasure." He came to this conclusion.
"Leave it be. Don't take any actions at the moment." He sent the other person away as well but after some time, he called him back and whispered something to him.
Only now the old man looked relieved.
"You dared to finish ten of my inscriptions? Now let me see just how strong your mana core is. Hmph!"
He continued patiently observing Liam while Liam in turn continued patiently absorbing the mana in the surroundings.
A few hours later…
[Ding. You have successfully formed a mana core]
Liam felt something click and his body suddenly felt complete. Hmmm. He snapped out of his trance and took a deep breath to feel it properly.
Yesss!
It was indeed true! The way mana circulated in his body was now different!
He closed his eyes for a few more minutes and meditated to stabilize this condition and understand it a bit better. He could feel the power surging within him.
A huge grin split his face into two. All the power he had felt so far paled in comparison to the power he felt at the moment. It was a completely different feeling.
Not just that… he had now taken the biggest step that he could to ensure his future and the future of everyone he loved!
Today was a huge day!
With this, he alone would be moving on to the next phase of the game!
Liam stood up and checked his status screen again.
This time there shouldn't be much difference except for the total mana he had access to but there was one more thing that he was curious to look at, the grade of his mana core!
Name: Liam
Species: Human being
Gender: Male
Level: 50
Class: Soulmancer
Titles: Rolling in Debt, Perfectionist, Soul Devourer, Pioneer, Gresh Kingdom Duke, Thol City Garrison Leader, Stage 1 Ranker
Pet: Luna, Talon
Mana Core: Red
Health: 5250/5250
Mana: 20000/20000
Mana Regeneration: 1000 mp per minute
Vitality: 160
Stamina: 160
Strength: 160
Intellect: 250
Agility: 160
Physical Defense: 160
Mental Defense: 50
Soul Defense: 50
Skills:
[Mana Manipulation], [Nether Manipulation], [Throat Punch], [Slash], [Sword Dance], [Spirit Slash], [Spirit Wrath], [Stealth], [Pickpocket], [Unlock], [Tame], [Awaken], [Demonic Summon], [Ice Shard], [Lightning Bolt], [Fire Ball], [Lava Rain], [Soul Forging], [Soul Sensing], [Summon Soul Undeads], [Dismiss Soul Undeads], [Nether Fire Storm], [Nether Fire Serpent], [Mana Net], [Frozen Earth], [Trapping vines], [Fire bullets], [Nether Scythe], [Wind Blades], [Ice burst], [Lightning Snake], [Earth Spike], [Venom Burst], [Ice Blanket], [Intermediate Ice Manipulation], [Intermediate Fire Manipulation], [Intermediate Lightning Manipulation], [Black Box]
Trade Skills: [Alchemy] (Expert Master Level), [Forging] (Master Level), [Mining] (Intermediate Level), [Herbalism] (Intermediate Level), [Cooking] (Beginner)
Liam hurriedly looked through the list and found what he was looking for.
"I actually formed a Red Core!"
"My total mana increased four times and I have a mana regeneration rate!"
He stood up from the small pond in shock. This was unbelievable to someone like him who only managed to form a violet core in his last life.
One was on one end of the spectrum and the other was on the other end of the spectrum. The difference between the two was night and day.
Liam could tell it by just looking at the extra thing that had popped up, the mana regeneration rate!
He never had anything like a mana regeneration rate. He did not even know something like that existed.
"I need to take this out right now for a test drive." Liam clenched his hands, tossed the stone tablet back into his inventory space, and dashed out of the room.
Almost immediately he felt the drop in the mana in the surrounding air.
"Hmmm?" He stopped in his tracks. Earlier he couldn't sense it properly but now he had instantly caught it.
The mana inside the stone tablet garden was much higher than the mana in the general PVP tower. "Was it may be just the alchemy room effect?"
He still had some time left so he peeked back into the room. Sure enough, mana here was a bit higher but still not as high as when the stone tablet had been there.
"Maybe it has some sort of mana gathering effect?" Liam came to this conclusion. This was good because things like this were going to affect his mana regeneration rate.
In deep thought, he stepped out of the room back into the corridor and then walked out of the PVP tower. Surprisingly, once again the mana density in the air changed.
So the PVP tower itself had a higher density of mana compared to the mana available freely in Xion. "Good to know." Liam nodded.
He walked out onto the streets for a few seconds, stretching his hands when suddenly he stopped and scratched his head. "Why do I feel like I am forgetting something?"
"Crap!" The next second he then rushed back into the tower and back into the room, not the one he was in but the one next door.
Inside there was a small white fox with three tails. She was full of tears.
"Cough. Cough. I am alright now. Why are you crying?" He shamelessly smiled.
The poor fox did not know that she was almost forgotten and jumped onto him with both her paws clinging to his neck.
She then only stopped whining when she had licked all over his face, several times until he was dripping with saliva.
"It's ok. It's ok. Everything is alright now. Let's go and raise some hell, shall we?" Liam patted the little thing and comforted her.
The duo then left the PVP tower to take a trip outside the city. It was time to hunt down some elites and test his newly formed mana core!
