"Well, since you disturbed my light nap, I think it's time I get going. I'm done with the pool, so it's all yours."
The strange girl began moving in my direction, causing me to feel uneasy. My heart beat fast as I gulped in nervousness, or was it fear?
"I certainly hope you won't miss the Final event because of your 'training' as well." She spoke in an amused fashion.
"Will you be there?" I didn't know why I asked that, but it just slipped out.
"Hmm, I wonder… oh well…"
As I stood, petrified, the girl walked past me. Shortly after, I heard the sounds of leaves moving, and thistles snapping.
Not long after, the sound stopped. She had already left the area!
"Hoo… whew!" I was finally able to breathe freely
'What the hell?'
Now all alone in my sanctuary, I still didn't feel completely comfortable. As my eyes frolicked around the pool, I remembered the embarrassing scene with the girl.
"Urgh!" My hands subconsciously rubbed my face as I groaned in embarrassment.
I was curious about a lot of things. The identity of the girl, for one.
I had been coming to the Oasis for so long, and I had never seen her. Yet, from her tone and level of comfort, it seemed like she frequented this place as well.
Enough so that she was actually immersed in the lake at the center!
I moved closer to the pool and hesitantly dipped a finger within it.
'Arh!'
As expected, a jolt of energy coursed through me, causing me to sharply remove my hand from the cluster of water.
"Yep! It still stings…"
This pool had a very thick concentration of Mana, enough so that it would sting to just touch it.
I had tried so many experiments since I began coming here and achieved various results, but even I would not dare to dip myself in the waters.
"How was she able to dip her body in it and look so comfortable? I don't understand…" My lips moved in a murmur.
Was she even human?
The saturation of Mana within the lake would be enough to send someone into Mana Shock if they couldn't possibly absorb it, or even got too exposed. How was she so fine?
'Does she have an absorption technique that makes her capable of taking in so much Mana at once? Did she reinforce her body?'
But, the girl didn't even seem to be practicing or anything. She just appeared to be enjoying a cool bath in the water. The more I thought of it, the less I understood.
'Alright! That's enough of that!'
There was no way to get to the root of the matter, so I wasn't going to bother trying. Plus, there were more important things on my mind—more pertinent issues that demanded my attention.
"It's time I began my… activities…" I smiled to myself.
The bag I brought along with me fell to the ground as I squatted to bring out its contents.
Crushing a few juicy blades of grass underneath me, I smelled the fresh scent of greens while offloading the items within the baggage lying flat on the floor—
Five boxes containing a total of ten vials each.
A pouch containing exactly twelve stones.
A piece of parchment, similar to a card—but having several engravings on it.
A short stick that also had inscriptions and glowed slightly.
—These were the tools I brought along with me.
The vials contained the potions I was working on; the stones within the pouch were made of condensed Mana.
After realizing the nature of the Oasis, I figured that I could simply harness the Mana saturation by storing it within objects. Unfortunately, this was no simple task.
If an item had too much Mana—more than it could handle, it broke apart. As a First-Year Lower Class student, I had no access to any special items, so improvisation was inevitable.
Fortunately, my brilliant mind figured out an alternative!
Since the entire Oasis area had been exposed to the excess Mana, that meant I could simply harness its resources to create vessels for storing Mana. It was quite an intricate task, but I succeeded.
Using Earth Magic, I compressed the soil around the lake and formed several stones with them. Each stone had the concentration of about a ton of the soil—that was how much I refined them.
Still, due to how time-consuming the process was, I only had time to forge twelve. Thanks to how much they had been absorbing, these stones each had more than my total capacity.
The potions I brought along were also near perfection, all thanks to the Oasis' resources. Not only did they pass as concoctions, but their effects also graduated to form Magic Potions!
Thanks to harvesting the ingredients surrounding the lake—even the Lake water itself—I was able to add Mana properties to the potions and made them much more effective.
So far, I was able to further enhance my Mana Shock Potion, as well as a Mana Restorative Potion, Health, and Stamina Restorative Potions, as well as other kinds.
It was amazing how fast my research was going, but it didn't end at that!
The other two items I brought out of my bag were the major things I needed to work on today.
One was a card, and the other took the appearance of a short stick. They both had one thing in common…
… Magic Items!
"Hoo, shall we begin?" I cracked my fingers as I excitedly stared at all the tools set out in front of me.
The stick was a prototype for a Magic Wand—something that vastly increased the effectiveness of a Mage's Magic and also reduced Cast-time. I had a bit of help from Ana in sorting out the details, but thanks to the time I had… it would be completed today.
The major challenge was the second one—the Magic Card!
I built it with the idea of an ancient concept in mind. In simple terms, this object had the capacity to store any kind of Magic within it so I could use the Spell at any time.
So far, it could only store up to Intermediate Level, but… my goal was beyond that! As a result, it would take even more time to perfect. Fortunately, time was what I had.
Even though my body had almost reached the limit of its growth currently, there were many other ways I could grow stronger. I simply needed to focus on those factors as my tiny body increased in capacity.
Eventually, getting stronger enough to surpass a monster like Kuzon… would become a reality!
