...After a week,...
It was night time. A luminous stone was glowing in a room where Max was sitting on the ground, cross legged. Mana was swirling around him. Gradually, the intensity of the swirling mana lessened.
Phew!
He opened his eyes and exhaled deeply. Excitement was written on his face. 'Finally my mana core has completely stabilised. Now I can increase my mage realm.'
While he was celebrating the saturation of his mana core, he heard the system's sound. It had been more than a month when he last heard it. He focused as he knew it was related to his mana core.
[ Ding. Congratulations for the complete construction of the mana core. The system will now undergo the second awakening. ]
'Second awakening? What does-'
Swoosh!
Just as he was thinking what this second awakening meant, the mana in the room swirled intensely and enter his body. "What!" He shouted in surprise.
In an instant, all the mana present in the room had entered his body. "What's happening? Won't this unrefined mana be harmful to me? Hey system what the f.u.c.k. are you doing" He panicked and shouted to the system, even though he knew that system will not respond.
After the mana inside the room depleted, the outside mana started pouring inside the room and then absorbed by his body.
As more and more mana entered his body, Max felt as if his body was falling apart and head throbbed with unbearable pain. His consciousness started wavering. He didn't know what was happening and couldn't risk falling unconscious now. Therefore, he gritted his teeth hard, trying to stay conscious.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
The speed at which mana was entering his body increased as if testing his limits. His consciousness started to black out and before falling unconscious he could only shout one word in frustration.... f.u.c.k.
"Huh?"
Elder Adrienne was cultivating when she suddenly felt the mana in the environment decrease considerably. She opened her eyes at this odd situation.
A middle-aged woman also opened her eyes in the second highest peak of the Cloud mountain range "Why did mana suddenly decrease?" She muttered after feeling that around one tenth of mana in the whole mountain range suddenly vanish. "Is headmaster breaking through the mortal boundary?"
A few more figures were startled by this in different peaks. They all wondered the same thing.
At that moment an old man opened his eyes inside the largest building in the main peak. In this building only the most talented core disciples and elders who held hight authority and strength were allowed.
He then spread his mana to check the reason for this sudden change. His mana quickly encapsulated more than half of the academy. When he didn't find anything, he focused his mana towards the other half of the academy where the dormitories of disciples' were.
Coincidentally at that moment, Max had stopped absorbing the mana and it returned to its normal state.
When the aged man's mana scanned over the dormitories and still didn't find the source of mana disappearance, he frowned. Then suddenly a thought crossed his mind and vanished from his place in an instant and appeared underground.
There was a big metal door with a grey haired woman guarding it. She was sitting with her eyes closed and when she noticed that someone has appeared in this underground area, she smiled "What's problem little guy? Did you come to visit this old granny?"
If someone was here and saw that this woman called this old man 'little guy', they would find it very odd. However, the man didn't find it odd and hurriedly said "Elder, quickly open the door. We need to activate the formation at this instant."
Seeing the urgency in his voice, she didn't ask anything more and opened the gate.
Whossh!
They both entered the chamber. Many intricate runes were carved on the floor and the walls. It was a large formation. The old man took out 64 fist sized milky-white stones and arranged them in 64 different places and then took out one more stone and put it in the center of the formation.
Buzz!
The formation produced a buzzing sound and then the whole formation lit up.
An invisible barrier slowly covered the main mountain peak. Adrienne and others who had noticed this strange occurance hurriedly gathered in the castle like building.
When Adrienne arrived in a private meeting hall where the people of authority usually gather to discuss things, she found that many others were already there. Most of them were old while some were middle-aged. However everyone exuded formidable auras.
Adrienne was the youngest among them, however no one minded her age and nodded toward her when she entered. Adrienne also nodded back and just when she wanted to ask what was happening, the old man who was in the underground chamber just now, appeared before them.
All of them bowed towards him and greeted "Headmaster!"
He nodded and his expression turned serious "I assume you all felt that sudden depletion of mana. And the reason why I activated the defence formation is because I suspect that some beast in the mountain range has broken through to at least four-star realm if not the mortal boundary."
"What? We thought headmaster was the one to breakthrough the mortal boundary. How can such a beast so appear in the mountain range without us knowing?" An elder asked with his eyes opened wide.
"That's what I want to ask you?" The headmaster's eyes turned cold as he stared at the elder.
The elder shivered seeing his cold gaze and replied apprehensively "I... Head... Headmaster, I don't know. I've been regularly sending the teams to scout the mountain range and the area around it. It's possible that it was a beast who-who is intelligent enough to deceive them and-"
The headmaster interrupted him "We'll talk about it later." He then looked towards the rest of the elders and said in a commanding tone "Five of the head elders will stay in order to protect the academy. I want the rest of you to go out this instant and search around every corner of the mountain range and find this beast. I don't think it has surpassed mortal boundary. However as a precaution if you find it, notify me. I'll deal with it. Move out now." After saying this he vanished to search for this 'beast'.
....
After a few hours, as dawn neared all the elders once again gathered. Their faces were grim. The headmaster also had the same expression. He then asked "So you also didn't find any beast above three-star realm and there were no signs of a possible breakthrough?"
"Yes headmaster." The elders nodded.
The headmaster frowned. When a beast or human breaks through to the four-star realm or above, the area around them is usually destroyed due to the sudden surge of chaotic mana. However they didn't find any such cue let alone a beast.
"Headmaster, I think that sudden depletion of mana wasn't caused by some beast's breakthrough. There should be some other reason." Adrienne voiced out her opinion.
The headmaster nodded "Yes, although the chances of it being something other are slim, it's still possible." He then muttered in a low voice "Was it because those old bastards wanted to startle us? If this is the case, I'll make sure to teach them a lesson."
The elder present heard him clearly and grew excited. It's been a long time since they clashed with other academies. So the possibility of fighting other academies excited them.
"Alright everyone, good work. Go and rest now. Head elders, Adrienne, you guys stay here." The headmaster dismissed them.
