"...Therefore, your actual strength is based on how effectively you can control your mana and how proficient you are in other aspects. If one has enough control and are skilled enough in other areas, they'll be strong enough to fight an elemental mage even without having awakened any element themselves..."
It's been a few hours since the professor who was a man in his thirties started talking about the cultivation and other stuff.
Max paid full attention in the start as he hoped that these lectures will be helpful for him. However, he quickly realised that the only useful information for him was the mana control aspect.
However, he wasn't too disappointed. He already knew that joining an academy will not help him too much. As no cultivation skill or resources could hope to compare to his system's ability to make him stronger. He only came here to learn how to use his strength properly, better experience the world and have some exciting adventures.
The professor kept speaking but Max wasn't focusing now. He looked at the golden haired beauty, sitting beside him. Feeling his gaze at her face, she turned to look at him.
"Why aren't you focusing on the class?" Flavia asked.
"Well, he isn't saying anything useful anymore." Max said as he folded his hands in front of his chest and reclined on his seat.
Flavia shook her head and focused once again on what the professor was saying. She felt that Max was taking this too lightly.
Max was more interested in checking what changes that system's second awakening would bring about. However, he decided to do it after returning to his dorm room.
Half an hour later class was over. "Disciples, you can go and collect your monthly resources from the Resource hall and make sure to cultivate well. For the next few months, the academy will guide you on your mana control and fighting skills. Until this training doesn't complete, I advise not to take up any mission to earn some mana stone or you will die a meaningless death. Okay, this concludes today's class." The professor walked out of the auditorium.
Chatter~~
After the professor finished the class, 300+ disciples, who were two-star mages started talking while getting up from their seats and going out.
Flavia also stood up, wanting to go out but she saw that Max was still in his seat with his eyes closed. She stared at his calm and handsome visage before realising that what she was doing and felt embarrassed.
She then made her voice indifferent and asked "I-I'm going to collect the monthly resources, would you like to come with me?"
Hearing her asking him this, The male disciples looked at Max in envy while female disciples gave Flavia the same envious gazes. They also wanted to befriend Max but didn't have courage to make a move seeing a gorgeous beauty like Flavia was with him.
Max opened his eyes and smiled "Yeah, sure." He stood up and both of them walked out under many envy filled eyes.
The resource building was in the central part of the main peak, only a few kilometres away from the building where they were previously.
Two long queues were already formed in front of the distribution windows, one was for outer sector disciples and other one was for Inner sector desiples. There was another window that was for Core disciples but there was no one there.
Max and Flavia also stood in the queue, occasionally speaking to each other.
...
Two hours later, Max was sitting in an inn near the dormitories. Neer was sitting opposite to him. Flavia had gone to do her own things.
"How many mana stones did you receive, young master?" Neer asked as a waitress brought the food to their table.
"One hundred. How many did you get?" Max asked as he started eating. The food in the cloud academy was very expensive. One plate would cost three low grade mana stones. However, it was worth it because the food, no matter in which inn you ate, was delicious and mana rich.
"I received 1000. If young master needs some, you can take them." Neer said while putting down a sack on the table.
Max shook his head "It's okay. You need them more than me. Use them efficiently and quickly raise your strength or you'll be demoted to an outer disciple."
In the Cloud Academy, outer sector disciples gets 10 low grade mana stones per month, Inner sector disciples receives 100 while Core disciples like Neer receives 1000 mana stones.
If someone were to cultivate using these mana stones, their cultivation speed will be at least four to five times faster than those who don't. It's because these stones contain purer mana than what is available in atmosphere. Therefore these mana stones are always in high demands due to their usefulness to every mage. This was the reason why academies and other organisations use mana stones instead of gold coins as currency.
Neer still wanted to insist, seeing this Max sighed "If I need more, I'll ask you okay. Now let's enjoy the food."
Neer nodded and started eating. Max found that Neer was a good eating partner. He, just like Max, enjoys eating food. In fact, even more than Max because before meeting Max, he was only eating boiled rice.
After eating, Max asked him to find out how many mana stones he needs if he wants to buy a comfortable bed to sleep on.
Hearing that Max finally asked him to do something for him, Neer patted his chest to get this done as soon as possible and left in a hurry.
After parting with Neer, he came back to his dorm room. Laying on the wooden bed, he willed the status window to appear in front of him.
[ Name: Maxwell Garfield ]
[ Age: 18 ]
[ Strength: 50 ]
[ Agility: 50 ]
[ Stamina: 61 ]
[ Vitality: 50 ]
[ Intelligence: 50 ]
[ Mana: 1331 ]
[ Element: Fire (Concentration: 70%) ]
[ Lust Points: 50 ]
Inventory→
Shop→
'70% concentration, inventory, Shop. So the second awakening added these features.' Just as the status window appeared, he quickly spotted the things that weren't there previously.
'This has become just like a game interface. Let's see what benefit these features have for me.' He grew excited and hurriedly clicked on the Concentration.
[Ding. The Concentration is referred to the Elemental concentration one have for their element. The higher your elemental Concentration, the stronger your element will be compared to others with same element but lower concentration.]
'So my elemental Concentration is at 70%. Not bad I guess.' He thought and proceeded to Click on the inventory.
The status window was replaced with a window with many greyed out spaces. "Does this mean that I can store my stuff in these boxes?" he thought out loud.
[Yes, host will be able to store anything he wants in the inventory.] System's voice sounded in his ears.
Max was stunned. This was the first time the system replied to his question. 'Is it because of the second awakening the system had mentioned?'
"System, can you communicate with me now?" He quickly asked.
[ Yes host, After the second awakening, the system has evolved now and can answer the questions related to the system. ]
"Oh, so can you tell me what is this Lust system and why do I have it?" Max asked, he has been very curious about this since the day one.
