CHAPTER 26: A HERO

Just a few moments after he activated the Rune and began cultivating, many mages—except for those who were cultivating inside their homes or cultivation chamber, cut off from the outside world—noticed the sudden shift in mana flow.

Even Low 1-Star mages noticed this since the change was too drastic.

They sensed the mana flow and realized it was converging toward Viscount Mansion.

Authorities of three noble families—Hayes, Killian and Snyder families—were also alerted and looked in the direction of Viscount Mansion with furrowed brows.

"Is Raymond breaking through to the 3-Star realm?" An Elder in the Hayes family asked Aaron Hayes, the current family lord.

"This... shouldn’t be the case since he was injured a few days earlier by Viscount Bloodflame and should be busy dealing with them." Aaron said, uncertainty clear in his voice.

Just like him, the family lords of the other two families and many others who were in the know about Viscount Bloodflame’s visit and fight were confused.

Logically, he shouldn’t be breaking through, but if so, what else could explain this convergence of mana.

If there was any 3-Star mage present in the city, they would have noticed that while the intensity of mana convergence was somewhat similar to a breakthrough to the 3-Star realm, the range wasn’t even one-third of it should be and would have realized Raymond wasn’t breaking through.

Unfortunately, the three noble families didn’t have a 3-Star mage, so despite knowing about Raymond’s situation, they felt he might really be breaking through and became concerned.

If Raymond became a 3-Star mage, the status quo would immediately break and he would become the overlord of Neera City in the true sense of the word. This was something none who held some sway in the city wanted.

At the same time, in Viscount Mansion...

In the dining hall, Simone and others were having dinner when Simone and Evangeline, the second Lady, raised their brows. "Hm?"

Isaac, Shasha, Rose and others looked at them and Lena asked, "What is it, First Sister and Second Sister?"

While Evangeline stayed silent, re-focusing on her dinner, Simone answered, "There are some fluctuations in the ambient mana, it seems to be becoming denser."

"Maybe someone left their cultivation chamber open?" Isaac casually said.

"Perhaps." Simone nodded and forgot about it.

Unlike them, some of the maids and servants outside who were mages could feel the mana fluctuations more clearly and tried to sense the origin but unfortunately for them and fortunately for Lukas, even though they found out mana was flowing in a certain direction as if attracted by something, they couldn’t leave their duties and follow the trail.

In the mansion, only the Knights had some freedom to move around but since they could not sense mana, they didn’t notice anything.

In his cultivation chamber, Raymond felt the density of mana in the chamber increasing a little, but because he was too deeply engrossed in suppressing and expelling the Bloodflame energy, he paid it no heed.

...

Seemingly unaware that he was causing a commotion, Lukas continued to cultivate.

While he was absorbing a large amount of mana, after refinement less than one-tenth entered his mana veins and was swiftly absorbed by them.

Ten minutes in, his mana veins slowly stopped absorbing mana and it started to circulate within them before gathering in several nodes connected to the mana veins.

Sensing this, Lukas’ lips curled up in a smile.

He had just officially stepped foot on the Magic Path and became a Low 1-Star mage after quenching his mana veins.

Now, to progress further in the 1-Star realm, he needed to fill his mana nodes.

The human body had 108 Mana Nodes in total.

Once a mage fills up 36 nodes, he is considered to be a Mid 1-Star Mage. After filling up another 36, he becomes a High 1-Star Mage and by filling the last 36 nodes, he reaches the Peak of 1-Star. Now, as long as he succeeds in sensing and accessing the illusory space, ordinarily called Dantian or Heavenly Abode, he can begin condensing a Mana Core within it and become a 2-Star Mage.

’Let’s see how many nodes I can fill up until the Rune’s activation time runs out.’ Lukas thought and started guiding the refined mana toward one Mana Node, stopping it from trickling into all at once.

Seconds ticked by and just as five minutes had passed, the first Mana Node was completely filled up.

Immediately, he started directing the incoming mana into the second node.

One after another, Mana Nodes continued to be filled up.

By the time the fifth node was filled up, the Lust Rune had dimmed significantly and right as the sixth node was about to fill up, the Rune lost all its glow and mana stopped converging toward him.

’Damn, just a bit was left.’ Lukas couldn’t help but become disappointed. If the Rune hadn’t deactivated for just another minute, he would have six filled nodes.

’It ran for almost 40 minutes.’ He calculated the time the Rune was activated and realized it had exceeded the normal upper time limit stated in the legacy by ten minutes.

Normally, the Rune should have run for 10 to 30 minutes since his copulation with a Low 1-Star woman could only produce so much energy. But since it ran for almost 40 minutes, he realized something.

’It probably has something to do with the fact Oriana hasn’t had sex in over a decade. Next time I have sex with her, it would fall in the range.’

’Now, it’s the time to test if having sex with her again would charge the Rune.’ He thought and opened his eyes.

"How wonderful it would have been if it could refine the mana to perfection even when it’s not activated!" He sighed as he stood up.

After comparing the quality of refined mana of both sessions, he had realized only when the Rune was activated it would completely rid of the impurities in mana, otherwise, the mana quality he would get would be subpar in comparison, not to mention his cultivation speed would be way slower.

’Thankfully it’s easier to charge it otherwise I would have to waste a lot of time.’ He thought, ’Also, I need to learn some magic spells.’

A mage could utilize his powers to their limit only by using magic spells, which made learning magic spells very important, otherwise a mage would only be an empty husk, of course, unless he was a mage who focused on cultivating his body.

...

A short while later, he was sitting on his bed, looking at peacefully sleeping Oriana.

A few moments later, he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, ’If I want to cultivate without slowing down, just Oriana wouldn’t be enough, I need to have more women.’

Immediately, several figures flashed in his mind, each making his heart thump in forbidden excitement before he settled on one.

’You’ll be my second woman. Let’s see if you are willing.’ He licked his lips. Then he acted startled, ’Heh, why am I acting like I’m some cheap villain when I’m clearly a hero, wanting to save a damsel in distress?’