I need a break...
'Argh. System what happened?'
[Upon entering the last level, your soul was attacked and I was forced to put you into a comatose state until I could repair it. Luckily, your soul didn't receive any permanent damage and in fact was strengthened.]
'How long was I asleep for?'
[6 months.]
'What?! No way. Show me my status.'
-==-==-==-
[Riku Void]
2nd Class Mage
Talent: SSS
[Stats]
Strength: 500
Agility: 532
Mana Capacity: 6999
Resistance: A-
Mana Control: A-
-==-==-==-
'My stats didn't shrink at all... and instead they got bigger? Man look at the perfect 500 strength, it really makes me happy.'
[I took countermeasures so your muscles wouldn't deteriorate at all.]
'No way, my sadist of a system did something nice?!'
[Host, that really hurts.]
'I've been meaning to ask, do you have emotions? Because you sound very robotic yet I can feel emotions at the same time.'
[I am an advanced AI capable of feeling emotions, yet I was programmed to stay completely unbiased at all times.]
'Is that even possible to stay completely unbiased while having emotions? Either way I think I will start calling you by your name. However Phoenix is a little long and weird to say a lot. I'll call you Pyro as a nickname.'
Now let's look around. Surely there must be quite a bit of good things up here. Hmm... There really is nothing. But how does this mountain even work? I was expecting some godly mana crystal or device up here.
I lay down on the snowy peak while staring up into the night sky.
"Beautiful. I've been training way too much recently. Now that I get some time to relax and clear my mind, it really is a sight to behold. This world is so much purer than Earth. I can't even see any signs of pollution."
Ehehe... I accidentally fell asleep again. Even after sleeping for 6 whole months I was still mentally fatigued I guess. I do think it's weird that laying in snow doesn't even affect me anymore. I must have built up a resistance to temperature.
'Although I want to rest some more, Pyro, can you tell me that way to increase my mana capacity better? Draining my mana out has been helping a little with it but I doubt that is the way you are gonna tell me right? You better not say that, even a child would be able to find that out...'
[No host, the best technique is to actually overload your dantian. Although this is very dangerous, you can easily shatter your dantian which is why people don't do this. However, as you have a high talent your dantian will quickly improve and expand. It will most likely heal itself as you are damaging it. In cases that you are damaging it to quickly, I will stop it as I have to take responsibility for teaching you this technique. You have to have a tough body also for you to do this. That is the main reason why I had you climb this mountain to the very top.]
'Is that so? It kinda felt like you were enjoying me almost dying over and over though...'
[You are imagining things host.]
'...'
[...]
[*cough cough* As you have completed this mission faster than I have expected, I will also reward you with 300 system points.]
'System points? I thought you said I can't buy things.'
[I said you couldn't buy things outside of the system. You can use these points to exchange for system upgrades. With 300 you can buy a simple mini-map for 250, which is what I recommend host to do. If not that then I would definitely save them for better things. I won't give you any stat points unless you deserve them. If you kill beasts you may get some stat points depending on how much you struggled to defeat them.]
'I think I will save them for now. I don't think I will need a mini-map at this time.'
Well as the mana is better here I might as well start mana capacity training before I head down off this cursed mountain. Actually...
'Pyro, what is the best way to increase my mana by only 1 point...'
[...]
[I'll stop you once you collect enough mana...]
'Are you judging me?'
[Okay host... here are your stats...]
-==-==-==-
[Riku Void]
2nd Class Mage
Talent: SSS
[Stats]
Strength: 500
Agility: 532
Mana Capacity: 7000
Resistance: A-
Mana Control: A-
System Points: 300
-==-==-==-
'What is with that tone?! You can't say that a perfect 7000 capacity doesn't make you happy!'
[...]
'FINE. I'll begin with the training. You've been very silent today.'
Absorbing the rich mana feels very nice. It's almost addicting. I just hope that I won't feel uncomfortable absorbing mana that isn't as potent. I have to admit that nearly breaking your dantian kinda hurts. I hope that it is only because the mana that is entering is very potent.
'I think it's been around 10 minutes? How much has my mana increased by?'
[It has been 23 minutes and your mana has increased by 322, bringing your increase rate to an astounding 14/min. The average 2nd tier mage gains about 10-30 increase every time they recover from an empty dantian. For your information the highest capacity a human has is 13 million, however they could have easily gained much more if they had a reason. They won't ever need 13 million mana for any fights. The highest ever is 50 million and that title is held by the demon king.]
Wow. I wish I had that much mana. Theoretically it would only take me about 6-7 years to gain that much with my current increase... At least I think? It's hard to do math like this in my head. But that isn't bad, though I am definitely not going to sit here for that long.
Okay! I'll get 10k mana and then head down!