Chapter 3: Meditation = Mana
Chapter 3: Meditation = Mana
Takauji found himself sitting on his bed cross-legged, letting himself get as comfortable as possible with the help of the silk-like softness of his mattress—assuming a lotus position as the information regarding how the Meditation skill worked that was jammed into his head instructed him to do.
He puffed his chest up, inhaling deeply for exhaling in a similar manner, letting his mind get as focused as it could.
Speaking of which, he had already begun the improvements increasing his intelligence had on his cognitive function, his ability to clear his thoughts and really hone himself on whatever it was he wanted to dedicate himself to improving noticeably.
Studying's probably going to be a lot easier now my memorization has probably improved. Forget a two point lead—I'm going to beat her in every test from this point onward.
He once again cleared his thoughts, using no small amount of effort to toss aside the very enticing notion of embarrassing Souna and reaffirming himself with the need to improve his Mana and unlock his Sub-Class.
Meditation. He activated the skill, immediately greeting him with a distinct coldness that ran throughout his body, centralized around his abdomen. However, it wasn't to an unbearable degree, as a matter of fact it even felt soothing to an extent.
The skill was said to scale his intelligence, which he had already made a minor improvement in. But he didn't know the exact numerical effect it had on the growth of his Mana, something he was hoping to figure out now.
As time went on, he felt a faint pressure starting to apply itself to something within his stomach, on what he assumed was his newfound organ—his Mana Core.
The feeling being akin to very, very slowly squashing a blob of dough in between your palms, except the dough was your stomach. It wasn't nearly as painful as it was distracting though, requiring him to exert most of his improved mental strength to make sure he didn't let himself get lost in thought.
According to the equation for Meditation, focus was a huge factor that determined its effectiveness, the more stray thoughts you had, the harder it was to realize it's full proficiency. Even if your intelligence stat was high, letting yourself get distracted would cause you to end up only utilizing 50% or less of your true rate of growth.
[+3 MANA (10 → 13).]
Well, that was easier than I assumed. He opened his eyes, looking at the notification before clutching his stomach, feeling oddly famished for some reason. Strange, it hasn't been that long since—
And then he caught a glimpse of the clock in his bedroom.
…Oh. It was 1' in the morning—four hours had already passed since he entered meditation, even though it had hardly felt like 4 minutes to him. That means the rate of Mana I'm gaining is my (INT/10) divided by four which is a little less than 0.8 Mana every hour. That's—rather troublesome. He pulled out his notebook, writing down what he had learned.
[+1 INT (31 → 32).]
Actually, there's something I should probably check first.
[Rank: 1st Circle Magician (13/100).]
Now it had been confirmed that his Rank was dependent on how high his Mana was.
I'll need another 9 hours or so to reach 20 Mana. School starts at 7, and using Meditation doesn't compensate for my need to rest. Although, I highly doubt I'd get such a skill so early on, it's probably something that'll take quite a bit of work. Logically speaking, I imagine it'd be an intelligence skill since that's what affects my mind.
He drummed his finger against the cover of his notebook, contemplating how he was going to deal with his current predicament. I'm pretty good at raising my intelligence quickly, so maybe I'd be better off working on that before meditating again.
The higher his intelligence stat grew, the less amount of time he'd need to meditate in order to reach his goal. And he still had four skills he hadn't studied in detail including his newly obtained Shapeshift ability.
Alright, let's do this. He went to the kitchen, preparing himself a fresh cup of coffee with a little extra shot of caffeine and returned to his desk. Jotting down the equations for Meditation, Mana Sense, Blind, and Shapeshift.
One by one, he tackled the blanks of each equation—using what he had learned from comprehending Shadow Step to approach them; the fact that they were all intelligence skills meant he didn't need to overwhelm himself with finding a new approach each time he started working on a different one.
First was Meditation, the easiest one to start with since he had just activated it.
[+3 INT (32 → 35).]
The fact that the more his intelligence stat grew, the sharper his mind became, also contributed to his rate of comprehension. Making it a cumulative increase in pace and depth of understanding each time he explored an equation as much as he could.
It had taken him about half an hour to finish Meditation, and then only about 20 minutes to complete Mana Sense.
[+4 INT (35 → 39).]
Blind took a little longer since he needed to use it first as he had yet to do so, causing him to create a large cloud of black smog in his room, which thankfully didn't leave behind any particles which would've sullied his abode a great deal—and also required quite some time to clean up after.
[+4 INT (39 → 43).]
But he got there in the end. This is good, the sharper my mind becomes the more I'm able to understand—allowing me to understand less complex spells in more depth, which evens out the growth of my intelligence in comparison to more advanced ones.
And then last but not least, was his Shapeshift skill.
This is bound to be interesting—I wonder what I should try transforming into? He thought for a moment, settling on a cat—something he believed would be simplistic, at least in comparison to a more challenging transformation like another person.
His height dropped to a meager 16 inches, his belly hovering only a bit above the ground and his mind taking a while to adjust to the sensation of being a quadruped instead of bipedal. His body took on the form of a Tabby Cat, which wasn't all that hard for him to maintain as he presumed.
This is actually pretty fun, once he got his bearings down, he leaped onto his bed—hopping around a bit and toying with his new sense of mobility. Maybe I could sneak into the Student Council's chambers with this and destroy all their documents. Hehe.
He didn't stay in his form for long, not wanting to risk letting all his MP deplete—nor wishing to waste valuable time he needed to spend studying the Shapeshift skill.
[+8 INT (43 → 51).]
[Passive Trait Unlocked! — (Neutral) Sound of Mind; 20% increase in MP recovery rate. 20% increase in Mana growth. 20% increase in Dexterity growth.]
[Passive Trait Unlocked! — (Dark) Moonlight Blessing; Proficiency of all Dark skills is increased by 15% during the night.]
[Skill Awakened! — (Dark) Shade Devour; consume 30% of your HP in exchange for a temporary 30% increase in Strength and Mana.]
Woah—I got quite a bit of points for understanding the Shapeshift skill. And I didn't know something like a "Passive Trait" existed, and it's quite a convenient one at that. I'm certainly not complaining.
He then took a look at the skill he had just obtained. That's quite a scary ability, hopefully I don't end up in a situation where I need to use it. It was now 3' in the morning, and if he wanted to have enough energy to train his Strength and Dexterity tomorrow, then it was probably for the best that he got what little rest he could.
Achieving 20 Mana, and probably getting at least 20 points in each stat is probably a good starting milestone. I'll try my best to reach it tomorrow, but I'm not sure how doable it'll be.
Getting his intelligence up was all well and good, but he didn't think it was wise to let all his other stats lag behind too much, since it would more likely than not create an imbalance.
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Forget it, I'm never staying up that late again. Takauji immediately lamented the time he had spent meditating and studying the following day, the final bell having just rung. He had just managed to push through the day with his usual top-student efficiency thanks to his increased intelligence, but it wasn't a pleasant experience—far from it.
Even if he would've been just fine taking it easy for a day, he couldn't let himself appear sub-par in front of Souna, the enemy mustn't be made aware of the fact that he was weakened. Power has a price, I guess this discomfort is the one I'm going to have to pay if I want to keep improving.
[+1 DEX (10 → 11).]
What? He scratched his temple, wondering what he had done to warrant a point increase. All I did coordination wise was spin my pen all day, Souna had been watching Takauji like a hawk—keeping a closer eye on her rival with more intensity than she usually did.
This gave him the impression she had an inkling that something was up, so to put on an air that he was in tip-top shape, he decided to spin his pen with as much finesse as he could muster, a low-intensity activity that still made him appear as if he was sharp as ever. Alongside going as far as to volunteer to answer every question Shiba asked, and do so without a single sign of struggle or hesitation.
However, his academic level had long since surpassed a point where any high-school level questions could stimulate his brain, meaning that he didn't gain any intelligence from doing so—not that it mattered, he wasn't trying to push his intelligence any further at the moment.
As for his Dexterity. I suppose even a low-intensity exercise can produce results if done for long enough, added with the passive trait I obtained yesterday which increased the growth of my Dexterity by 20%.
Granted, it wasn't necessarily what one would call an effective method of training.
His pen-spinning efforts appeared to lessen her suspicions a little, but by the looks of things—
"Ashikaga-san."
—Not completely.
"Yes? Shitori-san," he remained even-tempered. Keeping his voice as calm and composed as he could, still uninterested in showing even an ounce of weakness in front of her.
"Are you ill?" She asked plainly.
"No, I am not. Why do you ask?" He folded his arms, scrutinizing her just as she was doing to him.
"You seemed off today, sluggish even." Apparently, he somehow hadn't done a good enough job of masquerading in spite of the amount of effort he had invested into doing so.
He felt the urge to click his tongue, but withheld himself. Are you psychic or something? I don't recall giving you permission to probe around my head.
"I'm fine, thank you for asking." Neither of their voices fluctuated, both of them adopting a flat, robotic tone. Some of the nearby students who were also just packing up to leave slowly stepped back, as if they had stepped too close to a showdown between two lions.
"Is that so? Alright then, just make sure you admit yourself to the infirmary if you feel any different throughout the day. It's flu season, so it'd be a problem if you ended up spreading anything."
He scoffed, "Sure." Without saying another word, he made his departure—leaving to find Hairo to seek the living embodiment of muscle's advice on how to train his physical strength.
Tsubaki noticed the brief encounter like the rest of the Class 3-A's students, approaching Souna with a concerned expression. "President? Is everything alright?"
Souna motioned with her hand for the Vice-President to come closer, which the latter did without hesitation.
"No, everything isn't alright." She said ominously, causing Tsubaki to recoil a little. "From now on, make sure Rias and her peerage don't come into contact with Ashikaga-san. His house is off limits to them, and also tell our peerage to have their familiars patrol around his residence—and start observing Murayama as well."
Tsukabi's eyes widened, her mind racing to figure out where all this was coming from. "What's going on?" She felt obligated to ask, even though she rarely ever questioned the President's orders.
"I'll tell you alongside everyone else back at the Student Council room." She inhaled deeply, I'm not sure whether I should be excited or annoyed.
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Uh oh Taka, your rival noticed that something's up! You better get prepared!
I now have 2 Advance Chapters on p*treon, which will increase to either 3-4 depending on how much work I get done before the next release! So if you're looking to read ahead and support, go check it out!
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