Chapter 35: Second Rank

After more than a month of training, Shao Ke decided to make his breakthrough to the Mage rank. Although he already knew the differences between a formal Mage and an Apprentice Mage from the experiences of his predecessors, Shao Ke wanted to feel it for himself by advancing.

Since no potions or drugs could be used during the breakthrough, Shao Ke only truly began his efforts after the effects of the Empty Stone Liquid had worn off.

Shao Ke focused his mind, putting all his effort into gathering the points of light within his mental space, trying to focus them as much as possible on one point. Through his efforts, the points of light gradually gathered, compressing and continuously compressing to keep them from scattering. After roughly three magic hours, nearly all the points of light in the mental space had gathered together, forming a silvery-white sphere of light suspended at the very center of the mental space.

The prolonged compression and control had consumed over half of Shao Ke's mental energy. Having reached this stage, he began adjusting the sphere of light using the standard meditation method employed during advancement. As he continued meditating, the sphere of light formed by his spiritual power began to pulse rhythmically, much like the beating of a human heart.

Under Shao Ke's control, the sphere of spiritual power suddenly dispersed. A vast number of light points swiftly broke free from the sphere, continuously striking the boundaries of the mental space. Under this pressure, the boundaries of the mental space began to expand rapidly—doubling, then tripling, and more. Once the series of changes concluded, Shao Ke's mental space had expanded to more than three times its original size.

Shao Ke carefully immersed himself in his mental space, observing these changes in detail and slowly grasping the insights they offered.

The expansion of the space lasted for over a magic hour before finally settling. Now, Shao Ke needed to quickly recover his nearly depleted mental energy before performing the same process in his mana space.

Through Shao Ke's efforts, the mana space expanded by just over double, far less than the expansion of the mental space. This was primarily because his mana space had originally been smaller than his mental space, and his mana was less pure than his spiritual power. The consequence of this was that his mana wouldn't let him cast a sufficient number of spells; his second-level spells might be one or two fewer than those of other Mages at their peak.

Even after completing this, the advancement process was not yet over. Now, Shao Ke needed to inscribe special arrays within his mental and mana spaces. However, the excessive consumption of mental energy left him visibly exhausted. At this point, Shao Ke even considered pausing temporarily and resuming a few days later. Unfortunately, the advancement process couldn't be delayed for too long; otherwise, all his previous efforts would be in vain. Not only would everything revert to its original state, but it could also cause damage to his mental and mana spaces.

The empty stone bead on his chest helped speed up Shao Ke's recovery of mental energy. Once his mental energy was fully restored, Shao Ke began using his spiritual power to sketch out the special advancement array within his mental space.

From what Shao Ke knew, Mages of the same rank used different advancement arrays depending on their backgrounds. The array he was using now was a common, widely available one used by ordinary Mages. Although inscribing it within his space wasn't overly strenuous, the final effects were far inferior to those achieved by Mages with backgrounds and resources using more advanced arrays.

The arrays used by those Mages during advancement were about half again as complex as the one Shao Ke was using now. The result was that, after advancement, the former would possess greater inherent potential than the latter.

Regardless, even though Shao Ke didn't have access to those high-level advancement arrays, he believed he could eventually catch up to them and not fall behind. After all, the higher the rank, the more opportunities to obtain valuable resources.

Although the advancement array was far more complex than the ones Shao Ke usually outlined during meditation, with the guidance of so many predecessors' experiences, he still managed to successfully outline two arrays within his mental and mana spaces after some time. He then continuously infused them with spiritual power and mana to sustain their operation.

Fortunately, this step didn't consume too much mental energy, allowing Shao Ke to proceed to the next stage.

Carefully maintaining the operation of the two arrays, with vast amounts of spiritual power and mana continuously flowing into them, Shao Ke reached this point and decided not to delay further. Simultaneously connecting his mind to both arrays, he slowly chanted an incantation while his hands formed various gestures as required for the advancement, strengthening the connection between the two arrays in different spaces.

As the incantation was chanted and the gestures were formed, the arrays in the mental and mana spaces spun faster and faster, gradually developing into vortices. Shao Ke's task now was to continuously maintain this state until both arrays fully transformed into vortices, marking the completion of this stage.

The excessive consumption of mental energy made it extremely difficult for Shao Ke to sustain this process. Moreover, the spiritual power and mana within his mental and mana spaces were nearly depleted. Without the support of these energies, the two arrays would cease operation, leading to advancement failure.

Fortunately, Shao Ke's luck held. At the very moment his mana was exhausted, the two arrays transformed into true vortices, simultaneously contracting sharply. They gradually shrank in their original positions until they disappeared. Seeing this phenomenon, which aligned with the signs of imminent advancement success, Shao Ke remained calm, quietly observing the changes within the two spaces.

Through his mental senses, a tiny black dot slowly appeared where the arrays had vanished, gradually expanding. Shao Ke observed intently without relaxing for a moment. The black dot grew larger, forming a small, double-ended, twelve-faceted diamond-shaped column.

Success! Shao Ke felt an overwhelming urge to shout out his joy, but the remaining tasks forced him to suppress this impulsive behavior.

After the double-pointed diamond-shaped columns appeared in the mental and mana spaces, they were initially extremely small, comparable to a single point of spiritual or mana light. If Shao Ke hadn't known they would appear in the original positions of the two arrays, and if not for the significant reduction of light points in both spaces, he might not have even noticed their emergence.

Despite his depleted mental energy, Shao Ke continued observing the two newly formed diamond shapes. As his mentors had described, they were actually composed of incredibly complex lines of spiritual and mana power, not crystalline in appearance as they seemed.

The two minuscule diamond shapes slowly drifted to the very center of their respective spaces and began gradually absorbing the points of light representing spiritual and mana power. Initially, they only absorbed when light points collided with them. As the amount absorbed increased, the two diamond shapes slowly grew larger, began rotating on their own, and actively absorbed the light points within their spaces.

Seeing the diamond arrays successfully operating within the spaces, Shao Ke finally relaxed, as this marked the true success of his advancement. Once the two diamond shapes absorbed sufficient spiritual and mana power, they would gradually grow until reaching a certain proportion relative to their respective spaces, at which point their growth would cease.

After admiring the changes within his spaces for a while, Shao Ke promptly withdrew his consciousness. After all, today's advancement had already consumed too much of his mental energy. He urgently needed to recover to avoid causing permanent damage due to prolonged depletion.

After consuming a drop of Empty Stone Liquid, Shao Ke began meditating. He urgently needed to recover his spiritual and mana power, as the two newly formed arrays required substantial nourishment from them to develop fully. Only then could he observe the effects of these newly formed arrays.

Several days passed, and the arrays within the mental and meditation spaces finally stopped growing. They hovered high in the center of their respective spaces, continuously absorbing light points for purification. After observing for a while, Shao Ke realized the arrays' purification efficiency was about half of what he could achieve through his usual meditation. Although this couldn't compare to the effects of advanced arrays, Shao Ke was quite satisfied. After all, it saved him a significant amount of time otherwise spent on purifying his spiritual and mana power.

After stabilizing his realm over these past few days and casting several first-level spells, Shao Ke felt that the spiritual and mana consumption during spellcasting had slightly decreased, and it felt somewhat easier than before his advancement. No wonder formal Mages were considerably stronger than Apprentice Mages!

The expansion of his mental and mana spaces made Shao Ke feel that his meditation efficiency was quite low when using his previous meditation method. After several experiments, he also found that his recovery rate had indirectly slowed down, which left him feeling quite helpless. However, without access to a more advanced meditation method, he had no choice but to continue using the current one.

Advancement not only expanded his mental and mana spaces, allowing him to accumulate more mana, but also made Shao Ke feel that his mental energy had nearly doubled. However, he also sensed that his physical constitution seemed to have declined somewhat. At first, he thought it was due to a lack of exercise over an extended period, but even after resuming his training, his constitution continued to decline. This alarmed Shao Ke greatly, as he had never heard of such a situation occurring after advancement. Just as he was considering seeking help from a physician in the town, the decline in his constitution finally stopped. Unbeknownst to Shao Ke, most magical families knew how to address this issue. They would consume precious medicinal herbs to prevent or mitigate such effects. Moreover, this method was monopolized by them and not disclosed to all Apprentice Mages. Lower-ranked mentors simply believed this situation was unavoidable and thus never informed their students.

After a thorough self-examination, Shao Ke discovered that his constitution had decreased by nearly one-fifth compared to normal. This added another long-term task to his daily magical studies: extensive physical training. After all, he didn't want to reach a point after several advancements where he could no longer stand to cast spells.