As Mika entered the kitchen, she was greeted by a beautiful blonde elf who appeared to be around the same age as Joralf. The woman heard her approaching, turned around, and smiled warmly.

“Hello, young Mika. I’m Joralf’s wife, Galadriel Tawarenion,” She scanned Mika’s body up and said, covered her mouth with her dainty hand, and exclaimed, “ My goodness! You’re even younger than Joralf said! How’d you even survive this treacherous jungle?!”

She then ran up to Mika, grabbed her hand, and forced her to sit at the table, “Here, sit down. You must be starving! Don’t worry. I made plenty of mushroom stew! So, have as much as you’d like!”

Mika’s eyes went wide. Flashbacks of the pain she suffered while building up her immunity against the Centaremors Mushrooms and her body trembled.

“Wh-What did you say? M-Mushroom… stew? We’re going to eat a stew full of mushrooms?” Mika stuttered and regretted her decision to eat with them.

Galadriel came out of the kitchen with a large pot, seemingly full of mushroom stew, in her hands and smiled at Mika, “Of course, sweetie. What else is there to eat around here?”

Mika gulped and nearly left her seat as she didn’t want to feel that gut-wrenching pain again, just to be polite!

Galadriel chuckled when she saw Mika’s warped expression and explained while pouring her a bowl, “Fufufu~ Don’t worry, young Mika. These mushrooms aren’t poisonous. Believe it or not, there are actually plants in the Noxious Jungle that aren’t poisonous. You just have to know what to look for.”

Mika nodded but still seemed skeptical, but under Galadriel’s eager eyes, she had no choice but to pick up a spoonful of stew and shove it in her mouth.

When the stew touched her tongue, Mika’s eyes went wide, and she unconsciously gulped it all down.

“Mmmm!” She moaned in satisfaction as it’s been so long since she’s had seasoned food, “Amazing! How can mushroom stew be so good?!” She asked while shoveling spoonfuls of it into her mouth.

“Fufufu~ Thank you for the praise, young Mika,” Galadriel chuckled and kept refilling Mika’s bowl.

Meanwhile, Mika turned to Joralf as she felt she needed to say something about that Elven Cultivation Technique, “Joralf, I’m sure you know this already, but that [Basic Elven Cultivation Technique for Peasants] is worse than trash! Anyone who practices that is basically killing themselves!”

Joralf’s eyes opened wide, and he was speechless for a moment as he didn’t expect Mika to say that, but then he released a bitter smile, “I know that. In fact, the whole village knows that, but what can we do? It’s the only technique we have.”

Mika furrowed her brows and couldn’t help but ask, “Can’t you try and create your own technique?”

Joralf shook his head, “It’s not that easy to create a cultivation technique, Mika,” He said, then corrected himself, “Actually, it’s simple to create a basic cultivation technique. It’s creating the Mana Pathways that’s hard. Even if I wanted to, I don’t think I can create better pathways, but let’s say I can. What then? Who do I test it on? The kids? That just doesn’t feel right to me. Most of us are living happy lives here anyways, so why should I go out of my way to disrupt the peace?”

Mika opened her mouth but couldn’t find the words to respond. In the end, she just shut up and ate her food silently, as there was nothing more to say.

‘I’ve always assumed that everyone in this world would pursue power and strength over everything with this mystical energy called mana available, but that doesn’t seem to be the case,’ Mika thought.

She’s lived her entire life seeking strength, progression, and eventually perfection. So, it was weird for her to see not just one person but a whole village of people just living their lives, content with what they have. Although she didn’t personally want that, she respected Joralf’s decision and didn’t ask any more about it.

The three of them went back to eating and chatted a bit more, but it was mostly just Galadriel feeding her copious amounts of stew.

After eating the whole pot, Mika left the dinner table and went into a guest room Joralf allowed her to use. Then, she sat down on the bed in a lotus position, activated her [Meditation] skill, and began sorting through and compiling the information she learned into her brain.

She would begin training after she had read through all the practical books in Joralf’s library or until she felt her understanding of mana had reached a sufficient level to start practicing.

Mika did this for a few hours, fell asleep, and woke up early to begin studying again. She didn’t care too much for the soft bed as she was used to sleeping on the hard ground, not only in this life but in her past life as well.

When she appeared in the library, she looked for the book [What’s the Difference Between Elemental Mana and Neutral Mana? by Skylar Van Heusen] as she found his work informative yet easy to understand.

Luckily, Joralf had a copy of it translated into the Universal Language, so she began reading.

[“If you’ve been reading my books up until this point, you should know that mana comes in all forms, shapes, and sizes. Heck, there are even different types of mana, such as Fire Mana, Water Mana, Earth Mana, and so on. But what exactly does that mean, and what are the benefits of these different types of mana? If there is Elemental Mana, does that mean there’s Non-elemental Mana?”

“First off, I’ll start by saying that most of the world is contrived of neutral mana or non-elemental mana. This is mana in its base state and where it has the most potential for change. That’s the type of mana that most of us absorb, refine, and cultivate with.”

“Meanwhile, Elemental Mana is very niche. It only comes into being when neutral mana is either saturated in a particular element over a long period of time, or it just comes about naturally.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“What are the benefits of Elemental Mana? There are not many, I’m afraid. If you absorb it, your cultivation speed will increase. If you’re inside an area with the same element of mana as your affinity, the power and efficiency of your spells will increase. Lastly, if you get lucky, you might be able to raise the rank of your affinity, effectively increasing your strength and talent. This might sound great, but for how rare and dangerous Elemental mana is, it’s almost not worth the effort!”

“Now, how is this important? Well, it’s good to understand this distinction between the two since we must turn neutral mana into Elemental Mana to utilize our affinities. We absorb and refine neutral mana in our core, and when we go to use a spell like a fireball, the refined neutral mana passes through our core, shifting into Fire Mana, travels through the mana pathways, and then turns into a fireball. Usually, this happens instinctively, but if you’re conscious of it, you can control it, and if you can control it, you can improve it.”

“Of course, one doesn’t always need to use your affinities. Neutral Mana is available to all of us cultivators and has many different uses. Check out my book [Ways to Apply Mana] if you want to know more.”

“So, what’s the difference between Elemental and Neutral Mana? Elemental Mana is like kinetic energy with limited use, but it is generally more powerful than Neutral Mana. In contrast, Neutral Mana is more like potential energy and is the origin of Elemental Mana. Now, run along, and figure out the rest yourself!”]

Mika closed the book and pondered on this new information. It was like the puzzle that is mana had begun slowly filling itself out, and now a few more things made sense.

For example, she has Fire and Darkness Mana cycling through her Passive Mana Pathways at all times, but when she looks in her Mana Core, all she can see is neutral mana. She had no idea why this was the case.

‘So, it was my Mana Core all along!’

After reading that book, she now knew why that was happening.

However, she couldn’t help but have a few questions about this.

‘Why is my Core turning Neutral Mana into Elemental Mana? Why isn’t the Elemental Mana already inside? Isn’t this a bit too… unreliable? How can I improve this aspect of my cultivation? How will knowing this change my Cultivation Technique?’

As with any skill, Mika understood that having a stable foundation is the key to one’s growth. Her Core, Pathways, Affinities, and Mana were all critical components in both her foundation and development. So, having a proper understanding of what they are, how they work, and the mysteries behind them is key to maximizing the long-term benefits.

Therefore, answers to these questions were crucial to her journey. If she couldn’t find them, Mika felt like she’d reach a point of no return.

That’s where Mana Cultivation is different from learning a skill. Take swordsmanship as an example. One can go back and reaffirm their fundamentals at any time. It might be challenging if you’ve been doing it wrong for decades, but it’s possible.

However, that’s not the case with Cultivation, mana or body. You only get one shot, and that’s it! There are no redos or anything like that! You can’t go back and fix your foundation. Once it’s set, it’s set for good.

So, if her Cultivation Technique and understanding of Mana aren’t perfect at her Realm and Stage, there’s a flaw in her foundation. How will she become a goddess if there’s a flaw in her foundation? How will she reach the peak if there’s a flaw?

In Mika’s mind, gods are perfect beings with no faults, not someone who is just infinitely stronger than her. A god is someone who can create life out of thin air. A god is someone who will never die.

How can she, a measly human, become something like that if she only utilized 99% of her potential? That remaining 1% might exponentiate over numerous cultivation realms, ruining her dream of reaching the peak!

To Mika, being 1% away from the peak isn’t actually reaching the peak! Thus, she needed proper preparations.

So, Mika took these questions extremely seriously as she guessed they’d play a significant role in her development.

After storing this information, Mika put the book back on the bookshelf and looked for [Ways to Apply Mana by Skylar Van Heusen], but she couldn’t find it. The other books on mana weren’t nearly as factual or in-depth as Skylar Van Heusen’s. Only one was kind of helpful, but it just described the various Mana Cultivation Realms and their corresponding titles, which were:

1. [Black Core Realm] Apprentice/Trainee

2. [Red Core Realm] Novice

3. [Orange Core Realm] Initiate

4. [Yellow Core Realm] Senior

5. [Green Core Realm] Elite

6. [Blue Core Realm] Master

Truthfully, Mika was satisfied with all that she’d learned. She might be missing plenty of things, and there might be gaps in her knowledge, but just like Skylar said in the first book she read, she just needed to get out there and start practicing.

She’ll learn more about how mana works and how to use it the more she trains.

So, instead of reading more about mana, Mika turned to the left bookshelf and picked up a paper about Elven Culture, or more specifically, a manuscript about the World Tree, Yggdrasil.

She didn’t care much about Elven Culture, nor did it seem all that interesting to read about, but what did catch her attention was a giant tree that supposedly created an entire race of people similar to humans!

[“The Mother of life. The Progenitor of the Elves. The Father of all Races. A symbol of the Mortal and Immortal. The mediator between Life and Death. The Pathway Between Worlds. Center of the Universe. That is The World Tree, Yggdrasil.”

[“Life departs, yet Death arrives

Fire destroys, and the ashes rise

The end is near, but the beginning is coming

When the leaves call, we come running”]

[“Within the Sea of Night

Stands the Tree of Life

The Gatekeeper of Heaven

Guardian of Hell

Oh, God of Destruction

Devil of Creation

We beseech thee, Yggdrasil

Lay to rest our wayward souls

Fertilize the soil is our only role.”]

“...”

Her brows wrinkled, and her face scrunched up as she read such nonsense. She didn’t understand a thing the writer was trying to convey.

‘Fuck! Can’t you just say it more straightforwardly?’ She grumbled and turned the manuscript over, only to see an image she’d never forget for the rest of her life.

What appeared in her vision was a massive tree standing in the middle of the void, with stars and planets all around it. Yet, they all were hanging off the tree’s branches like little fruits. Meanwhile, the roots created a border around the entire void!

It was a stunning image that looked no different from reality. In fact, it felt so real that Mika had the urge to lift her hand and pluck one of those ‘fruits’.

Fortunately, she didn’t do something stupid, but she did stand there and imprint this image onto her brain as it was too monumental and unique.

She’d never seen anything like it.