Within the realm of this world's power, Theo found himself in a rather unusual spot.

Most of the people of this world would focus on pursuing mastery in one field, only branching out to others once they found the limits of their talent. This was all because reaching higher realms of mastery in one field often brought forth greater results than just trying to learn the basics of another field.

That's why, when it came to any field in specific, Theo was at the rock bottom.

His lack of talent with the sword kept him at the peak of the second realm of expertise even back in his original life. However, now that his body had reverted and lost the edge Theo's years of training gave him, even a whole week of training with Gracian only allowed him to fix his basics to the point of reaching the second rank!

When it came to magic, however…

Theo's talents were just as disappointing as they were in regards to his ability to swing the sword around.

Still, while pure magic was never Theo's forte, it was the foundation for a plethora of other skills that he developed, skills that all required some degree of mana to work.

Which was precisely why Theo, despite all the drawbacks of using this method, decided to go all in during his forest visit. That's why he used ground-purification of miasma, a technique developed only a few years into the current world's future.

That's why he signed a death warrant on himself twice. That's why he didn't mind absorbing all that miasma despite the devastating effects it had on his body.

It was all because showering his body in the purified mana while it was in a state of nearly complete decay was the quickest and most reliable way to raise his qualification as a pure mage all the way to the middle of the second realm—the fifth rank!

Reaching the fifth rank was a feat that normally would take one with an average talent between three to five, maybe six years of constant effort, training, and study. And right now, having been spared all of that sweat, Theo had no other choice but to pay the price for his growth with blood.

'This really sucks…' Theo thought, after crawling a measly few steps over the ground before throwing out another mouthful of blood.

Having his body restructured so forcefully left him feeling like a mage with the spell preventing the hangover who, only after years of drinking, realized that there was a limit to that spell, only for all of the accumulated drain, pain, and nausea to strike the unfortunate mage all at once.

But with the raw might of the pure mage of the fifth rank bustling in his veins… it more than just made up for all the pain and torture he had to undergo right now.

'As long as I reach the test venue, all will be good,' Theo thought, already planning for the coming exam even though there were still some hours before the day would come to an end.

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But with his body in a state that only allowed extremely careful and intervalistic crawling, the route he took in a matter of several tens of minutes before by walking now turned into a great journey that he couldn't conquer any faster than with several solid hours of this desperate crawling.

'At least no one should find and bother me while I'm still in the forest,' Theo breathed in and out, trying to mutate some level of physical strength from his mana… before pushing his limbs and crawling a few more steps, only to then collapse directly onto the ground, powerless to inch another step forth.

The only reason why Theo could allow himself to be in the forest in such a state was because of the specifics of the pure mage field of expertise.

A pure mage was never a role anyone would want to stick to long-term. Contrary to all the other denominations of the magic-wielding job, a pure mage's role was limited to just wielding their own mana, absorbing more of it, and growing better at managing its internal flow.

In a sense, every mage had to be a pure mage, but hardly any mage ever remained as just a pure mage. This role was just a step, a process of building the foundation of one's magic necessary to then effectively wield it later on. It was also why there were only a dime and dozen of those who ever bothered to reach the peak realm of pure magic before pivoting towards a more useful job in all of this world's history.

'If only that damned main character wasn't one of those few, I might've disregarded this step and just done the necessary minimum again,' Theo thought, moving back with his thoughts to his past life, where he only ever reached the third rank as a pure mage, satisfied with the amount of mana this level of expertise provided for all of his other abilities.

But now that he had the benefit of hindsight… or should it rather be called, the benefit of a reincarnated extra aware of this world's true nature and, by his knowledge of this world's story—its future…

With all of that knowledge, Theo would have to be stupid not to mend his ways!

'Just a little bit more!'

And so, Theo continued to crawl through the forest undergrowth, only having his oppressive, pure-mage aura to thank for keeping all the forest monsters at bay.

Or maybe it was the putrid smell of all the death he brought and miasma he extracted that kept the monsters at bay?

Regardless of what was the reason behind it, Theo continued to crawl, vomit blood, lose his breath, and then crawl some more… all the while wielding more mana in his battered body than he actually knew how to use!

'But what if… this amount of mana is not only more than I know how to use, but also more than I know how to handle?'

This question Theo could find an answer to only in one way—by actively trying to use his newfound strength.

While all his mana did was roam through his flesh, he didn't have to fear losing control of it. But the moment something would excite it, a bloody duel with a master swordsman, for example…

'Yeah, I guess I can't go back just yet,' Theo thought, pretty much right as he could feel the first hints of relief from reaching the camp's barrier and then easily crossing over to safety on its other side. 'Not when I'm literally a ticking bomb!'

As little as Theo cared for the other cadets, he wasn't the bloodthirsty monster that would disregard their lives for the sake of nothing more than his own convenience. Which was why, after nearly four hours of crawling through the dirt, rather than trying to rush this last stretch before reaching his tent back in the camp…

Theo stopped while still hidden well in the depths of the camp's part of the forest.

He stopped… and then spent nearly a quarter of an hour pulling himself up the trunk of a random tree, only stopping when he sat down and rested his back against it. Then, for the next ten minutes, he struggled to cross his legs and put himself in a position his brain habitually associated with internal training.

'Now, let's see,' Theo mouthed to himself once his body stopped convulsing from the extreme effort sitting down took from him. 'How would I even go about testing my mana control?'