Darius heaved air nervously inside and started stretching. He had been doing hours of manual work to finish the formation to gather negative particles for meditation. He hesitated. The formation seemed to work, but he had certain limitations on meditation. Albeit he had a very nice concentration of particles, his problem was the insufficient meditation technique. Basic technique learned from the basic book was not really the highest art. The only good thing about this was that the symbol triangles amount was important. As he had discussed with Elvira, he had done spectacularly, beginning with thirteen opened symbol triangles with meditation. The amount needed was something to do with the general aptitude and mind strength. Seven was an average number, ten good, but thirteen was up to the bar with elites. But here was the problem. Symbols had to be gained for each rank three-fold at least to support enough particle infusion to the acolyte body. In the beginning, an acolyte was supposed to be a terrible conductor and capacitor of particles. The more symbol folds meditation entailed more was the number of particles that the body could use in tandem with the proficiency of the body with said particles.

There was just one problem. The meditation was just too basic. With a higher meditation manual, the efficiency was far greater. The problem was that every rank up as a mage was built on the foundations made in acolyte phases. If Darius would only use the most basic meditation at some point, even his proficiency in negative particles would not suffice. He would become mediocre at best. At worst, he would get stuck with the meditation and never receive a chance to find a better one despite his proficiencies and aptitudes. The highest manuals were greedily guarded secrets of mage family lines and royalties. One could build the whole strength of the mage family on superior meditation techniques alone.

Darius looked bitterly at the formation. He didn’t have the luxury of choice. Darius just had to continue and hope to grow as powerful as the need to be. He sat down next to the formation and regained his motivation after feeling the effects of the formation. It was not just a warm, comfortable feeling like in the gave or healing feeling. This was at least tens of times better! Darius chuckled, *wonder how the better formations will be*.

Despite of high density of particles, Darius could not see or otherwise feel them. These senses would come far later depending on the aptitude of the acolyte. But the roaring feeling of power was already a decent indicator. This time Darius had prepared well. He had potions, formation and a quiet place where nobody would disturb his meditation. Or so he believed. Darius glanced at the makeshift stone slab door with a tiny crack opening to let air flow. As morning first sunlight beamed on the entrance floor, Darius was already meditating.

With the help of formation, the making of symbols was easier, but the feeling of weight and pain got worse. After every symbol triangle, Darius sipped more medium-grade body invigoration potion. Darius lost the focus of time completely. The real struggle began after the twentieth fold. He had already used over half of medium-quality potions at this point. He would have to continue forward. The familiar symbols danced in his mind while he felt like every symbol was sucking up tiny pits of his blood and soul. While sweating, he downed a bit of water and continued.

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After thirty-five folds, Darius felt that the folds would never end. He had no intermediate potions left. *This will start cost right about now* he thought and started using high-grade potions huddled at the very back of the bag. Every sip of these potions costs tens or even hundreds of gold. But he could always make more if he could get more ingredients from slaves. The bag next to him was emptied in the worrying phase. After forty-six folds, the potions were already ending, and Darius noticed blood running from his crying eyes. The immense pressure was not helped by the formation anymore, although he still could fold symbols increasingly slower rate. His mind went numb with the pain and lack of rest. His body could still hold it, but he was mentally exhausted. But he could not end the effort midway. The symbols might deteriorate in his mind while being unfinished, and he would have to start the whole suffering again. Darius was not done yet, not by half.

The tremors and shaking began after fifty folds. Darius had to rip his shirt sleeve to cover his teeth from rattling. The salty-tasting sweaty fabric didn’t help much, but at least it kept Darius from biting his tongue.

After a while, Darius has lost himself in the task. The severe pain all over his body ached like a hammer hitting an anvil. His clothing was soaking wet and dirty, and the smell was far worse than sewer water. Tremors were worse, and now it even continued to his heart. Potions had also ended a few folds ago. Darius bit the fabric and continued, eyes open, but without seeing anything other than the symbols in his mind, slowly writing them into existence.

Suddenly Darius jolted and woke up. The morning bird had woken him. Darius cursed and hesitantly began to meditate, only to find out that the folds had already been connected like a spiderweb, thus ending the second rank of cultivation.

Darius laughed. “Bloody hell, 57 folds total, I might have died.”

He grunted and started eating dry meat and sipping the final slash of water left in the final bottle. Then he rested a bit more before meditating, this time only to heal his body.

After the day ended and moonlight danced into the view from the entrance, Darius heaved himself up. He left an empty bag behind the stone shelf and started walking towards the sewers. After a long journey, he resurfaced nearby his new building. He was greeted joyously by his knight Trewan.

“Hello master, I lost to Jurid again, so here I am guarding at the front.” Smirked Trewan. Then he hesitantly looked closer to Darius and lost his composure. “The holy mother of god, what has happened to you? You look like a skeleton now. Sit here!” Trewan hurriedly looked around and yelled guards of the house to help Darius in.

Darius woke once again without remembering where he was. The brightness was too much, and he feared someone might have opened the damn stone slab door. He went up fast and tried to get his dagger, only to realize he was standing on his bed. Elvira entered the room immediately, “Master, are you awake? How are you, don’t move so much. You have to rest.” With scaled arms, Elvira forced Darius to go back to rest. While she was getting food, Darius looked at his hands. They were skeletal and white like a moon. Still, he felt somehow stronger, albeit tired.

After receiving milk with onions and pieced bread with honey, Elvira started telling Darius the situation of each store and troops. “While you were gone, we had to solve the issue of new slaves. Currently, Jurid has been in charge of guards and soldier slaves and mission groups while I have dealt with your stores and businesses with lord Lumbert.”

“Thank you, Elvira; remember to give everyone money for the effort. How long was I out?”

“It has been over three weeks, Darius”, said Elvira hesitantly and ever so slightly terrifyingly.