The process for doing so was strikingly similar to the techniques that had been envisioned within certain fictional works back on Earth, based on Eastern mythologies. In those works, the beings using those techniques were called cultivators, and there was no similar terminology here, but the methods were almost exactly the same, and now that he was thinking about it, so was the means of increasing one’s mana core. The whole concept of a core was one of the key parts of cultivation, and Jonathan briefly wondered whether there was some sort of underlying premise behind the whole of existence, in his universe and in others like this one.
The presence of two universes indicated that there were others as well, and once one was there, logically speaking, who knew how many more there were? There could be only those two, or perhaps there were dozens, thousands, even millions of universes floating in the void. Perhaps the number went beyond counting, a near infinite number of planes. Perhaps it even was infinite. That was a question for Edgar however, as the man likely knew a lot more about this universe than he did, seeing as he had lived in Telvaria. For now though, Jonathan had other concerns.
The next few days passed in the blink of an eye as Jonathan slowly made headway on his various skills. He was able to increase his elemental mastery by another point in that time, as well as coming to the brink of Journeyman Rank with all of his central pathway skills. Truesight had taken a lot of work to reach that level, but it was worth it in the end.
His eyes were strained from constantly pouring Divinity into it, but he has discovered that actually using his Basic Truesight skill ended up giving him more experience within his skill towards the next rank. After discovering that little technique, he had been able to bring it up to the very edge of Journeyman Rank.
The only thing he needed now was to finalize the breakthroughs to the next rank, which would increase his total bonus points by an appreciable amount. With an extra fifteen points per rank up, he would have gained the equivalent of multiple levels from his exertion. However, that was easier said than done.
Before he began, Jonathan decided to poke his head out of the cave and see if there was anything that needed his attention in the outside world. Edgar had stopped attacking the rockface about a day ago, and was meditating on the nature of his elemental power in a far corner of the cave. The little city that had sprang up around the cave was at odds with the spartan nature of Jonathan’s training retreat, but then he remembered that yet again he was coming close to the essence of those cultivation novels back on Earth. One of the other common tropes in it was that people would leave the wider world behind for extended amounts of time, and would meditate on the meaning of life, or some other sort of introspective musing, and would further their connection to their own power. That was surprisingly similar to what Jonathan and Edgar were doing. In any case, that hardly mattered.
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Jonathan made his way down the mountainside, and noticed that the city looked even more populated than it had before. It was almost as if more people had flocked to his banner. Upon seeing a multitude of unfamiliar faces, he was sure of this. His enhanced memory was nearly eidetic, at least for visual things, and he could tell that none of these people had been here before. His memory for pieces of knowledge was not as perfect, but it was still better than it had been on Earth.
In any case, this increase in population was a boon to his faction, but also a possible curse, as the sudden exodus of thousands from the cities of the Ash Heaps would bring the glare of Granath down on them. In addition, the footprints of that many travelers in the ash would not be easily removed by the wind. One way or another, the forces of Granath would be coming, and this city would need to be ready.
Jonathan decided to meet up with the woman who had passed the faction to him, and try to figure out some sort of defense plan. Alana was nowhere to be found however, and he had to ask one of the passersby where he could find her. The man gave him a wordless stare, and pointed towards the center of the city, towards an oblong building that looked to be some sort of city hall. The man looked to be half out of his head with fear and awe, and Jonathan realized that even with his aura retracted, there was still a field of palpable power hovering around him.
With a sigh, he tightened in his aura even more, and found that it made his presence almost indistinguishable to those around him. Not in terms of simply seeing him, but nobody gave him more than a second glance as a result of his aura. Of course, they all gave him one anyway. He was their honored one after all, whatever that meant.
Jonathan made his way towards the city hall, keeping his speed down for the benefit of the citizens. The winds that his top speed could produce would be very distressing for people barely stronger than peak human level.
He reached the city hall about a minute later, and walked into the clearly unfinished building. It was made out of the same stone as everything else, perhaps it was time for him to stop making observations on that, and only some of it was polished. He could hear raised voices from inside, some feminine and some masculine, and could tell that something was going down in there. Perhaps it was just politics, or perhaps it was something else. In any case, he did not really care. He was technically the ruler of this city after all.