[Replication Cooldown: 6 days, 23 hours, 19 minutes remaining]
Bastard!
Looking at the system screen which shows the cooldown time of the system until when Ian couldn't use the system's ability to copy talents, he cursed.
Not for the cooldown since he had hypothesized it before, because of which he tried to play safe by securing a healing-type talent before, instead of some combat-oriented one.
He is cursing the system for the experience he had gone through before during the talent merge... the creepy feeling and the feeling of helplessness that originated with it...
"I don't want to experience it ever again!"
Just remembering about the event is enough for Ian to shiver with fear because of how scary and painful it was.
But I can't also just cower with fear, can I?
He may be a bit cowardly, but he isn't an idiot who wouldn't use this amazing system to get stronger and live the life of luxury he always aspired to live.
Still wearing his high school uniform, which was reeking out a bad odor due to his own sweat, Ian slumped down and sat on the ground while holding a kitchen knife.
Grabbing the end of the sharp blade, Ian tightly shut his eyes while taking deep breaths. Mustering all the courage he has, he pulled out the knife with great force while still holding the sharp edge, causing a cut on his left palm.
"Ugh..."
Tightly shutting his lips, he didn't let out any scream as he let go of the bloody knife he was holding while tightly clenching his left hand. Tears formed in his eyes, threatening to spill out because of the pain he was experiencing, but he didn't let them slip past his eyes as he looked around the floor, which was covered with blood drops.
As he shut his hands tightly, he could feel the familiar feeling of mana surging in his body, converted by his mana heart, flowing slowly towards his hands.
The blood that was spilling out began to quickly stop as the clots began to form, stopping any more blood from spilling, filling his wound.
"HahahaHaHAHAHA..."
A feeble laugh followed by a crazy laugh erupted from Ian's mouth as he looked at his palm that he just cut himself, slowly healing at a pace visible to the naked eye with an abnormally high rate for a normal human, while the sweat began to form on his forehead and the feeling of fatigue began to set in as he used his mana.
[Name: Ian Crown]
[Rank: ... ]
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[Talents: Map(D), SerpentineRenewal (E)]
[Cooldown: 6 days, 23 hours, 17 minutes remaining"]
[Talent Upgrade Cards (Myth)]
[Talent ...]
***
"{WARNING ⚠️: INFO DUMP!}"
"That was crazy."
Looking at his left palm that now had a bandage wrapper around it, Ian muttered to himself as he recalled how he just cut his own hand.
Did I go insane from that torture or what?
Ian didn't know why he did that to himself, but he just wanted to check out his new talent immediately, but... He could have just pricked his finger a little to check it out, but why the hell did he cut himself like a madman?
The thought of lightly pricking his skin did enter his brain, but he doesn't know why he just went ahead and cut his hand like that...
Did I catch some main character syndrome after getting the system? Trying to do something foolish like that?
Ian laughed as he thought, but at the end he just concluded it's his crazy side acting up...
"But this system is really amazing, isn't it?"
In just a few minutes, it was able to implant a new talent in Ian. Isn't this just insane? Though the system has a cooldown of a whole week, which is really short in Ian's opinion because of how truly broken this ability of copying talent can get, but since it's favoring him, why would he complain about low cooldown time?
"If I ain't wrong, there are 52 weeks in a year, aren't there? Then doesn't that mean that I can gain 52 talents within a year if I use the system to its fullest?"
But the process is really painful! But as the saying goes: no pain, no gain! I shouldn't bitch about it I guess
Ian winced as he recalled the pain but just accepted it as a necessary process before proceeding to check out his status once again where the system mentioned his name, rank, talents, and the items the system provided him with.
There are various ranks in the world of sorcerers, but because he hadn't stepped his foot in the world of sorcerers yet, Ian isn't ranked amongst them and is still a normal human with no rank at all.
The system can show Ian his basic status, which includes his name and rank, along with his talents like any system, but can only show talents of others and not their information.
Moving next, Ian checked at his talents where the new addition of Serpentine Renewal was mentioned.
A talent which provides the possessor with accelerated healing, a minor regenerative ability in exchange for vast amounts of mana.
This talent is quite good by its effect but also demands a lot of mana.
As mentioned before, everyone in this world, be them possessing talents or not, is capable of becoming sorcerers; it's because of this mana.
Mana is a kind of energy which fuels all supernatural capabilities in the world and is present everywhere in the world.
Everything, be it living or not, possesses mana in them and living beings are ones who are evolved to be able to manipulate mana for their own gain through a special organ they are born with, Mana Heart.
All living beings possess mana heart, including monsters and humans. In monsters, these are called mana cores, while for humans, it is called mana heart that is present inside the very heart of humans.
It's an organ that develops in the embryo itself but matures when humans reach puberty... The greater one's talent and affinity to mana, the faster it develops in humans and matures.
The geniuses have their mana hearts matured by the age of 12 or 13, while average humans have their mana heart mature at the age of 16. Ian had his mana heart mature at the age of 15, making him more in a category of above average but still not a genius.
The function of mana heart is simple: to convert the energy available for conscious use in human's body to mana that can fuel talents and other supernatural abilities, making humans capable of becoming sorcerers and performing astonishing feats impossible to comprehend by just normal logic.
This is the only function of mana heart and once it matures it makes humans capable of sensing mana and manipulating it as they wish, while having those with dormant talents capable of using them.
"The source of mana in human's body is related to the energy stored in the human body and their stamina..."
For this reason, most of the sorcerers are either health conscious, working out to improve their stamina, or fat, who store a lot of energy in the form of fat in their body which breaks down in the body because of various processes and then is converted into mana by the mana heart.
For the past 3 years since Ian has awakened, he has been constantly training his body, increasing his stamina to increase the output his body can support by working out or using Map a lot, like a lot of youths who all aspire to be sorcerers.
Serpentine Renewal is a very demanding talent for mana unlike Map, but I guess that's because of the talent being so low ranked.
The low-ranking talents have poor mana efficiency and require a lot of mana compared to higher-ranking variants of them that can do the same job with a lot lesser amounts.
As Ian pondered, he looked at the final things the system displays to him about, the talent upgrade cards he had gotten from the system...
"Since I've gone through so much for this idea of mine... let's just follow it to the end."
[Do you wish to use 'Talent Upgrade Card (Myth)']
Yes!
Ian said yes without hesitation as he used the talent upgrade card followed by which the card appeared in reality shining with a bright divine light illuminating his dark apartment before it burst into pieces entering Ian's body, which shone brightly as the divine warmth spread throughout his body.
It is so comForTabl~
That was the last thought Ian had in his mind before his consciousness faded away for the much-needed sleep that just royally screwed him over.