Timothy was absolutely baffled by the fact that he leveled up his mana quality, in mere seconds, without suffering the immense pain that typically came with these upgrades! He didn’t know what to think about it, he did have a flash-upgrade upgrade before, at the library of Rempegana and it too was amazing, but getting flash upgrades at these higher levels was priceless! He was beyond happy.
The system noticed his accelerating heartbeat, so after a moment, she described. [Flash upgrades like this are inevitable, on the occasion where your mana pool receives such great quantities. Your mana pool adjusts itself, so as to not to disrupt this ongoing flow of mana that you're receiving, it's very useful. This is mother nature's part of making up for the ‘punishment’ that the average ascending mage goes through, so relax, and let the mana roots do their thing. Please do not tighten your anus any more than you already have, because that can disrupt the flow.]
“Right,” He muttered, and did as he was told.
Sure enough, he kept receiving mana, tons of it, so another flash upgrade was inevitable! Tim's new mana pool might take a bit more time to fill, because it could fit a lot more points now, but he wasn’t worried about that. The points kept on coming!
[+2,302 mana points]
[+1,754 mana points]
[+523 mana points]
[+3,005 mana points]
The root he stabbed had plenty to give, however, he noticed that sometimes he got less points than average, and that was likely because Arvena's pool was overlapping in his territory, and took those extra points. She had a bigger hole in her stomach to fill, and she was going to level up sooner or later as well, so surely, she needed a lot of points.
Paired with the fact that Ortana was laying on the same root patch as him, overlaps were bound to happen often! He didn’t have a say.
Tim didn’t mind this, as there were plenty of points to go around. He wasn't greedy with them. The root arm in front of him had almost halved in size, and that was a bit discouraging, but each root had at least five arms on them, so once one of them depleted, he could just poke the other. Today, the team might as well become godly, he fully expected to be that powerful!
Anyway, the system helped Tim track the progress. She had put a little point counter at the corner of his other eye, and this helped him figure out how close the following flash upgrade was. He got a little bit more excited every time he saw the point counter go up, and rightfully so, because this was a once in a lifetime opportunity! It was pure, dumb luck!
[Bubonic mana pool = 45,305/100,000]
It may take a few more seconds until his mana pool filled up, however, as he was looking at the pool's name, he couldn’t help but contemplate. In this context, it seemed like a really weird thing to use as a name.
“Bubonic, huh?” Tim remarked, “I had to deal with bubonic bastards twice before, and both of them could've killed me. I know that it wasn't you that named this level, system, but it's still a pretty weird name. I don’t like it.”
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[There is a sort of symbolism behind this name. This level is called bubonic, because it's dominant, much like the bubonic plague. At this level, you can even challenge a person who's at the early stages of the following, Fintelus’ Apprentices Realm of mana, and you could end up winning, regardless of the differences between your realms! With this level, you can dominate!] The system explained, as thoroughly as she could.
“That's a shame, then. I could've used this level ever since I fucking stepped foot in Valporovus. It would have spared me the headache.” He sighed.
Anyway, while the two of them had this little conversation, Tim's mana pool was already filled up, it was filled to the very brim, and it was ready to pop!
A blink later, a huge, blue glow erupted around Timothy! It covered his body entirely, and the glow was strong enough to blind a person, if one accidentally looked at its direction!
Within the deep darkness of the sea floor, this glow lit up his surroundings thoroughly! It even reached up to the other patch of roots, where Arvena, and Skendus were harvesting at. It was official, he experienced another flash upgrade, and this was the greatest upgrade of all, because he finally crossed the God's Punishment Realm of mana!
Moments later, Ortana released the same light as him! Skendus too! The three of them were at the same level, so it wasn’t a surprise how they progressed all at the same time!
Once the light died down, they noticed a weird mark on the front of their wrists, right where their vital veins were. This mark looked a lot like a fresh tattoo, and it was the drawing of a cracked, human skull, and at first this made them panic, because they thought that they were marked for death again or something like that, but that was not the case.
To catch everyone's attention, Arvena yelled out. “Don’t mind the skull, it's not a mark of death, but rather, it's a stamp. This stamp confirms that you've crossed the God's Punishment Realm of mana! Congratulations!” She yelled out, and she was truly happy for them, she even felt entitled to tell them what their new realm was called.
“You’re in the Fintelus’ Apprentices Realm of mana now!” She exclaimed.
The team was very happy to be part of this realm, they were especially happy that they reached this realm in mere minutes, without feeling even a little bit of pain! This was the greatest, dumb luck they ever experienced!
Their day couldn't get any better than this, however, entering an entirely new realm of mana also had its disadvantages! As a start, the pool demanded a lot more mana in order for it to be filled, more mana then the three of them ever imagined, but that wasn’t the main disadvantage.
The main disadvantage was that after these roots dried out, the three of them would only be able to generate five-hundred mana points per hour, in a natural manner! This was a significant drop of natural regeneration! Their powers were a bit weaker as well, and they'll continue to be weaker, until these folks reach level three in mana quality, in this new realm!
This was the main difference between someone with level-eight mana from the God's Punishment Realm, and someone with level-one mana from Fintelus’ Apprentices Realm. The first, would almost always beat the second in a battle, because Bubonic Mana (level eight) was far more domineering in comparison, it was superior within that specific power bracket!
[Congratulations on entering the Fintelus’ Apprentices Realm of mana!] The system beeped, and then she further specified. [Your mana quality is at level one now, on the count that entering a new realm is also considered to be a bit of a reset, or a readjustment. Level one is otherwise known as Silver Mana, and its associated mana pool demands great amounts of content if it's to be filled. Throughout this level, you'll only be able to regenerate five-hundred points of mana by yourself. Good luck!]
[22,015/250,000] The point counter showed, and although this pool was massive, it was obvious that he didn't start from zero here. The latter helped him feel a bit better.
Nevertheless, Tim was getting really nervous, because if the first level demanded this much mana, he was scared to imagine how much the other levels would ask for! These eighteen, whole roots of mana may not be able to feed them team for long!