Dawn had recently arrived, and Zane was sitting in a tree outside of the shelter. His eyes were closed, and he had a smile on his face as he immersed himself in his memories. When he remembered Teacher Isabelle’s face Zane’s heart rate and body temperature increased. He immersed himself in the warmth of his memories until he recalled the pain from the rock Teacher threw at him.
With a shake of his head Zane cleared his mind and returned to the present. Once Zane increased his Mana Control and Mana Manipulation skill to the max level, he left the mage training ground. He traveled to the shelter because he thought it would be the best place to upgrade his tier.
The forest wasn’t the safest place for Zane to upgrade his tier. The private rooms of a training ground or a random spot in the starting village would be much safer. However, Zane didn’t feel like upgrading his tier in the starting village. He felt a call from the forest, a place that he spent the majority of his younger years in.
Although Zane knew he was less safe in the forest, the thought didn’t cause any disturbance in his mind. Instead, he felt calmer and more confident about the upgrade he was about to go through. He was so confident that he didn’t even feel the need to ask his friends to protect him. He definitely didn’t forget to ask because he was too enthralled with the memory of Teacher Isabelle’s appearance.
“Since the system doesn’t force people into the forest at night nobody stayed near the shelter.” Zane spoke to himself as he looked down at the vacant forest floor around the tree. “With nobody around I should be able to go through my upgrade without being interrupted. This does seem extremely stupid, but I’m sure everything will work out well.”
Taking a final deep breath Zane began to upgrade his tier. There were multiple ways for Zane to begin his upgrade. He could focus on his desire for greater strength, focus on upgrading his class on his status page or simply ask the system. Zane chose the third option.
“System, I would like to upgrade my tier.”
Calculating the mana needed for the upgrade. Surrounding mana is of sufficient quantity and quality. Individual has met the requirements to upgrade to the next tier. It is recommended to enter a safe location before beginning the upgrade. Would you like to begin your upgrade?
Yes, or No?
Upgrade will begin in 10 seconds. 9, 8, 7 …
As the system counted down Zane could feel the surrounding mana starting to surge toward his body. Zane closed his eyes and enjoyed the sensation as the system continued to count down. When the system finally reached zero it announced that his upgrade had begun.
Opening his eyes Zane saw that he was back at the same place he received his first class. As he stood on the multicolored circle of light, Zane looked up and smiled at the bright points of light in the darkness. Zane immersed himself in the pleasant feeling brought by the unique mana that could only be found there. He enjoyed the pleasant feeling for a brief moment and then refocused his mind on his upgrade.
For a person to upgrade their tier they must first upgrade their class. The class would be a guide that would help an individual form their source field. Since Zane had already created a tier one meditation art, he could technically skip upgrading his class. However, Zane would not and could not do this.
Teacher Isabelle had taught Zane many things, but she did not teach him how to form a source field. If Zane was to make the attempt without any support and guidance from his upgraded class, he would be successful, but his source field would be much weaker. Therefore, it was in his best interest to upgrade his class first. But before he upgraded his class, he wanted to upgrade his race.
It was recommended for people to upgrade their race and their class at the same time. The energy used to initiate the upgrade connected Zane to this unique space and allowed him to use the unique mana it contained. Instead of gathering mana in the outside world to upgrade his race, Zane could use the mana in the unique space he was currently in. The unique mana would make the upgrade easier and faster than it would have been in the outside world.
The strange part about upgrading his race in the unique space was that his body wasn’t actually there. Zane didn’t know why or how the mana in the unique space was able to affect his body. He asked Teacher Isabelle why it was possible, but she didn’t give him an explanation. She only encouraged him to upgrade his race when he upgraded his tier.
Zane sat down on the multicolored circle and started absorbing the unique mana which gave him a pleasant feeling. He felt his body eagerly took in the unique mana at rapid pace. His body was similar to a starving man that had finally received a proper meal. Zane knew this was because the quality of mana in the unique space was superior to the mana outside. It was like comparing food cooked by a talented chef to the food cooked by an ignorant child. Eventually, his body felt full, and he couldn’t absorb any more mana.
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Congratulations! You have met the requirements to upgrade your race do you wish to proceed? Yes or No
There are three different races that you can upgrade to. The Evil Human Ⅲ race the Righteous Human Ⅲ race and the Human Ⅲ race.
Race: Evil Human Ⅲ
Description: A race driven by their desires for personal growth and enjoyment. The evil energy that exists within this race demands they follow their desires regardless of how it effects the world around them. If they try to resist their desires the evil energy will erupt and cause a backlash.
Rewards: Evil energy will increase this race’s strength when they are pursuing their desires. The more resistance this race faces when pursuing their desire, the more support they receive from their evil energy.
50% increase in CP, +4 to all stats and +8 free stat points per level
Race: Righteous Human Ⅲ
Description: A race driven by their desires to protect and nurture the world around them. The more they follow their desires the stronger their righteous energy is. The less they follow their desires the weaker their righteous energy is.
Reward: Righteous energy is capable of increasing this races strength when they face something they consider harmful or negative.
50% increase in CP, +4 to all stats and +8 free stat points per level.
Race: Human Ⅲ
Description: A race capable of surviving despite having no abilities or traits that would help them do so. The race continues to develop based on the knowledge hardships and contributions of each member. Their lack of innate abilities allows them to pursue endless paths and learn anything.
Reward: An increase in sensitivity to the world around them. Increases the effectiveness of the comprehension stat.
100% increase in CP, +4 to all stats and +8 free stat points per level
After Zane mentally said yes to proceeding to upgrade his race, he opened up the three options that were available for him to upgrade to. He already knew what race he would upgrade to and was only giving the other two options a cursory look. Teacher Isabelle had already advised him to continue as a human unless he had the opportunity to create a race of his own. Zane had absolute trust in Teacher and initially planned to upgrade to a Human Ⅲ. However, he began to hesitate after he read the description for Evil Human Ⅲ.
Becoming an evil human would provide Zane with a lot of help as he pursued his dream of becoming the greatest weapon master. Zane desire toward weapons was very strong. He had no doubt that he would receive a significant increase in his strength if he were to become an evil human.
Upgrading my race to the Evil Human Ⅲ doesn’t seem terrible, Zane thought to himself. It provides me with more strength without having the tedious requirements that the Righteous Human Ⅲ has. It can probably improve my comprehension as well if I focus on my desires while training. It really does seem like the best choice. It will probably help me with defeating any combat masters I face. If my weapons are strong enough, I can rely on the evil energy to give me the power I need to win.
Evil Human Ⅲ had a description and rewards that were very tempting to Zane. He was extremely close to choosing the Evil Human Ⅲ as the race he would upgrade. However, his final inner thought made him completely reject this race.
Weapon Masters relied on their weapons. If Zane chose the Evil Human Ⅲ as his race, then he would become very reliant on evil energy instead of the weapons by his side. Zane gave the race one final look before he selected Human Ⅲ.
Once Zane selected the Human Ⅲ race the unique mana in the surroundings surged into his body. Zane’s body let him know it deeply desired the surrounding mana and he did his best to satisfy his bodies desire. The process seemed similar to his absorption of energy when he first arrived in the unique space. However, the intention and the effects of the absorption were completely different.
The requirements for upgrading the human race were a certain number of stat points and for the body to be nourished by energy. Zane had met the stat requirements before he entered the unique space, but he only met the energy requirements when he absorbed the mana in the unique space. During the absorption, Zane felt a pleasant sensation as his body was given the energy it needed to become stronger.
Now that Zane was upgrading his race the pleasant sensation became painful. Upgrading his race required nurturing and tempering. Nurturing provided the body with energy and tempering used that energy to let the body reach a higher level. It was similar to filling a bowl with liquid and then using that liquid to increase the quality of the bowl. However, this liquid could not be activated on its own.
In order to activate the liquid for improving the bowl an outside form of energy was needed. This was the same for Zane’s body. He was utilizing the mana in the unique space to activate the energy for tempering his body.
Zane closed his eyes and endured the painful sensation brought on by the tempering his body was going through. He felt his muscles split apart and come back together. He felt his blood reach temperature below freezing before rising to an incredibly high temperature. His mind pounded and it felt like his head was about to split open. Every part of his body was sending signal of pain as he went through his upgrade.
Upgrading his race was extremely painful, but the mana in the unique space provided Zane with relief whenever he felt like he was about to collapse. This was another reason why Teacher Isabelle suggested he upgrade his race with his tier. Outside of the unique space Zane would have been knocked unconscious for a day or longer from the pain. The only other option would be for him to take a potion to sleep while his body went through the painful changes.
In fact, Zane would love to have a sleeping potion for his upgrade. Teacher Isabelle said that it would be beneficial for him to upgrade his race without one, but he was starting to think she lied. She probably said that so he would go through the upgrade and temper his tolerance for pain.
Whether she lied or not no longer mattered. Zane’s only option now was to grit his teeth, that had broken and reformed multiple times, while he endured the pain. The pain continued to echo through Zane’s body for an hour and then suddenly it stopped.