Cecil was exhilarated as he traveled through the road at super high speeds. If this was back on Earth, his current movement speed could rival a modern car traveling on a freeway. He was currently breaking the known limits of humankind on Alterna as he travelled using just his body alone at a top speed of almost 100 km/h. He really had to thank her foster mother for this. The items that Anna left for him inside his White Ring really helped him.

The items inside the ring had cured him of the constant pain he was feeling in his arms and amplified the speed of his mana circulating through the Mana Pathways in his arms. There was a written document in the ring that perfectly described why this was happening. It was the Mana Circuits that had now fully formed in his arms.

His previous reckless use of Mana had pushed the Mana Pathways inside his arms to their absolute limits and luckily, he didn't cripple himself but instead managed to transform and evolve his Mana Pathways into a higher state, a state currently known as Mana Circuits.

Cecil had no prior knowledge to this so he only thought that the pain was actually some internal injury of sorts. To his surprise it was only his pathways that were currently undergoing an evolution to a higher form. The document also pertained the many functions and advantages of having a Mana Circuit along with how one could obtain said circuit.

The prerequisite of cultivating Mana Circuits was to first reach the Perfected Stage in Mana Cultivation, but for some reason, due to his unique physique, he was able to skip all this and directly cultivate the Mana Circuits. He welcomed this, since now that he had these Mana Circuits, his efficiency and output of mana was much higher than it was previously. The only downside was that he had the Mana Circuits in only his arms and not on every part of his body. He still needed to cultivate his other mana pathways and transform them into circuits, but this was going to be a little bit hard to do if the trigger to their evolution was constantly overloading his Mana Pathways until they evolved.

If he did it thoughtlessly, there was a chance that he might cripple his Mana Pathways instead of triggering their evolution. He needed to be cautious, but Cecil was pretty giddy with excitement since he finally found a way to improve his strength.

Since he already knew the most direct method of cultivating his Mana Pathways into Mana Circuits, all he had to do was implement them into this training regimen which was what he was currently doing at the moment. He was forcing a lot of mana into his Mana Pathways in his legs while carefully regulating just how much mana was being used, so he wouldn't accidentally injure himself.

His next target for evolution were the pathways in his legs because it would balance out the imbalance he currently had between his upper body and lower body. Once he finished evolving the pathways in his legs, only then would he start with the pathways in the rest of his body.

The training did hurt his legs and cause them to bulge and ache, but he gritted his teeth and continued. As the saying goes, 'No pain, no gain'. He wasn't about to stop himself just because his body was hurting.

Cecil hoped that by the time he reached his destination, his Mana Pathways in his legs would have either evolved or he had at least triggered their evolution process. He didn't forget to take the medicine that helped heal his pathways which he got as a gift from his foster mother. The medicine acted as a catalyst that spurred the evolution, if he didn't have it, it would've likely taken a month or two before his Mana Circuits fully evolved.

"I should craft a beautiful rune engraving necklace for foster mother... she'll absolutely love it. I should ask Lucia when foster mother's birthday is so I can give it to her as a present!"

On the road, Cecil would sometimes see campsites on the sides of the road. As he passed by these campsites, he would kick up a large amount of wind which somewhat startled the people at the camps. He didn't feel tired yet so he kept pushing onwards.

*****

It was only until noon the next day that Cecil arrived at his destination. He was somewhat exhausted from traveling all night, so his current objective right now after arriving at the town closest to his trial's objective, was to medidate and sleep at the town's inn for a few hours.

After he was fully rested, he woke up around the evening and quickly had dinner before setting off for his trial's objective. His trial required him to collect an earth-source magic stone of any grade from the Liyan Mining Valley.

The Liyan Mining Valley was an abandoned mining site that was overdriven by a super large-scale monster tide many years ago. The kingdom had always wanted to clear the valley of the monsters, but unfortunately before they could do so, it had turned into a dungeon.

It was pretty regrettable for the Kingdom, but now adventurers had another place of convenience to earn a quick buck. The place was a popular sight since many adventurer commissions kept rolling in from the nearby Magic City and Dwarven Tribes that kept requesting for source stones, unique ores found in the mines or for an escort into the dungeon.

Cecil arrived at the valley's entrance and saw that it was bustling with activity, even when it was this late into the day. To find or mine an earth-source magic stone, one needed to head deep down into the dungeon's 10th floor. It was a good thing that this particular dungeon wasn't a floor type, but a field type. The mining valley had shafts that led deep down to the last floor of the mining site, which was the 10th floor.

For Cecil, this was good news since he could just rush down to the 10th floor and not have to explore each floor's area to look for the stairs that led to the next floor. Just as he was about to head into the valley, a party of adventurers called out to him.

"Hey! Hey!"

"..?"

He turned towards the person who seemed to be calling out to him and saw someone waving at him.

"Hey! You're the Silent Sword right?!"

His title was called out, so he knew that it was indeed him who the person was calling out for. He remained standing in place and waited for the party to come up to him, not saying anything in return. He had to continue role-playing his character, and he was in too deep now to just suddenly stop.

"Ah! You really are the Silent Sword!"

Stolen story; please report.

Cecil nodded in response to the question.

"Haha! Just like your name, you sure are silent!"

Cecil didn't have any particular response to this and just stared back at the person. The one calling out to him was a young teenaged tigerkin girl who seemed to be a warrior judging by her attire and the weapon that she was using, an axe and shield that was strapped to her back. The other party members were 2 tigerkin and another 2 catkin, making it 5 people in total with the tigerkin girl in front of Cecil.

"So, Silent Sword, what're you doing here? By the way, where's the Inferno Witch?" The girl began looking around when she couldn't find Lucia. To the adventurer guilds near Angla City, it was common knowledge that these two were an inseparable pair so it was weird seeing Cecil alone.

Cecil shook his head before pointing at the valley. The tigerkin seemed to understand what he was saying and she only nodded her head.

"Alone I see. You still remember us don't you?"

Cecil only responded with a negative shake of his head.

"Ah...figures... Anyways, a while back, you and the Witch helped us during a pinch! It doesn't matter if you forgot, but we won't!"

Cecil nodded again.

"My name's Jena! This is Earl, Lemy, Antia, and Milla! It's an honor to finally make your acquaintance, Silent Sword Cecil!"

Cecil nodded to each and every one of the party as a form of acknowledgement, then he gestured that he would be heading into the valley.

"Ah wait! You won't mind teaming up with us for a bit? We'd like to properly express our thanks! We can help you finish your quest!"

Cecil looked back at them and pondered for a moment before nodding his head in affirmative. He didn't know the structure of the mine and valley, so having a guide would help. Jena's party cheered when they obtained Cecil's approval and they began preparing to go back into the valley.

After their preparations were ready, Jena returned to Cecil and asked, "So, which floor are you heading to?"

Cecil raised a finger and made a circle with his other hand.

"The 10th floor? Are you looking for an earth-source magic stones?"

Cecil nodded in response.

"Alright, we can immediately take you down! We've been very active in the mines lately, so we know the ins and outs of the place! We'll guide you through the most efficient way down to the 10th floor!"

Cecil once again nodded, this time to express his thanks. After their interaction, the group quickly made their way into the valley and thanks to Jena's party's guidance, Cecil was able to arrive at the mines area very quickly. On the way, they encountered other parties and some monsters which Cecil promptly took care of. He was training the Mana Pathways in his legs, so when he activated Mana Burst, he focused the skill's activation on his legs.

He quickly took care of any monster in the party's path using only his legs to attack. With each circulation of his liquefied mana coursing through his mana pathways, he felt the pain and aching become stronger and stronger. It felt just like how it did for his arms. All he needed to do was endure until the mana no longer began to leak out of his pathways. Once that happened, he would take the potions his foster mother had given him to help heal and speed up the evolution of his pathways into circuits.

'Crap... it's painful, but there's no way I'm turning back now! I'll make sure all the pathways in my body turn into Mana Circuits! Until then...I can only endure...'

Cecil gritted his teeth and resolved himself to face the coming pain. After his legs, there were still the other Mana Pathways in the other parts of his body like his torso and abdomen area. Let's also not forget the most dangerous part, the pathways in his head. It was going to be a grueling path ahead of him, but he welcomed it since it was currently his only visible way of getting stronger.

If he was at the Perfected Mana Stage, his body would've already formed pseudo Mana Circuits and all he needed to do was transform his pathways slowly instead of forcibly doing it like he was right now. That was the proper way and he wouldn't be subjected to the torturous pain that he was currently going through from skipping the steps if he followed the correct procedures.

Cecil really was getting ahead of himself by doing this, but he didn't care. As long as it was a plausible way of getting stronger, he didn't mind withstanding the pain, no matter how extreme it was. Anna already knew his character which was why she had provided him the documents regarding the Mana Circuits along with the medicine to help catalyze and speed up the upgrade process.

With that in mind, Cecil continued with his training and powered through every monster in his way until he and his temporary party finally arrived at the mines area. Although the rest of his party wanted to go forward and help, Cecil was constantly flashing and flickering around the battle field and quickly dispatching the monsters long before his party members could even begin attacking. This caused Jena and everyone else to sigh in amazement at how incredibly strong he was.

Despite being amazed, Jena and the others still wanted to pull their own weight, so when they finally had a small break just before entering the mines, Jena walked over to Cecil and said, "Silent Sword... we could help too if you give us the chance."

Cecil only responded with a shake of his head, indicating that he didn't need help and wanted them to just stay back. Although Cecil reasoned that it was fine to hire them as guides for his trial, the trial did say that he couldn't receive any help from others, which he interpreted as help from defeating monsters. So, he made sure to clear all of the monsters in his way all by himself without letting Jena and her party step in.

He grunted at Jena before turning around and walking into the mines. Jena shook her head and shrugged before returning to her party.

"Looks like Silent Sword won't need our help, but we'll still give him a hand if the monsters prove to be too much for him later!"

"Alright."

"Yes."

They didn't really question Cecil's decision, but there probably was some kind of reason that he had to do things himself. It was pretty hard to hold a conversation with someone who only communicated with nods and grunts, so Jena couldn't question Cecil even further and ask for the specific reason why he wasn't letting them help out.

"Let's catch up with him."