[ The Third ‘Aura Ring’ has been condensed. ]
‘It’s finally over.’
Now that Damian went through the process a second time, he confirmed that trying his best to split the ring wasn’t needed.
During the process, the already split rings joined together once again, but this time, he only had to initiate the splitting before everything happened on its own once his Aura hit 30 points!
Just like that, the rejoined Ring split into two again, revealing one more Ring in between!
[ ‘Platinum Aura Nurturing’ has reached Tier-3. ]
‘It’s like having a perfect night of sleep.’
The pain was definitely a strong deterrent, but once the suffering ended, Damian was overcome by a delightful sensation.
Despite being hungry and exhausted from running around all day long, Damian felt well-rested and invigorated. Even his stomach felt full to an ideal level. Everything was just right.
Unfortunately, that sublime feeling didn’t last for long. After Damian barely savored it for a minute, the exhaustion started seeping back in. Only the satisfied stomach remained the same.
‘I suppose absorbing ‘Life’ counts as eating.’
Although this was the first time Damian experienced this, he could only guess that some of the energy blobs slipped away.
Initially, the heart and the lone Ring were like starved beasts that greedily ate everything they were served, but Damian felt a change of momentum this time around.
While the process may have started fast, the magnetic pull calmed down as the Aura Points kept piling up. Perhaps the Stones’ last content wasn’t enough to raise Aura any further so it was discarded.
‘Wait a second… If this truly suffices as a daily meal.’
In the beginning, Damian was just contemplating an interesting observation, but if his full stomach wasn’t just a sensational illusion, he might have just discovered the solution to his greatest fear yet, starving to death!
After all, even with such a cheat like Respawn, dying from starvation wasn’t necessarily a problem that could be solved.
This wasn’t really a true Labyrinth in the puzzling sense. There weren’t that many branches to most paths that Damian went through.
Starving basically meant that there was no more food in the Labyrinth or that it was too far away to reach. At that point, death meant going back to when he had few food reserves and going through the whole starvation cycle on repeat.
Worst case scenario, Damian might even have to eat the Goblins despite their likely disgusting taste and their non-existent nutritional value. Even then, his death could only be delayed rather than avoided.
‘The future might not be so dark after all.’
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On the other hand, while using a Life Stone for anything other than Aura Nurturing might feel like a waste at the moment, everything’s worth was bound to the ongoing circumstances.
if one Life Stone could substitute for a few days’ worth of meals, then it wasn’t a bad bargain to consider in the undetermined future.
Regrettably, Life Stones were too rare of a resource to experiment with now, but in times of desperation, Damian now knew what he would turn to first!
It was the most expensive option, but anything was better than attempting to ingest green meat!
‘More importantly…’
[ Mission Subject Status Window(Possessed):
Name: Iris Platina (Damian Tray)
Age: 21 (24)
Level: 3 (FP: 21)
Class: Basic Aura Knight
Title: Failure of The Renowned Knight Family
Strength: 14 [24%]
Constitution: 15 [2%]
Agility: 17 [31%]
Wisdom: 10 (33)
Aura: 31
Free Stat Points: 0
Skills: Swordsmanship Lv.2, Spearmanship Lv.1, Blunt Mastery Lv.1, Shield Arts Lv.1, Aura Nurturing Lv.3
Passives: Combat Instincts (A+), Resource Devouring Genius (S-)
Abilities: Platinum Aura Nurturing [Tier-3] (B) ]
Checking the Status Window after advancement was a necessary step. That way, the excitement could be amplified, pushing Damian to strive for the next one.
After all, the returns had to be worth it for anyone to endure that kind of horrible pain…
‘It’s worth it!’
Not to mention the abilities of a Tier-3 Aura Knight, Damian was satisfied with the Stat boosting effect. This time, Strength and Constitution had both risen by over 1 Point, allowing Iris’ Stats to be more balanced.
‘Grinding is still doable.’
More and more Life Stones might be needed to reach each new Tier, but unlike leveling up, the only limit was reaching the final Tier!
Unless there was a necessary item that could be replaced by persistence like the painkillers, Damian could achieve the effect of leveling up at least 5 or 6 more times.
‘Well, I might be overreaching…’
Though it felt like arrogance, Damian felt that he could place his trust in Iris’ Passive. Others might need help and time, but for Iris, burning resources was all she needed to do!
‘Eating Life Stones might be really worth trying.’
Seeing the extra Aura Point that he harvested beyond the advancement requirement, Damian became more convinced that some leftover ‘energy’ had escaped the Ring's refinement.
Additionally, another change that Damian noticed was the Aura Nurturing’s level up. From the looks of it, last time wasn’t a fluke. It was more like an automatic process that came with reaching a new Tier.
‘Thankfully.’
Damian’s time was already tight considering all the targets that he had to fulfill. If even Nurturing was a skill that required constant training then he could only make some sort of compromise.
The most likely scenario would be spending Life Stones solely for training the skill before he could pile them up for the Tier advancement, which would in turn slow down the grinding speed even more…
‘Well, I can definitely pick up the speed with this.’
Learning sessions automatically went faster the more Damian learned, but the battles involving Aura averaged pretty much the same time due to the strict intervals.
However, after trying things out as a Tier-3 Aura Knight, things were looking bright for Damian. At the moment, only 5 seconds needed to pass before he could use his second charge!