by Nikostar A
Alexander sighed as he sat on a chair. He knew the questions were coming and had already prepared for them. "Okay. I sat down and meditated as usual. As you already know, the amount of mana inside the cultivation box is far higher than usual. I circulated the mana around my spirit circuit as we've learned in the lectures. It was harder than usual but since I was already aware of the difference, I was prepared to some extent."
"I don't know how long I lasted but at some point, I felt the pressure and strain on my spirit circuits increasing. It was a similar feeling to when I am about to hit my limit but I was sure that six hours hadn't passed yet. I tried to persist but moving the mana around was starting to be painful. I continued for as long as I possibly could but eventually, I had to stop. However, to my surprise, it did not stop!"
The scientists and the director of studies were all carefully listening to Alexander's explanation. So far, everything was going as they expected; they did not even bother taking notes but when they heard Alexander's last sentence, they immediately focused all their attention on Alexander.
"Yes. It was the first time I was experiencing that feeling. I stopped moving the mana around my spirit circuits but even without my actions, it continued to move on its own. I did not even need to do anything and the mana would automatically follow the same path. Although I could still feel some strain on my spirit circuits, it was no longer painful. However, after a while, the mana started to slow down. When that happened, I simply tried to push it a little bit and it kept going. Every time I had to gently push my mana and it would continue to move around. I felt a numb feeling in my body but it did not bother me too much."
When Alexander finished his explanation, the scientists started to discuss among themselves.
"How interesting. It is the first time we are witnessing something like that. Could it be something similar to momentum? Once enough mana is being moved at once, it would then become harder to stop?"
"Plausible theory but we need further testing to verify it. It might be a unique phenomenon caused by the cultivation box? Or is it because he pushed himself to his limits?"
"The phenomenon is probably why we observed a sudden increase in demand of spirit stones!"
"It is too early to make assumptions. One test is not enough to collect reliable data. We should ask for the management for a higher budget. This test alone almost drained a hundred thousand spirit stones; we are almost out of funds. If we will run other tests, we would definitely need a lot more than that."
Dr. Meyer was constantly scribbling down notes on his X-Driver. He turned toward Alexander and asked, "Are you sure you followed the same meditation technique taught in the lectures? What about your results? How much larger did your mana reservoir become?"
Asking for the size of someone's mana reservoir was taboo but in this case, Alexander had previously agreed to share this information. "Yes. The same one that everyone else is practicing. Are there other meditation techniques? As for my mana reservoir, before, I could cast about nineteen low-level spells; now, I should be able to cast twenty-one, maybe more..."
Everyone present stared at Alexander with surprise and suspicion. It was not because his improvement was too outstanding but rather because the number of spells he could cast before was simply too low!
Average students already had mana reservoir that allowed them to cast twenty to twenty-five low-level spells. As Alexander was considered by many as an elite, they were expecting him to state a much higher number. However, it was the exact opposite. It was especially true for the director of studies who could not believe his ears. He had witnessed Alexander use an advanced spell and an extreme spell back to back. Alexander barely had enough mana to do that! Without using [Ianto, the Mariner], Alexander would have never able to use an extreme spell.
"Alexander. We agreed that you would share genuine information with us," said the director of studies.
"Yes. And this is what I am doing. Do you want to test how large my mana reservoir is? Simple. We can go to the practice room right now. I'll use all my mana and you will see that my mana reservoir is completely depleted. It is difficult to directly measure one's mana reservoir but it will be obvious if my mana reservoir is completely depleted."
Seeing Alexander's confident expression, the director of studies sighed. 'Looks like he is telling the truth. I overestimated him a little too much. His performance index is just 5.1; even if he has a vast knowledge of spells, it does not change the fact that his actual talent is limited. His mana reservoir should indeed only be average...'
On the other hand, Dr. Meyer was not concerned about these details. He continued to pester Alexander, asking him for every detail of his experience in the cultivation. If they wanted to recreate this phenomenon, he needed all the information he could get.
After a long interrogation, Alexander was finally allowed to leave the research center. He was escorted outside and as soon as he got out, his X-Driver immediately started vibrating. A long string of message arrived at the same time. Part of them came from his friends' group chat while the rest was from Aila.
As he was in the research center, he had been asked to disable the message option of his X-Driver and now that that function was reactivated, he was instantly flooded with messages. His friends were all discussing random things. They wanted to hang out together; as there were no lectures at the moment, they had a lot of free time and meditation was a very boring task.
Similarly, from Aila's messages, she also seemed to be bored and wanted to hang out. Alexander knew it was only a facade. She was most probably chasing him to learn more about the stargazers.
He knew she was lusting for power but Alexander was unwilling to reveal everything to her at once. He wanted to slowly teach her about stargazers to get closer to her and build up their past relationship. It was not an easy task but it did look promising; at the very least, it seemed that Aila did not have any plans of sleeping with other men for now.
As much as Alexander wanted to spend time with Aila, he knew that tonight would be inappropriate. His X-Driver was already displaying 17:39 and he did not even have lunch. His stomach was bound to make him pay the price during the rest of the night.
Therefore, Alexander simply ignored the messages and went back home. He chatted with his mom as usual before quickly shutting down. He had dinner but his stomach was still unhappy about skipping a meal.
As much as he hated the pain; it was all worth it. His mana reservoir expanded significantly and so did his Space. After briefly checking his pocket dimension, Alexander noticed that it became a 900m x 900m x 900m cube. The volume of the cube increased but the volume of earth inside didn't. Therefore, there was a lot of space that Alexander needed to fill.
Alexander spent the rest of the night quietly. Although he did not want to see Aila in his condition, he still took the time to write down the details of the constellations for her. He used Egriss, the Archivist and faithfully replicated the content of the books using the brush, ink, and paper in front of him.
When he finished copying down the content, a wild thought flashed through Alexander's mind and instead of stopping to go to sleep, he decided to write a little more.
***
On the next day, Alexander had planned to lie in bed all day to recover from yesterday's efforts. However, he was unexpectedly forced to wake up when somebody started pressing the bell.
"Ding Dong Ding Dong," The usually soothing bell of the door became a complete annoyance and quickly, Alexander got up and opened the door.
"Here you are! You know I was worried. Why did you not answer any of my messages back?"
To Alexander's surprise, the annoying guest was actually Aila. She stormed in his room wearing an expression stuck between worry and anger.
"I thought something happened to you. At the very least, just send an emoji or something!"
Alexander lowered his head, it had indeed been a little bit rude of him to not answer Aila. "I am sorry. I was not feeling very well last
night. Stomach cramps..." He knew Aila would be sticking to him like a fly for a while but he did not expect her to turn up at his house.
"Ohh..." Aila's expression instantly changed to one of regret and worry. "I am sorry. I was just worried. Are you feeling better now?"
"Yeah. It was just me skipping a meal."
"Good. Then get changed! I want to go out and walk around the town. It has been a while since we had such free time." She did not allow Alexander to retort and quickly pushed him to the bathroom to take a shower.
Alexander was unable to say no. As long as Aila was not trying to harm him, he had no reason to refuse her. Furthermore, Alexander also wanted to spend time with the woman he loved.
The pair walked out of the Colony shortly after.
"Let's go and browse the stores. You always wear the same clothes! It is time for a change," said Aila while gently pulling Alexander's hand.
There were indeed stores scattered around UNEA but students rarely purchased anything there. The reason? It was expensive. They only had a limited amount of Earth Credits to spend every month; how could they waste them on some clothes. It was more efficient to simply buy new clothes when they would go back home. Furthermore, if they really needed new clothes, they could simply purchase them online; why bother going to the stores?
However, Aila did not seem to care. She brought Alexander to the stores and started a shopping spree. The salesgirls were very excited. It was rare for students to shop here. They had good salaries but the more sales they made, the higher their bonuses.
Aila pouted when she saw the pretty girls but nevertheless listened to their advice. Alexander quickly found himself carrying a bunch of bags; most of them were new clothes for him and only a couple belonged to Aila.
They went to the restaurant for lunch and later on, Aila pushed Alexander to the barbershop. "Looks at your messy hair. It is time to freshen up a little bit. They are so long that people might take you for a woman."
Alexander was unable to retort. He did indeed neglect his hair for a while. On Basilec, he never cared about his appearance and clearly, this bad habit was deeply ingrained in him.
After a clean haircut, the pair returned to Alexander's room where they ordered some food delivery. The entire day cost him a total of two hundred Earth Credits. It was a considerable portion of his monthly allowance but he did buy quite a lot of things.
Price did not matter to Alexander; spending time with Aila was more important. The two ate as they chatted.
"I think I already mastered Arado, the Laborer. When will you teach me the rest of the constellations?"
In the middle of the conversation, Aila sneakily introduced the topic she really wanted to talk about. She did not want to look like it was the only reason she was spending time with Alexander.
"Are you sure? You should instinctively be able to enter the body posture and to use the hand seals. The real strength of the stargazers is their ability to quickly shift between constellations. Right now, you only need to learn one constellation but when more and more are added in the equation, you'll need to be able to transition between them."
"I know but I really did master the first constellation. Tomorrow, let's go to the gym. I will show you that I can really use Arado with ease!"
"Alright, alright. I believe you. I knew that as a Lohan, you'll be naturally talented for magic related things. I already wrote down the information about the other constellations. They are all in the drawer of the desk but I must always be with you when learning new constellations. It is for your own safety! Some constellations can be dangerous. For now, let me teach you about the second constellation: [Besmoth, the Shieldbearer]."
Aila excited jumped and glued her lips to Alexander's. "I knew you were the best."
Chapter 42: Gym
The night was long and passionate. When the rays of sunlight finally pierced through the curtain of his room, Alexander woke up and looked around him. His body was completely drained from last night's action.
He lightly nudged Aila who he knew was only pretending to be asleep. "Morning."
"Morning..."
It was not the first time the two slept together and both already knew each other's habit. Aila was very skilled in determining people's habits and Alexander had the memories of his past life.
The two quickly got up and headed to the gym. Last night, Aila heavily insisted to go to the gym to show Alexander her skills and at the same time, she got him to reveal the second constellation.
Alexander was naturally wearing the new clothes Aila picked for him. As they were going to the gym, he wore a loose grey tracksuit. At his side, Aila wore a light summer dress and tied her hair in a cute ponytail.
The pair briefly went to Aila's room where she got changed and matched Alexander's outfit. The two looked like a real couple and together, they entered the only gym of UNEA.
The gym's entrance was large and welcoming. There was a lot of open space and the glass walls allowed the natural light of the sun to lighten up the building. Unfortunately, there were not many people at the gym. Most mages did not really have time to train themselves. Furthermore, with the invention of the Chem-mix, the need to physically exercise gradually disappeared.
Alexander and Aila used their X-Driver and got access to the equipment. The gym was free for all students but if they wanted a personal coach, they would have to pay.
"Come, let's go to the punching bag; we'll measure your punching power to see if you really mastered Arado."
"Sure," happily said Aila. She smiled and immediately attracted the gazes of the few males busy training themselves. In her current outfit, Aila looked like one of those popular girls who always appeared in the ads for sports equipment. Her tracksuit was tight and highlighted her slim silhouette.
She looked vibrant and energetic. Aila was literally hopping next to Alexander, making her ponytail fly everywhere.
They finally stopped in front of the giant punching bag and placed their bags on the side. The grey punching bag was massive and intimidating. It was not used very often but could accurately measure the punching power of its user.
While mages did not use the gym very often, the soldier of the military camp did! Occasionally, they would have a day off and would be given permission to relax at the city. They would usually roam around and enjoy themselves but some would also come to the gym to show off their muscles.
"Alright. Punch first normally. Then we'll see by how much you can improve."
Aila nodded happily, "Don't laugh at me." She positioned herself in front of the punching bag and took a deep breath.
"Bang"
A muffled sound was heard as she punched the bag. It was clear that she did not have any combat training; she did not even make use of her body weight or rotation to amplify her punching power.
Nevertheless, the results still came out as 259 pounds of force. It was very impressive considering Aila's weak appearance. She looked like a young princess but who would have thought that she hid that much physical power.
Aila wore a disappointed expression while looking at Alexander.
"You did well. Now go ahead and do what you know," said Alexander. He looked around him and found several men looking at Aila.
Alexander sighed; he was not very happy that everyone was looking at the girl he loved but there was nothing he could do. Aila was really too attractive.
'At least, none of them are making a move toward Aila. It is quite strange though. If I remember correctly, there would often be fights around Aila as she would cause discord between men.'
Alexander turned his attention back to Aila. She had already activated Arado, the Laborer and was about to punch the machine once again.
"Bang!"
This time, the sound was much clearer.
482 pounds of force. Almost double her previous punching power.
Alexander smiled and lightly clapped, "Good job. I underestimated you. Doubling one's strength is close to Arado's limit."
"Nah, I am not as strong as you. I only started using the Chem-mix three months ago; how can I compare to you who have been using it for more than a year. Let's do something else. The gym is also a good place to practice body postures; there are mats and mirrors to help us."
Aila's eyes lit up. It was a great opportunity to have a look at the body postures of the other constellations. However, she was soon disappointed; Alexander did not practice any new constellations. He only stayed by her side and helped her when she struggled. Most of the time, he would sit down and observe her like a coach.
