Chapter 45: Arduous schedule

Devouring the mana out of the mana stones within his mana pool, only to be circulated throughout his mana channels in order to annex it, Shane felt ecstasy as the desire for more ignited within him once again.

Subconsciously, Shane took two common quality fist-sized mana stones out of his spatial ring which he held in his other hand, as he entered the zone that was already somewhat familiar to him.

WIth his ignited desire for more and more mana, his determination to purify the mana even faster was distinct.

Losing the track of time, Shane wasn't even sure how late it was when he woke up out of the zone.

He received multiple notifications but they mostly informed him, that his additional one and five cubic meter spatial rings had been sold for 6 gold coins

But a certain message awoke Shane's interest and reading the message carefully a smile blossomed on his face.

[[Artemis' Blessing] activated. Quality of [Mortal-(Gold)] mana gathering technique increase due to host's desire to absorb more mana, deep amity with mana and amplified nature's blessing]

Shane was still unsure how his blessing worked but apparently increasing the quality of Tier-1 techniques was too much for it and maybe Shane's low cultivation or something else was the reason for the mortal graded technique to have a quality enhancement instead of his tier-1 manuals, but more important was his quality upgraded mana gathering technique.

The message said the quality of his gold mana gathering technique increased which would mean it increased to the platinum quality, which one would normally only obtain after accomplishing a system mission.

However, Shane began to wonder what exactly the use of a platinum mana gathering technique was, compared to a [Tier-1 (Bronze)] mana gathering technique.

Exerting the platinum quality mortal stage mana gathering technique, Shane immediately sensed a vast difference.

Without the need to think for a single second, he knew what the difference between a [Mortal-(Platinum)] and [Tier-1 (Bronze)] mana gathering was, without even the need to own a Tier-1 bronze quality mana gathering technique.

The difference between these two techniques was obviously the quality and comparing the mana particles he saw before the quality upgrade occurred to the current mana particles, squirming around the room, Shane could faintly tell, which mana particle had fewer impurities as they shone in a slightly brighter light.

Previously Shane was also unsure why manuals with a platinum quality were as expensive as other manuals one rank higher with a bronze quality but now he could roughly understand the reason for such a high price.

One technique focuses more on the purity of the mana particles with less traceable mana particles while the other technique relied on the number of traceable mana particles.

Shane wasn't sure how vast the difference of traceable mana particles was from one grade to another but it should be a large gap because Shane's uncle and aunt never told him to especially buy a platinum quality mana gathering manual because it was said to be a waste of precious funds.

This could be true and Shane would probably purchase a higher-ranked mana gathering manual instead of a higher quality manual but this didn't matter right now as his blessing increased the quality of his manual once again.

Shane was astonished and taken aback but more than that, he was curious about the requirements he had to meet in order to increase a technique's quality.

Was his amity with mana too low, his determination too feeble or was something else the cause? Shane didn't know and the system wouldn't tell him.

As such he glanced at his status panel in order to figure out how high his mana purity was.

_______________

Title: [Berserk-Hunter(F)]

Occupation: [None]

Name: Shane Suro (Orus)

Race:[Human 100%]

Cultivation Level: Mortal-2nd [Purity 1.71%]

Body Refinement: [Mortal-4th]

Cultivation Manual:

→Mana purifying [Tier-1 (Bronze)]

→Mana gathering [Mortal-(Platinum)]

Body refining manual: [Tier-1 (Bronze)]

<Skills/Techniques>

![Artemis' Blessing]+

[Innate Skill]: Taming |Common-★ (+)|

Finances: 27 gold 25 silver

_______________

Compared to before, his mana purity increased by almost 0.6% which was extremely good, considering that only slightly more than six hours passed.

Shane smiled at his purity and he thought calculated something in his mind.

If his proficiency with the mana purifying technique heightened, he would be able to purify 0.1% mana within a single hour.

Looking down on his hand, Shane noticed that there were remains of three fist-sized common quality mana stones and with this in mind, a single fist-sized mana stone would be enough to supply him with enough mana to supply his mana gathering and purifying process for two hours.

This calculation was only viable if he sat inside a room without the possibility to absorb the natural mana around him, which was more and purer compared to the mana within mana stones.

Remaining with his previous calculation of him being able to purify 0.1% of his mana pool's mana in a single hour, ten hours would be enough for him to increase his purity by 1%.

Without mana stones, this speed would be lower by a large margin but only absorbing and purifying compressed mana from mana stones was bad for the body and could harm one permanently, slowing down the cultivation process.

As such, absorbing natural mana was also essential to cultivate properly.

Nevertheless, an increase of 0.1% in mana purity within a single hour was considered top-notch and Shane doubted that he could increase it by much, probably only by decreasing the time he required to gather mana, but that was it.

Even if he could gather more mana, Shane wasn't sure if his body would be able to take the toll, an increase of more than 0.1% in mana purity would bring him within an hour.

Considering that he couldn't cultivate for days straight on, with his low physique, Shane decided to schedule his time in order to think of a way to properly hone his skills by hunting, stay fit by working out, cultivate his mana pool and refine his body properly.

He was still left with 31 gold coins to invest into himself, but he refrained to do anything with it as of now, for urgent times.

Shane tried to consider everything perfect to stay healthy and not to injure himself by overworking.

A decent amount of sleep would release his tension by a lot, even though it was not needed and he decided to book up five hours for sleep.

He knew for sure that he would most likely sleep less but the will was present and that was everything Shane could do.

With his remaining 18 hours, Shane wanted to increase his combat experience, hone his skill and adjust to his consistently enhancing physique and mana pool by hunting beasts for at least 6 hours.

With this, both he and Umbra would be able to adjust their body slowly to the increase of mana pool and physique for the next few weeks.

12 hours were more than enough for Shane to cultivate and refine his body for 5 hours each.

With the remaining two hours Shane would eat, work out, and research more about all kinds of beasts, habitats, dimensions, foreign races, and possible money pits he could exert.

Following this schedule, he wouldn't have any time to break into a new rank for his cultivation, while his physique would increase as long as it was tempered enough.

Because of the possible breakthrough on every third day, Shane decided to adjust the schedule for every third day by decreasing the time for cultivation, body refining, and hunting to 4 hours in order to break through smoothly.

In addition, Shane purchased 7 fist-sized (uncommon) mana stones in order to fasten up the breakthrough process if demanded.