Chapter 141 - The True Beginning (4)

Time flies quickly; A week had passed ever since Basil started his attempt of breaking through to the next stage of his Mana Heart Cultivation.

Basil hadn't broken through to the Amethyst Heart Stage, but he was close to it.

"Hmmm... I can't imagine there is still someone suitable for cultivating Mana Heart," Caesar hummed in amazement.

Vagus, who was on Caesar's side, merely nodded her head in acknowledgement. "Only those whose heart hasn't been tainted has the qualification to Cultivate their Mana Heart."

"Who knows it is quite literal in its meaning." Caesar shook his head bitterly.

Everyone who wanted to be a Mana Heart Cultivator had to have a clean, untainted heart.

This however, doesn't mean one had to be a saint to Cultivate one's Mana Heart; it means, one's heart had to be clean from any man-made Arrays—free from Magic Circles.

This doesn't mean one couldn't have Magic Circles after Cultivating one's Mana Heart though. The condition of being clean hearted refers to one's condition before Cultivating Mana Heart; having Mana Circles right after was alright.

Just like Basil's case, he didn't have any single Magic Circles prior to Cultivating his Mana Heart, thus he could Cultivate Mana Heart. In other words, to Cultivate one's natural Mana Heart, one had to sacrifice the Magic Circles one had Carved—if one had any.

Ironically, Mages who could implement the concept of Mana Heart Cultivation were all high class Mages. Throwing away the Circles they had painfully Carved was not an easy thing to do; they didn't want to start over.

Therefore, through the passage of time, the art of Mana Heart Cultivation was forgotten.

To say Basil was a lucky individual to be able to Cultivate Mana Heart would be an understatement; Basil was extremely lucky! He had his experience, and his unique condition that allowed him to Cultivate Mana Heart naturally.

Caesar whistled lowly in amazement. "Pheww... I can't imagine how much pain Young Master is enduring right now." He slightly cringed in the end.

Still, in every gain, there is pain. Being able to Cultivate Mana Heart didn't give one any advantage if one stayed idle.

Basil had to endure an extreme pain everytime he wanted to breakthrough to the next stage.

This pain was not an ordinary pain: Basil had to feel like his entire body got burned from the inside for eternity everytime he was attempting to breakthrough. Not only that, the amount of Mana his Heart could contain was also enormous.

Boom!

Therefore, controlling it would be a chore. If he failed though, he could end up exploding.

Basil's entire body was drenched in sweat. However, the sweat wasn't normal as it was black in color, and had a very pungent smell. It was due to the substance mixed with his sweat.

The substance mixed with his sweat was his heart and meridian's impurity.

This process of expelling impurity was the one that made breaking through to the next stage of Mana Heart Cultivation was difficult; different than the other race, human body contained too much impurity.

Clench!

Basil's crystal like Heart was twisting and squeezing itself. It was shining intensely in crimson light; its beat was getting erratic.

Basil's teeth was tightly clenched, and his eyebrows were slightly knitted together. However, his face remained neutral; no one would imagine Basil was enduring an extreme amount of pain just from seeing his face.

His concentration was put solely on the process of cleansing his Heart with the help of the Mana Crystals he was using to fuel the Array he had Carved.

He knew the pain was less than the first time he Cultivated his Mana Heart. However, the time it took for him to breakthrough despite the enormous amount of resources was significantly longer.

Therefore, it created the illusion of the pain he was enduring was way worse than the first pain he had endured. Still, he preserved; he was used to pain.

"Such tenacity... I don't even sure whether I can keep going if I were him."

"This much of pain is nothing for him," Vagus muttered under her breath.

Caesar heard that, but opted to not ask. He knew his esteemed Lady didn't direct it at him. Thus, he pretended he didn't hear Vagus.

Minutes passed, and finally the awaited moment came. The erratic Mana surrounding Basil slowly calmed down, and Basil's knitted eyebrows were slowly unknitting themselves.

Basil's Heart stopped twisting itself, and its beat was slowly returning to normal. The previous intense crimson light his heart was exuding disappeared, replaced with a tame amethyst light.

He had successfully broken through to the next stage of Mana Heart Cultivation, Amethyst Heart Stage!

Basil slowly opened his eyes, as his sense slowly returned. A pungent and unpleasant smell quickly assaulted his nose. However, he didn't register this fact at all. He was occupied by the new world he was seeing; he was fascinated by it.

One could see Mana and its flow as long as one had a full control over one's Magic Circle; one needed to move one's Magic Circles to one's eyes to be able to see Mana.

However, Basil could now see it even without doing that. It was simply a mind-boggling and envy-inducing ability everyone wanted.

Other than that, he felt his body was getting lighter and firmer. Mana incessantly coursed through his body, and he felt like he could punch any border's gate to smithereens.

He clenched his fist, and swung it to the front.

Whoosh!

His fist moved so fast, it tore the air. Normally, without the support of Qi, this feat was unachievable. However, with his newly upgraded Mana Heart, it was possible.

He retracted his hand, and finally looked at the two people gazing at him curiously—Vagus and Caesar. He stood from the ground slowly, and noticed he had grown taller yet again. He was now exactly 198 centimeters.

Vagus wanted to come at him, but he quickly stopped her in her advance. He was still smelly, and he didn't want to let anyone stand close to him when he was unclean.

Turning his back on them, he jumped toward one of the opened cells in the wall. Then, he closed the door of the cell, before proceeding to clean himself.

"Oh, my. My darling is cleaning himself." Vagus smiled evilly. "This one shall pe—supervise him to prevent unwanted things to happen."

Right before she wanted to return to Basil's Mindscape and "supervise" him however, Caesar put his hand on Vagus' shoulder.

"Pardon me, my esteemed Lady. Even if he's your husband, you can't just violate his right to privately take a bath."

Vagus slowly turned to Caesar with a sulking face. Caesar was taken aback as he had never seen his esteemed Lady showed that face in the past.

"I can't help it. He never shows me his body willingly, after all!"

"Did you really violate his right?!"

Vagus clicked her tongue in annoyance, and knocked Caesar's hand off. She snorted sulkily, before crossing her hands, and stayed far away from Caesar.

'Just what happened to my esteemed Lady in these past 2000 years?!'

To say Caesar was bewildered would be an understatement. He was utterly baffled!

Soon enough, the waited person, Basil got out of the cell he had used to bathe himself in. He was already clean from any impurities that had previously covered his entire body.

He had taken off his uniform, replacing it with his favorite black attire: a tight fitted white shirt underneath a black magic vest; black Magic robe; black, tight, yet flexible pants; and a pair of black shoes.

When he got down from the cell in the wall, Vagus quickly came at him, then hugged him tightly.

"Darling, you look even more handsome than before!"

Basil looked down at Vagus in his embrace in slight bewilderment. He didn't even register when he had embraced her. His hand had moved by itself as if it was natural.

Still, he was quick to accept things. He had experienced much weirder things in the past few weeks, after all; meeting Matheus for example.

"Indeed. Impurities removal always causes some slight changes to oneself."

Basil looked to his hand. His eight months of work to slightly darken his skin tone by training vigorously with Knight's method was wasted; his skin became even whiter and brighter than before.

The saving grace though, his face became slightly manly. His face was no longer sharp like a woman's; his jaw was slightly accentuated, giving him a manlier appearance.

Still, his face was attractive to both genders. Meanings, he still looked pretty.

"Congratulations on your advancement, Young Master." Caesar slightly bowed.

Basil nodded in acknowledgement, then patted Vagus' back so she could let go of him. Although Vagus was slightly reluctant, she still complied nonetheless.

"Can you stand far away from me, Vagus?"

"Eh? Me? Why?"

"I don't want you to get hurt."

Again, Basil was bewildered. He didn't believe he could actually care about Vagus' well-being. Contrary to his reaction however, Vagus was ecstatic that Basil cared for her.

"O—Oh.. okay, darling!" She stayed far away from Basil, then hid behind Caesar.

Basil stood uprightly on the ground, then closed his eyes. He soon coursed his Mana through his body, before infusing it to his Magic Circles one by one.

Boom!

The first Magic Circle appeared. It was shining intensely, and the characters written on it spun hypnotically.

Boom!

The second Magic Circle appeared. Like the first one, it was also shining intensely.

Boom!

The third Magic Circle appeared. Upon its appearance, the surrounding air was overwhelmed with Mana unthinkable of belonging to a Third Circle Mage.

Then, with the third one in the center, the other Magic Circles were spinning in circle.

Hum!

The Magic Circles resonated with each other, before eventually stopped moving, and stacked themselves on each other.

BOOM!

The Mana gathering around Basil was getting denser. Even the air was getting heavier due to the overwhelming amount of Mana Basil was exuding.

Caesar hummed. "Hmm... Young Master is trying to form his fourth Magic Circle externally. That is incredibly hard and risky. One wrong move, and he will have to start it over again."

Vagus nodded her head silently. She was also a little bit anxious of the result.

After another amount of time passed. The result was finally out. It was the result everyone had expected, but couldn't believe would happen.

Shatter!

Basil's fourth Magic Circle shattered.. Once again, Basil managed to shock Caesar, albeit for a different reason.