Although Leon wanted, he couldn't just increase the range of Mana Magnetism in order to keep Accelerate and Mindscape Transportation active indefinitely. Just like in everything else, Leon had to progress steadily since his Pain Resistance and Pain Immunity weren't helping him all that much.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Unstoppable.
Cost: 500 mana and 500 per second.
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! The skill Unstoppable has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! The skill Unstoppable has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
...
Fortunately, even though he wasn't progressing at speed, he wanted. Every hour, Leon managed to learn a new skill and obtain at the very least fifty status points. Training like that was easy. Leon just had to say what kind of skill his replica had to learn and train. Then, once every hour, Leon would assimilate the knowledge and receive those notifications.
"While fifty status points per hour are awesome, it is nothing compared just to become immensely stronger in just a moment," Leon rubbed his chin. "I guess it can't be helped since I jumped to conclusions, but I ended up paying the price by imagining the worst and not hoping for the best."
Leon didn't trust in Sekundez, and that was why he was in that situation... humans were dying every minute, and he couldn't help them because he still wasn't strong enough. Although that was worrying, Leon was a bit more worried about why Sekundez still accepted to help him... even though he didn't trust her words.
"Sekundez, you still owe me some answers," Leon said. "For how long the test would last, and what I would face after the dragons?"
"The test would last for forty-eight centuries, and after fighting against dragons for a year, the environment would reset," Sekundez replied. "After that, everything would repeat itself exactly eleven times."
"four thousand and eight hundred years... I guess I can think that I saved myself a lot of problems, but I also ended up losing a great opportunity," Leon said after a long sigh. "You said I would experience the same things you did, but you experienced the same things twelve times?"
"Yes," Sekundez replied.
"Why?" Leon frowned.
"I cannot answer," Sekundez said.
That was weird since all the spirits were more or less forced to obey Leon... Still, Leon could imagine a few explanations, so he decided not to force her. As usual, the best option would be to make Sekundez explain eventually without forcing her. That way, he would obtain her cooperation on many levels.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Neutral Attack.
Cost: 500 mana
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! The skill Neutral Attack has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! The skill Neutral Attack has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
...
"Say... is this place one hundred percent safe?��� Leon asked.
"Nothing or anyone is absolutely safe from anything," Sekundez replied.
"Such ominous words... I guess it might be dangerous to use Mindscape Transportation on myself and train to increase my mana and intelligence there," Leon rubbed his chin. "It would be problematic to leave my unprotected body behind."
Leon could always trust in his spirits, but he doubted that he could stay in that place for long if Sekundez starts to fight someone. She would drain his mana pretty fast, after all. And if she doesn't kill the enemy, Leon would return to reality without a single drop of mana.
In the end, Leon could only keep that pace and grow strong as fast as possible to let his replica train while he does everything else. Perhaps eventually, he would recover enough mana to use Mana Sacrifice, but Leon couldn't help but wonder if humanity would last that long. He couldn't intervene directly or indirectly since the real troublesome harvesters would notice his actions, just like Ilyana noticed.
"Sekundez... is there any other spell that you can teach me to make time pass even faster inside my mindscape?" Leon asked.
"No," Sekundez replied.
Leon dropped his shoulders and then sighed. In the end, the only real option was to be patient since he eventually would be able to increase the output of Accelerate.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Dark Fury.
Cost: 1000 mana and 1000 stamina
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Devotion.
Cost: 1000 mana per second
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Shield Charge.
Cost: 500 mana
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Gravity Prison.
Cost: 5000 mana
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Flame Path.
Cost: 1000 mana per second
You obtained 01 status points.
Thanks to the fact that skills that cost more mana could level up a little faster, Accelerate reached level fifty on the first day. One second, in reality, was equal to five hundred inside Leon's mindscape, it wasn't bad, but Leon's patience was running low since he knew his friends were fighting against dragons.
"Man... this is so frustrating," Leon bit his lips in annoyance.
It couldn't be helped that even the power to control time had some drawbacks, but Leon didn't imagine he would feel so frustrated once he obtained Sekundez's power. Leon had always imagined that once he obtained her power, he would solve all his problems with relative ease... his enemies wouldn't be much of a threat. The only exception would be those who also had a fragment under their control.
Unfortunately, the reality was just much more annoying and cruel. Time magic was excellent for training, but just when it reaches the max level, spells like Stop were only useful against small fries.
"Given that the dragons are getting stronger, the more Earth approaches the sixth stage of assimilation, I doubt that eventually, I will be able to use Stop on dragons," Leon shook his head and sighed. "Ilyana said that usually a planet needs one thousand years after reaching the fifth stage to reach the sixth, but considering that some bastards accelerated that progress, I doubt that we have so much time."