Chapter 22: Anxiety

With the following days, Ashton continued on his own routine. However, due to the changes that happened to him, some things were never the same...

The first thing he noticed is the fact that he was physically stronger than before. It was a strange feeling if he's being honest. His body looked more or less the same from how it was previously but his strength rose to a whole new level.

Jerry, his faithful butler-bot, weighs around 150-160kg. Yet Ashton could pick him up using one hand without feeling strained. His raw strength increased so much including his endurance and his stamina.

The usual exercise routine he used to follow before his transformation? He could do them all without even feeling tired or out of breath.

And this wasn't the end of this of course. To emphasized just how much he changed, one had to remember that the weakest increase that he gained from his metamorphosis was on his physical strength.

We're still not factoring the increase in his intellect and his sensitivity to mana. So let's talk about it...

The description of the System was quite vague. When it said that his Intellect was raised significantly, he felt like it turned into a genius.

First and foremost, Ashton had an easier time studying now. Not like he found it difficult before but it's clearly simpler and easier thanks to the increase of his intellect.

The reading speed perk he received before was gone but it did not matter. Not when Ashton could easily remember everything he had read so far down to the punctuation marks.

He found it so easy to get immersed in studying that it started troubling Jerry. Of course, Ashton made it a point to rectify that and exert some sense of control over himself.

Most importantly, his sensitivity to Mana.

Oh boy...Ashton got really hooked into Meditation at this point. The fact that he could enter that state within half a second and even go deeper into it where he felt like he's swimming along with Mana? Ashton finds it quite addicting.

It's much easier for him to absorb and circulate Mana now. In fact he's gotten so used to it that often found himself done before he even realized it.

Speaking of Mana Circulation, Ashton finally decided to learn the Cultivation Technique that has been sitting on his Inventory for quite sometime now.

'Treasure Glazed: Nine-Refinements Sutra' that's what it's called.

Ashton had no idea how strong this technique was since the System never gave it a grade but he still decided to learn it. If he found something better than this, he could just always switch to a new one anyway.

However, that doesn't seem to be necessary at all. Especially after he discovered what this technique can do.

The Treasure Glazed: Nine-Refinements Sutra, allows him to refine his cultivation a total of nine times. Making his foundations deeper and more solid, unshakeable even.

As an example: Ashton's currently at Apprentice Stage Lv.0 right now. Inside his consciousness, his Mageroot doesn't have a single Magical Circle that is filled to the brim.

If he starts cultivating this technique, he had to first fill this magical circle completely making him Lv.1, after that he fills it again and then refine it, using the accumulated mana to strengthen the foundations of not only his Mageroot but also the Magical Circle as well.

This will revert his progress, yes but he's not necessarily losing strength in this. It will slow his progress by a lot but it's a good investment, no?

Once he filled it up again, he can refine it again, going all the way up to a total of nine refinements before he become Lv.2, then he do this all over again.

This is idea behind the technique...

Ashton would agree that this technique sounds very strong, downright overpowered even. Then again, strong doesn't necessarily mean easy isn't it?

In order to fortify his foundations and make it truly unshakeable, he had to work extremely hard for it. And just like what was mentioned before, this will slow his progress down by a lot.

He can already see it; others flying through the levels while he gets left behind. This might even become a problem academic-wise since he doesn't really know if the professors will pressure students in the cultivation speed.

To top this all off, this will definitely get expensive.

Cultivation is mostly free, yes. There's Mana around and its now owned by anyone. The problem is its volume. The Mana Density isn't really constant around the city. There are placed rich in mana while there are placed that had the bare minimum.

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Ashton's lucky since he had a nice home with a built-in Training Room. If he wants to, he can always use the Meditation Altar and charge it with Mana Crystals to convert it for his own use, but then again the amount he has on hand is finite.

Just think of it this way, Ashton had to refine each level a total of 9 times. As his foundations grow deeper, it will certainly require more mana to stabilize it. It's already going to slow him down, now it will also make him broke.

That's the price of strength, right there.

And this isn't even factoring his use of Mana Crystals to grind spells. Those will get really expensive down the line as well, he's sure of it.

The 450k he had on his Inventory might sound a lot but in truth, that's far from enough if he wants to see some real gains.

If there's one thing those novels he read on his previous life had in similar with this world, it'd be the fact that cultivation can get really expensive. Wealth is a strong asset for a bright future, this applies for cultivators as well.

***

"Hmm...."

Ashton's currently using his smartwatch to surf online. He had been reading some articles here and there that had no real credibility, trying to gauge if their contents had some truth behind it or not.

He can't really find any article about Magic that has some read credibility here since most of those are hidden. He had to pass some requirements first before he can access to them so he could only make with these for now.

"...I've read through at least 15 Articles at this point. All of them confirmed that Dual Casting is indeed only possible once you get strong enough or if your Magical Artifact has it as a perk."

That's right, Ashton had been reading about Dual Casting Articles, anything that's related to it as well and so far, they all said the same thing.

It's a pity. Ashton wanted to see if there's a way he can study that on the side since he's practicing real Magic now. Dual or Multi-Casting is an asset for any mages. This mastery alone can increase their lethality sharply so Ashton couldn't be blamed for wanting to try it out.

"Ah, well. I'm probably getting way too ahead of myself." He chuckled. "I need to chill. I legit know nothing so far. These few spells that I have aren't worth mentioning."

"I probably shouldn't even think about this for now." He murmured, "Before entering the Academy, all my focus should be centered around studying. I'll try apply for the scholarship as well."

"...it should be possible even for a cursed one, right?"

Ashton bit his lips and felt quite distressed.

He couldn't help but feel anxious whenever he gets reminded of this. Until now, he still has no idea how he was cursed. He tried searching online about curses but all he got was just awful comments or pity from strangers.

Nothing really helped him understand anything. Where did it come from? Can it be cured? Does it get worse? Are there people he can talk to about this? None of those.

At the surface, it doesn't look bad actually. And that's precisely what made it even more worrisome for Ashton. He didn't trust that. Why else would a government agent, out of all people, warn him about it?

Ashton felt like a lot of things became possible the moment he became a cultivator but at the same time, there are still things that is unreachable for him. Which is totally normal of course, but it feels quite restricting.

Of course, he's aware that he just have to relax for now and take it one step at a time but still, feeling a sense of urgency is something that he can't stop.

"I'm stressing out way too much about this." He whispered to himself, "this is what happens when there's nothing to distract me."

"As expected, I am in need of a good dose of Chaos in my life. Friends to be more specific but...eh..." Ashton grimaced, "I'm surrounded with old people here, it doesn't seem right to act all buddy-buddy with them."

"...that'd actually look weird now that I think about it. Ugh..."

"Oh well, whatever. I'll just focus on what I can do for now. People will come later, for now I have to get into the Academy. I need to study some more."

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