BXBX NOVEL Chapter 143: Breakthrough
Just like that, time passed in the blink of an eye.
The once-melodious chirping of birds now faded into a more subdued presence. The lush trees, once vibrant, gradually succumbed to the encroaching chill, their leaves adopting an ashen hue.
Soon, the first delicate snowflakes made their descent from the sky, dancing gracefully in the cold air.
"Sigh, winter has arrived," Aur muttered casually, looking at the snowflakes descending.
Snow had already covered the ground, creating a mesmerising scene with a white hue enveloping the entire street. There were some childrens who were playing around in the snows, their laughter resounding throughout the place.
Aur sat there, casually admiring the scene from the window while enjoying his warm pork broth.
He wore just a simple, casual black robe and pants.
Despite the freezing temperature, Aur didn\'t feel much at all. The biting cold was negated by the sheer heat his body naturally produced.
"I guess I have immunity to the cold already." This was also one of the benefits of breaking through the mortal.
However, a tinge of disappointment flickered across Aur\'s cold face as he contemplated his body.
"Muscle system." Aur called out as he looked at his stats.
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[Muscle System]
[Name: Aur Cromwell/ Auriel
Talent: Future Seer (Major: 0; Minor: 1)
-Muscle mass: 2.80 (+)
-Intelligence: 1.40 (+)
Stat Points: 132
Storage space: 0.62/1 cubic metre
Quest: Daily (completed)]
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The familiar blue panel appeared in front of his eyes, causing a frown to appear on his face.
"It has already been three months, sigh…" Aur shook his head with pity.
He had hoped to achieve a breakthrough regarding his physique; however, not much had changed for him.
Although Aur trained himself daily, and one would think that any improvement in his physique was easy, especially since he trained like a madman, there was no significant improvement at all.
Despite the daily quests becoming harder as his training progressed, he only gained one stat point each day.
"If I continue at this rate, I might never be able to reach the higher ranks." Aur shook his head again. "I don\'t even know what the threshold of my strength is…"
His first breakthrough was when he reached the one point in both muscle mass and Blood and Qi, but after that, Aur had no idea when he would make another major breakthrough.
"Young master, I am ready." Lucy\'s lively voice sounded from behind him as he looked back to see Lucy in a beautiful blue kimono.
"How do I look?"
"You look beautiful," Aur casually commented as he looked back out the window.
Seeing this, a frown appeared on Amelia\'s face.
"Young master, tomorrow is your big day. You should be more cheerful."
Aur just sighed, "I wonder if I have fallen behind those people…"
"No, young master, you haven\'t fallen behind them at all," Lucy said with a proud tone.
"I hope so." Aur replied with a self-deprecating laugh and stood up. "I have eaten the pork stew; we will talk tomorrow."
"Yes, young master." Lucy nodded her head with a respectful tone.
Aur returned to his own training room.
After he entered the training room, Lucy looked around with a tentative expression.
"There should be no one, right?"
She returned to her own room and started to write on a thin piece of paper, documenting the daily activities of Aur.
Before Lucy burned the paper, she let the ashes fly away with the wind outside the window.
"Sigh, I am going to spend my entire life doing this, but there is nothing strange about Aur doing his daily activities. So where did he get those two high-grade mana crystals from?" Lucy thought bitterly.
She had received the mission to find out this after Aur so luxuriously used it for the exchange. However, even till now, Lucy had no clue what had happened to it.
"I might be ridden off if I prove to be too useless. I can\'t let that happen."
Her eyes flashed with a glint of determination.
…
Aur sat in his room with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Seeing that the village is so calm even until now, no one has found out about the death of Adriana yet."
Adriana was a teacher in the academy, a top-tier one wizard who was a valuable asset to the village. It was inevitable for a wave to ensue if they found that she was missing.
However, nothing has happened in the academy until now, as if it was the calm before the storm.
"I have removed all the evidence that points at me already, but if a thorough investigation is done…" Aur shook his head with a sigh. If he was in his previous world, Aur could be confident that he could remove almost all the traces, but in this world?
With the power of the spells, anything could be possible and to hide it for long was next to impossible.
"I need to be strong, strong enough, at least a tier two wizard…"
If Aur wanted to be free from the trouble of killing Adriana, then it was simple; he needed to be at least a tier two wizard, which is an elder-level figure in the village.
If he becomes an elder, the village won\'t pursue this matter anymore even if Aur was discovered. However, if they found out before that…
Not only might the inheritance cave of Hanma be revealed, but Aur could also be executed.
This was the least painful death if Aur was ever discovered before it.
"I need strength quickly…" his eyes narrowed.
Quickly, he glimpsed at his own mental space.
His mental space was filled with colourless mana, already reaching three fourths of the mental space.
There were five spells floating in mid-air, with one particular spell right at the centre of the room connected to golden strings that were linked to the walls of the mental space.
If you looked carefully at the spell, there was a shadow of a ring right at the centre of the spell, thinly visible.
This was the silkworm ring that Aur used to boost his vital spells, and now, with his tireless absorption of mana with the help of countless middle-grade mana crystals, even a fool could break through.
"That guy William enjoys such a high speed of absorption of mana as well; I wonder, has he broken through to the tier one wizard already?" Aur shook his head directly. "It isn\'t so easy to enter."
Aur revealed his presence, and a strand of electric current surrounded him.
That\'s right, Aur had already broken through the peak of the wizard apprentice realm. Now, the next step was tier one wizard.
Just one step away from tier one wizard!
"These steps seem so distant," Aur thought.
As he progressed, storing the mana in his mental space became increasingly challenging, as the more weight and pressure it had to endure, the harder it became to absorb and store mana.
Aur could already feel that his progress in storing mana had decreased by at least half. That meant if he needed a week of continuous meditation to increase the amount of mana in his mental space by a certain percentage, he now needed two weeks for the same progression.
And this wasn\'t the hardest part. After he filled the entire mental space, the true difficulty would be to break through.
"The wizard path is really difficult to break through…" Aur thought. "If I had the opportunity, I would train my body all day long."
"Muscle system," Aur called out again.
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[Muscle System]
[Name: Aur Cromwell/ Auriel
Talent: Future Seer (Major: 0; Minor: 1)
-Muscle mass: 2.80 (+)
-Intelligence: 1.40 (+)
Stat Points: 132
Storage space: 0.62/1 cubic metre
Quest: Daily (completed)]
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"Let\'s see if I can make a breakthrough in my muscles with 3 points."
Although his intelligence was stuck at a relatively low level, it didn\'t matter to him much since it was currently useless.
Since he had already mastered the Five-Elemental Breath Technique, Aur had no use for it.
Aur immediately allocated his 20 stat points to his Muscle Mass.
The blue panel in front of him started to flicker.
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[Muscle System]
[Name: Aur Cromwell/ Auriel
Talent: Future Seer (Major: 0; Minor: 1)
-Muscle mass: 3.0 +20(+) [Tier one (mid)]
-Intelligence: 1.40 (+)
Stat Points: 112 -20
Storage space: 0.62/1 cubic metre
Quest: Daily (completed)]
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Suddenly, Aur tightened his fist as power coursed through every fiber of his being simultaneously.
An electric sensation seemed to run through his entire body, making his hair stand on end.
A roar escaped Aur\'s lips as he felt a sense of pleasure, gripping his own fist even tighter, his nails digging deep into his own flesh.
Scarlett\'s blood flowed from his hand.
Aur gnashed his teeth as he focused on the pain instead of the pleasure that coursed throughout his whole body.
Taking deep breaths, he closed his eyes.
After a long time, Aur finally opened his eyes with a sigh of relief.
His crimson pupils shimmered as a smile appeared on his face.
Aur casually punched the air.
The air itself seemed to be torn with just a casual punch from Aur, and a tearing sound echoed in the place.
"My strength has increased!" Aur exclaimed with excitement.