Descending Into A Novel-Chapter 39:Reactivating Core

"She came up to us and asked us what were drinking so obviously we were all like soda or water or juice or somethihg right?

Raymond nodded as a sign to let her continue.

"She was holding this cup and we couldn’t see it’s contents so naturally we asked what are you drinking then?"

"And then she said she was drinking wine! She started saying that we were all so immature for drinking these kiddy drinks and how she was mature for drinking wine and basically mocking us!"

"As she’s walking away though, she suddenly trips and falls to the ground! So we immediately rush over to her to help her but while we were helping her, we noticed that her cup was spilt on the ground! With water coming out!"

Raymond smirked just by imagining that, "She must have been so embarrassed."

She giggled, her feet in the air. "When we pointed it out, she turned so red. She stuttered for a bit before she just picked up the cup and ran away."

The two of them were currently in Raymond’s living room—because she wanted to lounge on his beanbags—as Ellen continued to spill her stories about Noelle with Raymond as her audience.

"Did you ever point it out to her after that?"

"Lots of times! The next time I saw her at the same event I started teasing her about it and she started to look like a tomato!"

Her giggling felt contagious, hearing it made Raymond also want to do the same.

Hearing this story, it reminded Raymond of his own younger self as well.

Everyone had a few embarrassing moments in their life. How could they not? Raymond was no exception to the rule.

He gave off a wistful smile, "Hearing that reminds me of my own embarrassing moments as a kid."

"As a kid? How long ago was that?", she teased.

He rubbed his chin, "Hmmm, it’s a bit hard since I spent the last few years traveling between dimensions. I guess around 500 something years ago?"

"Only 500? I assumed you were nearing your thousandth birthday." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

His mouth felt dry, "How old do you think I am?"

"You only ever say that you’re like several centuries old! I just assumed you were on the older side."

Exasperated, he just decided to reveal his age. "While I don’t know my exact age. I’m only around 520 something maximum."

"Considering how old you are. Shouldn’t you be way stronger?"

"I’ve spent the last nearly two centuries traveling. If I continued then I would definitely be way stronger, but honestly there’s no point in becoming stronger anyways. It’s not like I regularly go up against SSS ranks."

She pondered for a bit, "I guess that’s true then how come you aren’t doing anything to try and regain your strength faster?"

Raymond had considered that. But it was infeasible due to a multitude of reasons.

He needed lots of mana, and he would need lots of high quality pure mana.

The Grace family was rich and Raymond was talented but there wasn’t really a good reason for them to buy such expensive resources for someone so young.

It also just wasn’t really that efficient. It might speed it up by a few weeks or months, but a few months in a span of 22 years wasn’t much.

He would need dimensional-attuned mana or time-attuned mana to really speed it up.

But if such a thing was common, then Raymond wouldn’t be the only known user of either—according to as far as he knew.

He shrugged his shoulders lightly, "Costs too much, doesn’t do much. It’s just not worth it. "

She remarked, "Aren’t you just lazy?"

"I can recover just by waiting a bit longer anyways!"

"Sure sure, the Archmage is so hard working and diligent."

He slouched down on his beanbag, "I’m being called lazy by someone who once called their shadow in order to tell them to close the door."

"Calling someone versus walking out of bed are different levels of activity."

Raymond remembered that moment very well.

He was enjoying a very well deserved rest when he was suddenly awoken from his phones ringtone.

Picking it up, he heard Ellen’s tired voice telling him to shut her bedroom door.

Raymond felt speechless at the time, this is what you use me for?

He shook his head, "You were 37 at the time. Is that how a 37 year old should be acting?"

"Y-you’re five hundred something!"

"The older you get the younger you are in maturity, you ever see a sane three hundred year old? "

Ellen felt a bit stunned from his logic, "Are you calling yourself immature and mentally ill?"

He ignored her question, "Have you ever seen a sane three hundred year old though?"

"...i guess not but they were all special cases!"

"Ellen. Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence and three times a pattern."

"Where is this wisdom coming from all of a sudden?"

Raymond felt grateful he learned this quote from one of his colleagues on Earth. Since it didn’t exist here, he could just take the credit for it!

Seeing Ellen’s stunned expression, he knew he had won already.

He crossed his legs, smirking slightly. "Well, shall we continue our conversation about Noelle?"

"... fine."

...

"Wow."

Raymond knew roughly what the academy training halls were like but this was his first time actually using one.

The entire hall was nearly the size of a football field!

It was empty for now save for a small pile but Raymond could request training dummies, equipment for magic and even a bed to sleep in!

To think he had this entire space all to himself for two months!

Approaching the small pile of boxes and containers, he grabbed the first one in his hands and opened it—revealing a small pulsing blue crystal.

A solid mana ore, literally just mana in a solidified form. Based on his senses, he could tell this thing was pretty high quality.

Such a thing would be worth a small fortune, enough to last an average family a few months at the very least. Yet this entire pile consisted of such items, all for Raymond’s usage.

Carefully setting it down, he grabbed another box and opened it. Revealing a bottle with some sort of thick viscous liquid inside.

Sloshing it around, he could see it occasionally solidify before turning back into an amorphous slime like liquid.

[Living Ice Slime (Core Removed)]

Reading the label on the bottle confirmed it to be what he expected. A living monster, it was a bit hard to determine based on its mana due to the bottle blocking his senses but it seemed high quality as well.

He set it down in a different area.

By the time he was finished sorting through the pile of objects, he was left with three smaller piles and a lot of ripped open boxes and empty containers scattered everywhere.

One pile for objects to help him reactivate his core, another for his new disguise and another for his magic research.

After closing and locking the door, and setting up several privacy spells he picked up a random item from the first pile.

It was another mana ore, this one of a slightly lower quality then the first one he opened.

Sitting cross-legged next to the pile of items, he took a deep breath. Holding the ore in his right hand, he closed his eyes and slowly exhaled.

The moment he finished exhaling, he immediately crushed the ore in his hands!

Instantly a burst of high purity mana flooded the surroundings around Raymond, normally it would immediately spread out and dissipate into the surroundings—but with Raymond there, he naturally absorbed most of the mana, filtering it and storing it in his body.

He ran the newly absorbed mana through his veins and arteries. Letting it circulate through his two dormant cores.

Each time he ran it through his cores, the amount of mana slowly decreased. Until eventually, it ran out.

Picking up a bottle from the pile, he chugged its contents. Letting his body directly absorb the mana again.

After repeating this cycle several times, he felt his cores slightly activating again. Like a dying fish which had been given water, it floundered about. Desperately absorbing some of the mana without Raymond needing to force it.

He grinned, from now on it was smooth sailing all the way.

He picked up another item from the pile, upon releasing its mana. His body naturally absorbed the mana without him needing to force it.

This was where many considered the true starting point of an awakened. The formation of their core and when the individual would develop their own mana signature.

The core would essentially act as a storage for the unique mana of the individual. Passively turning ambient mana into mana more suited for the individual.

With it, awakened wouldn’t have to manually absorb mana after every fight in order to recover. Every spell, technique and arts would be more efficient and stronger.

It was a small change at first. The mana in his body slowly changed as he continuously cycled it through his cores.

Changing from a bright neon blue, which was the natural colour of mana before slowly transitioning into a deep shade of purple and a amber like shade of gold.