Atticus was seated in the middle of a small cavern illuminated softly by patches of bioluminescent fungi, atop a rocky platform. The whole space was silent, leaving Atticus to absorb the mana in the air with fervor.
'The mana in the air is massive,' he thought.
'Massive' was simply one of the many words he could use to describe what he was feeling. To him, it was as though he was moving through a dense foliage of mana, it was so thick that it felt present.
'If they placed my one-year-old self here, I would have awakened in a few hours,' he mused.
It was just that plentiful. However, Atticus was more focused on something else: his rank!
Back at Eldoralth, Atticus was always faced with challenges when it came to continuously absorbing mana and increasing his rank.
Aside from the fact that the mana in the air was sparse and the increased density provided by the advanced training room couldn't hold a candle to the chasm's, Atticus could feel one other quality: it was insanely pure.
For an individual to advance in rank, they had to absorb mana into their mana core and allow their body to adapt to it.
This makes it so that a person couldn't absorb too much mana too fast. The amount of mana an individual could absorb before resting was dependent on one's talent.
This was one of the major reasons transcendent talents always had faster growth speeds than others. However, Atticus's talent was mythical. This allowed him to have an even greater absorption time than any other.
But spending just a few hours in this chasm, Atticus had discovered another major factor that added to the reason he was always being forced to stop absorbing mana: its quality.
Compared to this mana, Eldoralth's mana appeared filled with impurities that hindered and delayed the body's ability to adapt. But this mana was pure. There was nothing like that here.
As he absorbed the mana, Atticus could feel his body adapting in real-time. He didn't feel any need to stop anytime soon, nor did he feel any strain.
Atticus was beyond elated.
'I could spend the rest of the year here!' he thought excitedly.
If he could go back in time, Atticus would tell Magnus not to place that mark on him again! This was the perfect place to train and grow; he could only imagine what rank he could reach should he train here for a year.
Atticus kept on absorbing mana without showing any signs of stopping. Without moving a single inch, six hours passed in the blink of an eye.
However, Atticus soon encountered a major problem.
'What the hell…' he thought, feeling a wave of exhaustion wash over him.
He felt exhausted! No, his body was so tired and low in energy! It was as though he had been fighting for months without resting. Every movement required major effort to make.
It didn't take him long to figure out the reason, and when he did, he couldn't help but curse out.
'Of course there's a limitation,' he realized.
As he absorbed mana, his body adapting was simply evolving. And in order to do that, it needed energy from the body. Atticus was experiencing this for the first time because his body simply hadn't evolved so much in one sitting.
'I need to restore my energy,' he thought.
Atticus pondered about how he would do that, and his gaze landed on the frozen creature up at the ceiling.
'Right… eating,' he thought.
A few minutes passed, and Atticus found himself standing in front of the massive beast. It had taken that long because Atticus's stamina needed to control his element was basically nonexistent right now; he had to do it slowly.
Atticus shakily conjured a small knife made of fire and began to gut the beast. The heat from the blade cauterized the flesh as he cut, preventing any blood from spilling. He worked methodically, slicing through the thick hide and removing sections of meat.
The hours spent in survival training weren't for naught. Although he didn't know a thing about this particular beast, he got the basics down.
Once he had gathered enough meat, Atticus gathered some dry fungi and used his fire element to start a small, controlled flame.
He skewered the chunks of meat using sharp earthen spikes and roasted them over the fire, the aroma filling the cavern.
Due to his intricate control over the fire molecules, Atticus could perfectly control the heat to ensure the meat cooked at the ideal temperature. This small detail made it cook faster, and soon enough, it was ready.
Atticus wasted no time and grabbed a bite. There were no spices, but it tasted surprisingly good, somewhat like snail meat.
As he ate, Atticus could feel a surge of energy returning to his body. The meat was tough but nourishing.
Atticus's appetite was humongous, and despite the size, he finished the whole pile of meat and licked his fingers for the remaining juice.
After finishing his meal, Atticus created water from the air and drank it directly. Magnus had mentioned that there was drinkable water, but none of it could be as clean and hygienic as what he could create from thin air.
Afterward, Atticus froze the remaining beast and kept it on the ceiling again before continuing his training.
The meal had thankfully restored his energy, and he was eager to continue improving his rank.
'Now that I know the limitations and the solution, I don't think there's anything that can stop me,' he thought confidently.
Those were big words, words that Atticus soon regretted saying.
"Ah, shit," he muttered.
A week had passed since Atticus had entered the chasm, and he had been inside the cavern during this time, focusing on absorbing mana without any outside interference.
However, after all this time, he finally encountered his first major roadblock.
"Isn't my appetite too much?" Atticus muttered while looking at the corpse of the beast he had first killed when he entered the cavern. However, unlike a week ago, its body was all bones with not a single piece of meat in sight.
Atticus sighed.
'Looks like I'll have to step out,' he thought reluctantly.