CH 128

“This is the first room.”

“This place tests your heart, huh? So it’s like a Feelings Room? There doesn’t seem to be anything special… oh! It’s that thing over there!”

“Ugh, stop being so nosy.”

Disregarding Miho’s grumbles, Merlin looked around while alternating between his Enhanced, Scanning, and Aura Vision. Most of the items in the room had spiritual protection, so Merlin couldn’t garner much information from them, but he was able to understand their basic mechanisms.

“Put your hand on that. You’ll see an illusion appear, and once you overcome it, I think it’ll be over.”

“Hey, you’re not the test proctor. How could you know that?”

“It’s obvious.”

“Hmpf.”

Miho grumbled and put her hands atop the crystal board in the center of the room. Soon, a stretch of text passed by her eyes.

“I was wondering what you meant by trial… it’s just a training system. Oh, that’s probably why each power sent rising candidates instead of their most powerful beings.”

Merlin recalled the representatives he saw aboard Moby Dick. Hader, the mermaid prince, was Level 9 while Miho was Level 7, but these two seemed to be the exception rather than the norm. All the other representatives seemed to be Level 8. This aligned with Merlin’s assessment that each of the powers had sent rising candidates as their representatives.

Ting!

While Merlin was having these thoughts, the light on the crystal board went out. Miho opened her eyes.

“Phew…”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought.”

Right as she finished speaking, one of the crystalline walls shrunk down, like ice melting, and another door opened in its place.

“As I suspected, it’s more training than a trial.”

The second trial was to unravel a complicated magic system within a set time, and the third trial was to detoxify a poison. Merlin stood beside Miho and watched her take the next few tests.

“Ugh, stop trying to help me! I’m here to learn!”

“But I’m teaching you through my guidance.”

The initial trial section was over in a flash, mainly because Merlin started solving the training questions alongside Miho. As soon as he saw the complicated magic system, he grasped the solution. When he saw the poison gas in the third trial, he used water to isolate the gas in one corner of the room.

“Okay, here, left to right.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why? It’s not balanced at all.”

“My goodness! What does balance have to do with magic systems? Do you think it’s some type of symmetry game?”

Unfortunately, Merlin wasn’t a very good teacher. He didn’t know how to explain things to others, even though he understood things just from a glance. If a spell was inefficient, as it was in Nell’s case, Merlin could offer suggestions on how to fix it. However, he was poor at teaching new things.

“Argh! One’s right hand is symmetrical to one’s left hand, right?! You have five fingers on one hand, so why don’t you know this?”

“W-what kind of crazy talk are you spewing now?”

As Miho grew more confused, Merlin grew more frustrated.

“Look here. This is my right hand, and that is my left hand. If there are five fingers on my right hand, then wouldn’t it be weird if I had only four fingers on my left hand?”

“You’re talking about your fingers and hands! In what world do magic systems equate to hands! Also, I’m stuck on one location of this magic system, so what’s with the whole hand analogy?”

“The magic system is like hands because… man, how am I supposed to explain this.”

Merlin pounded his chest in frustration. At that moment, the final crystal wall shrunk down.

Ting!

“Alright, a new room. Hmm? What’s this?”

Merlin, who had scanned the new room, saw a red core on the middle of the floor. It was about the size of his palm, and it emanated a mysterious, yet powerful aura.

“Monster Core…” Miho said quietly.

“Hmm? Is it something good?”

“Yes. It strengthens monster-qi, so it’s considered a significant treasure amongst monsters. Since it’s just sitting here, do you think it’s a gift?”

“Probably. You’ve passed all the tests.”

Merlin’s scan of the room had also revealed that the room was boobytrapped, so he sent Younghwi to retrieve the Monster Core.

“Here you go. Consume it quickly so we can go on our way.”

“Ugh. I got so much help on the tests, I don’t even feel any sense of accomplishment or satisfaction.”

Miho shot Merlin a glare that seemed to say ‘all because of you’, but Merlin didn’t pay any attention to her.

“Hurry up and consume it.”

“… Eh, whatever. Don’t touch me while I’m absorbing it.”

“Okay. I’ll stand guard.”

Miho sat cross-legged on the floor and swallowed the Monster Core. As soon as she did, her monster-qi started shaking.

Rumble!

Miho’s clothes fluttered as if struck by a strong gust of wind. Soon, her monster-qi produced a whirlpool of air that circulated around her body.

“Oh, it’s the same thing as when users level up. I wish I could expand my internal energy…”

It had already been a while since Merlin’s internal energy capacity had stopped expanding. Since he was able to quickly understand and utilize his Golden Pill Immortal Technique, he acquired his first cycle of internal energy faster than anyone else, but strangely, he didn’t make much progress afterwards.

“If my gold core could accommodate four, no, five cycles, then I’d be able to make quick work of a Kraken, or even Moby Dick with just one attack.”

Among the users’ abilities, internal energy capacity increased every one-hundred points. So, if a user reached a hundred points, they would possess fifty years of internal energy. However, if the stat reached two-hundred points, a user would have one-hundred-and-fifty years of internal energy. That is, two-and-a-half cycles. At three-hundred points, a user would have three-hundred-and-fifty years of internal energy, or five cycles and fifty years. Hence, as a practitioner of the Golden Pill Immortal Technique, Merlin would be able to strike fear in most large monsters with a mind-bogglingly powerful hand skill attack if he could attain three-hundred stat points or more in the internal energy stat category…

“Wait, why isn’t my internal energy increasing?”

His internal energy capacity had stabilized and settled at one cycle, or sixty years. In other words, his growth had screeched to a halt. Merlin was able to gather inner qi, as he constantly operated the Golden Pill Immortal Technique, but instead of going into his gold core, the gathered qi just circulated throughout his body.

Ever since his gold core gathered one cycle and stabilized at that level, all the additional spiritual power that he had obtained since then bypassed his gold core and spread throughout his body. The amount of internal energy that had circulated through his body was considerable. Since over six months had passed in-game since the end of the open beta, more internal energy was spread throughout his body than in the gold core.

‘I wonder what other users in similar positions have done.’

When learning martial arts, Merlin didn’t look up or review others’ training methods, but right now, he couldn’t help but be curious. When he walked around Starting, Merlin had seen many – not that many – users with two or three cycles of internal energy.

Of course, these users attained these capacities using their bonus points.

Bonus points were one of the conditions that allowed users to quickly develop themselves in a short amount of time. They allowed one to strengthen skills that one focused on and reinforce the parts that one didn’t specifically train in. Therefore, a mage who didn’t train their stamina could have more stamina than the average user just by delegating a few points into the stamina stat area, or a life force user with extremely low magic resistance could have more magic resistance than the average user.

In Merlin’s case, he could easily break through if he used his bonus points. If he used them on internal energy, he’d be able to easily overcome the natural limits of his internal energy capacity, which were put in place to stabilize and regulate users’ bodies.

If a stable one-cycle user were to suddenly add thirty years of internal energy, the new internal energy capacity would be forcibly maintained, as the additional internal energy would be pulled from the internal energy scattered throughout one’s body.

“If I knew I’d be stuck at one cycle, I would have taken out my gold core periodically to sell it… huh?”

Merlin, who was murmuring to himself, paused suddenly. He looked at Miho, who was still immersed in the monster-qi expansion process, before falling deeper into his thoughts.

‘Take out my gold core?’

Periodically taking out one’s gold core was standard for Golden Pill Immortal Technique’s expansion process. Once stabilized, a gold core had to be withdrawn so that a new gold core could be placed and stabilized. When that new gold core reached its limit and stabilized too, the process should repeat. This was the ultimate training method for the Golden Pill Immortal Technique. It was called the Spiritual Power Transfer Method.

Another thing that Merlin didn’t know was that retrieving the extra internal energy that wasn’t absorbed by one’s gold core and was allowed to permeate the body, actually strengthened one’s blood vessels. This was a training process known as Danta. Unbeknownst to Merlin, by constantly circulating his extra inner qi throughout his body and pulling from it to replenish his gold core over the past half year, Merlin had greatly strengthened his blood vessels, which allowed him to circulate a large amount of internal energy without injury.

Though the Golden Pill Immortal Technique was an outstanding divine technique, if the user’s blood vessels weren’t strong, they wouldn’t be able to output one cycle of internal energy all at once. Even if one’s gold core could sustain such a large outflow, one’s blood vessels would be damaged from such a large passage of power.

“I shouldn’t hesitate. Younghwi and Shining, get into guard mode.”

Strictly speaking, Merlin didn’t have to verbalize the command. Regardless, his two spirits started to revolve around him and stand guard. It didn’t seem likely that an enemy would appear in the Trial room, but Merlin decided that he’d rather be safe than sorry.

Swish.

Merlin took out a stabilized gold core from his inventory. This was the gold core that he had found a thousand meters underwater. He had used this external gold core to store internal energy, like a storage tank, in case he ever needed it.

“Here I go.”

Whoosh!

Merlin’s heart glowed gold as he circulated his internal energy. This change meant that Merlin was in the process of withdrawing the gold core from within his body. However, rather than concentrating on making a new gold core, Merlin focused on moving his newly gathering internal energy into his external gold core.

/Your maximum spiritual power (Type: Internal Energy) has fallen by 110 points!/

Consistent with the appearance of the text notification, Merlin felt a sense of emptiness within him. However, he focused his attention and sat down to continue the process.

“I should move on to the next step right about now, right?”

Merlin breathed deeply a few times and began to focus on the inside of his body. Merlin was able to quickly immerse himself in the process because he had done it several times in the past.

Whoosh!

Merlin began to absorb the internal energy that existed in his natural surroundings, using the Dark Northsea Divine Technique. It was the optimum cultivation technique to convert natural energy into usable qi.

“… the martial arts of the Dark Northsea gathers the genuine-qi that exists in nature in one’s body, and much like how sea water allows a large boat to float, I will create the fundamental foundation of genuine-qi from which great power may be derived.”

Chanting the Dark Northsea Divine Technique mantra, Merlin’s body started to absorb the qi in his surroundings. Merlin’s image-making ability was so powerful and effective that, although he had taken out his gold core, he was able to trick his own body into thinking that it still possessed a gold core. Merlin filled the spot where the gold core previously existed with the qi gathered from the Dark Northsea Divine Technique.

“The mark of an outstanding man is to obtain nourishment, absorb qi, and train his body to fend off and defeat the aging process. If one’s mind is silent, one can live a long life…”

The internal energy gathered through the Dark Northsea Divine Technique was being quickly converted to the Golden Pill Immortal Technique’s internal energy. In the past, this process took days, but now, Merlin could do it in a short amount of time. Merlin’s mastery of the Golden Pill Immortal Technique had already reached a high level, and he had an ample amount of internal energy in his body to support him.

“… thus, my body shall act as a core furnace and use my body’s organs as cauldrons to create a gold core, and eventually, I will achieve the Dao of golden divinity and immortality…”

Merlin gathered qi from nature and imbued it into his internal spiritual pellet, his phantom gold core. He collided, compressed, and spun the qi. Finally…

/Spiritual power (Type: Internal Energy) has increased by 120 points!/

/Willpower has increased 7 points!/

/Magic Resistance has increased 10 points!/

Merlin had taken out his gold core and made a new one. Though he had executed the Golden Pill Immortal Technique’s ultimate training method, he had done it in an extremely short time. Even users who received assistance needed at least a week to complete this process. If another Golden Pill Immortal Technique user saw this scene, they would have accused Merlin of cheating and reported him to the developers. This Spiritual Power Transfer Method was something only Merlin could do.

However, since his gold core was newly created, it would be dangerous to output beyond a certain amount of internal energy at any one time. Moreover, until the gold core stabilized, Merlin couldn’t take out his new gold core. If he did, the core and all its internal energy would simply evaporate and scatter. However, it was ultimately worth it. His gold core’s maximum capacity of internal energy was now at seventy years; an increase of ten years. Also, since he had overcome the one-cycle barrier, his internal energy capacity would increase day-by-day.

“Phew. I should have done this earlier. I wasted so much internal energy up to now.”

Merlin transferred the one cycle of energy from his previous gold core to his external gold core with forty-five years of stored internal energy. He smiled with satisfaction as he looked at the external gold core that now held one-hundred-and-five years of internal energy. However, through this process, Merlin realized that his external gold core couldn’t limitlessly take in internal energy. Furthermore, the great clam, the origin of the external gold core, wasn’t something that could be found easily.

“Since it seems like it’s almost full, I suspect that the internal energy capacity of this external gold core is probably one-hundred-and-twenty years or so. I’d be unstoppable if I had ten or so of these external gold cores.”

However, Merlin knew that he wouldn’t be able to find a gold core seller even if he scoured the online exchange message boards. The issue was that gold cores were probably only found a thousand meters underwater. Even then, the great clam was a rare find.

“Let’s see. Is there something else that acts like a gold core?”

Merlin pulled on his right eyelashes to open his item chart. He then went into the magic stone category. He saw five, ten, thirty, and even a few sixty-year internal energy magic stones in his inventory. These were all drop items from the various monsters that he had defeated in the past.

“It’d be nice if I could consume all these magic stones and convert them into my internal energy, but most of them are of low quality… also, I can use them to replenish my internal energy, but I won’t be able to expand my internal energy capacity with just these stones. On top of all that… hmm?”

While scrolling through his inventory list of magic stones, the last entry caught his eye. There was a reason why it was at the bottom of his min-to-max organized list. It was a high-quality magic stone that contained four-hundred-and-fifty points of spiritual power.