MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

Chapter 1826: The Woes of a New Sage-to-be

"Ugh..."

Feeling like she had just woken up from a nasty hangover the moment she came to, Veradine clutched her head as she gave herself some time to acclimate to her current senses.

Then, once she felt like the pain in her head subsided, she sat upright, only to look at the clock as she briefly recalled what happened before she passed out.

"Two days..." she murmured, only to clutch her head once more as it throbbed in pain.

"Ngh..."

"Do all Heavenly Fruits have this kind of side effect...?"

Spending a bit more time to let the pain mellow out, Veradine eventually stood up to grab some medicine as she thought about the sequence of events that led to her current point.

"First, I was at the award ceremony, then I went home, then I ate the Heavenly Fruit, then I fell unconscious... and then I woke up with this crazy headache."

Taking a couple of pain relievers as she arrived at the end of her train of thought, Veradine could not help but let out a soft sigh the moment she felt the pain in her head begin to disappear.

Fortunately, it did not take long for the pain relievers to take full effect, with the pain in her head fully disappearing by the time a few minutes had passed.

"That’s better," she said, closing her eyes for a bit as she acclimated herself to her senses once more.

Though, once she did, she noticed that her senses had become more acute compared to before.

"Hmm?" Veradine opened her eyes after some time, immediately noticing that she could see a bit farther than before.

Then, shifting her attention to her hearing, she began to pick up sounds that her ears wouldn’t have picked up in the past, such as the faint chirps and hisses that constantly echoed in her surroundings.

Continuing to go through her other senses after that, Veradine eventually sat down on the couch as a look of astonishment appeared on her face.

"So this is what it feels like to finally become a Sage-to-be," she murmured, only to then lay down on the couch as she gave herself some more time to acclimate to her newfound senses.

By the time she sat up once more, she felt like she had finally adjusted to the abilities her improved senses gave her, allowing her to move on to her next experiment.

"Although I haven’t touched the path of a Sage in the past, my foray into the topic of magic has given me a good idea of what I need to keep in mind while I’m at the realm of a Sage-to-be."

"Then again, there isn’t really much to keep in mind as a Sage-to-be." She chuckled to herself. "Or well, there’s only one thing to keep in mind, but it also applies to Sages."

"And that thing... would be the ether."

Whoosh!

Focusing her attention on her current surroundings, Veradine extended all of her senses outwards as she tried to get a certain feel for something that existed beyond the normal senses a human had.

Though, with the Heavenly Fruit she consumed having already improved her senses to a level that’s beyond human, it did not take long for her to grasp that certain something.

Swoosh!

Willing her senses to gather these certain somethings in front of her, a faint iridescent strand of energy soon manifested before her very eyes, causing her face to light it up as she smiled.

"I may be 15 years too late, but at least we got there in the end," she said, only to then move the iridescent strand around her body according to her will.

After feeling like she had gotten a good grasp of control over the iridescent strand, she then willed it to disperse as she began to go over some of the information she had collected in the past.

"For a Sage-to-be, the most important thing to take note of is the amount of ether one has stored in their bodies," muttered Veradine to herself as she thought out loud. "That’s because the amount of ether one has in their bodies dictates how close they are to becoming a true Sage."

From what she could recall, there were four tiers a Sage-to-be could fall under depending on how much ether they had in their bodies..

Third-tier, second-tier, first-tier, and pinnacle.

Third-tier Sage-to-bes mostly pertained to those that had just recently become a Sage-to-be, with the weakest ones only having a single strand of ether in their body.

This amount could be increased by either passively absorbing ether in the air, or by absorbing ether with the help of an Ether Gathering Technique, the latter of which helped increase how much ether one could have in their body at faster speeds.

By the time a Sage-to-be could accommodate over a hundred strands in their body without issue, they would be recognized as a Second-tier Sage-to-be.

Unlike Third-tier Sage-to-bes, Second-tier Sage-to-bes could already make use of the ether in their bodies to cast a couple of simple spells.

However, those in the second tier were usually advised to amass at least a thousand strands of ether before they started casting the simplest spells in a Sage’s repertoire.

Of course, this advice did not stop some Second-tier Sage-to-bes, thinking that it was just a hoax of some sort to stop them from realizing their full potential.

Though, once they saw how their spells backfired on them the moment they ran out of ether, it was only then did they realize that the advice others gave them was not given without reason.

As for First-tier Sage-to-bes, the requirement one needed to fulfill was for one to have at least a hundred times more ether strands than a Second-tier Sage-to-be.

But because of how much ether a Sage-to-be at the first tier had, any spell they chose could be practically cast without any danger... to a certain extent.

Naturally, it went without saying that spells made for true Sages were off limits to Sage-to-bes at this tier. However, all basic spells could be cast by a First-tier Sage-to-be without any issue.

In fact, because of that, some First-tier Sage-to-bes were even given the role of protectors of faraway villages and towns.

But in most cases, protectors in those areas would be Sage-to-bes at the pinnacle, which had an ether strand count that numbered in the millions at the very least.

’One, hundred, ten thousand, and a million.’

Keeping those arbitrary numbers in mind, Veradine focused her senses inward.

’Since the Grand Sage said that consuming the Purple Star Citron would grant me the strength of a pinnacle Sage-to-be, then that means I should have at least a million strands of ether in my body.’

’Let’s see... how much ether do I have in my body, exactly?’

’...’

’...’

’Mm?’

’...’

’...’

’Just ten?’