MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

Chapter 1827: Three Great Findings

"...Huh."

"It really is just ten."

Returning her senses back to her surroundings, a look of disbelief and confusion appeared on Veradine’s face.

"The Grand Sage said that consuming the Purple Star Citron would push me to the pinnacle of Sage-to-be," she muttered to herself as she looked at how much ether she had one last time.

"Considering that the minimum number of ether strands a pinnacle Sage-to-be would have is one million, then I should have at least a million ether strands in my body the moment I checked on it."

"Yet... why is there only ten?"

Confirming that she truly only had ten ether strands in her body for the nth time, Veradine finally stopped checking for the meantime as she let out a low sigh.

"Either the Heavenly Fruit wasn’t effective, or the Grand Sage lied to me about the Heavenly Fruit’s effects," she said, coming up with various reasons why the Heavenly Fruit did not have the effect she was expecting to receive.

But after she thought about it some more, she eventually dropped the matter altogether, thinking that there was no point delving into more of the what-ifs.

After all, even though she only had ten ether strands at the moment, the Heavenly Fruit had still allowed her to become a Sage-to-be.

"It is a shame that I’d have to gather all the ether strands to reach the pinnacle, though," muttered Veradine to herself, only to then realize something as she sat on the couch once more.

’On second thought, obtaining ten strands doesn’t seem like a bad thing.’

Seating herself in a cross-legged position, the silver-haired woman closed her eyes as she attuned herself once more to her surroundings.

Feeling herself make contact with the free-flowing ether in the air, she then proceeded to use her senses to capture them one by one as she began to pull them in according to a specific pattern.

Whoosh!

Watching the first strand of new ether appear within her body, Veradine could not help but clench her fists in excitement as she continued what she was doing.

’Though it would’ve been nice to ascend to the level of a true Sage just as I consumed the Purple Star Citron, doing so would have limited me to only reaching the peak of the 1st Lower Boundary.’

’On the other hand, my limit would probably be higher if I were to practice with my current method,’ she thought to herself. ’Of course, the downside would be the fact that I’d be stuck as a Sage-to-be for quite some time.’

’Good thing I optimized the Basic Ether Gathering Technique, then.’

As the thought came to mind, she let out a slight chuckle as she put her research into action, making use of the Basic Ether Gathering Technique she optimized to absorb ether from the surroundings.

At the same time, she kept track of the issues she hadn’t taken into consideration that popped up while practicing the Ether Gathering Technique, hoping to solve these points in order to optimize the technique even further.

’I guess this is also a good opportunity to answer some questions I have that come to mind,’ she thought, noticing that she had already gathered around five strands ever since she started.

’The first question this would answer is how much of an improvement the optimized Basic Ether Gathering Technique really is over the original technique.’

’Though, considering how I’d have to practice the original technique later, I’ll answer the other question first...’

’Which is to figure out if my aptitude as a Sage truly is deplorable.’

Stopping for a bit to start a timer for an hour, Veradine counted the number of strands she had gained from her brief session as she recalled the verdict the Grand Sage gave her back when she was still a teenager.

’If I remember correctly, I was told that it would take me 60 years to become a Sage.’

’On the other hand, going through the realms of a Sage-to-be would take me 20 years,’ she muttered to herself. ’5 years to go through the third tier, another 5 for the second tier, then 10 years to go from the first tier to the pinnacle.’

’...But it seems that it won’t even take me that much time to reach the pinnacle of a Sage-to-be, though?’

Just as she had finished recalling the verdict given to her, Veradine had also finished counting the number of strands she gained from her brief gathering session, which was around eight.

Realizing that she had gathered around eight strands of ether in what felt like half an hour, she soon realized that it wouldn’t even take her half a day to enter the realm of a Second-tier Sage-to-be.

And if she were to dedicate at least 12 hours of her day to gathering more ether, she would only need around two months to enter the realm of a First-tier Sage-to-be.

"Something odd is going on," she muttered as the verdict the Grand Sage gave her in the past echoed in her mind like a church bell tolling.

"...At this point, whatever I’m thinking of is pretty much confirmed."

As those words left her mouth, Veradine softly shook her head as the conversation she had with the Grand Sage surfaced in her mind.

"But just to be sure..."

Then, letting out a sigh, she closed her eyes as she began to practice the optimized Basic Ether Gathering Technique once more.

"I’ll practice the technique for an entire hour."

Staying true to her nature as a Scholar, Veradine kept track of the number of ether strands she gained from the technique for an entire hour, making a mental note of the total amount before writing it down on a nearby piece of paper.

Although the figure she got after she was done was more than enough to leave her at a loss for words, she set the emotions she felt aside for now as she then practiced the unmodified Basic Ether Gathering Technique for an entire hour.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Opening her eyes the moment the second hour was up, Veradine let out a soft exhale as she tallied the number of ether strands she had gathered through the unmodified Basic Ether Gathering Technique.

After writing the number down on another piece of paper, she then looked at the two numbers before nodding in understanding.

"Well, that confirms it."

Through the small experiment she had done while gathering ether for two hours straight, Veradine was able to confirm three things.

One, the modified Basic Ether Gathering Technique was far more effective than the original, confirming her published findings as the technique allowed her to gather around 40% more ether strands from the air within the same amount of time.

Two, her aptitude as a Sage was actually impressive, especially considering the fact that she was able to gather 50 ether strands in an hour even with the unmodified Basic Ether Gathering Technique.

Then again, even though these findings were quite substantial in the grand scheme of things, compared to the first two, her third and final finding was the most important to her.

Why?

Because in just two hours, she had gathered more than enough ether strands to be considered a Second-tier Sage-to-be.

And to someone who had spent her entire life yearning to become a Sage, finding out that she truly had the aptitude to become one from the start... was the greatest news she could ever receive.