Strongest Mage with the Lust system

Chapter 929: Improvement

In his cultivation room, Max was sitting crossed legged on the cushion, his eyes closed in concentration.

After a long while, he opened his eyes and exhaled deeply. Then he looked at the empty wooden case in front of him and sighed, "I need to find something better."

Upon returning to the villa, he immediately entered the cultivation chamber and had taken the pill he had bought in the Trade Mountain. The seller had said it was a Low-Grade Tier 5, foundation healing pill, and indeed it was.

Unfortunately though, it wasn’t very effective and barely managed to heal a slightly larger crack in his Mana Core despite the fact that he had used his Bloodline Energy in conjunction with it.

Taking a last look at his Mana Core, he took out a stack of talisman paper, attributeless talisman ink and some Fire Elemental resources he had bought along with the ones he was given during the Talisman Hall’s exams.

At that time, he had relied entirely on the Fire Energy from his Fire Energy Traces in his bloodline, so they had gone unused until now.

Now that he was planning to create more Fire Elemental Talismans, he first had to replenish the Fire Traces.

One of the Fire Elemental resources was a small Spirit Fruit. He threw it in his mouth, chewed a few times and gulped it down.

Ignoring the burning sensation in his throat and belly, he grabbed a piece of red metal, covered it with his Bloodline Sense and began absorbing the Fire Mana from it.

As the Fire Mana from the spirit fruit and the metal entered his body, he guided it to his bloodline and the Fire Energy Traces immediately stirred into action. Like a hungry wolf, they pounced on it and rapidly absorbed it.

Phew!

Max exhaled a steamy breath, then nodded in satisfaction.

The mana from these two resources not only replenished the Energy he had consumed earlier, it seemed to have forced the Traces to grow a little. He couldn’t be sure about it because the improvement, if there was, was so minute that even with his Bloodline Sense, he couldn’t see it.

He then looked at the third and final fire elemental resource, a piece of Fire Elemental Talisman. He had bought it because he had felt a significant amount of pure Fire Mana in it and it wasn’t too expensive, just 70 High Grade Mana Stones.

The piece was very small and while it had no marking or anything else that could tell what tier talisman it came from, the seller had claimed that he had found it at a place where two peak Emperors had clashed, so the chances were high it was a piece of Tier 7 Fire Talisman.

Of course, when buying it, Max had dismissed it and had even turned to walk away, showing he wouldn’t give him the money he wanted for it—100 High Grade Mana Stones.

Because it was just a broken, small piece and only had some Fire Mana, not many had shown interest in it. So, when the seller saw he was interested, but wouldn’t give him the asking price, he immediately slashed the price by 20%. Seeing this, Max haggled for the first time in his life and managed to get another 10% discount.

He took a breath, placed the piece in his palm and slowly began injecting his Bloodline Sense in it. Immediately, he felt a heavy resistance.

’It’s indeed a part of a higher Tier Talisman.’ he thought, his eyes shining.

He became completely focused and after half an hour’s hard work, he finally managed to enter it.

Fwoosh!

Immediately, his Bloodline Sense felt a searing hot energy that almost lit it up, but he managed to retrieve it on time.

"I have hit the jackpot!’ He couldn’t help but cry out in excitement like a little kid.

The piece indeed had Pure Fire Mana and both its quantity and quality was a pleasant surprise. In terms of quantity, it was a bit higher than the combined fire mana he got from the spirit fruit and the metal, and in terms of quality, it was a lot more purer than the mana he absorbed in the volcano.

After a few moments, he calmed down and put the piece away. He didn’t need to use it yet, and well, it would be quite difficult to do so since the Mana inside it was capable of burning his Bloodline Sense.

Following this, he took a Spirit Replenishment Pill and meditated for a few hours. When he finally opened his eyes, his mental energy or commonly called Spirit Energy was completely restored.

"Let’s begin."

Unlike the last time, he ignored the talisman ink and took a talisman paper from the stack of 20 and began preparing it.

Snap!

When he was 70% done, the talisman paper snapped.

He frowned for a moment, then closed his eyes and began recalling the process to see what had gone wrong.

After ten minutes, he picked up the second talisman paper and began preparing it. This time he smoothly crossed the 70% threshold, then 80 and 90%.

But when he reached the 95% mark, the talisman paper became unstable.

His mind raced to find the reason behind it before it snapped and he soon found the reason—his Bloodline Sense was too intense for this part. Thus, while sensing the change in the talisman paper, he decreased the intensity of his Bloodline Sense.

A few moments later, the talisman paper stabilized and he continued preparing it. Just five minutes later, he was done.

When compared to last time, the improvement was evident.

After a moment’s rest, he put his finger in the bowl of Talisman Ink and poured pure Fire Energy from the Fire Traces into it. Then, using his finger as the talisman brush, he began inscribing the talisman.

10 minutes later, he stopped and looked at the talisman that glowed with a crimson hue for a moment.

His lips curled up in satisfaction.

He couldn’t tell if this talisman could qualify as mid-grade Tier 4, but it wasn’t much weaker than his first talisman. Moreover, he hadn’t exhausted nearly as much mental energy or Bloodline Sense to create it—the reason for his satisfaction.

"If I can maintain this rate of improvement, it wouldn’t be long before I can create Peak Tier 4 Talisman with ease." he murmured.

A moment later, however, he shook his head. Same with everything, the more he improved in this field, the more effort it would take to improve further, hence it would take more time.

He sensed his Fire Traces, then looked at the talisman paper. 18 were remaining.

"Let’s see how many I can create."

He began creating the second talisman without resting. Twenty minutes later, another talisman was in his hand.

Putting it away, he closed his eyes and began meditating. His mental energy and Bloodline Sense were running low, so before continuing, he had to recover them a bit.

’I’ll need to buy more Spirit Replenishment Pills,’ he thought.

...

The next day, dressed in the same blue long robes with the hood covering most of his face, he arrived at the foot of the Trade Mountain.

"It’s you!" someone exclaimed.