"Now here's the true game-changer! You can still progress another 50 points after breakthrough! Just as I had previously guessed!" Riya laughed evilly, like a demon.
She was very excited as her evil plan to put everyone in their place—with Eric and her sisters by his side—was finally coming into full view.
She coughed and explained, "The extra bracket is just for convenience; there is only one Training Stats category."
"As for Intelligence, after you have a breakthrough, you still subconsciously train in your Intelligence while doing squads, as your mind was blank. And you should have guessed by now why there are no extra points on other stats—as you lost consciousness the moment you broke through and didn't train any further."
Eric wasn't surprised by that; he had guessed that much. Though he still had a weird look on his face because of Riya's previous words: "Don't tell me there will be a new breakthrough after this 50?"
That would be scary. Eric didn't want to repeat the same experience, but if there really was a new breakthrough, he would still do it. His masochistic spirit had only leveled up with the recent torture. He was ready to push it to demonic levels next.
Riya smiled brightly and confirmed Eric's 'worries' with an excited expression: "Of course there will be a breakthrough! There is always a wall to break if there is a path to travel! But there probably won't be a new bracket after that—for others at least... cough."
"In any case, from now on, you can start taking pills and potions again. The current unused points, as you see, are from the previous overeating pills and potions, which are still 'saved' inside your body. Back then, above 40 points, it wasn't enough to generate one unused point, though some of them were saved, and now you can use them. Anyway, don't worry about these point-related things; just leave them for me to manage."
She wasn't certain if the same would keep happening at each Rank and Training Bracket, as she had to calculate each time to get the right value. There might not be readily available unused points each time.
Eric understood that much. Though he felt Riya was dodging a bullet somewhere. He didn't want to ask if she didn't want to speak about it at this moment.
"Do I need to eat that many potions and pills to acquire one unused point again?" Eric trembled, feeling this level of overfeeding masochism was of a completely different dimension—he might never be able to level this up.
Riya shook her head with a smile. "Not that much. I've calculated, and it should be like when you previously reached 20 points, and it will consistently increase. In other words, this time, the amount of alchemy stuff you need to digest will be equally huge to obtain one unused point."
Just as Eric's face turned full of despair, Riya chuckled and put his worries to rest: "Don't worry, your Constitution has also risen hugely and will keep increasing from now on—it won't be that torturous."
Eric released a sigh of relief. Then he recalled something, and his voice turned sharp: "Don't tell me you have no plans to reduce the difficulty of the next breakthrough?"
Riya laughed nervously. She was truly helpless on this topic—she was 60% certain that training should reduce the difficulty, but what type of training, she had no idea. She could only judge better when she calculated the next breakthrough requirement—and hopefully, she'd get a much clearer picture on how to reduce the difficulty further.
"From now on, you should also focus on training for a few hours each day. Dueling or Gravity Room training should also be helpful. Let's aim to reach the peak by the end of the fourth month from now—this should give enough time to reduce the Breakthrough difficulty... Hopefully..."
Eric agreed with Riya. He wanted to learn Spells and try Elemental Control, but if his Intelligence increased further, all these would become much easier to master. Thus, for now, he should postpone practicing all these until the last month.
"Let's wait until Ly and Liv finish their trial. Even I'm sweating for them. Do you think we can help them in any way? Like brewing some potions to help with their current trial?" Eric was quite worried for both Lyria and Livy. He didn't want them to feel defeated after failing once.
Riya gave Eric a disappointed look. "You're still underestimating my sisters. Just wait and see—I guarantee they'll pass this trial smoothly."
Eric gave Riya a weird look at her complete faith in both Lyria and Livy's capability.
He wanted to agree with Riya, but he still wished to take precautions—he didn't want to see either Lyria or Livy feeling defeated and depressed.
Riya sighed and informed Eric of her second viable option: "If they fail, I just need to figure out new requirements that will only push one or two stats. I'm sure they can finish one trial after another—it'll just take much longer."
Eric recalled that there was indeed that way. He gave Riya another weird glance and didn't blame her—he was the idiot who wished to take on all four stats together in one single trial, which was why the difficulty was so spicy.
Nonetheless, he wasn't regretful—and he also hoped the next trials could be done in one sitting, as he had no interest in waiting in traffic jams.
"How about you pass me my Spells? I'm curious how they work." Since he was fully rested and had the whole night for himself, he might as well use the time to understand how Spells actually worked.
Riya agreed but didn't pass Eric the Spell—instead, she decided to demonstrate. "Watch how I do it; you'll understand much better this way with your current Intelligence stat."
She stood up and pointed her hand forward. A two-foot-wide mana circle appeared in front of her palm—and then a 'Dark Beam,' visible even in the dark environment of the Mind Space, shot out from the mana circle like a bullet.
Eric gaped. "You can also cast Spells?"
"Hehe, I was just showing off." Riya giggled. "I can do anything here, remember? I can also cast all Spells of all Elements in this place. You're probably forgetting what this place can do—and as your Intelligence stat and Mana and Stamina pools increase, we can do a lot more here."
"The Spell I cast was just Tier 1 'Shadow Dart.' To be honest, with your current Mana Control, you could easily cast this Tier 1 Spell. Still, if you want my suggestion—don't practice any Spell until you have another 40 Intelligence stats. Otherwise, it's honestly a waste of time just learning, practicing, and so on."
Eric was amazed. Intelligence stat was really useful.
"What training should I do then? Getting to 40 will probably take three more months. Also—just how many Spells are in the Darkness Spell Book?" He knew it went up to Tier 3, but he hadn't checked how many there were.
Riya answered thoughtfully: "Elemental Control is one way to train, but you don't need to bother with it yet—you barely have enough Mana pool to practice it for long. In fact, I doubt anyone below Master Rank can properly use Elemental Control in battle. So, just focus on a little of that, and also try Artisan—it requires Enhancements, which require extensive Mana Control—in other words, Intelligence training. Otherwise, just do the physical training I mentioned before."
"As for Spells—there are 2 Tier-1, 3 Tier-2, and 5 Tier-3 Spells in the Darkness Spell Book. To be honest, whoever made these Spell Books was brilliant. This one has at least one Attack, Defense, Movement, Trap, Concealment, Environmental, and Control-type Spell. In other words, these Spell Books were made to support a Mage from all angles possible. This is only for Darkness—other Elements don't have the same number; some have more, some less."
"Hm... I understand." Eric nodded, then casually asked: "What's the difference between Elemental Control and Spell?" They seemed the same to him.
Riya mused for a moment on how to explain.
After a while, she raised her right hand—and suddenly, it lit up in a raging flame. She pointed with her other hand and explained: "This is Elemental Control—though it's only fake. Well, everything in Mind Space is fake."
Eric nodded—with jealousy.
'Fire!'
He wanted to burn the world with fire—but sadly, his heart wasn't destructive enough, so his affiliation was toward the harmless Element—Darkness.
Riya swiftly extinguished the fire—it would only burn Eric's Stamina pointlessly.
She continued: "Elemental Control is just the direct use of an Element. Impacting the world enough just by using Elements takes a huge amount of Mana. Warriors probably rely on Elemental Control more—their skills and techniques are likely based on that. I'm just guessing—I don't know how real Warriors fight. And to be honest, it's contradictory—Mages should have high Intelligence and capability to use Elements better."
Eric understood. He—and everyone with him—was too dumb to understand the ways of the world. At any rate, he doubted any Apprentice Rank depended on Elements to fight.
"That's probably the case." Riya nodded in agreement. "We'll see after we encounter others."
"As for Spells—they're a creative way to use Mana. It's like a machine: through various combinations and patterns, electricity flows to run a refrigerator or a vehicle. It's amazing—but it takes time, as each mana circle -the 'machine'- needs to be created."
"Pre-made Scrolls can reduce the time to create this 'machine,' but it still takes time to cast. Honestly, all this depends on Intelligence stats—but just having Intelligence without practice doesn't make someone an expert. That's why Mana Control and Elemental Control are separated from just higher Intelligence stat."
Eric understood. It was like—two people with equally strong hands didn't mean they could do the same things exactly the same way.
"Elemental Control is devastating. If you have enough resources and capability, you can just nuke your enemies—problem solved. Even if the enemy was just a mosquito."
"Pure Mana Control is softer—but Mana Defense and Offense can make anyone reasonably powerful..." Riya continued explaining.
Eric exited his Mind Space and continued listening to Riya while enjoying his fruit juice.
Riya shared her knowledge, findings, and understanding on various subjects—such as how Rune weapons could give anyone any Element for attacks and defense.
She explained in detail how each Tier differed in Runes, Arrays, etc.—and how higher Tiers weren't necessarily best for lower Ranks.
Eric listened while wondering if he could use Runes to fulfill his dream—casting nonstop, gigantic fireballs at his enemies.
Sadly, Riya then crushed his hope.
Sigh...