Chapter 34 Bryxton
Bryxton was a city said to be the Financial Capital of Arcadia. Located on the Western part of Arcadia, it had most of the business and trading centres of all of Arcadia. It was more or less circular, having hundreds of buildings and a dozen skyscrapers dispersed within the city.
It wasn't too far from the shore but neither too close to it either. There was also not one monster den or danger zone in its proximity. While it was covered with a forest in the north and a desert in the south, there was a road connecting from here to the shore city in the west. From the east various towns, cities and slum areas were connected, after which came the Arcadia city or the Arcadia Academy, my next destination.
Within the city, the various locations were as follows:
East: The skyscraper where Zero was staying and the lake of Bryxton where Elle is supposed to fall after her flight gets hijacked. Bryxton Night's Auction's location.
West: The hideout where Lucia, Cristine and Eliza were staying. The Urgent Healer's Hospital. The stadium of the tournament where various official fights are held. The Record Keeper's Department.
Centre: Reagan's Herbs shop.
South: Mall where Zero bought the suits and car.
.....
Zero opens his eyes as he wakes up, taking a long yawn while stretching his body. He removes the blanket and gets out naked from the bed with his thin pale scar covered body.
He walks towards the wardrobe and wears a casual T-shirt with short boxers and looks at the city from the wall window. Since the sun was on the other side, the city was clearly visible through the window without any obstruction. It was already evening, and the view was quite beautiful with the structured build of the city.
Zero looked at the other skyscrapers before looking at the Bryxton's Lake where he would be meeting Elle. Then he sighed and moved towards the refrigerator and took out cold coffee before moving towards the bag filled with herbs which he bought.
Yesterday, as soon as he came back, he went to sleep. Despite his old habit of working for days without any sleep, he couldn't stop the exhaustion from taking over, so he slept as soon as he hit the bed.
"A purple lavender, a grey vial, starshadow… ummm all right that checks most of the things," Zero then begins taking out the herbs and moves to the kitchen.
Putting on some music, he started cooking the herbs left and right. After another 30 minutes of cooking, he finally got a blue-coloured drink, which he chilled in the refrigerator.
He then created 10 different portions of those fluids and brought it all to the training room located on that floor.
He looked at the training room's function buttons and set the gravity at 2.5. Then he lowered the temperature to 5 degrees celsius for starters. He then moved to make other necessary arrangements for a perfect atmosphere.
-Sip
Drinking one of the ten he made, Zero entered the facility and sat down on the floor, as he took a deep breath and began channelling mana throughout his body.
Over the ages in his past life, Zero discovered that while he had lesser mana… or extremely less mana in the beginning, as he increased his training intensity, his mana capacity and mana limit increased. He had a theory about it, but it was never confirmed because, by the end, his mana had already reached a level where it couldn't be measured by normal means.
The theory, however, was simple:
While for others, mana levels were fixed from birth and would grow with only levels, skill points, age and artifacts. His mana was not fixed from birth, or to be more accurate, it was fixated on the mana channels he had unlocked.
The more mana channels he unlocks, the more he could increase the so called potential to use mana.
The other thing which he discovered was that he could increase his other aspects too with proper training. There were people who could lift 200 kg at strength 50 and 220 kg at strength 51. As for Zero, he could lift 200 kg one day and after a cruel training of a month and a half, he could as well reach that point where he could lift 220 kg.
It was difficult, but it wasn't impossible.
Zero then took a firmer and firmer and firmer position as he channelled his mana through his body. The potion he just took was made for a concentration booster so that he could focus on the task without even missing any minute details.
The air around Zero began swirling around with dense mana, and Zero then slowly started breathing that mana into his body. Forcing all that mana into his body at the first mana channel, he applied all the force he could on the lower portion of the stomach, where the channel was supposed to be located.
Because of gravity and other factors like artificial temperature and humidity, etc. He not only trained to unlock his mana channels, but increased his strength and agility, too. While he may not be able to rapidly multiply his strength, at least he could do it faster this time.
After a couple of hours, Zero finally opened his eyes as he sighed with a smile as he thought,'Maybe I was overconfident to think I could breach the first channel on the first try. From the looks of it, it should take a week for the first. As for the second… might take more than a month.'
Zero then stood up and moved towards the telephone, where he called the food delivery for a few specific dishes. After 15 minutes, the dishes came and Zero started haphazardly eating it. After he ate his fill, once again he took the same potion and once again entered the training room.
This time, however, he focused on strength training for the next couple of hours.
The next was skill revision for a couple of weapons he would be using in the near future.
And next…
And next…