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What did a person's magical talent include?

In detail, it could be divided into many aspects: casting speed, magical power, elemental affinity, meditation speed, and more.

Even learning ability was one of them.

After all, knowledge in the field of magic was vast and complicated, and learning it required considerable effort.

However, it was universally acknowledged throughout the magical world that a mage's most important talent was meditation efficiency.

Because it determined the upper limit of a mage's future realm.

For mages, their own magical realm was the most crucial factor!

And this was precisely what had been preventing Mason from advancing further.

His mana reserves had long reached the peak limit of a Tier Three mage, yet his several attempts at advancement had all ended in failure. Where was the problem?

It was his insufficient meditation efficiency.

Many factors affected meditation efficiency, such as the elemental concentration of the environment, the mage's mental state, affinity for various elements, whether they had taken a Meditation Potion, and so on.

Among them, the greatest limitation on meditation efficiency was elemental affinity.

When condensing a Magic Seed, the Magic Tide created by a mage was one way of testing the level of that mage's elemental affinity.

The Magic Tide Mason had created back then had merely been a tiny ripple, so naturally, his elemental affinity had not been high.

It was like a car with an underpowered engine. No matter how fast it tried to go, it could only go so fast.

But Mason, now possessing the Nether Orchid, was like a car fitted with the latest engine. His entire being had been elevated!

He sat in the room containing the Earth Element Gathering Array on the third floor of the Magic Tower. The Magic Seed in his mind drew in and expelled the yellow motes of light around him, while the purple Nether Orchid swayed before him.

Inside the Gathering Element Array, the Nether Orchid's ability to attract elements was rather redundant. However, its floral fragrance filled the room, constantly boosting Mason's meditation efficiency.

It was like going from a motorcycle to a BMW, from a tiny apartment to a villa, from B to D. It was a completely different experience!

But Mason did not rashly attempt an immediate advancement. Instead, he spent the entire morning adjusting his condition.

He operated his Meditation Method and entered a meditative state, allowing the Magic Seed to naturally draw in and expel the elements in the air. The mana it transformed circulated through his mind, resonating with the surrounding elements.

Bit by bit, he cast aside distracting thoughts and slowly entered a state of deep meditation.

Although all four of his previous attempts had ended in failure, he had also learned many lessons from them, even though he truly had not wanted to gain that experience.

He knew very clearly that he could not be impatient before advancing, nor could he allow any fluctuating emotions to interfere with him.

It was not until the afternoon, when Mason was immersed in deep meditation and felt that his condition had reached an unprecedented peak, that he finally began attempting to break through the bottleneck!

He operated his Meditation Method at full force and pushed his Magic Seed to its limits. The earth elements in the room seemed to be swallowed by a massive vortex, rapidly transformed into pure mana by Mason.

This mana overflowed and began charging toward the bottleneck!

It was like pouring water into a cup.

The cup was Mason's realm, the water was mana, and the amount of water the cup could hold was the total mana capacity of that realm.

What Mason needed to do was continuously pour water into the cup until it overflowed.

But with his previous meditation efficiency, the speed at which his Magic Seed produced mana could not keep up with the speed at which mana naturally dissipated. As a result, the cup could never be filled, leaving him unable to advance.

But today, everything was different!

Under the effect of the Nether Orchid's fresh fragrance, Mason's Magic Seed abandoned its usual old-carriage pace. Like it had been injected with adrenaline, it frantically extracted mana and charged at the solid bottleneck!

Mason could clearly feel the torrent of mana surging through his mind. The bottleneck, once like an impenetrable wall of bronze and iron, was actually struck open with crack after crack!

The raging mana washed over and slammed into those cracks, creating even more fractures.

Until, at last, the mana completely overflowed from the "cup"!

Like a river finally flowing into the sea, Mason instantly felt his spirit surge. His whole soul seemed to have been elevated, cleansed once by pure mana.

A Tier Four mage!

Mason slowly opened his eyes. Tears filled his sockets as he choked up, not knowing how to release the joy and excitement overflowing from his heart.

After failing four whole times, he had thought he would never have the chance to step into the realm of a Tier Four mage in this lifetime.

But the world was just that wondrous. At his darkest hour, he had encountered that Flower Shop and purchased this miraculous plant, allowing him to break through the bottleneck and become a Tier Four mage!

This feeling of returning from death was incomparably wonderful!

Mason decided that he had to properly share his joy with someone.

He stood up and carefully held the Nether Orchid's flowerpot, treating it like the rarest treasure in the world.

Leaving the room and arriving at the entrance of the Magic Tower, Mason strode proudly toward the goblin Old White, his face full of smugness.

Old White was reclining leisurely in a lounge chair with his eyes closed. Sensing someone approaching, he lazily opened his eyes halfway. Upon seeing that it was Mason, his expression immediately soured. "Failed again, huh? People need to know their own limits! Especially certain people who have no self-awareness."

"Heh heh." Mason chuckled twice without retorting. He merely released the aura belonging to a Tier Four mage.

"What!?" Old White sprang from the lounge chair, staring incredulously at the dwarf before him. "You... you advanced? How is that possible!?"

"What's impossible about it?" Mason proudly raised his chin. "I'm not like certain people who have been stuck at the threshold of Second Order for half their lives without budging, ending up as nothing more than a gatekeeper while mocking others all day long."

"Impossible!" Old White still had not recovered, looking utterly disbelieving. "You failed to advance four times. How could you possibly still succeed? That makes no sense!"

"Heh heh, but I did it." Mason swayed his head proudly, feeling ten years younger. He ignored Old White and walked straight out of the Magic Tower.

"Wait!" Old White seemed to notice something and suddenly shouted, "What is that flower in your hands for!? Is your advancement related to it!?"

Earlier, when Old White had seen Mason enter the Magic Tower carrying a flower, he had not found it particularly strange. Other mages had their own peculiar habits too, and he was already used to it.

But this time was different, because Mason had become a Tier Four mage!

There had to be some extraordinary reason behind it!

"Oh, you mean this?" Mason stopped and said casually, "I bought it from a Flower Shop. It can improve a mage's meditation efficiency."

The moment he finished speaking, Old White's breathing grew heavy, as if he had just heard some earth-shattering secret. "What did you say!?"