The people in the convoy worked from afternoon until night before they finished unloading the carriages. Seeing how tired everyone was, Green told them to rest and leave the cleaning for the next day.
Green went to the top floor of the manor house and sent everyone downstairs. He told them not to come up unless he came out himself, then locked the doors and windows tight. Sitting on the bed, he held his breath, cleared his mind, and adjusted his state. When he felt ready, he called up the records in the Chip.
[Chip, transmit the Meditation Method.] [Host command received. Beginning transmission.] [Basic Meditation Method detected. It carries special information. Receiving it may cause unknown harm to the brain. Continue?] [Continue transmission.]
As the Meditation Method entered his mind, Green began following its steps to meditate.
The Meditation Method from White House Academy was simple: meditate on special runes to increase Mental Power.
White House Academy called them Basic Runes. Each had an extraordinarily complex three-dimensional structure. During meditation, a person had to construct a rune's basic structure in their mind. Once completed, it would become fixed there.
Apprentices needed a quiet environment because the construction of runes could not withstand outside interference. The slightest disturbance or lapse in concentration could cause a rune to fail. If the meditator was prepared, its collapse would have little effect. But if an external force broke their concentration and scattered their Mental Power, the collapsing rune could damage it.
Green, however, was different from other apprentices. An ordinary apprentice had to spend dozens of days studying the book just to understand a single rune's structure before attempting to construct it in their mind. The Chip had already analyzed the runes for Green. All he needed to do was follow its prompts and draw the gourd by tracing its outline.
The Chip transmitted a template of the first rune into Green's mind. A simple horizontal stroke appeared before his eyes. Countless intricate patterns and three-dimensional shapes covered its surface. If he looked at it for too long, he even felt dizzy.
Green slowly closed his eyes.
Following the Chip's prompts, he began constructing the first rune in his mind.
Absorbed in the task, Green did not know that, as the rune took shape, it drew an invisible energy from the surrounding air into his body. Slowly, the rune formed in his mind.
The clock ticked on. At three in the morning, Green's closed eyes began to tremble. He clenched his teeth and knitted his brows, then relaxed for a moment before tensing again, as though enduring something.
He did not know how much time passed. At last, a thread of morning light slipped through a gap in the sealed window and fell across his face.
His eyelids stirred at the light, and he slowly opened his eyes.
"Not what I imagined. Who knew meditation would be this exhausting?" After meditating all night, Green's eyes were bloodshot, and his head felt ready to burst.
He had thought meditation would be fairly relaxing. Instead, it was much like combat. Constructing a rune in his mind brought on fierce dizziness. For a while, he felt as though he were carsick again, like in his previous life; the whole world spun around him. The further the rune progressed, the worse the dizziness became.
"At least I've fixed the first rune in place. It should be easier from here." According to the Basic Meditation Method, meditating on an already fixed rune caused far less dizziness. The effect was weaker, though, than constructing a new one. Once he had fixed more runes, he could even meditate on those he already had to restore his Mental Power.
[Chip, check my physical condition!]
[Ding. Checking physical condition.] [Host mental activity increased. Brain-cell activity elevated. Cells throughout the body have entered an excited state!] [Warning. Unknown energy has entered the body. The structure of brain cells has changed slightly. Continued exposure may cause unknown effects.] [Ding. Life Seed activity has increased. Unknown energy has combined with energy converted by the Life Seed within the body. The host's physical attributes and genetic limits have increased across the board. Energy-enhanced state has ended. Mental Power has increased. Current attributes are as follows.] [Strength: 5.4] [Speed: 5.1] [Constitution: 5.4] [Mental Power: 3.2] [Special status: Life Seed respiration accelerated; activation increased.] [Genetic limit: 5.5 for all attributes.]
Green looked at his Mental Power. Ordinarily, fixing one rune would raise it by one point. But practicing the Breathing Method had changed the very nature of his life and steadily increased his Mental Power, giving him a stronger foundation. That was why he had managed to fix a rune on his first attempt at meditation. He already had a bigger bucket; filling it with less water was naturally easy.
"What a shame. The Basic Meditation Method only covers meditation. It doesn't include any basic spells. Otherwise, once I became a Third-Class Apprentice, I could start learning sorcery early." Green looked at the Basic Meditation Method and shook his head, regret in his voice.
Under the Basic Meditation Method, each rune fixed in place counted as a one-point increase in Mental Power. A Third-Class Apprentice needed to fix six runes, a Second-Class Apprentice twelve, and a First-Class Apprentice eighteen.
"Still, that first session went well. I barely felt any resistance. My aptitude must be decent." Green had obtained the Basic Meditation Method through the Chip's powerful analytical ability, not by unlocking its contents with his aptitude. But judging by the method's description, his aptitude was probably between second-class and third-class—already above average.
"Time to rest. According to the Meditation Method, I need proper rest after every session, or I'll put too much strain on my body."
Morning light was already showing through the window, but Green paid it no mind. He took off his coat, lay down on the bed, relaxed his mind, and fell into a deep sleep.
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