"Status."

As Dirk turned on the water faucet and washed his face, he openly spoke to his AI, too angry to care about how weird he sounded to Ava.

[Minor damage to circulatory system caused by sudden mana surge. Time to repair: 22 hours.]

"Shit..."

Dirk scoffed. When his soul had been hit by that wave of energy, the mana that was present throughout his blood was excited, leading to a small surge and bursting of some blood vessels. This was nothing major and only caused a bit of stinging pain. But Dirk didn't care about that.

"Damned darkness, trying to take over my soul. Just wait till I come back there. When I do, I'm having squid for dinner!"

"Dirk?"

"Hm?"

Hearing his name called, Dirk raised his head and looked back. He saw Ava, dressed in some loose clothes and staring at him with some fear and worry. His anger died down a little seeing her, and he sighed before continuing to wipe his face.

"Sorry. I'm fine."

"...Really?"

"Yes. The next time this happens, I won't be the only one getting hurt."

"Oh..."

Ava went silent hearing his vengeful statement. As he finished wiping the blood off his face, she walked over to him with a towel. When he turned, she lifted the towel to his face, drying it for him. He looked at her as she wiped off the dripping water.

"...Just be careful. With whatever you're fighting."

Ava whispered as she finished with a wipe to his cheek. She didn't know what this darkness was or how it was going about taking over Dirk's soul, but she knew he was fighting something. She didn't need explanations, only his safety.

Hearing her worry, Dirk felt warm on the inside. He reached out his arm, pulling Ava into a hug. She was surprised, but accepted it with a smile.

After a while, they separated. Despite the recent attack and shooting pain in his head, Dirk looked to be in a good mood. He looked at Ava and smiled.

"So, what are you doing here?"

"U-uh, well, I just thought I'd rather sleep here than walk to my dorm. You know what, consider it payment for me having to carry you up here after you passed out. You're heavy!"

After being embarrassed for a second, Ava gathered her wits and poked back at him. He chuckled and took the towel from her hands, throwing it to the side before nudging her out of the bathroom.

After that, the two crawled back into the still-warm bed. After Ava playfully scooted closer to him, they two went back to sleep. This time, there were no more disturbances as Dirk fell into a deep slumber, getting some much needed recovery.

............

The next day, Dirk woke up to the beeping sound of his AI's alarm clock.

Normally, Dirk would be ready to jump out of bed and get on with the day. However, when he was rudely awakened, he frowned. His head still throbbed in pain, clearly not totally recovered from the successive attacks of the night before.

Luckily, there was still another hour until sunrise. Using this time, Dirk remained laying on the bed with Ava on top of him, going into a little session of meditation. He closed his eyes and utilized his mana lungs, breathing the atmospheric mana in and out. This caused his head to sting, but like working out a sore muscle, it was a good way to help him recover.

Finally, an hour passed. Dirk opened his eyes, turning his head.

"Hey. Wake up."

"Mm..."

Looking over, Dirk shook Ava. She moaned, not wishing to leave the deep comfort of the bed. Dirk rolled his eyes.

"You dork."

"Ah!"

With a pinch to her ribs, Ava was jolted awake. Her arm swung, batting away Dirk's hand that tickled her side. His eyebrow raised at her surprisingly violent response.

"Oh? Are you ticklish?"

"Absolutely not!"

*Woosh!*

Ava suddenly flung the blankets off of her, jumping out of bed with surprising agility. She landed in a fighting stance, facing Dirk. He grinned.

"Your body language says otherwise."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Heh. Sure. Come on then. Let's get ready to go. Sunrise is in 5 minutes."

"Huh? 5 minutes?!"

"I had to recover for longer than normal."

Dirk spoke as he climbed out from under his sheets. Ava's mood slightly darkened as she recalled the events of last night. She sighed and straightened out.

"Right. How are you feeling?"

"Small headache. Now go change. Don't want to keep my father waiting."

"Alright, alright."

With that, Ava left the room. As she had come to stay at Dirk's house many times, she had a stash of clothing in his guest bedroom. She rushed to quickly change.

A couple of minutes later, the two were walking out of the house. In their hands were rations from their recent dungeon dive. As they couldn't make food and they hadn't eaten last night, both of them were hungry, so they grabbed some dried meats they had stored.

After several minutes, the two of them approached a building. Ava and Dirk gnawed on their strips of dry meat as they gazed up at the Magic Pyramid.

The Magic Pyramid was one of the greatest magical structures in the academy. Its entire purpose was facilitating magical advancement for students and staff alike. The building was an actual pyramid about 3oo meters tall and 600 meters wide constructed of countless metal bricks. Every single metal brick was enchanted with dozens of elemental circuits that glowed and were interwoven together, forming a vast enchantment that covered the entire building. It was truly a sight to behold, a testament to the wealth and power of not only the academy, but the Horizon Empire.

At the base of this pyramid, there was a large set of doors. Despite it being so early in the morning, there were dozens of people moving in and out of the place. Dirk and Ava walked through the doors, finishing off their last bites of meat.

"Dirk! Over here."

When they walked through, Ryker was there to wave them down. Dirk and Ava approached.

"This way."

Beckoning, Ryker led them to a large staircase. The three ascended to the third floor. This wasn't even halfway up the building, and yet the mana density had already increased to levels that surpassed Dirk's magic workshop.

"There are two ways to utilize the Magic Pyramid."

Ryker spoke as they walked down a large hall. Doors lined the walls, each one leading to rooms filled with mana.

"The normal way is to pay for each day of room use using gold or other items of value, such as mana crystals. The other uncommon way though is to pay a lesser fee and supply your own mana crystal. Each of these rooms use mana crystals to increase the ambient mana density. If you pay for the normal way, the academy supplies both the room and the crystal. But if you have your own mana crystals, you can use them instead, only paying for the room. In here."

Suddenly, Ryker stopped and pointed to a room. After opening the door with a special metal key card, he led the two inside.

Upon walking inside, the three found that although the mana was dense, it was actually lesser than the mana density in the hallways.

Dirk and Ava looked around. The room had metal floors and walls with only two sources of light that brightened up the rather desolate room. In the middle of the room were some comfortable looking chairs along with a thick mat on the floor and even a bed with only a mattress. If Dirk didn't know any better, he would think this was some kind of crappy hotel that one rented by the hour.

Everyone's focus was quickly drawn to the back of the room though. There sat a large pedestal. On this pedestal was a large bowl that was covered in dozens of enchanted lines that converged at the bottom of the bowl. The lines on the bowl extended down the pedestal and into the floor where they spread out across the ground and walls. This place was a huge singular enchantment.

"To use your own mana crystals and activate the room's enchantments, you just need to throw the mana crystals into the bowl. Like so."

Ryker walked over to the pedestal as he spoke and took out a mana crystal. The large marble between his fingers fluctuated with heavy earth mana, obviously an earth element mana crystal. Then, he simply dropped it into the bowl. When it settled at the bottom, the enchantment glowed and activated. The lines throughout the room glowed green as mana filled the atmosphere, becoming denser and denser by the second. In only a minute, the room was filled to the brim with heavy earth mana.

"You can even do multiple elements."

Suddenly, Ryker dropped a fire mana crystal into the bowl. When it settled next to the earth mana crystal, the room was rapidly filled with fire mana just as dense as the earth mana, raising the temperature by a few dozen degrees.

Taking a deep breath, Dirk felt his soul feel rejuvenated among the super dense mana. He could feel every wave in the atmosphere as it brushed past his soul. His mana heart also responded positively. If Dirk really wanted to, he could take a few minutes to break through to Tier 3.

But he couldn't yet. Calming down, he looked at his father.

"How long can I stay here?"

"Since not many people like to use these rooms, I was able to reserve it for two weeks."

"Thank you."

"Of course. Use this time well. Here's a dark mana crystal to add on top of the other elements. Now, I'll leave you to your devices. I'll come back in 4 days to replace the mana crystals. As for you Ava, I'm sure staying in this environment is a bit suffocating for you. Your room is right next door. Come."

Saying that, Ryker waved Ava out. She bid Dirk goodbye before following Ryker to the next door room where he dropped in a water mana crystal and filled the room with water mana. Before Ryker stepped out though, he spoke to Ava.

"By the way, I've spoken with your parents."

"Mm?"

Ava's eyebrow raised as her parents were brought up. Ryker spoke casually.

"I'll be honest. Doing things like reserving this room and supplying mana crystals, while not a hassle, doesn't come for free. It's nothing you have to worry about, but I felt that you should know that your parents are going to pay for any services you get from me. More specifically, those mana crystals are Tier 5 crystals and cost a few hundred gold. Along with the room, the cost is more than you'll make by yourself after a few jobs. However, your parents already know this much and have agreed to this arrangement."

"I-I see."

Hearing this, Ava was a bit surprised before turning a bit awkward. She knew that this was likely the case, but being confronted about it by Ryker made her a little intimidated. She didn't forget that he was a Marquess, an entire level above her parents. While Dirk couldn't care less about status, she was sensitive to it. His services came at a price.

Seeing Ava's awkward response, Ryker just chuckled.

"It's okay. Believe me when I say that this is normal. Your parents are naturally going to invest in your growth, especially since you are their only child. Only, since I'm here to give assistance, they simply pay me instead of handing you the money to figure things out yourself. It makes things simpler for you. And I have no problem with doing this. I just wanted to make you aware. There's no need for any ambiguity in my eyes."

"Right. Thank you, Mister Strider."

"Sure. Anyway, I'll leave you to it. Should you wish to continue practicing magic at that time, I'll be back in four days to replace the crystals. You can go in and out as you wish during that time. Here's the key card to this room."

"Thank you."

Ava thanked Ryker again as he handed her the metal key card to this room. With that, nobody would be able to enter even if she was gone, and she would have unrestricted access to the room.

After that, Ryker left. He stopped by Dirk's room once more, doing the same and giving him the key card before leaving. Like that, Dirk and Ava began a long magic training session by themselves.

..........

"Hm. Doesn't seem like I can enter that state whenever I want. At least not yet."

After Dirk was left alone, he went on to practice for around 4 hours. During this time, he subjected himself to all the mana in the room, constantly drawing runes for his spells and enchanting. However, when he attempted to throw himself back into that ocean of mana, he encountered resistance.

That ocean of mana wasn't simply a miraculous state of enlightenment. Dirk wasn't sure about the specifics, but he knew that it was like another dimension. Dirk called it the Mana Dimension, since it was where this ocean of mana was.

To enter this Mana Dimension, Dirk would have to cast his awareness into his soul, thus entering the dimension. In that place, he would have the greatest awareness of mana and thus the fastest practicing speed.

But to cast his awareness into the Mana Dimension was easier said than done. He found that he couldn't enter it even after attempting to for hours. However, in that time he discovered some sort of wall that blocked him from doing so.

At first he thought this wall was created by that dark being that was giving him trouble. But he soon found that this wall was simply a natural resistance to Dirk doing something not so natural. To cast awareness to one's own soul wasn't supposed to be easy or casually done. Dirk had done so by luck the day before since he had gotten so engrossed in his practice. Now, to do it intentionally would require lots of practice, and perhaps more luck.

Either way, Dirk couldn't easily enter. But perhaps that was a good thing. He didn't need to have any more run-ins with that dark being, and that might happen if he constantly appeared in that dimension.

Although, there was something else Dirk discovered while trying to enter that dimension. Deep within himself, within his soul, he could feel a small formation. It was like a seed, waiting to grow into something more. Dirk could intuitively feel it, and he knew this would form itself more over time.

'Was this that thing my mother talked about a long time ago? A Stigma, right? Interesting.'

He mused to himself.

With that, Dirk settled himself and practiced the normal way. At least with this dense mana, his practice speed wasn't that much slower than while in the ocean of mana. In fact, if it were practicing creating runes, doing it normally was faster than when in the Mana Dimension. The Mana Dimension granted Dirk elemental comprehension. But when it came to writing the runes, Dirk actually needed to do it himself consciously to make the most progress.

Figuring this out, Dirk wasn't so bummed about not being able to enter that dimension. For several hours, he went on to form runes non-stop. For the most part, he focused on forming his mana heart runes since that was his top priority. Variation was good though, so he also threw in some spell practice.

Like this, Dirk made fantastic progress toward making the mana heart rune. Surprisingly, taking a dip in the Mana Dimension the day before seemed to have greatly increased his elemental comprehension. Many runes he couldn't create or find the meanings of were solved as he went through them again, and even more would be solved as he spent more time practicing. He underestimated his harvests from the day prior.

This got him excited. At some point though he became hungry. Taking a break, Dirk left his room before finding a cafeteria within the Magic Pyramid. Since many people would spend days and weeks in this place, it was only natural that there was a place to eat. After all, walking home or to a restaurant was a big waste of time. This helped maximize training time.

As for Ava, Dirk didn't bother her. They practiced for different amounts of time and likely wouldn't cross paths as long as they were focusing. That was okay though. Practicing magic was an important part of every mage's life, and to achieve peak concentration, they would be reclusive for long periods of time. Handling a bit of loneliness was a part of the job. If anything, it helped develop patience, an exceptionally important trait of any great mage.