When we entered the new room, to my teammates’ surprise, we remained as a group. All eight of us stood in the middle of an empty white room. Behind us, the fairies quickly entered the new room and each one flew to their owner.

Levi averted my gaze and floated quietly next to me. I did not hear from him since last night; it would be great if he agreed but if he did not, it would not harm me much either.

“What is happening? Are we still going to continue as a team?” Marie broke the silence. She sent me a hateful glare that I disregarded.

I was well aware that I was the outcast of the group. Asking for a fee for healing may have antagonised the rest of my team but I did not care. I was doing things according to the standards set by the tower.

At that moment, the voice of the tower finally spoke:

[Congratulations on clearing Room 4. The participants shall now receive a reward according to their achievement.]

[A goblin is worth one point. A kobold is worth one point. A troll is worth two points. A silver wolf is worth two points.]

[Tallying points and sorting in order.]

[1. Lovin. 159 Points]

[2. Alex. 126 Points]

[3. Jake. 122 Points]

[4. Roberto. 114 Points]

.

.

.

“Oh?” I let out a faint gasp of surprise. ‘Lovin is first? Well, that is to be expected. He was the one who dealt the killing blow to most of the silver wolves. At least, he was being rewarded for his hard work.’

“What? All of this and we only get a hundred points? Did you not say that points were easily acquired?”

Behind me, I heard James lashing out at his fairy and he was not the only one. All the fairies were receiving hostile stares. If looks could kill, the seven fairies would have died on the spot. Aside from me, the whole team has been swindled at least five hundred points.

I know that feeling of being played just too well. The feeling of despair as I realised just how many monsters, I would have to kill to pay back my debt. Furthermore, these points were obtained under special circumstances as the rewards for clearing the room.

In reality, they would need to kill twice or thrice this number of monsters to obtain the same amount of points.

To add salt to injury, the fairies laughed evilly. “Well, since you have now received your first payment, we shall fulfil our agreement. You will be allowed to earn points after paying back your debts.”

And as the fairy spoke, the ranking changed:

[1. Alex. 126 Points]

[2. Lovin. 0 Points]

[3. Jake. 0 Points]

.

.

.

Once again, my name stood out and I became the centre of attention.

“Alex… Did you not receive any advice from your fairy?” Jake asked, looking at me with enlarged eyes.

“I did not. My parents always told me to never go in debt.” I answered casually. Doing so, I almost burst out laughing.

“D*mn! So it was true. Levi really did not manage to get anything out of you. I thought he was just acting mysterious, but it seems that this time, the great Levi is going to return empty-handed.” A fairy mocked loudly.

Levi became red in anger. It was the first time he was being humiliated in front of his peers. “Stupid human. It is all your fault!” He muttered quietly.

I ignored my furious teammates and their fairies. ‘126 points… Not a lot but it is a nice head start. My goal should be to quickly leave this room. If my memories are not wrong, this is also the last room.’

[Room 5 will be initialised in exactly two hours. Please use this time wisely]

‘Another unexpected detail. I don’t remember having a short break between rooms.’ I frowned lightly at the development. Nevertheless, it was not something I would oppose. I would gladly take two hours to rest and absorb my mana stones.

The white room we were in was rather large; there was enough space for everyone to lie down and rest. I was the first to make a move, sitting down in a corner and taking out my mana stone. Then, I closed my eyes and tossed one in my mouth, quickly followed by another.

The first one restored the mana I used earlier to heal myself while the second one brought back the dreaded gagging feeling.

Under the confused gaze of my teammates, I tossed my mana stones in my mouth one by one. It was only after the tenth stone that Jake approached me.

“Uhm. May I ask what you are doing?” He asked curiously. He had been observing me since last night and quickly noticed that I stood out of the crowd.

“Eating mana stones?” I replied coldly.

“…”

“If you want to know why, it is simply to increase my mana and to be able to use more spells in the future,” I explained after I felt the mana stone in my mouth evaporate. I opened my eyes, knowing full well that Jake had more questions coming. “Fire away.”

“Uhm.” Feeling my gaze, Jake could not hide his embarrassment. “You said you can increase your mana? Can you please explain the method?”

“Well. There is nothing to explain. You can increase your mana simply by letting the mana stones melt in your mouth. You should have received some from your instructors earlier and you used the mana stones to restore your mana. However, once full, you can use the mana stones to increase your total amount of mana.” I patiently explained what I knew. It was not a hidden technique of some sort; in fact, they were very likely to learn about it very soon.

Jake was not the only one who was curious about my actions. My other six teammates were also listening closely to my explanation.

Old Wu quickly asked. “Is it some kind of meditation or cultivation?” He seemed excited

However, I quickly crushed his hope. “No. As far as I am aware, these things do not exist. You simply have to eat the mana stone and your mana will naturally increase. Think of it like this, everyone has a mana pool that you drain to use your spells. This mana pool can be expanded by forcefully injecting mana into it.”

“In that case, how many mana stones do you need to expand your mana pool?” Jake asked with a thoughtful expression. He was the only one who had a substantial amount of mana stones on him; the rest has already spent their hard-earned mana stones on pieces of equipment.

“It depends on your affinity with the element you chose, and it becomes a little bit more complicated when you have more than one element. In my case, I only chose the Healing element. My mana pool is enough for me to cast Heal four times, but I need seventeen to eighteen stones to increase that number.”

“In your case, although I am not too sure, I believe you should have two separate mana pools, one for the Space element and one for Metal. You will need to decide which one you want to give your mana to. If you can only use [Store] once per hour, then I am afraid you do not have an affinity with the Space element, and I believe you would need at least twenty-five mana stones to increase that number.”

I could see Jake’s expression crumble. I knew I hit the right target; he probably only chose Space because of the usefulness of the skill but in the long run, it would cause him more harm than good.

“If you don’t believe me, feel free to ask your fairy. I am sure he can confirm my words but will probably charge you a small fee.” I smirked, knowing full well that my teammates would do their best to never rely on their fairies again.

Our conversation came to an end and I continued to consume my mana stones, ignoring my depressed teammates who had nothing left in their pocket. I saw Jake hesitate to eat the mana stones, but I did not give in any piece of advice.

After taking in eighty mana stones, my mana pool expanded considerably, allowing me to cast Heal 9.1 times.

‘Not bad.’ I said to myself with satisfaction. As my mana pool increased in size, more mana stones were required to expand it. Soon, I would hit the threshold where low-quality mana stones would only amount to a small drop in the bucket.

When one had enough mana to cast a basic spell twenty times, they were considered to have crossed a major threshold and would from then only use Intermediate quality mana stones. Had I had a better affinity with the Healing element, I would have been much closer to reaching that threshold.

Having a low affinity meant by default that I had enough mana to cast the spell five times. This was the case in my past life when I chose the Fire element. An intermediate affinity would mean that I could cast the spell ten times while a high affinity would allow me to cast the basic spell fifteen times.

I glanced at my teammates who were doing their best to rest in their small corner of the room. Then, I closed my eyes to catch up on my sleep.