[Your mana control proficiency level increased.
Mana Control (Basic): Your internal mana circulation has been stabilized. Minor control over mana compression. You can now cast a spell.]
Max smiled. Although, it would now be a perfect time to try to cast a spell based on his past knowledge, Max wouldn't want to waste his remaining time in the mana sensitivity chamber.
Without hesitation, he spent two hours each for mana control and mana sensitivity, causing both to reach the peak basic level's proficiency.
Afterwards, Max slowly opened his eyes. It was already exactly twelve hours he was inside the game. The Novalite Pod only has a 6 hours continuous-use limit, so he had to log out now.
However, when he opened his eyes, he was quite startled from the appearance of a mage, wearing an epic rank robe.
With one glance, he was certain the rank of his robe… no, all of his equipment were at epic rank.
Instantly, he realized who he was.
He panicked and stood up, bowing immediately. However, inwardly, he rejoiced. As expected, even an Archmage understands that learning and increasing a mana control and mana sensitivity skills to basic proficiency level to the peak at that in the span of nine hours is shocking… Even just by meditating and visualizing straight for nine hours is already amazing.
"Who are you?" Arlen Mireth, a Tier 3 Archmage, asked.
Max straightened his back and replied in a polite tone, bowing slightly, "I'm Maximus Grant, Sir Archmage."
In the Apocalypse Online, you could not set a username. Your real name in the real world was immediately set as an in-game name. You couldn't also create a new character unless your current character died.
That was why Max did not hesitate to introduce his real identity.
Archmage Arlen nodded and asked in an upbeat tone, "I've heard you meditated here for nine hours straight. Is this your first time?"
"Your assumption is correct, Sir Archmage."
"How do you know about mana circulation breathing technique?"
Max suddenly gazed at Archmage Arlen with furrowed eyebrows and tilted his head sideways.
"Mana circulation breathing technique?" He asked in a confused tone.
Archmage Arlen's eyes sparkled in excitement.
He exploded into the hoot of laughter.
"Genius! You are a genius!"
Despite how his laughter was supposed to distract others who meditated, when they knew who distracted them, they simply sighed helplessly and was now more curious as to who could make the Archmage Arlen laughed to his heart's content.
He seemed to be praising a young man in shabby clothes in front of him.
Archmage Arlen grabbed Max's shoulder and asked, "Do you want to become my personal student? It's free, you don't have to worry about the cost. I can start teaching you now."
Maximus Grant grinned inwardly.
Everything's within my expectations. That's good.
He bowed deeply and said, "It's my honor to be your personal student, Sir Archmage."
"I'm Arlen Mireth, you can call me Teacher. We can start training you now, I assume you are still lacking beginner knowledge about spell casting and more."
Max was about to respond when the feminine voice echoed in his mind.
[Your Novalite Pod is giving you a warning to log out now. If you continue and ignore this warning, heavy consequences to your body and the Novalite Pod itself will occur.]
Max smiled bitterly.
He said, "I'm sorry, Teacher. I have something to do first. It's an emergency."
Archmage Arlen nodded. "Alright. As soon as you're free, come to me and I will teach you personally."
"Thank you, Teacher."
As soon as Max said so, he suddenly disappeared.
…
Max left his Novalite Pod with a massive headache. He rubbed his temple filled with sweats as he sat on the floor and leaned his back on the gaming pod.
He couldn't open his eyes yet, he was attempting to lessen the pain coursing from his head.
Damn it! I should be more careful next time.
He had completely forgotten about the side effects of overusing the Novalite Pod from its extended time limit.
He had experienced it before, once, and after that, he never had a headache again.
As Max rested on the floor, he recalled his interaction with Archmage Arlent.
Logging out in front of him wouldn't cause a mess. In fact, every NPC in Apocalypse Online wouldn't recognize them as players. Everytime the player disappeared, the NPC would seem to have forgotten how they strangely disappeared and acted as though nothing happened.
Once Max would log in, he would return to the mana sensitivity chamber.
I should not forget that I also already spent 9 hours inside the mana sensitivity chamber. I must leave immediately.
The mage trainee wouldn't recognize the time he spent during his disappearance. Their brain would rewire that the amount of time he spent inside the mana sensitivity chamber wouldn't include his disappearance.
As Max felt his headache slowly lessened, he opened his eyes and saw the bed was already empty.
It was currently 6am in the morning and Enzo was already preparing for school.
Max crawled to his bed and slept for eight hours straight.
…
Max woke up at 2pm. He woke up feeling a bit groggy. He opened his phone and realized he had slept for eight hours straight.
He put his phone down, closed his eyes while keeping his brain active to prevent falling asleep again.
After ten minutes of procrastinating and lying down on his bed, his empty stomach forced him to finally wake up and walk towards the table.
Enzo didn't cook for him. Max told him that he would cook for himself to avoid eating a cold meal.
However, Max regretted it. He already felt lethargic to cook for himself.
In the end, he cooked a simple meal.
Twenty minutes later, Max was now devouring his food in a minute. When he was finished, perceiving his stomach was full, he opened his phone and focused on social media.
As expected, the Apocalypse Online instantly became a trend. The Aethernova official page also released a statement that Apocalypse Online was now a ground-breaking game that every player must invest themselves in.
Reading their caption that consumed fifteen minutes of his time, he mumbled, "Come to think of it, were they already aware that the apocalypse would descend?"