MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

Chapter 1829: Playing the Long Game (2)

”...Phew.”

Letting out a sigh of relief as she leaned on the back of her chair, Veradine thought about the meeting she held earlier regarding her new research direction.

Though the manner in which she laid out the data she had gathered during the past couple of weeks had left most, if not all of her colleagues speechless, there was no doubt that all of them were on board with her idea.

After all, the Basic Ether Gathering Technique was the first ever technique that a person would have to learn if they ever wanted to become a Sage.

Of course, there were other Ether Gathering Techniques out there that would allow one to gather ether at a much faster rate than it.

Then again, with all things considered, all Ether Gathering Techniques pretty much originated from the Basic Ether Gathering Technique.

With that in mind, if its capabilities were to improve, then that meant all Ether Gathering Techniques would improve accordingly.

’Still, it’s quite surprising that there’s still this much room in the technique for improvement,’ thought Veradine to herself, thinking back to the things she was doing during the past couple of weeks.

After confirming that her aptitude as a Sage was far more terrifying than she had initially imagined, she decided to devote at least half of the entire day to increasing the number of ether strands that were in her body.

After all, the Purple Star Citron had only given her 10 ether strands rather than the million she was expecting. The least she could do to make up for the lack of ether strands was to continue to increase it.

Then again, she had to increase the number of ether strands she had in her body one way or another, especially once she thought about how others would react if they were to find out that she only got 10 strands from the Heavenly Fruit instead of the supposed million.

And if the Grand Sage were to ever find out about it, there was no doubt in her mind that the man would become suspicious towards her once again.

In the best-case scenario, he would probably give her another verdict that would restrict her from pursuing the path of a Sage even further.

In the worst-case scenario...

’Well... it’s not pinnacle Sage-to-be level yet, but at least it’s close.’

Dispelling the negative thoughts from her head, Veradine took in a calming breath as she shifted her senses inward.

Then, focusing on the number of ether strands currently flowing throughout her body, she willed them to converge at a certain point, giving her the opportunity to count how much she had accumulated over the past couple weeks.

’Around 260,000 strands,’ she muttered to herself, faintly nodding in satisfaction at the progress she had made.

Yet, at the same time, she felt immense disbelief at the number of ether strands she had amassed.

Just two weeks ago, she was still a newly inducted Third-tier Sage-to-be.

Then, in the two hours that spanned after that, she pushed herself to the level of a Second-tier Sage-to-be.

Then, only after spending three days gathering ether strands for 12 hours straight everyday, she had amassed enough ether strands to be considered a First-tier Sage-to-be.

And now, two weeks into her journey as a Sage, she was already past a quarter of the way to becoming a pinnacle Sage-to-be.

’If the Grand Sage only knew how much ether strands I had gathered in these couple of weeks, he’d probably spare all decorum and go out of his way to kill me.’

As the thought came to mind, a slight chill spread across Veradine’s body as she thought about how defenseless she was against someone like the Grand Sage.

Then again, the ease in which he could kill her was probably part of the reason why she’d been given the verdict back as a teenager.

Though, after getting a better idea of how monstrous her aptitude was during these past couple of weeks, she had a feeling that the actual reason why the Grand Sage gave her that verdict was precisely because of her aptitude.

With her identity as a Four-star Scholar, she was now privy to a lot of information that involved Sages within the realm of the Lower Boundary.

Of course, that also included the methods in how a person’s aptitude was measured.

Aside from the test wherein the color one got from it would dictate their aptitude, it was also possible for one to understand one’s aptitude for the path through the number of ether strands one gathered using the Basic Ether Gathering Technique.

If one were to gather around three or four strands in an hour through the technique, then one would have what’s called a low-grade aptitude for the path. With this level of aptitude, armed with only the Basic Ether Gathering Technique, one’s limit would be breaking through to the Lower Boundary.

On the other hand, if one were to gather around five to six strands per hour, one would have what’s called a middle-grade aptitude. In Veradine’s eyes, as well as the eyes of the majority, this was the minimum level of aptitude needed to truly become a Sage.

If one were to gather seven or eight strands per hour with the Basic Ether Gathering Technique, one would be deemed to have high-grade aptitude, which would be enough to elicit attention from Sages beyond the Lower Boundary.

However, compared to those that could gather nine or ten strands an hour with the same technique, they still paled in comparison.

After all, the latter was what the Grand Sage considered as peak-grade aptitude, capable of reaching the Upper Boundary without problems, with hopes of even breaking past the Upper Boundary to become a Great Sage.

With that being said, her ability to amass 50 ether strands with the same Basic Ether Gathering Technique was more than enough for one to understand that her aptitude had far surpassed the realm of peak-grade aptitude.

Then again, even with that kind of monstrous aptitude, two weeks wouldn’t be enough to propel her from the third tier to beyond the first tier.

If anything, the reason why she was able to reach that level in such a short span of time, aside from devoting half of an entire day everyday to it, was because of the improvements she had made to the Basic Ether Gathering Technique.

But of course, the improvements she made weren’t just limited to the ones she had shared with all her colleagues at the research lab.

In fact, with the changes and optimizations she had made to the technique during the past couple of weeks, she had already boosted the technique’s efficacy...

By 160%.