THE LUSTING WORLD - Season 1 Episode 55

Rick was ascending on a break neck speed towards the top of the tree. Thick mana was bearing down on him but his body was taking it all while allowing him to focus his mind onto the tree itself. But he felt as the time passed on it was getting harder and harder to not lose your focus here. On the stage once everything settled down the crowd found themselves surrounded by creeping plants all around them. Just then while everyone was busy at confirming the situation they felt the mana burst again but in the opposite direction this time. Rick’s body was rapidly absorbing the mana from the surroundings into itself.

As the reverse hemispheral wave contracted all the plants died out, just as fast as they germinated. Just when the crowd thought the event ended, once more the mana wave burst out from Ryu’s body again reviving all the died out plants once again. This cycle of life and death continued as Rick was still deep in the meditation. He has simply not realised the commotion he was causing in the outside world. The reason for the phenomenon was due to the tree in Rick’s mind trying to rejuvenate his body with large amount of mana. But the seal on his body’s natural mana reserves thwarted the process each and everytime. Thats why mana will burst out from his body then trying to collect again and getting repelled again.

This cycle carried on and the crowd were now used to the situation. Then after one whole hour passed on Rick was unable to handle it anymore and gave up. The first thing Rick found out was the thick vegetation around him. Although the plants were all herbs but they have managed to cover literally the whole townhall. The elders behind him were were little short of breath while the dignitaries behind him have all moved further back. Next thing was the crystal glowing with his statistics. A 4 star in mana reserves and a similar 4 star in cultivation level. He had got the same result as Jake.

Rick was a little terrified of himself. He was aware that at this time most of his mana reserves have been in sealed state then also he was able to achieve a 4 star, he didn’t want to imagine the result if he had tried with an open seal. But as of now he had a bigger problem to handle. Although he managed to keep his scores in a range of no suspicions but what he would do with the green mess infront of his eyes. He could not have announced his awakening in an any more spectacular way. Rick was not sure if he can even blame himself for this. What else could he have done with the resources he had? Thus he took a deep breath and let the situation play out itself.

Jim asked his father ‘Father, is there a possibility that this guy might be related to the phenomenon outside of the town.’ ‘Not possible’ Eric replied. ‘Firstly he is still a mortal mage. Although his reserves are impressive but his cultivation base will simply not allow that. Secondly his aura is very different then the one we found in the forest. His is calm while the one in the forest was reeked of violence. Thirdly that feat I believe no mortal can achieve. I have a strong belief that the person who did that was no human at all.’ Eric gave his analysis. ‘But still where did this guy come from. It’s been ages since humans lost their ability to control vegetation directly.’

Although the ability to gain control of plants was nothing too spectacular as many races can do it including druids, elves, faires and more but this was a pretty uncommon ability in humans in this age. ‘That was very impressive kid the amount of calmness you displayed was commendable’ said one of the elder. Rick had no idea what he was talking about but he was not going to open his mouth until he grasps his circumstances completely. All of the shock of elders has turned to joy once they saw Rick was alive and kicking. They were almost certain that they will lose the boy with how the events played out. They were still believing that it was due to some problem with the crystal ball itself.

Rick was happy that no one questioned him regarding the vegetation that most certainly he himself was responsible. Just then one of the elders announced ‘We apologize for our mistake people of Korua. It was our responsibility for keeping all the participants safe while they took part in the ceremony. But due to our carelessness we had put one life in danger. Please forgive us!’ All three elders bowed at once toward the crowd. They were genuinely believing that somehow the glitch with the crystal ball caused these massive amount of mana bursts. Their only saving grace was that the child survived the tragedy somehow.

‘How can we blame it on you, elders you are the whole reason the child survived this and we are all mortals here anyone can make mistakes. So please do not embarrass us by bowing to us.’ Eric now understood the situation more clearly. The crowd too cheered for the elders commending their honest behaviour. Rick reached his friends and gave a hug to both of them. ‘Damn brother you scared me for a bit there haha!’ Kyro was happy that his brother was well. ‘Yeah he might have cried if you would have taken any longer then this haha’ Jake chimed. With that all three of them began joking around when Rick heard a meek voice ‘Are you alright Rick?’ Rick turned to find Kira behind him.

‘This girl is too shy.’ Rick assessed Kira in his mind. ‘Yes Kira, I am alright. Thank you for asking.’ Kira replied with a ‘Hmm’ and got back to her place. Most of the people present there believed the elders’ words except two old ladies, of which first was the granny in the stage while the second was an old lady standing on the roof of a house in the edge of the townhall. If Rick was here he could have easily identified her. She was his grandma Emily.

‘That child definitely had the mana affinity of a genius but alas his mana reserves are not upto the mark. Even if it could have been at a 5 we could have offered him for recruitment in the capital.’ the elders present on the stage discussed among each other. Same thing was going on in the mind of Eric right now. He was still going to try to pitch Ryu for recruitment in the capital but the chances were very low. The concept of mana reserves was very important for the mages such that in most cases it was easily equally or sometimes even more important than a person’s mana affinity. As even though you might be able to cast some extreme magic just with your good affinity but still at the end mages required the relevant capacity to store that much mana inside of them.

There was actually a simple way to increase mana reserves and that was to increase the cultivation level. As increased levels of cultivation gave access to larger capacity to hold mana but this increase took place proportional to their ranking of stars. That means at a similar level someone with with 4 stars will always be able to hold larger amounts of mana then someone with 3 or 2 stars.

‘I have an announcement to make if you all will be kind enough to listen to it, this old lady will be very thankful.’ Everyone fell silent and nodded in response. ‘Since we had such a joyous occasion and since our young ones did so well. Also considering that there was nog a single person who failed in invoking their magic. This granny here deduced that this has been one of the better Awakening ceremonies in the past few years. So on this occasion I have decided that our participants can choose a sex partner for themselves, if they want and I will make the payment in their stead. So go one choose anyone of your liking and if the other person agrees granny will pay the bills.’