The Place Where Everything Begins

So, Jeremy decided to gather mana particles for 30 more minutes until he almost reached his absolute limits.

Right about then, he would do the final struggle, which was trying to establish and maintain the whirlpool inside his upper dantian with only 90% or so of the required mana.

For other people, the time frame of 30 minutes might be considered a concise time frame. But for Jeremy right now, every second was comparable to hours.

He almost lost the concept of time since 4 hours ago. He could only barely figure out the time outside of his consciousness.

So, what if he had reached his limits, then couldn't perceive and figure out the time in the outside world anymore?

The answer was, he would become an absolute vegetable...

Thus, time was ticking and passing by very slowly, while being drenched in his own never-ending sweat and smelly odor, he persevered on, second by second, minute by minute...

Until 32 minutes later...

He stopped attracting the mana particles. And finally, he started to circulate and build up a whirlpool by using the purest mana energy particles collected within his upper dantian.

The technique he would be using this time round was a revised technique created the night before as a contingency plan in case he couldn't gather enough mana particles to form a whirlpool.

Thereby, the success rates ranged between 10 to 50 percent. As for the exact numbers, the lowest success rate of 10% would be when he could only gather around 85% of mana particles, while the highest success rate of 50% was when he could gather up to 99% of mana particles.

How many did he gather?

He had gathered around 93% of mana particles, which had a success rate of approximately 30%.

Nonetheless, it was still worth trying...

At most, he would be exhausted and slept half-dead for 2 or 3 days due to over-exerting himself.

If someone was inside his upper dantian, they would hear the sounds of *whiff* *whizz* *whoosh* nonstop.

Time was ticking second by second.

Until finally, Jeremy's body was shaking like he was having a seizure. He couldn't even control his body anymore. He felt like his body had disappeared, leaving only his mind alone, floating within the endless darkness.

He tried his hardest to give the final touch to the almost finished whirlpool.

And 5 minutes later...

After finishing an arduous task that took like an eternity for him, the result finally came out.

'..S..Succe..ss...'

An almost inaudible sound was coming from Jeremy's mouth.

*Flop*

It would be awe-inspiring if not for the fact that his forehead had already hit the bedsheet while he was still in the cross-legged sitting position.

That's right... He was unconscious in that position.

Anyone might be able to imagine that after waking up 2 days later, how Jeremy would be feeling.

The worst pains in older people...

They were stiff neck, back pain, and felt uncomfortable all over the body.

Poor Jeremy...

...

...

7 days later...

*Drip* *Drip*

The sounds of sweat drop dripping down from Jeremy's perspired body hitting the already inundated bedsheet resounding out quietly inside the bedroom.

When suddenly...

*Fwoosh*

*Flutter* *Flutter*

The noise of wind flowing out into every direction of Jeremy's bedroom. Meanwhile, the center of the commotion was actually the now sitting cross-legged Jeremy who sat on the bed.

"Haaaah..."

Jeremy opened his eyes slowly while exhaling a breath of cold air.

"Finally... finally... I've finally become an Apprentice Mage." Jeremy said to himself.

It was a rarely done behavior of his to talk to himself like this.

"Huhuhu Wahaha Guhahaha!! I am now a f*cking Apprentice Mage. I can finally cast null spells without having to worry about the insufficient mana in the surroundings." Said Jeremy.

He was currently laughing out loud like a maniac.

As he said, when someone reached the Apprentice Mage class, they finally would be able to cast their first spell, albeit a very low-level magic spell. And that was the sole reason that made Jeremy happy.

Ever since he woke up 5 days ago, he discarded every other program to focus only on resting for 3 full days to recover his exhausted body and mind, including recuperating from his stiff neck and back pain.

Right after he had recovered fully, he took another step forward to create the 2nd whirlpool inside his middle dantian situated at the center of his chest.

As a result of him having already formed a whirlpool within his upper dantian, he could now attract more than double the amount of mana particles with the same efforts compared to when he didn't have a mana whirlpool.

Thus, he only had to spend around 15 hours to form a mana whirlpool inside his middle dantian. That caused him to not be as exhausted as the first time. Thus, he only had to take a rest of one day.

And now, he was here. Having just finished the last whirlpool inside his lower dantian. He then tried to link the 3 dantian together via countless meridian pathways inside his body to create the connected whirlpools.

First of all, he had to enter into a meditation state. Then slowly guided the excess mana energy generated from his upper dantian to slowly drive along the meridian pathways that spanned like spider webs inside his entire body.

Along the way, he had to carefully control the mana particles, never let them go awry. He had to also imagine them as countless brooms, which were able to sweep and clean the impurities residing inside his meridian pathways.

The process didn't require much time from him. He only had to be careful to not left behind any impurities, or else his meridian pathways might be accidentally blocked later on.

And if they were suddenly blocked during the time when he was casting a spell?

The better outcome would be that his spell was interrupted midway. As for the worst possible development, his meridian pathways might implode from within, causing severe body damage.

Those results were not something anyone appreciated.

Alright, come back to the current situations...

When he finished the entire process and had all of the 3 whirlpools connected, a small gust of wind was blown out into every direction around him due to the weak mana field projection that was automatically generated upon him becoming an Apprentice Mage.

In a normal or dormant state, the mana field didn't have any color. In that state, it would be the same as those mana particles floating in the atmosphere.

From then on, Jeremy would always have an invisible mana field generated from his mana, containing his own mana signature that was only unique to himself in the entire universe.

The mana field projection would act as a shield to receive and fend off all of the harmful things coming his way.

It would be activated instantaneously when someone sent any type of attack or harmful things towards Jeremy. And its color would change from transparent to light blue, which was the color of mana particles when they released their energy.

It could be strengthened by increasing the mana output into the mana field directly connected to his mind, body, and the 3 whirlpools in his dantians.

Whenever he desired to increase its sturdiness and defending capabilities, he could just input some of his mana into it. Then the mana field projection around his body would get instantaneously enhanced and reinforced to fend off the powerful incoming attacks from all directions at any time he wanted.

As for the shape, when he attained higher classes in the mage pathway, he could alter the form of his mana field into his likings.

But for now, the field could only be at most around 10 centimeters covered every part of his body.

This mana field, or to be exact, those mana particles even penetrated into the ground under Jeremy's feet because their sizes were almost as small as atoms.

And as a semi-living thing that had several tiers and hierarchies higher than a virus. It could automatically protect its owner from danger.

That meant a proper mage was unkillable...

As long as mages didn't run out of mana or their mana field didn't get deactivated by some other means, no real life-threatening dangers would befall them.

And upon a mage had become an Apprentice Mage, their mana would automatically get refilled by the work and labor of the 3 whirlpools acting as 3 vacuums to attract the surrounding mana particles into the 3 dantians.

'But why did those assassins had broken through my mana field that easily? Did some high beings intervened?'

Jeremy furrowed his eyebrows.

'Let me keep this topic in my mind, for now; I cannot do anything anyway.'

'Alright, 36 days to go. Let's see if I can successfully become a Class 1 Mage before the tutorial starts or not.' Jeremy thought.