chapter 1271  the first revolution

    "[three revolutions, nine cycles]."

    giving himself a small break after successfully achieving the first stage of mastery, valyr soon activated his mana circuit, wanting to experience the differences between the two versions for himself.

    whoosh!

    unsurprisingly, just like what was contained in the skill''s details, the burning sensation from his mana disappeared without a trace after reaching the first stage. instead, he felt most of the mana in his body head towards the nine acupoints he filled up earlier.

    bang!

    then, as if a switch was flicked on, all of the mana within the acupoints began to cycle simultaneously, forming a two-step cycle that allowed the mana to switch between the acupoints and the paths throughout his entire body.

    "definitely a bit more powerful than before," muttered valyr to himself as he stood up, allowing the mana in his body to cycle for a bit more as he familiarized himself with the new sensations.

    getting the feeling that he now knew how much power he could unleash with his upgraded mana circuit, he then went ahead and pointed his magic staff towards a certain direction, only to cast the most basic spell he had in his arsenal.

    "may the power of mana hear my plea."

    "as the conductor of mana, slay my foe."

    "[mana bolt]!"

    whoosh!

    feeling both the incantation and the mana circuit increase the power behind the bolt to greater heights, valyr''s eyes slightly widened in surprise once he noticed that the mana bolt he conjured was slightly bigger than before.

    not only that, but it also felt a bit more dangerous than the ones he conjured during his fight with the wolf, possibly due to the fact that it now zoomed through the air at a slightly faster speed.

    bang!

    although he did not intend to aim it at a tree, the mana bolt eventually collided with a large tree a few hundred meters away, causing his eyes to widen even further as the bolt easily split its trunk in half.

    one by one, he went through the ideas he had to achieve the second stage, even going so far as to read through the information the skill gave him a couple more times to see if he could infer any tips from them.

    in the end, none of the ideas he had at first succeeded, nor did any of the ideas he came up with that combined a couple of his first ideas.

    as to the idea that worked...

    ''a rotary engine.''

    whoosh! whoosh! whoosh!

    imagining the lower meridian as the rotary piston, valyr timed the transfer of mana from the acupoints as if they were spark plugs attached to the edges of the engine, sending them in a way that allowed the cycles to work together rather than clash.

    with that, after a few more attempts with the idea, the meridian began to cycle the mana from the acupoints all on its own, forming the major cycle necessary to achieve the second stage.

    ding!

    though, just as he heard the system tell him that he''d pushed his mana circuit to the second stage of mastery, the mana cycling within the meridian caused a thought to pop up in valyr''s mind.

    ''for some reason... i''m getting the feeling that i could transfer the mana from the meridian back to the acupoints... and then back to the meridian.''

    getting the feeling that he was onto something, the young man made use of the knowledge he''d learned, smoothly transferring the mana from the meridian back into the acupoints.

    then, after allowing the mana in the acupoints to cycle for a bit, he then sent the mana back into the meridian.

    ding!

    hearing a notification sound echo in his mind once more, the young man''s expression immediately turned blank as he watched the mana continuously cycle back and forth between the meridian and the acupoints.

    wondering what he''d exactly done, valyr soon got his answer the moment he took a look at the newest notification.

    "...oh."

    "i got to the third stage."