The Tamer Monarch

The next few days passed smoothly for Athar. He remained settled in his usual routine. There were no hiccups or obstructions in his daily life. It seemed that for the first time since he had arrived in the Nawarin Academy, things were finally settling down for him.

He would wake up, attend classes, cultivate, attend practical classes, and practice his battle technique. Every two days, he would also attend a session with Angelica, widening his viewpoint about cultivation and its aspects, especially mana sense.

And as he was inching closer to his own breakthrough toward E Rank, Angelica was also guiding him regarding these aspects.

"Patience!" she emphasized consistently. "Patience is the key to cultivation."

"Cultivators are a breed of hasty people," she continued. "They always remain in a hurry. They are always in a rush. Cultivators are always in haste to grab an opportunity. In a sense, it has been wired into their minds to do so. For if they do not hurry, someone else will snatch their chance and they will fall behind. It is a rat race and everyone wants to win that rat race."

"But impatience and hurry are not always the best paths available," she said. "Sometimes, you need to be calm and patient. You need to suppress your desire and hold yourself together."

"And patience during a breakthrough is extremely important," she continued. "Especially since it will be your first breakthrough and you have not experienced it beforehand."

"Teacher Vale must have taught you how we make a breakthrough," she asked. "Can you tell me what you learned?"

"Yes, Master," Athar replied.

"He said that once the mana starts to accumulate in our Mindscape, it slowly fills up. A point comes when the mana in our Mindscape gets saturated, which means no more mana can be stored inside. It is at its maximum capacity."

"At this time, our mindscape evolves or goes through a breakthrough. It expands and its size increases further, and we step into the next rank."

"Correct," she replied.

"But what does the filling of a mindscape actually mean?" She questioned. "The second question is that we take months and months to fill and saturate the mindscape, but when we spend the mana, let us say, to use a battle technique, then why are we able to replenish our mana in a matter of minutes or a few short hours depending on our rank and cultivation technique?"

"What is the difference between saturating the mindscape to make a breakthrough and replenishing our mana after spending it?" She questioned.

Athar had a slight understanding of this concept. He had read about it in a couple of books in the library, but he waited for Angelica to continue.

Angelica raised her hands and snapped her fingers. A blue coloured, transparent cube made of pure mana appeared in mid air floating between them. Athar’s eyes widened slightly as he saw the cube popping out of nowhere. He did not have the slightest idea how Angelica did it. He made a mental note to ask her about it later.

"Athar," she said. "Consider this cube as your Mindscape at the first moment it is created, the moment you form your bond with your tamed beast. At the F Rank when you have not begun cultivating."

"This entire space is the maximum limit of your Mindspace, but it is empty," she continued. "Now, what happens when you absorb the first wisp of mana?"

As she said this, a very thin, purple coloured layer appeared at the bottom of the Mindspace.

"Mana fills in your Mindspace," she said, gesturing toward the purple layer. "But the first time the mana occupies the new space of a Mindspace, it is a hard and time-taking process. This is cultivation. The process to increase your rank."

"We continue to cultivate, and the mana in our Mindspace increases," she said, and the purple layer started to rise, filling half of the cube. "At this position, you are halfway from F Rank toward E Rank. Keeping every other aspect as nullified, you are stronger than the person who had just formed his beast and weaker than who is at the peak of F Rank."

"But what happens when we spend this mana for any purpose, let us say a battle technique?" She questioned.

The purple layer, which had risen to half of the cube, started to decrease and remained at only a quarter of the cube. Even so, Athar could see very small, purple coloured points present in the decreased space.

"Replenishing the mana that you have spent is easier," she said. "It probably happens because that portion of our Mindspace is already used to the presence of mana. Or, at least, this is what we believe."

"These small points you see, they represent the space which have become used to the mana and can be replenished quickly."

The purple layer started to rise once again. In the blink of an eye, it returned to its previous level. At the half mark of the cube.

"Now, again, when we cultivate to increase our Rank, the process in which we fill mana in the hitherto unoccupied space of the Mindspace is an extremely slow process."

The purple layer started to rise again. But very slowly.

"Are you getting what I am trying to say?" she questioned.

"Yes, Master," Athar nodded.

He was getting it. Almost all of it.

"What happens when we are about to make a breakthrough?" She questioned. "The entire Mindspace gets filled with mana. In fact, it gets so saturated that it can no longer hold any more mana."

The purple colour rose and touched the top of the cube, filling it entirely.

"We absorb more mana," she continued. "There is no more space, and hence..."

She did not complete her sentence. She showed it. The purple layer inside continued to increase, and the cube began to bulge. For a moment it trembled, and then it was like a little explosion. The edges of the cube shattered, and out of nowhere another cube appeared, enclosing the purple layer. The cube was more than twice the size of the previous cube, and that half space was again empty.

"You have an expanded, or rather what some call an evolved Mindspace, and you have gone through a breakthrough and reached a new Rank," she said. "In this case, E Rank."

"Did you get things up to this point?" She questioned.

"Yes, Master," Athar nodded his head.

"Good," she responded with a smile. "And now the next question is, why did I talk about patience? At what stage and in what process do you need to show patience?"

Athar did not respond and continued to look at her in full concentration.

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