Ultra-Level Weeb: Rise in an Awakened World

Zerena’s eyes widened for the briefest moment.

The surprise vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared, replaced by a warm smile.

"That’s actually good news," she said, accepting the glass of juice from him. "It means your mana core has finally reached the point where it’s ready to form its first mana ring."

Taking a small sip, she glanced back at him.

"Have you decided what attribute you want your first ring to be?"

Unlike the Mana Core, Mana Rings are formed differently. A Mana Core consists entirely of pure mana that has been imprinted with your soul, making it completely your own. In a sense, the mana no longer remains ownerless—it now carries your unique soul imprint, as though your very existence has become an element woven into it.

Personal mana wasn’t limited to a single attribute.

Once a mage reached the stage of forming mana rings, they could choose from countless elemental affinities.

The most common included fire, water, earth, wind, blood, healing, and many others.

Naturally, Max had spent the past several days reading everything he could find about them.

Forming a mana ring required gathering a large amount of mana with the chosen attribute, and there were several ways to accomplish that.

The simplest method was using specially prepared materials such as mana stones, monster cores, herbs, or refined potions that carried the desired element.

But for the more common attributes—like fire, earth, and water—there was an even cheaper option.

Nature itself.

Certain locations naturally contained enormous concentrations of a single elemental mana. Deep underwater caverns were often saturated with water mana, while regions surrounding active volcanoes or large fire mana stone mines were rich in fire mana.

Some places even possessed multiple attributes at once.

A large fire mana stone mine, for example, often contained dense concentrations of both fire and earth mana, occasionally producing rare mixed environments where the two elements existed in near equal amounts.

There was one more common attribute that caught Max’s attention.

Healing.

Or, more accurately, the Nature attribute.

Thanks to spending the past several days brewing potions, it was the one he understood best. Since healing mana was used extensively in potion making, choosing it for his first Mana Ring seemed like the most practical option.

Of course...

If he had the luxury of choosing freely, Max would’ve preferred one of the truly rare attributes.

Darkness.

Poison.

Chaos.

Perhaps even the legendary Cosmic attribute.

Unfortunately, dreams were free.

Mana wasn’t.

Besides, he still had nine more Mana Rings to create in the future. There would be plenty of opportunities to pursue rarer attributes later.

"I was thinking of making my first ring with Healing attribute," Max said.

Across from him, Zerena looked thoughtful as she took another sip of her juice. She still hadn’t bothered changing after their morning routine, wearing nothing but her panties as she quietly considered his choice.

"I think that’s a good decision," she replied after a moment. "Healing mana is used in a lot of potion recipes. Since that’s what you’re focusing on right now, it’ll probably be the most useful attribute to start with."

She’d reached exactly the same conclusion he had.

Max couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed.

If only they reached the same conclusions that quickly whenever the topic happened to involve sex.

"Well..." Zerena said, taking another sip of her juice. "Have you thought about where you’re going to obtain pure healing mana?"

Max hesitated.

He had considered several possibilities.

A dense forest.

Medicinal herbs.

Even naturally mana-rich valleys.

The problem was that none of them were nearly as straightforward as they sounded.

Ambient mana was never truly pure.

Even in places where healing mana was abundant, it remained mixed with countless other elemental affinities. Refining that mixture into ordinary personal mana was one thing.

Isolating a single attribute while discarding every other element...

That was far more difficult.

Medicinal herbs weren’t much different.

Although they contained healing mana, each plant drew its strength from different sources. Some accumulated mana beneath the earth, others absorbed it from sunlight, while many relied on a combination of several natural elements.

As a result, the healing mana within them was rarely completely pure either.

Forming a mana ring for the very first time required mana of a single, pure attribute.

Once the ring had been successfully created, however, that restriction disappeared.

The ring itself would gradually refine ordinary mana into its own attribute, allowing it to grow without requiring perfectly pure elemental mana every time.

Even so, feeding it mana of the same attribute remained far more efficient, which meant Max could still use medicinal herbs and other healing resources to strengthen a healing ring after it had been formed.

The first ring, however, was different.

It demanded a source of mana with as little impurity as possible.

For the common elements, such sources were relatively easy to find.

Water mana could be obtained from specially refined mana water, while fire mages often relied on high-quality fire mana stones filled almost entirely with pure fire mana.

Healing, however, lacked an equivalent mana stone.

Instead, alchemists had developed another solution.

Potions.

Unlike ordinary healing brews intended to treat injuries, these specialized potions contained almost nothing except highly refined healing mana, making them one of the most reliable materials for forming a healing mana ring.

It was important to distinguish between the two.

These weren’t healing potions.

They were healing mana potions.

A healing potion was designed to treat injuries, using carefully guided healing energy that spread throughout the body to repair damaged tissue.

A healing mana potion served an entirely different purpose.

It contained little more than highly refined healing mana, without the alchemical process needed to transform that mana into an actual healing effect.

The distinction was subtle, but important.

Even so, that wasn’t what made Max hesitate.

The real problem was the price.

Healing mana potions were expensive, and forming a mana ring would likely require more than a single bottle.

"...Umm..."

Finishing the last of his juice, Max set the empty glass aside before taking a seat beside Zerena.

"I was thinking about using healing mana potions."

He glanced at her, quietly waiting for her reaction.

Zerena didn’t react as dramatically as Max had expected.

Finishing the last of her juice, she simply gave a small nod.

"It’s a good choice," she said calmly. "But it’s also an expensive one."

Max did his best to keep his attention on literally anything except the fact that she was still standing there with her bare breasts completely uncovered.

It wasn’t going particularly well.

Fortunately, Zerena turned toward him before his thoughts could wander any further.

"Even before we worry about the cost," she continued, "we’ll have to find out whether any are even available."

She paused thoughtfully.

"And don’t expect a single bottle to be enough. Forming your first mana ring will probably require at least two... perhaps even more."

"That means we’ll probably need well over ten thousand units just to buy enough two or three potions," Zerena said thoughtfully.

For a brief moment, she considered suggesting that Max simply brew the healing mana potions himself.

The idea didn’t last long.

That would require finding a proper recipe first, gathering the necessary ingredients, and spending even more time learning an entirely new formula.

It would delay his first mana ring even further.

Right now, that hardly seemed worthwhile.

"...I’ve managed to save up a little," Max said after a moment of hesitation.

He deliberately kept the number lower than his actual savings. The money from the illegal organ harvesting was something he’d rather keep to himself for now.

Instead, he only counted what Zerena already knew he’d earned.

"I’ve got about two thousand seven hundred units," he admitted. "And I can probably come up with another thousand if I need to."

She almost asked where he’d managed to save that much.

Then the thought quietly disappeared.

A slow smile spread across Zerena’s face instead.

"Don’t worry," she said. "I’ll cover the rest."

To anyone else, it might have sounded like simple generosity.

It wasn’t.

Every favor she did for Max became another thread tying him a little more tightly to her. Gratitude had a habit of making people hesitate, and hesitation was often worth far more than contracts.

The more he owed her...

The less likely he’d be to walk away.

Even if the thought ever crossed his mind, she’d simply make sure he accumulated enough debts that leaving would become far harder than staying.

Still smiling, she took another sip of her juice.

"But before I spend that kind of money on you..." she said casually, "...how about we earn a little more first?"

Max almost asked how much more she wanted.

After all, compared to the profits he’d already brought in, the money she was offering now felt almost insignificant.

Each Minor Healing Potion had been selling for around five hundred and fifty units.

Over the past several days, he’d consistently been producing ten bottles per batch.

Just the last two days alone had already earned her well over ten thousand units.