The Stargazer

by Nikostar A

  The arid space was slowly being nursed back to health. The last time he went there, Alexander was delighted to find a few wild herbs growing. It was a step in the right direction but with the limited resources available at the academy, he could only grow his space so much. As soon as he would get the opportunity, he would leave the academy and then start sending everything he came across into his space.

  While Alexander was still arranging his thoughts, the door to the director of studies' office opened. The old man walked out, using a cane to support his weight.

  "Come with me. The headmistress has agreed to my idea. I have something to show you."

  "Where are we going?" curiously asked Alexander.

  The old man smiled, "To the inner part of the island."

  ***

  On the surface, the Earth Academy's island appeared to be very ordinary to the naked eye. In reality, the island was a powerful military base. Half of the island was used to train elite soldiers while the other was used to train mages. However, this was only the surface of the island.

  Few people knew that this island was completely artificial; it was built from scratch and was even equipped with a mini energium reactor that could provide the entire island with electricity. The island had an even more amazing feature: the island could actually travel along the sea. It was equipped with massive motors, allowing the entire island to operate like a giant moving military base.

  This was the reason the academy was built on this island. Instead of flying the mages around, they could simply move the entire island across the ocean. The island itself would usually patrol the oceans and stop at specific locations to refill its resources.

  Alexander had heard rumors of the inner part of the island before but he never actually went there. It was not a huge secret but still, it was not a publicly known fact. To his surprise, the entrance of the inner part of the island was actually the elevator of the main office building!

  The director of studies laughed at Alexander's astonished expression and swipe his card on the detector. The elevator started going down, even as they were already on the ground floor.

  "-1"

  "-2"

  The elevator continued to move downward. Alexander was tense but the director of studies was completely relaxed.

  When the elevator finally stopped on floor -5, the door opened, revealing a couple of soldiers waiting in front of another door.

  'Looks like a security checkpoint' thought Alexander.

  "Hello, I am here to show this student one of our projects. Here are my card and X-Driver," said the director of studies.

  After a quick check, the two were allowed to enter. "Follow me, I'll bring you to see a specific project. Make sure to not touch anything and do not cross the yellow line. If you do so, even I won't be able to save you."

  Alexander nodded and walked quietly behind the director of studies. The corridor was filled with mysterious doors. Alexander was tempted to have a look at what was inside but kept in mind the old man's warning.

  Soon, they stopped in front of a door with the sign, C-192. The director of studies pushed the door opened and entered.

  Inside the room, Alexander found a strange giant cage made of glass waiting for him. On the side of the room was a massive control panel currently being controlled by two scientists.

  "You've finally arrived. Alright, let's not waste any more time. I was busy with experiment B-18. You are lucky I need to wait for the simulation to finish. Can the student please get into the cultivation box please?" said one of the scientist. He was a short chubby man, wearing a typical scientist lab coat. His face was covered with acne, making him look younger than he actually was.

  The director of studies nodded and prompted Alexander to enter the giant glass cage. "Enter it and meditate. I will allow you to use the cultivation box for twenty minutes. We will discuss the rest of the arrangement afterward!"

  Alexander hesitated but eventually walked into the glass cage. He felt like an animal in cage; the two scientists were looking at him with strange looks in their eyes. 'If something bad happens, I'll just go into the Space.'

  Outside the cage, one of the scientists turned toward the director of studies. "Andrea. Are you sure about that? We have already confirmed that the cultivation box works. All that is left is a long run test. Using it on this student will be a waste of resources. You know, if it is just for twenty minutes, it still means using two thousand spirit stones."

  The director of studies silently nodded. His eyes were still fixed on Alexander. "Sometimes you have to make sacrifices to remove a rat. This test is mostly to see if he belongs to an organization or not. If he refuses even after showing him the cultivation box, it would mean that he is trying to avoid contact with the Exil. Furthermore, if he belongs to an organization, he would not hesitate to inform them of such a revolutionary device. Two thousand spirit stones are nothing if we remove a hidden threat."

  "Alright, I'll start the cultivation box then."

  ***

  Inside the cultivation box, Alexander looked around him, unsure of what he is supposed to do. He did not get any instructions aside from 'meditate'. Therefore, he sat on the cold floor and started meditating.

  His mana started to flow from his mana source into his mana reservoir. Alexander would usually use mana from herbs instead of his own mana to meditate but since the director of studies brought him here without warning, Alexander did not have anything on him. He could only use his own mana. Although it would cost him a few hours of his life, Alexander was curious about the glass cage. What was so special about it?

  At first, Alexander did not feel anything out of the ordinary. An entire minute has passed but nothing out of the ordinary had occurred yet. Alexander could feel some pressure on his mana reservoir due to the excess mana in it but apart from that, nothing.

  With his mana reservoir full, it was time to start directing his mana in his spirit circuits according to the meditation technique. It was then that Alexander suddenly realized that something was amiss.

  'Why is there already some mana in my spirit circuit?' exclaimed Alexander.

  As soon as his own mana started flowing in his spirit circuit, he felt it, the presence of small specks of mana. At first, there were only some specks of mana but as time went by, the amount of external mana continued to increase.

  As Alexander's mana flew in the spirit circuits, it swallowed the external mana, increasing the overall flow of mana in the spirit circuits.

  "This... Is this the effect of the glass cage? If I am not wrong, it should be forcefully increasing the amount of mana in the volume of the cage. Since the mana is so dense, some would inevitably flow into my spirit circuits and mana reservoir."

  "This is great! It means that I won't need to use more mana from my mana source to replenish the losses during the meditation. The amount of mana flowing in the spirit circuits also increased! It should make it easier to widen the circuits and each time I complete a cycle, the whole flow will return to the mana reservoir and increase its size!"

  "But I should be careful and control the flow of mana. If I let it go too fast, it might damage the spirit circuits. Although the effects are minimal, in the long run, it will cause a lot of harm."

  Alexander started to focus. He carefully directed his mana and slowly, the total amount of mana in his spirit circuits continued to increase.

  "The mana keeps increasing. It's like the mana in the atmosphere is being absorbed by my own mana. If I only used my own mana, I would never be able to push so much at once. It's like doing twice the amount of work with the same amount of effort!"

  Alexander was excited. He now understood the effects of the glass cage and how to make use of it. He greedily continued to circulate his mana. As time went by, the effectiveness of the glass cage became more and more apparent. Alexander needed to be careful. He felt his body bustling with energy; that feeling was addictive! With all the mana his body currently supported, he could cast all sorts of p
owerful spells! He felt unstoppable.

  "Tap Tap Tap"

  Alexander was completely engrossed in his meditation when he heard three light taps on the glass. He opened his eyes and found the two scientists looking at him with interest and the old director of studies whose fist was still leaning against the glass.

  Alexander immediately understood. The twenty minutes were over; it was time to get out of the glass cage. He reluctantly stopped his meditation and allowed the mana to return to his mana reservoir.

  Without his control, the excess mana in his system quickly left his body and his mana reservoir shrunk a little bit. In the end, Alexander checked his mana reservoir and spirit circuits. After this short twenty-minute session, both had become slightly larger.

  'Impressive. The twenty-minute session is almost as effective as a six-hour meditation session.'

  Alexander walked out of the glass cage and was greeted by the director of studies. "So? How was it?"

  "Amazing. I made as much progress as an entire day's worth of meditation," commented Alexander.

  The old man smiled, "Good. Good. Now that you have seen it. Let's return to my office. We have wasted enough of these people's time."

  ***

  Back in the cozy office, the director of studies looked at Alexander and said, "Alright. Now that you have seen the cultivation box. What do you think of it? It is one of the latest projects with have in collaboration with the Flemming Organization. "

  Alexander paused for a moment. "Although there is some conflict between me and the Flemming Organization, I have to admit that the cultivation box is very useful. But what does that have to do with the rewards we were talking about?"

  The old man smiled, "Simple. The cultivation box has been tested and proven to work effectively for short periods of time but we still need to do a long test run to see if its effects will still be effective over time. If you accept to represent the academy in the duels with the Exil, I will allow you to test the cultivation box for us."

  Alexander's eyes shone. He knew the usefulness of the cultivation box but he still tried to negotiate. "How long would that be?"

  "For as long you can last but it can only be one sitting. We will continuously supply the box with mana until you cannot hold it anymore. Naturally, this is a test and we will expect you to give a report of your experience and there is also a risk..."

  "Deal. We have a deal but only my duel should count. I should not be responsible for the actions of the other students. Furthermore, I don't know the rules but I would like to fight alone."

  Chapter 30: Sharing his secret

  Alexander walked out of the main office building. He was still visibly excited by his experience in the cultivation box. He never thought that the academy was hiding such a powerful tool. He knew that engineers and scientist were actively trying to combine magic with modern technology. Although it was not there yet, the cultivation box was a clear sign that they were making huge progress.

  "I must not be complacent. If they developed the cultivation box, who knows what else they have in the other project rooms. I must always remember that mages are not gods; at least not on Earth."

  No matter how strong he was, a simple bullet could end Alexander's life. He was used to the life on Basilec without any advanced technology but now, he was on Earth.

  "This cultivation box. It should be using the spirit stones to release the mana in the cage. I suppose that its effect is to temporarily increase the mana density, allowing one to easily meditate. However, one cannot stay for too long in there. It is easy to be engrossed in meditation but if he absorbed too much at once, then there would be a lot of consequences."

  Meditation was like eating. A human being could only eat so much food before his stomach would be completely full. Naturally, by eating more than needed, the human body would adapt, increasing the size of the stomach to some extent. However, the stomach could only increase in size slowly. If one tried to each too much food at once, then he will inevitably vomit or feel sick afterward; it could even have more consequences later on.

  Alexander took the bus back home while still thinking about the cultivation box. He was fascinated by the machine. Not only did it increase the rate of growth of his mana reservoir, but it also did not affect his mana source! Aside from the initial mana used to initiate his meditation, Alexander left his mana source untouched which meant that his life span was not affected at all!

  'Does that mean that they already know that using mana would result in shortening one's lifespan? I thought the governments were not aware of this fact. Looks like they are much smarter than I thought.'

  'They somehow found a way to extract the mana out of spirit stones... If I do it by myself, there would be a lot of losses but the cultivation box should consist of some sort of mechanism that has high efficiency in extracting mana from spirit stones... Interesting.'

  Before returning back to the Colony, Alexander made a small detour to a small restaurant and ordered a take-away. He was happy but did not want to meet anyone. He needed to focus on meditation for a while.

  The director of studies did not tell him an exact date or time for the duels with The Exil as he still needed to contact the other students first. The only information Alexander had was that the duels would take place after the exams which gave him a minimum of eight days to improve as much as possible.

  "Tomorrow, I need to go to the crafting department and order a few herbs for my meditation. It is fortunate that I don't need to revise," said Alexander to himself.

  He returned home and started eating. Alexander chatted with his mom for a while before taking a hot shower.

  "This is weird though... I don't think the academy would share such an important project with a random student, right?" suddenly thought Alexander. Something did not feel exactly right. How could the academy share such a revolutionary device with him?

  "Could it be because they still think that I belong to an organization and are expecting me to try to contact them? If that's the case, they must be watching my every move... Fortunately, I have nothing to hide; they can keep looking for that imaginary organization as much as they want."

  ***

  The week went by quickly. All the students were busy revising for the written exams except for Alexander. During the entire week, Alexander spent most of his time meditating. It reminded him of his past life; he used to meditate as much as possible, draining his life without him even realizing it. In normal circumstances, Alexander would not be willing to use his life like that to boost his power. Although he was only shaving off a few hours of his life, those few hours could accumulate very quickly.

  As for the exams, Alexander came up with a neat trick. It would be strange if a student suddenly started making hand seals out of nowhere in the examination room. Therefore, just before the exams started, Alexander would excuse himself to the toilet where he would activate Egriss, the Archivist.

  The body postures of the constellations were like switches. As long as they were activated, their effect would remain active as long as Alexander held the star energy in his body. It did not matter if he was still maintaining the posture or not. Even if he did not follow any classes, Alexander would simply write whatever the lecturers once said about the particular topics.

  By the end of the intense week of meditation, Alexander's mana reservoir would now allow him to cast eighteen low-level spells. It was a small improvement but two more spells would come in handy for his incoming duel.

  During the week, Alexander also received an email from the director of studies, informing him to come to the magic department in two days. He would then be escorted to the venue of the duels. Alexander did not know the details yet but as long as he won, it would not matter.

  He trained diligently and only stopped to go to the exams and for his daily video call with his mother for the entire week.

  However, the night before the date of the duels, Alexander decided to not meditate. If he pushed a little bit further,
his mana reservoir might allow him to use nineteen low-level spells but too much meditation at once would only end up hurting him. Furthermore, earlier this morning, Alexander receive a message from Aila, inviting him for lunch. It has been a while since Alexander had seen his past life's lover. He had been wondering why Aila did not contact him for the regular water delivery but he simply thought that it was because of the exams.

  Aila was a second-year student; she did not have as much free time as Alexander and her exams involved a lot more than just duels with other students. The invitation for lunch was simply Aila's way of saying that the water had been delivered at the restaurant. As they knew that the messages were being checked, they could not let the academy know that Alexander was the one using in need of all this water.

  Alexander was looking forward to meeting Aila. Although all their meetings had a bittersweet taste, Alexander still enjoyed the time spent with her.