The Stargazer

by Nikostar A

  "How long do you think he will last?" asked the director of studies. His eyes were fixed on the youth in the cultivation box. Alexander was already the focus of the higher-ups. Many wanted to force the entity behind him to come out but it was not an easy task. Allowing him to use the cultivation box was a way to express their goodwill and at the same time, inform the hidden force of the advantages of collaborating with them.

  "In average, mages can meditate for six hours in a row. Some can push their limits to eight hours. But in the cultivation box, the volume of mana they have to control is much larger. It puts stress on both his body and his mind. Since his performance index is only 5.1, I'll estimate that he can last for about two hours. Three if he tries really hard."

  Dr. Meyer turned his attention to the monitoring screens, "Everything looks normal. We will have to wait here for a long time. Do you want to accompany me for a cup of coffee?"

  "Sure. I did not expect that kid to turn up so early. I need my daily dose of caffeine."

  The two left the room silently. There were still two scientists keeping an eye on Alexander. The latter did not even notice that some scientists have left the room. He was completely focused on his meditation, trying to make the most of this opportunity.

  "Are the higher-ups putting a lot of pressure on you?" asked Dr. Meyer as he passed a cup of coffee to his friend.

  "There is a debate going on about what the correct approach is. Nobody likes the idea of having a force hidden from their sights but at the same time. If a youngster like Alexander learned an Extreme Spell that early, how strong do you think the elites of his organization are? Maybe they have a lot of influence on both Earth and Loha; as long as they do not do anything wrong, we cannot act against them."

  Dr. Meyer lightly tapped his shoulder to comfort him, "I told you, you should have joined the research division. It is much less stressful than managing those kids. Whatever the higher-ups want you to do, don't underestimate Alexander. He does not have the naiveness that most youngsters should have. He looks confident in himself."

  "Then what do you suggest I do?"

  "It is your job to figure this out. As long as he does not drain all the spirit stones being used for the cultivation box, I have no reason to go against him."

  Chapter 40: Expanding the Space

  "Who do they think they are? Those big shots want to take actions against a student of the academy? How dare they? If anything happens, inform me immediately! Regardless of his background, if he does not commit any wrongs, no one is allowed to move against him," exclaimed Carmen Ashmore. She wildly smashed her fist against the table, almost causing it to break.

  "Miss, please calm down. This is not a small matter. He is an obvious threat to all the other students. Since he knows an Extreme Spell, why does he still need to remain at the academy? He is clearly stealing someone's spot. Isn't it scary that an unknown organization has managed to infiltrate the academy?" argued one of the chairmen of the academy.

  "Mr. Long, the rules of the academy are clear. As long as the students do not break any rules, we will protect them at all cost. I know your aim is to get into contact with the student and to extract information from him. I shall not allow it. You are not allowed to make a move against his family either!"

  "Miss, this rule was set in place to prevent rich and influential families from pressuring the ordinary students. This is clearly irrelevant in this context. Furthermore, we are not just trying to act against the student. We have done some research and determine that the Extreme Spell originates from the Five Oceans Palace. They are not a major force on Loha but nobody would actively try to offend them on the sea. The Five Oceans Palace denied having shared their Extreme Spell with Earthlings and demanded that Alexander is handed over to their palace for questioning."

  Carmen Ashmore frowned. If a force from Loha wanted to intervene, then the governments would also stick their nose into the matter. Any force from Loha was forbidden from entering Earth in order to prevent them from negatively influencing Earth's lifestyle. The situation was not as simple as it seemed; the organizations were even ready to implicate Lohan forces to force Alexander to explain himself. This way, Alexander's standing would be clearly established; either he stood on Earth's side or he was on Loha's side.

  In any case, Carmen could not allow this to happen. Her role was to enforce the rules and regulations of the academy at all cost. The students of the academy were the future mages of humanity. The rules stipulated that they should be protected at all cost from both dangers and the influence of external forces.

  "We will still have to deny their requests. It is our duty to protect our students. Although we are not regarded as a powerful force; we are far from being powerless."

  The discussion went on for a while but was completely fruitless. Mr. Long walked out of the meeting room followed by the Head of the Discipline Department. There were a few other important figures who quickly started discussing among themselves.

  "Who does she think she is? We are clearly doing this for the greater good of humanity!"

  "We should get her demoted and elect a new headmaster. She is just doing whatever she feels like doing. That student represents a major threat to the safety of our system!"

  "Gentlemen, I think we need to report this case to the UN. Only they can force the hidden force to come out."

  The chairmen felt dejected. They held positions of power at the academy but they were unable to do anything against the rules that were established. They were not acting in their self-interest but rather because they were pressured to do so.

  The academy was a powerful entity that could suppress any organization but the problem was all six organizations suddenly applied pressure on them to obtain information on a particular student. They could ignore one organization but if all the six started to act, there was no way they could ignore their call.

  Mr. Long turned toward the director of studies and asked, "You are in charge of enforcing rules and regulations, is there really nothing you can do?"

  "Unfortunately, my hands are tied. The Flemming Organization tried to make a move against Alexander in the past and it all backfired. The headmistress is closely monitoring the situation and if we act without a proper reason, who knows what will happen. The student abided by the rules perfectly; there is nothing to nitpick. We even observed his behavior when he went to the exchange. He never left his room outside of the time of the duels. There is no contraband, nothing; he purchases everything he uses at the store and never shares anything..."

  He smiled dejectedly. At that moment, the head of the discipline department felt his X-Driver vibrate. He quickly checked it and paused for a while.

  "What is so puzzling about this message for you to make this face?" asked Mr. Long when he saw the head of the discipline department's face.

  He did not immediately reply and instead continued to stare at the screen of his X-Driver. After a few moments of awkward silence, he finally said, "It is about the theory that Alexander is able to use magic without being detected. I think we have a lead. One of the recruits of my organization just sent me a very interesting piece of information."

  ***

  "It's already been two hours. How much longer do you think it will last?"

  Dr. Meyer was staring at the screen with interest. All of Alexander's vital signs were perfectly normal. There were no signs of Alexander experiencing any difficulties. He looked like he was going to last for long.

  "Looks like he is quite talented. Despite his low performance index, he can meditate for long. I'll give him thirty more minutes. Then, he should start feeling tired; it is not easy to stay in the cultivation box."

  Thirty minutes later, as Dr. Meyer anticipated, Alexander's breathing rate started to increase. Droplets of sweat appeared on Alexander's forehead and his heart suddenly started to beat crazily. It was all the signs of someone reaching his limits. The spirit circuits were equivalent to physical muscles; people with great stamina could use them fo
r a long time but eventually, they would have to rest. Determined individuals were able to push their limits to some extent but it would not last for very long.

  "He is at his limits. He lasted for quite a while. We already burned ten thousand spirit stones. This test was costly but still within an acceptable range," commented Dr. Meyer.

  The director of studies was relieved. He quietly smiled and waited for Alexander to give up. It was normal for Alexander to try to push his limits. A session in the cultivation box would give him huge benefits. Who knew when he would get the opportunity to use it again? Ten thousand spirit stones was not a small sum; it was equivalent to a small business' yearly profit but for the academy, it was only a small percentage of its massive budget.

  However, the director of studies had been worried about Alexander. When the higher-ups learned of his knowledge of Extreme Spells, they even started to believe that Alexander had a way to deceive the performance index system. As a result, many were scared that he would use up a lot of spirit stones while using his cultivation box. The higher his performance index, the larger his mana reservoir would be and the more mana would be required to expand it.

  Therefore, the director of studies was immediately relieved when he saw Alexander starting to struggle. He did not wish him ill but it was reassuring to see that Alexander still had limits.

  As Dr. Meyer expected, Alexander's heart rate and breathing rate soon started to stabilize. It was the same for the rest of Alexander's vital signs. "Looks like he just stopped. He should be coming out soon."

  As Alexander's condition was stabilizing, it was clear that he was no longer meditating. However, contrary to the scientists' expectations, the demand for spirit stones of the cultivation box increased instead of decreasing!

  The cultivation box was built using newly developed technology. It could destroy spirit stones while absorbing the mana contained within them. The cultivation box would then collect all the released mana and inject it into a small volume. It created an artificial environment with a much higher concentration of mana than normal, allowing mages to use it to their advantage.

  The machine was calibrated to maintain a certain concentration of mana and for the sake of the test, the concentration was only set at a moderate level. The cultivation box would consume a certain amount of spirit stones every minute and that amount had been constant until now. The sudden increase in demand was indeed alarming and abnormal. Didn't Alexander just stop meditating? The demand should go down; not up!

  When he noticed the abnormality, Dr. Meyer's eyes flashed with interest. He was fascinated and decided to closely monitor Alexander for the rest of the test.

  ***

  Inside the cultivation box, Alexander let out a sigh of relief. His spirit circuits were starting to hurt but just as he was about to hit his limit, Alexander directed all his mana toward his Seed.

  He did not know how long he had been meditating for but his body was starting to feel numb. He was also starting to feel dizzy. It had been a while since Alexander had to control such a huge amount of mana. Meditation in the cultivation box was several times harder than in normal circumstances but the rewards were also abundant.

  His mana reservoir and spirit circuits became considerably larger. At the moment, Alexander's reservoir could allow him to cast twenty-three low-level spells but he knew that his reservoir would soon relax and shrink a little bit.

  Since his travel back in time, Alexander hadn't worked so hard on his meditation. Contrary to people's expectations, Alexander did not work as hard as he could on improving his strength. The reason? It was simply because Alexander was burnt out! There was nothing as boring as sitting down and meditating for hours!

  Reality was different from what people described in novels and movies; people got burnt out after a while; it was especially true for repetitive tasks. In his past life, Alexander trained hard for several years without rest. He practiced his spells at the cost of his life but in the end, he still ended up dying alone. Now that he had a chance to restart from scratch, people would expect him to seize the opportunity and use his memories to take over the world.

  They were wrong! Alexander simply wanted to have a peaceful life. He trained to some extent because he knew he needed some personal strength to live peacefully. He was not interested in ruling the world and just wanted two things: for his mother to be safe and to stay at Aila's side.

  When Alexander stopped meditating, he soon became conscious of his body's state. He was sweating profusely and could see his arms had reddened. He was heavily breathing and could feel a cramp-like feeling all over his body.

  "Mmmm, that was a little too close but it will probably be the only opportunity I will have to use the cultivation box. For now, I should rest and just dump everything in the Seed. The Space should benefit quite a lot from this session."

  The meditation technique of the Anterlope Clan was quite peculiar. It allowed its user to expand his mana reservoir and spirit circuits like any other meditation techniques. However, it also had an additional feature that would allow all the mana to be directed at the Seed instead. It was like a valve; once open, all the mana in his spirit circuits would be sent into the Seed.

  Opening that 'valve' instantly relieved Alexander's spirit circuits of all the pressure of the mana. As he could now relax, Alexander simply allowed himself to calm down while all the mana was automatically being sent into the Seed.

  Alexander sat there and after he recovered, he started directing the mana into his Seed, increasing the flow rate. Starting a new meditation session could be dangerous. It was better to use the rest of his time in the cultivation to expand his Space.

  Time went by and Alexander soon started to feel restless. His legs were numb but he needed to persist. He was completely bored as his Seed was doing all the work, greedily absorbing all the mana.

  From an outsider's point of view, Alexander looked like he was diligently meditating but in fact, Alexander was just sitting there doing nothing.

  "It has already been five hours... Is he alright?" asked the director of studies with a worried look.

  "Yes. As you can see, his body is completely relaxed. It looks like he is not even putting in any effort in his meditation. Fascinating..."

  One of the scientists interrupted the two, "Dr. Meyer, we have already used 40000 spirit stones on this test. Should we continue?"

  "Of course! Since we have already started, we might as well go all out. Who knows, maybe the cultivation box can actually help mages meditate for much longer than normal! We need to see how long he will last! This invention might just be revolutionary if mages can really meditate for so long under these conditions. We might be able to create ultimate mages with an infinite amount of mana! The cost sure is high but we should have more than enough spirit stones to last for a couple more hours. At worst, we can take some spirit stones from the other projects."

  After an unknown amount of time has passed, Alexander's stomach started grumbling. "D*mn... It should already be well past lunchtime."

  His mouth was dry as he did not drink a lot of water but at the same time, he also had an urge to relieve his bladder. Alexander was still human and his body had needs.

  Fortunately, Alexander had a strong sense of self-control. He knew his decision might impact his health but considering the huge amount of mana his Seed was absorbing, the temporary pain might just be worth it.

  Alexander could force himself to ignore his thirst and hunger but it was a completely different story for his bladder. He could feel the pressure building up between his legs. At some point, Alexander even had the thought of disregarding his image and just relieving himself in the cultivation box. In the end, he gave up on the idea and decided to push himself a little more.

  However, Alexander had to eventually give in; the call of nature could not be ignored for any longer. His breaking point was when one of the scientists decided to bring a couple of drinks to share with his colleagues in the room.

  A
lexander quickly signaled the scientists that he wanted to stop and rushed out of the cultivation box. Dr. Meyer tried to stop him, "Where are you running to? You still need to answer some questions."

  "Not now! I need to go to the restroom. Quick!" exclaimed Alexander. He could not hold it for much longer and rushed through the door.

  "Oh!" Dr. Meyer understood and laughed lightly. He instructed a young scientist to bring Alexander to the restroom.

  Chapter 41: Date

  "Now that you are relieved, are you ready to answer a few questions?" asked Dr. Meyer when he saw Alexander return with a relieved expression.

  One of his assistants was holding a small bottle of water. They knew that Alexander skipped a meal and was probably dehydrated.

  "Let's start with a brief description of your experience and how effective the cultivation box was." Dr. Meyer did not want to waste any time. As soon as Alexander satiated his thirst, he started asking for an explanation. They have already waited for an entire day for Alexander to step out of the cultivation box; it meant that his shift was technically already over and he was forced to work overtime.