4 Growth

[The Philosopher's Stone (Condition: Partially Absorbed) is reacting to the pure energy present in your body.]

"What? What's happening System?"

<Responding to the host, The Philosopher's Stone's energy has come into contact with the Host's newfound mana. The likeliest scenario is for the energy of the Stone to merge with the Host's mana supply, however, the system is not able to inference the outcome of doing so. The system predicts that the result will be the creation of a whole new form of energy. >

<Host's movement might cause instability in the energies fusing, therefore, advising the Host to not interfere with the process.>

"Is that so? Alright, I won't move then."

[The Philosopher's Stone's energy is beginning to coalesce with the newfound energy source present in the Host's body.]

And soon enough, the stone's energy began to fuse with his mana, just like the system predicted.

[The Mana Circuits in the Host's body are transforming.]

[A new form of 'Energy' is being generated by the Host.]

[The creation of a new form of Energy is a Near-Impossible Task.]

[The Host will receive multiple rewards for his accomplishment.]

[The title: 'Sorcerer of Energy' has been acquired.]

[The title: 'Seer of the Origin' has been acquired.]

[The Host has created the 'Aether'.]

[The title: 'Creator of the Quintessence' has been acquired.]

[The trait: 'Strengthened Physique' has evolved to 'Aether Physique'.]

[The trait: 'Mana Circuit' has evolved to 'Energy Circuit'.]

[The skill 'Aether Authority' has been acquired.]

[The skill 'Energy Manipulation' has been acquired.]

[Mana Stat has evolved into 'Energy' Stat.]

[Philosopher's Stone's Condition has been updated to: Fully Absorbed]

[Energy Stat has increased by 14.]

[Vitality has increased by 46.]

"Fuuuuuuu," sighed Magnus, surprised by the sudden influx of messages. Although he didn't expect it to be a small matter as even the system wasn't sure of the outcome, he certainly didn't expect to receive so many abilities and upgrades at once. If he was being honest, all the messages popping out at once kinda annoyed him a bit, unlike the satisfying feeling of one message at a time.

Ignoring his minor inconvenience, he said,

"First, and foremost," he said, "What exactly is this energy, system? There's a lot of mention of it in all of these messages."

<Energy is a force. There are numerous different forms of energy, such as mana, life force, or the Aether The Host just produced. The host can think of energy as a different form of matter, similar to the elements. Detailed information about Energy may damage the Host's soul, and as such, that is the limit of what the system can inform the Host about Energy.>

"Hey, you say that's the limit of what you can tell me, does that mean that I can learn stuff that you can't tell me from other sources?

<As long as the information is delivered in a manner that doesn't harm lower souls, the Host can be informed by any source. One thing to be remembered is that the System uses the Spirit Stat of the Host in order to function. All information is gathered with an ability proportional to the Spirit Stat of the Host.>

<In essence, if the Host asks the same question with it being at 10, and at being at the stat 1,000, the answers received will vastly differ, both in information gathering ability and information level.

Even though there were many unfamiliar terms mentioned by the system just then, Magnus knew that he would come to understand all of this eventually, and there was no need to rush and cram this information into his mind.

"Hmm, alright, fair enough. Then can you tell me what this 'Aether' thing is about? And also may I have a brief introduction about the titles, traits, and skills I just got? I can't be bothered doing it individually. Also, I understand why my 'Energy' stat increased, but how come my vitality increased so much? Is it related to the philosopher's stone's completion?"

<Answering the Host's questions, the Host's mana output was incredibly pure due to the 'Mana Mastery' skill, and when pure mana essence came in contact with the unique energy of The Philosopher's Stone, the Host created a new form of energy that the system named the 'Aether' according to its properties.>

<Just as the Host has deduced, Host's Vitality has increased majorly as the ingestion process of The Philosopher's Stone was halted, and when it formed the Aether, and the influx of Aether energy replaced the Host's mana and has digested all of the Philosopher's Stone's Energy, thus increasing the vitality of the host.>

<Even so, the Host's growth could also be attributed to the Titles, Traits,

Magnus felt like the explanations given by the system were always way too complicated, but he got the gist of it.

<Introduction of new Titles, Skills, and Traits can be found in the Status Function, just like the explanation of 'Mana Mastery'.>

Hearing this, Magnus opened his status page once again.

{Magnus}

Occupation: N/A

Titles:

-Master of the Philosopher's Stone: The host has control over the energy produced by a Mythical stone.

-Blessed by Mana: The Host can infinitely produce the purest form of mana, proportional to the Energy Stat.

-Sorcerer of Energy: The host can contain multiple forms of energy in his body without any drawback.

-Creator of the Quintessence: A title reserved only for the creator of the æther.

-Seer of the Origin: Title for one who has glimpsed into the source. Effects unknown.

Traits:

-Aether Physique: A body, physically reinforced with 'Aether' element, and that supports conduction of all elements and energies, to an extent, anywhere on the body.

-Resolute Will: The determination to live.

-Rational Mind: Mental ability to stay cool, calm, and composed in any situation.

-Energy Circuit: Circuit inside the body that circulates any energy, without any conflict or clashes.

Stats:

-Strength: 12

-Agility: 11

-Vitality: 78

-Energy: 65

-Spirit: 15

Skills:

-Mana Mastery {passive}

-Aether Authority {passive}:

Absolute Domination over the element of Aether. Matter of Aether, regardless of producer, will bend to the will of the Host.

-Energy Manipulation {passive}

The ability to control all energies generated by the Host's body, without any of them conflicting with each other.

"Hey system, didn't you say my mana had fused with the energy of the stone? How come I still have mana mastery? Does that mean I can still use mana, even though its stat is gone?"

<Responding to Host, due to the combined effect of 'Mana Mastery' and 'Blessed by Mana', Host can infinitely produce mana. Thus, even though the Host's mana was fused into the 'Aether', the Host can always produce more. And due to Host's 'Energy Manipulation' skill, Host can produce both regular Mana, along with his Aether.>

<Therefore, Host can utilize both Mana and Aether energies due to the combination of Host's skills, 'Energy Manipulation', 'Mana Mastery' and Host's trait, 'Energy Circuit', that allows him to circulate all forms of energy. In addition, every single part of the Host's status is in harmony, which allows Host for extra effect, with related attributes, in the Host's case, it is Energy.>

"Woah, it's been just a couple of minutes since I've gotten you, system, but I feel very different to before."

<Host has a Vitality Stat of 78, and Host's Energy Stat is at 65. To put this into perspective, the Host's body has already surpassed a regular human's potential, through training alone. Only by climbing or using objects related to the 'Towers' can the people of Earth increase their potential and strength. Not to mention that Host's 'Mana Mastery' allows him to create the purest form of mana, which, even though Host's Energy Stat is not high enough for infinite production, is still greater in purity than all of humanity.'>

<Unforunately, the Host has an innate condition that doesn't allow for the proper utilization of Mana, even with his status, and with the Host's current Spirit Stat, the System is not able to find out the exact reason.>

"Wait, what? I'm that strong?" said Magnus, completely ignoring the latter half of what the system had said, as even with mana, he couldn't exactly do much. He had zero idea of how to use it, especially when it came to Magic, and spells.

He couldn't stop a small bout of delight from appearing on his face, though, when he had heard how strong his physical body was. He was glad to see it, since that was the only thing he could rely on, his body.

<Responding to Host, even though Host's body is immensely powerful, the amount of physical force the Host can exert is just a small fraction of that, due to the Host's low Strength and Agility Stats.>

"Oh, right, I got a bit carried away."

Magnus took a couple of minutes to organize his thoughts.

'What should I do now? I think I'll go to the Academy, not necessarily for the entire 3 years, I'll learn whatever I can from there, and then I'll leave, perhaps I should enter the towers.'

Magnus didn't have any major aspirations at the moment. His only goal was to find anything he could about his parents.

He originally trained for years, with the intention of getting accepted into the academy, but now with the help of the system, that would be child's play.

Deciding that the best course of action would be to go enroll in the Academy in 3 weeks when the admission started, he went back home.

***

3 weeks later.

It was finally enrollment season in the Academy. Magnus closed the door and locked it firmly, he wouldn't come back here for a while.

His body looked very different from what it did 3 weeks ago.

On the day he had first got the system, he went out to the woods to train his newfound increase in power. And right as if right on queue, the system's Quest Function gave Magnus his first Quest:

[Quest Generated]

Quest Contents:

The Host has just received the system but is not completely used to the functions and abilities of both himself and the system. Train every day for 3 weeks, with the given routine, and understand the abilities of the system.

Quest Failure Condition:

Host's death; Choosing to not do so; Breaking routine; Refusing completion of the Quest

Quest Rewards:

-[Physical Makeover]

-Basic understanding of the system.

He had gotten a Quest from the system that showed an intense different exercise routine every day. Each one of those days was spent training to the point where Magnus had fallen unconscious after just barely completing them. It was clear that the system knew of Magnus's limits too, as each day, the training goal given to Magnus was much harder than the previous one.

Training wasn't the only thing Magnus did over the 3 weeks. After training for most of the day, he also spent his time asking the System various things. He had gone over every single one of the functions of the system, and by the time the 3 weeks were over, he was pretty familiar with the system and was able to interact with it normally.

Funnily enough, this even helped him talk better, Magnus usually never conversed with anyone, and as such, his speech and self-esteem departments weren't very high. However, by continuously conversing with the system every chance he could, both of those things began to change for the better. The system had already informed him he didn't need to talk to it out loud, but he preferred doing so, in private of course, anyway.

For the last week of the training, the system had Magnus delve into the woods near his house without any resources and he had to do his training while also training and procuring all the supplies by his own resourcefulness.

At first, Magnus thought it was really sad to have to kill a few innocent animals but soon got over that too when his hunger overcame him. The system advised him that performing that was the right thing to do, after all, this was a world ruled by the strong, who preyed on the weak, the weak had no opinion or rights, that was meaningless when compared to those who could break those rights with the blink of an eye.

In those 3 weeks, Magnus also went around trying to figure out the basics of the system. As per what he learned, the 'Status Function' displayed his current statistics, while the 'Appraisal Function' displayed the information of those around him, although, in it's current state, due to Magnus's insufficient Spirit Stat, he wasn't able to properly utilize the appraisal, and could only do it on small animals or creatures, of which also didn't give out any significant information.

Meanwhile, he explored the other functions, such as the Growth and Quest Functions, both of which were passive, and he was unable to actually pull out any display for them. There was also the Inventory Function, which he was really hyped about, but ended up being pretty useless.

It was also reliant on his spirit stat and in its current state, it was able to hold 1 item, and was already filled with the [Essence of the Philosopher's Stone] that was noted by the system, which informed him that if he tried to remove it, the essence would fuse into the air around him and he would lose it forever.

He ignored the Inventory and then checked out the other so-called 'Minor Functions', which, honestly, in his opinion, were really convenient more than anything else.

There was the mapping feature, that had a map inside the void of his closed eyes, where he could set markers too, and displayed everywhere he had been and where he was, for easy navigation. It even had a few things that made it even better like displaying the best path, making a path on the ground lighter through his eyes, displaying the path to follow.

There were also the Clock Function, Translation Function, and a few more that were pretty self-explanatory.

And therefore, after a week of intense training out in the wild, Magnus's instincts were back to top-notch, and his body in its best condition yet.

Not to mention that after he had finished the quest, the main reward was much more effective than he thought it would be. It was called the [Physical Makeover], but he didn't expect much other than maybe making him a bit cooler to look at.

And yet, the second he accepted the quest reward, he practically transformed into a different person.

All of the muscles on his body became as strong as steel but as flexible as rubber. His abs became more toned, and his bones became much more rigid. His jaws became much more chiseled, and the black bags under his eyes disappeared. The hair on his head had become way smoother, and the hair everywhere other than his head had disappeared. His skin color in general also became less tanned, and all the spots on his face, like the pimples and acne, disappeared.

He had a hard time recognizing himself in the mirror, he felt like he had become much more attractive, even more so than most super-models.

The makeover wasn't just in terms of attractiveness though, as his strength had gone up by 10, and agility by 11, just by that alone. However, that wasn't the only growth, after all that following that exact exercise routine, that pushed him to the limits on multiple occasions, all of his stats had increased by a bit, but not by a lot, which made him realize that difficulty of obtaining stats, which he had assumed to be easy considering he had gotten so many right after getting the system.

However, even with his body getting much better and tougher, he noticed something, the reason he was so excited when he started to realize that the reward was going to help his body more than just cosmetically, was that he was eager for it to fix his mana problem in his body, considering it fixed a few other bodily aches and such.

And yet, there was no such result, although he could feel the mana around him, he struggled to communicate with it. It wasn't an issue of controlling it, it was more like he wasn't sure of how to do so, he just couldn't feel it inside his body, unlike what it should be. He has asked the system about this and it had told him that it was currently unable to help him in that regard. And that he would need to learn how to use mana from the ground up, and the only place he knew that would teach this was the Academy.

Aside from mana, he had his Aether attribute. Unlike mana, it was easy for him to control and use. Perhaps that was due to all the traits, skills, and titles he had that were related to it. The way he used it was by gathering it around his body using his energy circuit.

The Aether was incredibly beautiful to look at, it was like strands of shiny azure particles were floating in the air. He could focus these particles anywhere on his body.

For example, he could focus the aether into his fist, which made his punches much, much, stronger, and he could easily pierce through anything he punched, but it felt more like he was burning it rather than hitting it, like the tree he punched as a test, immediately started shriveling up and then eventually just turned to ashes.

Or when he gathered it all over his skin, whatever hit his skin had the same reaction, shriveling up and turning into an ash-like powder. And that's why Magnus made a mental note never to use it unless he had to, but just in case of an emergency, he had ended up training in various ways to use it.

Magnus checked his stats one last time before leaving.

Stats:

-Strength: 25

-Agility: 26

-Vitality: 83

-Energy: 68

-Spirit: 21

He had grown. A lot.

Although it hadn't even been a month, he had changed. He was almost unrecognizable from the slightly muscular, skinny boy he was 3 weeks ago. His growth wasn't just physical, as well. Over the past 3 weeks, he had become a lot more positive.

He no longer had to worry or stress about the future, he no longer felt like he had nothing to live for. He felt like anything was achievable.

His hair was darker, almost to the weirdly dark color of his mother's hair, and although he didn't know this, he even started to resemble his father a little, and anyone who knew what his father looked like would be jealous over that.

It had been 3 weeks, and so much had happened.

3 weeks, and so much had changed.

3 weeks, and Magnus had grown.