After the repairing job, Arvin was greeted with a magnificent ax. The ax had pitch-black wood which was super light in weight. Its length was about the right size for Arvin. On the other hand, its light silver color head gave that ax a mystical look to it. And the carving and design on the head and over the wood made it look like its capabilities are far more superior than a normal ax. One just has to find the right way to use the ax.

{Good weapon.} Lopt commented inside Arvin’s head. ​​

‘Yeah. It looks very cool.’ Arvin said.

{Yeah. And it is very mystical too. I can feel it, the weapon is craving for more mana.}

‘More? But isn’t it repaired? Why does it need more mana?’

{I don’t know. Maybe we will find it out when we move to higher floors.}

‘Wait you don’t know anything about the ax? Aren’t you a god?’

{I am a god, but I don’t know everything about Yggdrasil. After all, I didn’t take part in building this thing.}

‘Right… This brings me to a question… Lopt you said that you are a god. Right? So does that mean that you are one of the gods from mythologies back on earth?’

{Kiddo one day I might tell you the answer to this question. But today is not such a day. Now you have a good weapon and you have resources with you. You could easily reach level-100 with some hard work within 6 days or such. So chop chop kid, we have a race to win.}

‘Why is this race so important to you?’

{One day when your shiny big a$$ makes its appearance on the leaderboard then that day, I will answer all of your questions. But for now, do mana meditation with the stones in your hands, so that we can get out of this place as quickly as possible.}

‘….’ Arvin wanted to ask what the leadership board was, but seeing Lopt’s attitude he figured that eventually, he will find out…

That day after eating another round of porridge, Arvin sat doing his mana mediation. He had one of the mana stones in his hands. When he started concentrating on mediation he was baffled by the effects of the stone.

Meditating with and without mana stone has a very huge difference between them. The difference was like difference between heaven and earth. Without the stone, one has to suck in the mana from the surrounding. It was very hard to do so as the mana in that air was present in very trace amounts. That means that one has to give a large amount of effort to attract mana which is also very time-consuming.

Arvin didn’t know how these stones were formed. He didn’t know whether they were natural resources or they were man-made. What he did know was that when he concentrated on the stone while meditating just like Lopt instructed. But as he did that the mana in the stone started getting attracted inside Arvin just like that. And he did not have to concentrate hard like he had to do before. But the effects of these stones were phenomenal.

The mana entering Arvin’s body was so rich and thick that it could not be compared to anything that he had not felt before. Arvin’s body was feeling like he had been handed over very heavy weight dumbbells to excercise. But the magical part was that with every repetition he could feel every fiber of his body changing and making him stronger. It was simply magical.

While meditating, Arvin was feeling intoxicated with this feeling. But for some reason, only after 5 secs of meditation Lopt started screaming in his mind…

{THAT IS ENOUGH FOR TODAY! WAKE UP!} he screamed.

‘What is your problem?’ Arvin asked in an irritated voice. He then opened his eyes. He saw that stone in his hand has lost some of its glow..

{Good you woke up.} Lopt said after he listened to Arvin’s reply.

‘Yeah. I woke up as someone in my head was screaming inside my head like a maniac.’ Arvin said.

{There is a reason I did that, you know.}

‘And might that be?’ Arvin asked.

{Look at your status window. Then you will thank me later.}

‘Status…’

…………………………………………………………………

STATUS

Name- Arvin

Level-75 Exp-60/100

Champion of-?????

Inventory-(Tap to expand)

Quests-(Tap to expand)

Skills-

1>Shape-Shifting={Level-3}

2>Mana Meditation={Level-2}

…………………

‘What in the actual F**k?’ Arvin exclaimed

{Told you so.} Lopt replied.

‘But how? I meditated like a second and I reached level-75?’

{Kiddo these mana stones are just like performance drugs. They are highly addictive. So one has to be very careful while using these stones.}

‘Wait! Are you trying to say that I will be addicted to them? And if these are like drugs, will that mean this level that I am seeing in front of me is temporary?’

{It is more complicated than that. For now, count the lucky stars that I woke you up. And no, the level is not temporary.}

‘But you said…’

{No butts. Just shut up and use the rest of the stone when I say so. Got it?}

‘Ok. Who knew that just 5 seconds with these stones could get me in trouble…’

{Kiddo, you may not like it, but it seemed like a few seconds… But in reality, you have been in a meditative state for more than 24 hours.} Lopt said.

……………………………………..

After getting up from his place, Arvin could feel the changes in his body. He felt like his body had lost all of his excessive mass. It felt very light. He noticed it later, but there was thin, slimy stuff on his skin. Arvin felt disgusted as he saw the thin film. He decided that he should take a bath first. So he got up and started moving towards the stream near his location.

Arvin wanted to try out the new powers of his body. So he decided that why not run towards the stream…

When Arvin started running, his body moved like an arrow shot from a bow. It was so fast that Arvin wasn’t able to control it properly. So as soon as he took 6 steps or so, his legs got tangled in each other and fell.

Lying on the ground Arvin cursed a little bit. There were no harmful, dangerous injuries on him, so as he got up he started jogging instead of running at his full speed…

{As you saw earlier, another disadvantage of using mana stones. Your body’s strength increases at such a phenomenal rate that it takes a long time to get accustomed to it.} Lopt said. Which made Arvin wonder…

‘Lopt what would have happened if you had not woken me up from the meditation?’

{Have you ever seen what happens when you fill a balloon with an exponential amount of air?}

‘It blows up…’

{There you got your answer.}

‘….’

{So according to my calculation your body had become strong enough. All now that you need to get stronger by fighting.}

‘Lopt earlier you said that I need to reach level-100. Why did you say that?’

{The level of the strongest being of this floor is level-100}

‘Really? Then who is the strongest being on this floor?’

{I don’t know. You have to find that yourself.}

‘Then what do you think is the level of Alman?’

{He is beyond level-100.}

‘He is that strong?’

{Yeah. From what I could tell from your memory and that chained knife that he used to attack you, he must have climbed to the second floor.}

‘To the second floor? I thought only earthlings could do that.’

{No, people of Yggdrasil could also climb the tower. But the only condition is that they have to become powerful enough.}

‘Then what is the leaderboard that you were talking about?’

{When the time comes, I will be very happy to tell you about the leader board. But for now, let’s just concentrate on your training.}

‘Ok.’ Arvin said.

After taking a long bath and cleaning his whole body thoroughly, Arvin got out of the stream. He was really surprised to see his body naked, as now all his body looked more refined and more muscular. He didn’t know about the standards of people here but as he looked at his face, he had gotten more handsome from before. Removing the burn mark helped a lot in making him handsome, but still, as he looked at himself in the reflection in the stream, he felt like he had left those days far behind when he was made fun of for his burn mark.

After getting out of his stream, Arvin asked the question that he had been thinking about for some time…

‘Lopt… What now?’

{You have a powerful body. You also got a weird ax. You are in a place where you can find many powerful foes. And you asking me what you should do now? Are you retarded by any chance?}

‘…’

{What are you wasting your time for? Go hunt some beasts of the forest. Didn’t you want to eat meat?}

‘Ok, then it is settled. Looks like the time has come to test out the training that old man Josh gave me.’ Arvin said with resolve in his mind.