Gradually, Kent’s mana source returned to its former calm.
The core had simply expanded several times over, and that silver-white point remained eternally fixed in place, as bright and unchanging as the sun in the sky.
Kent’s body quieted as well, his breathing growing steady and even.
The moment his body settled, he instinctively slipped back into the qigong posture he had practiced for years.
The instant the form was complete, a fresh surge of qi swept in, carrying an enormous torrent of elements that rushed straight into his mind and formed a vast, swirling rainbow funnel.
The power streamed toward the silver-white dot, but the dot showed no sign of growing larger—it remained exactly as it was.
A colorful light curtain suddenly bloomed across Kent’s body.
“Go back,” Niu Niu murmured, feeling a little awkward.
She had been riding the wind wolf every time she needed to return to the city, so she spoke up for once.
In the past, such creatures were considered lowly and insignificant.
“Metal, water, wood, fire, earth, light, dark, lightning, ice, wind, death, space… All twelve systems!
All twelve!” Niu Niu stared at the light curtain on Kent’s body, jealousy twisting her face until she looked ready to tear it off.
Then excitement replaced the jealousy.
She dropped her bundle and immediately began flipping through Kent’s memories.
“Forget it.
I’ll just stick to my light and space systems.
This idiot…”
Niu Niu read faster and faster, and the more she read, the more her eyes widened.
When she finally finished, she began to feel a chill.
One tiny mistake, and the consequences would be soul-destroying.
This was exactly the kind of cultivation record that could topple planes.
Normal people would never dare try.
Niu Niu was very, very sure her brain was perfectly normal, so she decided to leave learning this to ghosts.
“If this guy wakes up and I tell him that cultivating all twelve systems removes all bottlenecks, then the mana required to advance would be twelve times what it was before.
Would he faint?
That’s a very serious question.” While chewing on a fruit the castle lord had sent—worth several gold coins—Niu Niu muttered to herself.
“Ow… my whole body aches like I’ve been beaten black and blue.” The moment Kent opened his eyes, he felt as though he had been through a fight.
Then the pain told him he was still alive, so the boy immediately began shouting again.
“Ow!
Ow!
Ow!
Thank heavens I didn’t die!
Amitabha, God, Ancestors!
It’s raining?
Hehe, Niu Niu~” The instant he saw Niu Niu, Kent’s stiff posture bent like a bow.
Safety first!
Safety first, not!
“Yo, you really went full system, huh?
That’s impressive!” Niu Niu’s voice dripped with sourness that could curdle milk.
She circled Kent in the air, still riding the wind wolf, and demanded loudly, “impressive” — a word she’d clearly picked up from him.
“Er… Heavens, my luck is insane!” Kent studied his mana core and spotted the silver-white point glowing steadily inside it.
Suddenly he willed a tiny fireball into existence, followed by wind blades, earth shields, gold shields, wood spears, and water balls, all appearing on his fingertips.
He silently recited the spells he’d memorized perfectly.
The moment he finished the chant, the silver-white point gushed forth a surge of elemental mana.
The magic skill books he’d seen before only recorded spells up to fourth rank — and he could only use first-rank ones, apparently.
“Electricity!” Kent thought of the word and understood instantly.
Electricity was just the root of every Earth phenomenon — heat, light, radio waves, everything.
“Electricity, electricity, electricity… That’s mutated magic.
How am I supposed to get those spells?”
Niu Niu’s jealousy flared.
“You dare say you can cast lightning magic?!” She grabbed her wooden bowl and hurled it at him with terrifying speed.
“You… You can use lightning magic too?!” Kent touched his cheek, not angry at all — he was thrilled.
He’d assumed Earth novels had it all wrong and thought he was about to walk sideways through the sky.
“Hmph, not just lightning.
Light, dark, death, space, ice… twelve systems altogether.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t be called all-attribute,” Niu Niu explained, secretly pleased that the “lowly” Kent was asking such basic questions.
“Oh my god… Twelve systems!
Twelve!
What a beautiful number!
What an auspicious number!
……” Kent sank into pure bliss.
“Twelve is twelve, sure,” Niu Niu coughed.
“But if you want to advance, you’ll need at least twelve times the mana you used to.
Sorry about that — just deal with it.”
“Twelve!
My angel… Wait, what?” Kent was still lost in the beauty of the number when he caught the wrong meaning.
Niu Niu sighed and carefully explained, “It means your original advancement cost was 1 mana.
Now level 2 would cost over 12, level 3 over 24, and so on.
Got it?”
“Got it… so I’ll advance twelve times slower?” Kent asked, dazed.
“More or less, yes.
But because you don’t need to spend spiritual force screening mana anymore, plus natural recovery while you sleep, it’s only about two to three times longer.
Hey, why are you asleep already?
Left hand wins — you fainted!
Left hand loses.
Eat two more fruits.
Yeah!”
Before she could finish, Kent passed out.
Niu Niu had bet her left hand (that he’d faint) against her right (that he wouldn’t).
Left hand won.
She left him snoring and went to collect her prize fruits.
Kent didn’t know how long he had been unconscious.
He slowly pushed himself upright from the ground, his gaze landing on the small hammock suspended from the cave’s ceiling where Niu Niu slept.
A faint smile touched his lips.
He still couldn’t quite accept that he had become a mage here—this was a game class, after all.
He loved Niu Niu, though.
She was like a Barbie doll from Earth, except for the green hair and the wings.
At least she was real.
A tiny fireball bloomed quietly between his fingers, glowing fiery red.
Kent stared at it for a moment, then let it vanish.
He wasn’t as dumb as he looked.
The differences between Niu Niu and the grass spirits were obvious—even without ever having seen a grass spirit, the illustrations in the monster atlas made it clear.
But he still liked her.
Without her, he might have killed himself up here on that mountain one night.
Kent walked slowly toward the cave mouth.
Outside, the world was nothing like Earth.
The snow had piled up more than two meters thick, but the cave and the stable’s elevated position kept them safe.
He also understood why the little stream’s bed was so wide.
Kent headed down to the stable, careful not to slip.
Even though Niu Niu had told him advancing through the ranks would be twelve times harder than anyone else’s, he had no intention of doing nothing.
The planet still rotated every day, and he wasn’t about to start a revolution or demand reform.
Societies like this one had survived for thousands of years; he wasn’t about to bet his life against whatever rules had kept them stable.
So he would follow the system, climb the ranks, and become a mage.
That was the only way out he could see.
He wore the same thin clothes, but the biting wind felt almost warm.
Kent walked through snow that reached his knees and realized his strength and endurance had increased noticeably.
The qi-gong practice must have changed his body.
He methodically cleaned the stable, scraped out the manure, filled the horses’ troughs with fresh water.
He didn’t shirk his duties just because he was now a mage.
When he finished, two hours had passed.
Kent locked the stable and started the long walk back up the mountain.