Chapter 8 – Mana Bath Pool

I stayed in the infirmary all day, catching up on some much-needed sleep.

After all, this body had just survived a life-and-death ordeal; a little extra rest wouldn’t hurt. Moving forward, I’d also need to focus on physical conditioning. Being sixteen and still looking this scrawny and weak just wouldn’t do.

Thinking back to my first isekai experience, I hadn’t given this any thought, which led to a lifestyle of erratic habits and poor nutrition. My body never developed properly because of it. By the time I died, I hadn’t even reached 5’7”.

Back on Earth, I was 5’11” tall. I didn’t exactly have a six-pack, but I was fit, and I refused to settle for less here.

When the afternoon bell tolled, I was already standing outside the Class A door to pick up my “young master” after school. Even after an entire day, the hype surrounding the Holy Mark recipients hadn’t died down. Glancing at the mob swarming Jullius, I figured I’d be stuck waiting for at least another thirty minutes.

I don’t like waiting. And now that I had a new plan forming in my head, I had to reconsider my status as Jullius’s “plus-one.”

Being glued to Jullius’s side brought plenty of opportunities, but it was also incredibly restrictive. Furthermore, my plan didn’t just involve propping up the right people, it also involved tearing down the wrong ones.

Yes, I was planning to scout five other candidates better suited for the Hero roles and then boost their stats until they occupied the top five spots on the leaderboard. At the same time, if I could drag down the stats of the original five, even better.

And I only had one year to pull this off. One year from now, the official investiture would take place, immediately followed by the crusade.

Approaching other Hero Candidates while acting as the confidant of another candidate didn’t make much sense. So I had to distance myself from Jullius first.

Next, I needed to boost my mana rapidly over the next two days. The third day following the Awakening Day would be the official debut of the Hero Candidates. It usually takes that long to verify the total count across the kingdom, and I needed to see everyone’s stats before making my final selection.

Oh, and I had to recover my strength and train this body.

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With so much to do, I couldn’t afford to waste a single second here!

With that in mind, I decided to head home early, by Jullius’s carriage. I convinced the driver that Jullius was tied up with a professor; he dropped me off at the manor before heading back for the young master.

What I needed most right now was mana. From what I knew, there were two main ways to replenish it: natural recovery or external absorption. A third, less common method involved a direct transfer from another person, which is actually the mechanism behind healing magic.

The most common external sources were mana stones and elixirs distilled from them. They were available on the market, but at prices so exorbitant that commoners could barely dream of touching them. Most mana stones were stockpiled in the hands of the Church and the nobility.