4 hours later, on the floor of Lucian's dorm.
"Hahh… Huff…"
*Cough*
The process after his first cultivation session repeated itself, with Lucian waking up from his meditative state and immediately regurgitating that horrible, disgusting black substance. Thankfully, he foresaw this happening this time, so he prepared accordingly — propping up a bucket in front of himself to catch all of that sticky, disgusting substance.
He still didn't receive a decent idea of what it was, but if he were to hazard a guess, it would probably be impurities from his body being purged. The previous Lucian wasn't exactly a healthy young man, so it was only natural that there were many impure substances hiding in his body.
'AI, show me the results of this cultivation session.'
Lucian already knew he succeeded in another successful revolution, as he paid close attention to any changes in his body immediately after waking up, and found himself slightly stronger, faster and his body slightly more robust. He just wanted to check and see if there were any differences in stats between his first cultivation session and this one.
[Time taken to enter Meditation: 54.9 seconds.]
'Hmm, it seems I've improved since my first session. A decreased time of 0.1 seconds. While it may seem insignificant now, if this trend continues, the time it takes me to enter meditation will be in the 40s by the time I've achieved my goal.' Lucian made note of this slight and somewhat insignificant change, then switched his focus to the other data his AI was sending him.
[Scan complete.]
[Changes to the host's body: An increase of 0.05 vitality, 0.04 Agility, 0.05 Strength.]
'The amount received from vitality has gone up by 0.01, and agility has gone down by 0.01, while strength stayed the same. I wonder what caused this?'
Lucian had some guesses, but none of them were significant. Instead, he decided to check his overall stats this time to see how he fared compared to when he first came to his senses in this body.
[Scan complete.]
[Name: Lucian Verdan. Age: 12. Sex: Male. Vitality: 0.91, Agility: 0.69. Strength: 0.6, Mind: 0.1. Status: Body is in peak state.]
There were a few changes from the last time he had checked his stats after taking a herbal bath. Mostly that the stats he had gained from his two cultivation sessions had sent his own stats closer to the threshold of becoming an Apprentice Knight. His vitality was the closest, with only 0.09 more stats before reaching that elusive 1.0. He could likely reach this milestone after tomorrow's cultivation sessions.
As for his other two stats, while they had increased, they were still lacking compared to his vitality. He'd need a little over a week before they also reached this milestone. When this happened, he would no longer be the only non Knight in the preparatoryacademy; this was something he looked forward to.
However the likelihood was that Lucian wouldn't have to wait that long before becoming an Apprentice Knight. Depending on how much improvement he saw from practising his sword techniques and footwork, he might be able to reach 1.0 in all his stats a few days earlier.
Lucian nodded and freed his mind of the endless lists of data. He looked down at his body, while he managed to save himself from having to clean up another mess caused by the black sticky substance, his body itself was still covered from head to toe in sweat. He felt sticky and dirty, and every movement he made with his drenched clothing made him feel uncomfortable.
'Looks like I'll have to take another bath before beginning training with my sword techniques and footwork.' Lucian frowned, but there wasn't much he could do about it. It was a natural part of the process of cultivation and training. If he wanted to increase his stats, he would have to deal with the cleanup afterwards too.
It was around 2pm now, and all of the other students would either be in class. Only the odd few like Lucian would skip it to focus on training or cultivation. Not many people had hopes of being able to meet the requirements of becoming an Official Knight before the Mages came over for the selection, so they simply decided to take things slow and wait for the next opportunity three years later.
They didn't really have high hopes of being selected anyway, so they weren't that bothered. If anyone found out Lucian had ideas of becoming an Official Knight within 3 weeks, they would laugh themselves into a seizure. The idea was just that ridiculous, but only Lucian knew for a fact that he could achieve it. He had no doubt that many students would be in for a shock in the coming few weeks…
Lucian headed over to the bathroom, and once again poured himself another tub full of water. If it weren't for the fact that his utility bills were already paid for the whole duration of his stay as part of his contract, he wouldn't know how he'd pay for his constant use of the bathroom…
'Wait...' Suddenly, an idea came to Lucian's mind while he waited for the bathtub to fill up.
'Maybe I can push my vitality to 1.0 today?'
He glanced over at the container holding the herbal mixture he used the previous night, and couldn't stop a smile from gradually making its way onto his face. He didn't know if there was a specific time limit he had to wait before using it again, but it had already been over 16 hours since he used it last, so he deemed it a risk worth taking.
The worst case scenario was that there was a time limit and it wasn't over yet, so he'd receive nothing from this batch. But in the end that would only result in a potential loss of 0.1 vitality — it wasn't a big deal to him in the end, and he only wanted to see if it actually worked again. This would essentially be a test for him. If it did indeed work, then he'd use it after every two cultivation sessions to give himself just that little bit more of a boost to his vitality. If it didn't work? Then oh well, there's no use crying over spilled milk.
With his resolve hardened, Lucian grabbed what he judged to be the same amount of the mixture he used the previous night, or very close to it. He didn't wait long to throw it into the tub and start mixing it in with the water using his hands. He had no idea if the herbs involved would have an adverse reaction after being exposed to the air for too long, so he was quick with it. Lucian was used to dealing with such chemicals in his past life, so this was nothing new for him, apart from the crude equipment of course.
When he was finally finished, he unclothed himself and submerged his body into the tub, letting the water wrap around him tightly. He held his breath, and finally felt his senses muffle when the final part of his body — his face — became engulfed by the water.
Lucian had no idea how long he had to stay in the bath to receive the full effects of the herbal mixture, so he decided to just lay in there for an hour, only coming back up to take a deep breath of air every now and then