{Assimilated Technique: Eight Rebirths(Godly)}

He left before I could even ask him about anything. He said he was going to be back at night... Was I going to miss dinner? Now that I think of it, he said something about the time in this place being slower than reality. Did that mean I had a lot more time to train? I thought about the technique he just imparted to me. I didn't know how he was able to just give me all the information by touching the back of my head but it just proved to show that I made the right decision in choosing him as my master.

'Eight Rebirths.'

When I thought that, I was somehow able to visualize myself training it. The first thing that piqued my interest was the pose. I was sitting in a meditative position on the ground. My left hand was underneath my chest with the palm facing upward while my right was above my chest with the palm facing downward. In between the two palms: the area right next to my heart, was a ball of brown mist. That was an Earth Manifestation.

I could sense the path that the mana took. It was similar to the Mana Circuit which I had yet to establish in my body. Instead of circulating throughout the body, the mana moved in a horizontal circle from the heart, through the right arm. Once it reached the palm, the mana would be converted into magic in the form of an elemental Manifestation. After a bit, the Manifestation would convert back to mana after a set duration and would go through my left arm and back to the heart, where the process starts again. Each time the mana went back through my left arm, the element would change making sure that all my Manifestations were equally strong. It looked like this Eight Rebirths technique could only be used by people with all the elemental affinities.

I watched for a while more until I memorized the pattern. It went something like Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, Lightning, Ice, Light, and Darkness.

I exited my mind and sat down in a similar position and started trying it out for myself. Sure enough, it worked.

{Level Up: Mana Channeling(Common-Lvl.7)}

I continued doing this for a long time, how many hours had it been already? My mind started to wonder once I got used to the feeling.

{Level Up: Magic Circulation(Common-Lvl.Max)}

{Level Up: Mana Channeling(Common-Lvl.Max)}

Now that I thought of it, I couldn't sense any magic particles in this place, yet I was still able to feel the absorption of them. Where was I getting the particles from?

After a while longer, I wondered what would happen if I changed the elemental pattern. I was currently manifesting Lightning and my next element should be Ice. Instead of imagining a ball of ice, I thought of a ball of water. Before I could even channel the mana back through my left arm, I felt a sharp pain in my right hand. I could sense all the mana in my heart rushing over there.

'Ice, ice, ice.'

I immediately imagined a ball of ice. The mana flow started to slow down and a ball of ice started forming between my palms. The pain in my right hand was still there, but it was slowly decreasing as the mana was emptied into the ball of ice.

"You fool! What are you doing!?!" Master shouted, appearing out of thin air.

"Never change the pattern, if you do, a blockage of mana will be formed. You were lucky that you fixed your wrong at the last moment. If this happened in your physical body, your right hand would have been disabled."

"I came to bring you back to reality and the first thing I see is you about to commit suicide. Even if your body isn't physically destroyed, your soul here can be dissipated. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Master." I said, looking down at the white space beneath me.

"Good, it is close to dinner time so I came to fetch you. Ah, that's right. Show me your back." He said, as if just remembering something important.

I turned around and he placed his hand behind my head again. Was he imparting another technique to me?

{Assimilating...}

"Okay, now close your eyes."

I closed my eyes and in the next moment, I felt a cold thing pressing on my back. Opening my eyes, I noticed that my whole body was sprawled on the floor.

{Assimilated Technique: Golden Refinement(Mythical)}

I tried getting up but my whole body started aching in immense pain. It hurt to the point where I wasn't even able to open my mouth to scream. It was like a mixed feeling of soreness and numbness, as well as pain. Just what happened?

I saw Master by the side. "Your bones are too brittle so I smashed them all for you."

'...' I tried processing what he just said. Did he say smashed?

'What the f*ck, if my bones are brittle, aren't you supposed to train me or condition me?' I lacked the ability to speak so I could only voice out my anger in my thoughts. I was even wondering if this Master of mine was a master of scamming instead of a skilled professional.

"Calm your mind, I have imparted to you the Golden Refinement technique. You should be more than fine after practicing it a bit. I have left sandwiches for you here. Once you are done, you can go back to your dorm room and sleep. I have already set up the plate so that it would recognize your mana. Try not to stay up too late, sleep is important for the body to heal." Saying that, he disappeared again. Did he just use a spacial spell to teleport out? What kind of a master leaves their disciple half dead on the floor?

I tried getting up again by enduring the pain but the crack that resounded from my shoulder made me fall back down in pain.

'Golden Refinement or whatnot, is it even possible to fix me in this state? Something like this requires a type of advanced healing spell.'

Either way, I cast all my hope on the technique Master just imparted to me.

Golden Refinement... so it's like this huh?

I started channeling mana throughout my body as well as imagining the healing of damaged muscle fibers and bones. I felt a golden shine radiating from my body when I did that. After a whole hour of doing that, the pain was finally alleviated to the point in which I could move. That didn't change the fact that it still hurt a crap ton to walk. If the quality of my mana was higher, the healing process would have been much faster. In the end, Golden Refinement was basically a technique for recovering. It was as its name suggested, for refining the body. I didn't really know why a golden shine was emitted when I used it but I couldn't care about cosmetics when it could potentially be a life saving technique.

I grabbed the bag on the ground with the sandwiches and went out of the room. Now that I thought about it, how was the room supplied with fresh oxygen? I pondered on a bunch of other things that I would probably never know the answer to.

Once I closed the stairway, I opened the doors of the stall and in front of me was an old man with a mop. Must be the janitor, I thought, as I walked toward the exit.

"F*cking kids these days, not even washing their hands after using the restroom. One of these days I tell ya, you'll get a virus." I heard him rambling as I exited the public bathroom.