The Retired Hero is an Extra

Although it was a bit strange, Jash wasn\'t aware of anything related to the system or his own feelings about it.

But one thing was for sure: he sometimes thought that his past life was not real, and something of a prophetic vision from deep within his soul.

Or maybe it was given to him by some God or something, but he couldn\'t be sure, so he put the matter at the back of his mind.

In the end, what made him stronger and saved his life was enough for him.

Yet the piece of scrap, or the hilt, he randomly found inside a dungeon was truly something else, proving the reality of his first life.

Not that Jash had the mental capacity to go into that debate at the moment.

He was struggling to recover and not let anything happen to his mana veins as well as the mana core, or else it would spell disaster for him.

His mana core lacked mana at the moment as it was being spread through five focal points, while the rest thinned in the veins.

Instead of flowing inside his whole body, the mana was trying to spread while at the same time, it was being refined by the mana core.

He still had to rank up and only because of the denser mana concentration around him was he safe.

Thus, he actively began absorbing mana the moment he realized that drinking the mana recovery potion didn\'t help much.

This was a delicate step that needed to be performed carefully, as its implications would greatly affect the rank up.

Due to this, Jash had to somewhat give up on forming 7 nodes for the time being, and instead break through to Mid E-Rank.

Slowly, the mana from the surroundings entered through his skin, mouth, nose, ears and every part of his body.

It rushed in as if a dam bursting through and his mana core greedily accepted all the mana coming from outside.

Of course, refining it to a Light Yellow color wasn\'t easy, given it also then had to be re-refined to Yellow color.

Not like the color really mattered, but its density and purity were the major factors.

Thus, the ambient mana guzzled crazily into his body to the point of running amok as Jash forced it to stay near the core.

His half empty core happily took everything in, putting great strain on his physical body as it wasn\'t ready for the sudden change.

Just earlier, Jash had created some mana dense areas in his mana veins at five different organs, making the current situation worse.

If it was a simple breakthrough, things wouldn\'t have gone wrong, to begin with.

\'I can\'t give up,\' Jash reaffirmed his decision in his mind, forcing himself to not lose his focus.

In the event that he relaxed for even a second, he might be crippling himself...

During the rank-up process, it was necessary to increase the density inside the core, but in Jash\'s case there was now an added layer of difficulty.

Not just the core, he also had to supply the refined and denser mana into the five areas or nodes.

Though this step would naturally elevate his mana levels to an extreme, even more than some of the talented mages.

After all, these steps were crucial factors in deciding the increase in strength a person would get due to their breakthrough.

It was obvious that people in the same rank did not have the same strength as many factors were linked to the substantial increase in the overall strength of the person.

And knowing all of it, Jash was pushing himself not just to his limits, but even beyond to increase his chances of living.

He wasn\'t sure if his presence would worsen the situation or hasten the other party\'s plans, but it sure as hell didn\'t feel great to be unprepared.

Thus, he maintained his semblance of sanity and calmness despite the pain and mental strain of it all.

Jash\'s body was drenched in sweat as he had to suffer needlessly from pain.

Typically, the rank-up process was not a painful one, only requiring immense concentration.

\'So much,\' Jash gritted his teeth as the mana concentration around him rose to another level.

He felt a sensation similar to being submerged deep inside a water body as the pressure from the mana was immense.

With his core at its limit and the nodes not ready to refine mana, he couldn\'t absorb the ambient mana anymore.

So the excess mana had formed somewhat of a thin shell all around Jash\'s body.

And a part of it seemed to be pulled in, getting absorbed by his body every few seconds as the core finished refining.

It was a never ending process, but it was a necessary step to become stronger and Jash was willing to handle the pain that came along with it.

The refined mana traveled through his mana veins, getting stuck at the five nodes in the order that they were created.

Starting from the heart to the spleen, then the lungs, kidneys and liver.

Only after complete yellow mana had passed through them, replacing the light yellow mana did Jash heave a breath of relief.

He was close to finishing his breakthrough despite the problems he faced yet it went even better than his expectations.

Suddenly, a wave of mana erupted from within him, dispelling the thin layer of mana cloaking him.

Jash had successfully advanced to Mid E-Rank with his new mana circulation technique, which was actually an old one.

But it was the same thing.

He had successfully completed his first step, and all he needed to do now was to focus on stabilizing himself for the next month or so.

\'Maybe a few months,\' he thought, unsure of the time it would take to stabilize himself.

Shaking his head to get rid of such thoughts, his mind lingered to his mana.

His mana core had naturally increased in size with denser mana, but the five nodes did boost his mana capacity by 20%.

It was a little below his expectations, but it was better than nothing.

"If only I could try that," Jash sighed, regretting not being able to complete his initial plans.

In fact, he wanted to test the limit of his mana core, to see how much mana he could force into it.

If only he could do that, his mana core would have a bigger size, and his mana pool would increase by leaps and bounds.

"No matter, the next time I do it, I will also have 5 auxiliary nodes to help me propel the mana pool to another level."

Telling himself that, he finally began to let the mana flow inside his mana veins, using the new mana circulation technique.

And the change was obvious, Jash had a broad smile on his face as he exclaimed, "Unbelievable!"