Chapter 118: Nonstop Growth (Part 4)

[Your Stamina increased by 1.]

[Your Strength increased by 1.]

[Your Stamina increased by 1.]

...

..

.

[Your Stamina increased by 1.]

The system messages, which would normally make him happy and excited, kept popping up, but the only thing Magna’s mind could focus on right now was an overwhelming feeling of fear.

There was no reason for it, he couldn’t even tell what he was afraid of, only that it was some unknown, unrecognizable thing.

As far as physical pain went, if he had to rate it, it was probably one of the least painful things he had felt so far. But because of the fear alone, it might have become the worst torture he had ever experienced, one he never wanted to go through again.

Even after the mutation was complete, he just lay there on the floor for minutes, curled up in a fetal position, knees pulled to his chest, hugging himself.

His thoughts only started coming back to him afterward, as he began telling himself there was nothing around to be afraid of, that it was just his hormones releasing fear and dropping him into an illusion.

’This system is insane.’ He finally started slowly pushing himself up off the floor, thinking about just how much Gaia could alter his body, having control down to the smallest biological detail he possessed.

He then checked his stat panel, hoping to find a bit more energy and boost his spirits again.

Strength: 18

Agility: 16

Reaction: 16

Stamina: 52

Mana 9.3%

Interestingly, his strength had increased by 3, less than the previous mutation, while his stamina had increased by an incredible 21.

Physically he hadn’t gone through that much change, but the fact that the fear he experienced had caused this much of a stamina increase made him think.

’The stamina stat is probably broader in scope than I thought.’ He already knew it represented endurance and physical resilience in a general sense, but now he also realized it covered emotional stamina as well, functioning as a kind of mental defense too.

It was quite a good realization for him.

Before starting his last mutation by eating the remaining mana regeneration pills, he first went to the bathroom to check his physical changes.

The first thing he noticed in the mirror was, of course, his face.

Overall there weren’t any huge changes, but that previous childish look had visibly faded. The baby fat in his cheeks now looked more masculine, and his eyes, stripped of their childlike look, now held a sharper gaze.

He then took off his clothes and looked over the changes to his body, since his stats had increased quite a lot.

His muscles had really become more defined and firm now. Even when he touched his abs, which now looked much more pronounced, they felt as solid as rock.

He even started to think he might be able to endure a punch from Titus now, with his newly increased Stamina stat.

Though after thinking about it a little, he shook his head. The man had been holding back last time, so there was still no way Magna could withstand a full-strength punch from him.

Still, now that he had the trait for 10x training efficiency, he’d definitely be able to make that possible in the near future.

Once he felt that the fear he had felt earlier was completely pushed down, he returned to the middle of the room. He sat back down cross-legged on the floor and took out all the remaining mana regenerating pills from the pouch.

There were 10 left in total.

Since there was no reason to save them, he just ate them all at once.

He once again felt the rush of warm energy gathering in his stomach, though this time the effect was much smaller compared to when he had swallowed the pills the first time.

Mana 121.7%

For sure, each pill now only gave him around 11% energy.

’From around 110% down to 11%, that’s not bad.’ He could do the math. He had already increased his total mana reserve capacity by roughly 10 times.

He checked the options for his 14th mutation, seeing what Gaia was offering him this time.

[Option 1: Expend 100% of accumulated energy to increase max mana capacity by 2x.]

[Option 2: Expend 100% of accumulated energy to gain natural mana recovery.]

[Option 3: Expend 100% of accumulated energy to increase all spell output effects by 1.5x.]

Once again, the options were the kind that would leave Magna torn between all three.

They were all absolutely game changing options, since any one of them would greatly affect his overall power.

Option one would let him cast more powerful spells with high mana requirements, thanks to the increased mana capacity.

Maybe it would even let him use high-tier spells, such as Celeste’s Glacial Calamity, without any flaws and with full power.

Option 2 was more like an economy trait, since he wasn’t sure exactly how much recovery it would give him, but even 1% a day would add up over time, acting like a perfect, stable source of passive income.

There was also the possibility that in the future he would gain another trait to boost this severalfold. With that, he could regularly trigger Gaia’s options without doing anything, eating anything, or relying on any external source to increase his mana.

And Option 3 was, on its own, an incredible gain.

It would directly increase the power of every spell he could cast by 50%, which was without a doubt a massive boost.

As Magna went through one of the hardest moments of his life trying to decide, his mana kept steadily dropping from the overload, putting even more pressure on him to think fast.

And at last, he made his decision, choosing the one he believed would benefit him the most in the long run.

[Option 2 selected. Utilizing gathered energy to gain natural mana recovery. Prepare for sudden physical pain...]