Black Rose Kingdom, Blackthorn City
The unique phenomenon of the concentrated mana beam descending onto Henrietta's palatial magic tower continued recurring for half a day.
Many people made blind speculations and assumptions regarding the cause behind the unprecedented phenomenon without a definite answer. And when it ended, they were left with even more doubts and questions as to why it stopped.
The entrance to Henrietta's palatial magic tower could be seen crowded with visitors from the start to the end of this never-before-seen event. In fact, the crowd grew several times compared to its initial size.
However, no matter who came, without any word from their Witch Queen, everyone was turned away at the entrance to the palatial magic tower by Henrietta's personal servants.
Only the involved parties actually knew what happened.
At that moment, Henrietta could be found seated, cross-legged on her bed with her eyes closed in meditation, bare without any clothes on.
Sweat perspired on her fair body, and her smooth skin still glistened with a tinge of warm redness – a lingering effect of her strenuous dual practice with Vaan, which had abruptly ended due to the sheer volume of mana absorbed into her small body, propelling her to make a breakthrough.
Meanwhile, Vaan observed Henrietta from a distance, still bare, after retreating to the edge of the room out of consideration of possibly interrupting her advancement. The intensity of his intrigued and curious gaze made it unclear whether he was studying the flow of mana or simply admiring Henrietta's naked beauty.
The sheer volume of mana gathered in the room had completely eclipsed the pink atmosphere they had painted together, turning it into a sea of ocean blue.
Three streams of concentrated mana poured into Henrietta's heart in great quantity like whirlpools in the sea.
The speed of mana absorption was far greater than any witch Vaan had previously met.
Space and time itself seemed to have been warped and twisted, making the room appear larger than it actually was. At the same time, nothing else seemed to matter besides the eighth mana ring forming around Henrietta's heart.
It was the sole focus in the room.
The brilliance of Henrietta's mana rings made her body appear semi-transparent, allowing any observer to witness every single revolving mana ring around her heart in different sizes and speeds.
An Early-stage High Witch only had three mana rings, but Henrietta, as an Early-stage Transcendent Witch, had seven mana rings!
Furthermore, the eighth mana ring was forming at that very instant.
The enormous amount of mana required to form the eighth mana ring revealed the sheer difficulty of the underlying task. Such a quantity of mana wasn't something a High Witch's mental strength could control at once.
Heck, even an average Transcendent Witch's mental strength might not be enough.
Vaan could see that the size of Henrietta's seventh and incomplete eighth mana rings were noticeably larger than her previous mana rings. The mana and mental strength demanded for their formation was only a completely different scale to the previous mana rings.
He did not doubt Empyrean Scarletsea was assisting Henrietta with the formation of her eighth mana ring.
At the same time, he could see how Henrietta became a Transcendent Witch so easily.
After all, with an unfathomable existence for a master like Empyrean Scarletsea helping, how could she not become a Transcendent Witch so easily?
Forming the first three mana rings to become an Early-stage High Witch was only the beginner stage. These mana rings were the smallest, thus making them the easiest to form. As such, the first three mana rings could also be called the three minor rings.
However, Henrietta's fourth to sixth mana rings were evident larger but not as large as her seventh and incomplete eighth mana rings. As such, they could be considered the three middle rings.
It only took three minor mana rings to become an Early-stage High Witch but three middle rings to be a Peak-stage one. The demand for mana and mental strength was on a different scale. As such, it was no wonder that many failed to take the next step forward. They were ill-prepared due to miscomprehension.
Finally, the seventh and incomplete eighth mana rings were on a different scale of their own.
Vaan considered the mana rings at this step to be the major rings. Judging by the power of each major ring, he estimated Henrietta needed to possess four major rings to reach the peak of the Transcendent rank.
In other words, a Peak-stage Transcendent Witch would have ten mana rings – three minor, three middle, and four major.
But how would a witch advance beyond the Transcendent rank?
There was only so much space around the heart, and it would be used up by this step. As such, it wasn't realistic to continue forming new mana rings by this point.
Essentially, a new method of advancement had to be used to progress further beyond this point.
That matter aside, Vaan was curious how much stronger Henrietta would become after becoming a Mid-stage Transcendent Witch.
After all, she could deter the three empires with Peak Transcendent-level combat power despite her actual cultivation only being at Early-stage Transcendent Witch. Would the cultivation of Mid-stage Transcendent Witch allow her combat power to enter the ranks of Demigods?
Vaan figured it was most likely, but not immediately.
Henrietta would still need time to stabilize cultivation, adapt to her new power, and improve pre-existing spells before she reached such a level of combat power.
Nevertheless, seeing Henrietta's advancement was progressing smoothly with Empyrean Scarletsea's assistance, Vaan shifted his focus to himself.
Although he had made some gains from their dual practice, his harvest was not to his satisfaction. This wasn't surprising, given the short period of their dual practice.
<[Objective Mission 3]: Collect 5 Transcendent Witch-level primal essences>
<[Reward]: A random Transcendent Witch-level Specialized Magic>
<[Progress]: 1/5 Transcendent Witch-level primal essence>
<[Fire Affinity]: 80% → 82% (↑2%)>
<[Defense]: 1150 → 1155 (↑5)>
<[Strength]: 1200 → 1225 (↑25)>
<[Fire Law]: 5% → 5.001% (↑0.001%)>
As Vaan calmly reviewed his improvements, he became pleasantly surprised by one particular section.
Based on his own understanding of the universal laws, he figured 5% law comprehension was the absolute limit permitted to beings below the divine rank. Unless some conditions were satisfied, one would not improve their comprehension of the law, no matter how great their perception was.
However, that bottleneck was finally breached.
Vaan had gained something special from his dual practice with Henrietta, making it possible.
Although he had yet to figure out what that special something was, at the very least, he understood his comprehension of the fire law was no longer restricted.
'What an unexpected gain,' Vaan smiled silently.