"I'm sorry. I think I misheard you," the woman said. "Did you say 400?"
Leo nodded. "Yes, I did. 400 Aura Gathering Pills, please," he said.
"I feel that I am obligated to tell you this since you are very young. It is not advisable to take a lot of pills at once. I don't think you can take more than 10 pills a month without some side effects. Taking 400 is dangerous to your body," she warned him.
"I am aware of this. Thanks for looking out for me, though," he said. He took out the money needed to buy all those Aura Gathering Pills. It was 18 million Starcoins.
She shook her head and went to the back to get the pills. They were nested in 4 big boxes. She set them on the table and pushed the boxes toward him. He put them all in his dimensional ring.
"Please be mindful of not consuming too many pills," she warned again as he left.
Leo chose to disregard her advice. He had confidence in his ability to take as many pills as possible because of the absence of any noticeable side effects from his previous pill consumption. Ignoring the cautionary words, he left the Thousand Treasure Tower.
Leo walked through the city street back to his dorm. He wanted to start training as soon as possible. He had to go through so many pills and didn't know how long that would take.
He crossed the gates of the academy and got back to his dorm. As he entered his room, he closed the door behind him. When he entered his room he paused for a second to cool his mind down. Once he was in the best state to train, he got onto his bed and sat in a comfortable position.
He took out one of the pillboxes and set it in front of him. He opened it to reveal an array of shimmering Aura Gathering Pills. He took out one of the pills delicately and popped it into his mouth.
The pill melted in his mouth and the aura within it flowed into his body. He quickly started circulating the aura in his body until it settled down. He then brought it into his dantian. It took him around 45 minutes to do that.
He waited for around 10 minutes to give his body a little rest before repeating the process. He took out another Aura Gathering Pill and popped it into his mouth.
The process was incredibly familiar to him. He had done it every time he wanted to increase his aura level. The difference was that it took longer to process the effects of an Aura Gathering Pill the last time he did this. Now he could take more pills at the same time.
He decided not to stop the flow and just kept going. He was only going to stop once he was done with all his pills.
Two days passed by in a flash. Leo was still stuck in his room, training, even though his class was that day. He had already prepared himself to skip all his classes to train. However, he never mentioned that he was skipping his classes to any of his friends.
Inside the academic building where they had their class, Marcus was sitting in his usual spot while Lyra was in hers. Normally, there would be Leo in between the two. But he was missing. There was an empty seat between them.
Madison was sitting beside Lyra and could see that there was a lot of tension between Lyra and Marcus that she had never noticed. She leaned to Lyra.
"Is it still not resolved?" She asked.
She had already asked Lyra about the details of what happened on the day they went to the Gravity Steps. Lyra hadn't told her a lot because her mood was soured because of the fight. She just told that she and Marcus had a fight. Madison had no idea how deep the fight was.
Marcus wasn't even making eye contact with the two even once. He was just looking forward to the stage where their instructor was talking. It was Maria that day.
Maria had also noticed the gap between Lyra and Marcus. She frowned a little when she saw this.
She had great expectations for Leo. In her opinion, he was the greatest talent in the class even though both Marcus and Lyra had surpassed him in aura level. This was because they would not be able to match his level of experience in fighting or the physical body that he showed in the gravity steps.
That was why she only recommended him to Asher to be taken to the Phoenix Trials. However, now she was seeing that he was skipping class. She hoped that it was so that he was training but she thought that it was doubtful. In the end, he was still a teenager. No teenager was that diligent.
She sighed in disappointment. If Leo kept skipping classes and wasn't disciplined with himself, then he could say goodbye to the opportunity he could get. She was going to have a word with him when she saw him.
As she kept lecturing, Marcus and Lyra still didn't look at each other even once. The minute she finished talking, Marcus got up to leave.
Lyra got up to run after him, but she was too slow. She lost him in the crowd of students who were also eager to leave the building. By the time she got out of the building, he was nowhere to be found. Madison came out a second after Lyra.
"Did he already leave? Why is he this childish?" She asked.
Lyra shook her head but didn't say anything. She went back to her dorm, hoping to see him in their next class.
Their next class was only 3 days later. Lyra woke up early to get to class before everyone else. She got ready and walked down. As she was walking to the class, she noticed that Marcus was also up early. He was also going to class earlier than everyone else.
She ran to go catch him before he ran away. When she got near him, Marcus realized that someone was running toward him and looked back to see who it was.
"Marcus," Lyra said when she caught up to him. "Don't run away now. I just want to talk."
He turned back around and walked forward in the path he was going in.
"What do you want to say?" He asked in a dull tone.
"I'm sorry about what I said. You misunderstood a lot of what I said," she started talking. "I wasn't saying that you can't be on the same level as a noble. I was just telling Leo not to provoke them."
Lyra stopped talking and waited for a response. Marcus stayed silent as he walked to the building. After a long pause, Lyra had to break the silence.
"Well, say something," Lyra said.
Marcus turned his head slightly to look at Lyra.
"Lyra, I have a question. I'll tell you what I think once you answer that," he said in response.
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