While the team outside the house was whispering among themselves, Gauss inside had already entered a state of deep ditation.
He sat in the simply furnished room.
Special pignts ground from magic crystals were used to draw a magic circle on the ground. One end of the circle was him, while the other end was the interdiate magic crystal emitting a thick earthy yellow glow.
With the help of the magic circle, pure magical energy continuously flowed into Gauss's body like a gentle stream.
It resonated and rged with the already overflowing Magic Cup within his body.
"Hum! Hum! Hum!"
Ripples of energy spread out in circles from around his body.
Level 5 was indeed a special level.
Gauss felt that this ti the Magic Cup was exceptionally active, greedily absorbing energy.
Then it expelled even thicker torrents of magical energy, washing through his body.
Gauss felt his body beginning to warm slightly, the flow of magical energy forming a wonderful harmonious resonance.
With each circulation and wash, his own magical energy was rapidly growing and undergoing so kind of transformation.
He felt as if he were in a vast ocean, constantly being impacted by waves crashing upon him.
But overall, this sensation didn't bring pain, rather an unusual sense of fullness.
Complex and profound runic patterns erged from the surface of the Magic Cup, pushing against and expanding the cup walls, reinforcing them and increasing their capacity.
Ti passed, he didn't know how long.
The interdiate magic crystal before Gauss had faded considerably in color.
In contrast, his body was enveloped in a layer of pure white fluorescence, giving him an indescribable, mysterious aura.
Through prolonged exchange and circulation, the capacity of the Magic Cup, the source of his power as a Magician, had now doubled.
The magical energy flowing from the cup showed significant improvents in both volu and speed compared to before.
"Boom!"
An invisible wind rapidly expanded around Gauss's body toward the surroundings.
Outside the wooden house, teammates who had been patiently waiting for over two days all turned their heads to look toward the cabin, expressions of pleasant surprise on their faces.
"Is it reaching the critical mont?"
These past two days, they might have been even more nervous than Gauss himself.
Level advancent itself carried certain risks;
it wasn't impossible for accidents to occur that could even lead to a professional's death.
Moreover, Gauss had just recovered from serious injuries not long ago, so they naturally worried about him, concerned that his physical and ntal state might not be at their peak.
Therefore, before formally entering the cabin, Serlandul, as the team dic, had actually given Gauss a detailed full-body examination, but even so, risks couldn't be completely ruled out.
A strong wind blew out through the cabin's windows.
The natural magical energy of the surrounding environnt seed to be stirred by Gauss, who was at the center of this "storm."
"Rustle, rustle, rustle—"
Clusters of leaves on branches swayed wildly, rubbing against each other with crisp leaf sounds.
The wind pressure forming around the wooden house grew stronger, gradually creating an invisible magical vortex centered on the cabin.
"So exaggerated?"
Albenia showed a surprised expression.
Although she had personally witnessed Gauss's strength, which was severely mismatched with his level, just days ago, the phenonon of this breakthrough still made her exclaim in disbelief.
Especially compared to the scenes of Warrior advancent, the commotion caused by Gauss before her eyes was already affecting the environnt on a large scale.
He was still only level 5;
it was hard to imagine what kind of commotion he would cause when advancing to higher levels—perhaps even weather changes.
This frenzy of activity lasted for about ten minutes.
Suddenly, all the phenona abruptly stopped.
The wind ceased, the swaying leaves instantly stilled.
The previously agitated natural magical energy in the air slowly receded like a tide.
An extre silence enveloped the surroundings.
"Success... or?"
Inside the wooden house.
Gauss, whose internal energy had stabilized, opened his eyes.
His eyes were exceptionally bright.
He wasn't in a hurry to stand up from the ground.
Instead, he carefully felt the changes in his body, mind, and magical energy...
After a long while, a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"Professional Magician level increased to: 5!"
Success!
Gauss let out a long breath.
Although it had taken two full days, and he had never doubted himself from beginning to end, when he truly successfully broke through to the new level, he still felt a sense of relaxation and relief.
This was what he deserved.
Becoming stronger step by step, the process and effort don't lie.
And now, successfully advancing to level 5 was the best reward for all his efforts along the way.
Three months of rough living, the monotony of constantly ditating and training the Fly and Fireball spell models, patiently teaching villagers, subjugating various monsters strong and weak.
These experiences, whether visible or invisible to ordinary people, had finally blossod into beautiful flowers.
Of course, only he and his teammates understood the hardships involved;
anyone else would surely think he was uniquely talented.
Gauss felt countless emotions welling up in his heart, a mixture of complex feelings.
When he first advanced to level 1 and beca a professional, he had fantasized about when he might beco a level 5 professional.
He never expected that this day would arrive in what felt like a blink.
Speaking of which, he was almost getting used to this world, while mories of his previous life seed to be gradually fading away.
He collected his thoughts and looked at his status panel.
"Intelligence 1"
"Agility 1"
"Perception 1"
"Charm 1"
Perhaps because so attributes were already at the critical point for advancent, this level-up increased 4 attribute points at once.
Strength: 12
Agility: 9→10
Constitution: 11
Intelligence: 14→15
Perception: 10 (9)→10
Charm: 10 (9)→10
Among these, the Perception and Charm attributes didn't change nurically at all, still maintained at 10 points.
But the Perception and Charm attribute boosts provided by the equipped Empathy Bracelet, aside from its active skill, had completely expired.
Gauss removed the Empathy Bracelet from his wrist.
The most important thing was still the one point increase in Intelligence.
The higher the attribute values go, the more valuable each point becos.
Especially with Intelligence increasing from 14 to 15, Gauss faintly felt as if he had crossed so kind of threshold, reaching a completely new realm. His brain had undergone indescribable changes compared to before.
His mind and thoughts felt exceptionally clear.
He closed his eyes and felt for a mont.
After a while, he finally understood where the change had occurred.
The ntal energy in his brain had beco extraordinarily condensed.
If it was like ethereal gas before, now it was in a condensed liquid state.
Of course, this was just a taphor;
it wasn't that his ntal energy had actually condensed into liquid form.
With a thought.
The ntal energy in his brain slowly separated from his body.
In the past, he had tried similar actions, but back then, the mont he controlled his ntal energy to leave his body, he instantly felt a sense of powerlessness, as if he had beco water without a source, which was very dangerous.
But this ti, the ntal separation was significantly different.
He could feel the invisible yet resilient connection between his mind and body.
It was as if there was an invisible chain binding his ntal form and physical body together.
Because of its existence, even when Gauss's mind left his body, as long as he didn't stray too far, his ntal form could remain in a relatively stable state for a long ti.
Gauss's ntal form separated from his body and wandered around the wooden house for a few rounds.
He now had no physical "body" in the material sense;
he was like a formless "energy," though calling it energy wasn't entirely accurate either, but Gauss couldn't find a suitable term to describe his current state.
If he wanted, he could also conceptualize his ntal form as a blurry human shape.
For convenience, he temporarily maintained the posture of a human form.
He drifted outward, encountering no resistance whatsoever, smoothly passing through the wooden wall and arriving outside.
His "vision" collected more information.
The swaying leaves around, the cicadas clinging to tree trunks, the lines of ants crawling on the ground, the hesitation and worry on Aria's face as she looked at the wooden house...
Far more detailed information than normal vision appeared before him.
Every single detail, as if he had entered a god's perspective.
Aria and the others still didn't know the specific situation inside the wooden house, but they didn't dare make a sound, let alone knock on the door to enter and check, worried about affecting Gauss inside.
"Why is there still no movent?" Aria lowered her voice, murmuring softly.
"Let's wait a bit longer."
Among the crowd, only Shadow suddenly raised her head and looked toward the sky.
She faintly felt that so existence was watching her, but couldn't pinpoint where this feeling specifically ca from.
She shook her head.
She could only interpret it as her own misjudgnt.
Gauss in his ntal form captured this detail and was sowhat surprised.
He never expected Shadow to actually notice him.
Speaking of which, Shadow should be close to advancing to level 6 too.
Before joining the team, she was already level 5.
If not for worrying about Gauss's situation, she should have also found a place to "seclude herself" and seek a breakthrough.
Shifting his attention away from his companions.
Gauss wanted to test how far he could go in this state.
He slowly drifted away.
After a while, he stopped.
Looking back toward the direction of the wooden house.
About 100 ters?
Beyond this distance, he felt the effect of that invisible chain rapidly declining.
Even moving just a few more ters away caused his ntal form to begin trembling, becoming unstable.
Worried about damage, Gauss didn't continue exploring outward.
He began testing effects in other aspects.
Whether ascending to the sky or diving into the earth, he in his ntal form could easily accomplish both.
However, when diving into the earth, perhaps due to the solid dium of soil, the exploration range would be halved, reduced from a hundred ters to about fifty ters.
Besides range, Gauss also discovered that he in his ntal form could affect reality.
This ability was related to his secondary profession [Sword Soul].
He could launch ntal attacks through his ntal form.
Thinking of this, he slowly "raised his arm," a layer of invisible peculiar energy appearing in his "palm."
He looked at a sparrow on a branch.
Suddenly, an arc-shaped invisible ntal attack flew out from him!
Accurately sweeping toward the sparrow's direction.
This attack was silent, formless, and intangible, as if it didn't exist at all in the material world.
In the blink of an eye, the attack approached the sparrow that was grooming its feathers, but even then, it still didn't sense the lethal threat.
The arc-shaped attack swept past its body.
Its body suddenly stiffened, without even emitting a proper cry of distress.
Gauss felt its soul fire shatter.
His ntal energy completely shattered the sparrow's soul in the extrely short ti of contact. After completing the attack, it slowly drifted back from afar, rging back into his ntal form.
anwhile, the sparrow's small body fell straight down from the branch.
With a soft "thud," it landed on the soft soil and stopped moving.
Its exterior showed no wounds, but its life force had completely dissipated.
Gauss's ntal form "watched" this scene, feeling slightly shaken inside.
Don't think it was just killing an insignificant sparrow—he could easily do that with magic too—but the aning here was completely different.
ntal attacks were more concealed.
Moreover, this was a pure ntal attack. Previously, when using the Will-Sword effect of the [Sword Soul] profession, it still needed to be wrapped around specific sword techniques, which allowed enemies to observe his attacks in advance.
But this attack had no warning signs whatsoever.
Furthermore, enemies would be unable to use any physical ans to defend against it.
Based on Gauss's observation, they would most likely only be able to defend using ans at the "soul" level.
However, the sparrow's soul was still too weak to test much.
Gauss looked around his surroundings.
Aside from his companions, there were no other suitable test subjects;
those insects were even more fragile than the sparrow.
And he naturally wouldn't experint on his teammates for simple testing purposes.
The soul is crucial for anyone, any living being.
Therefore, he needed to use this move cautiously. Although his separated ntal form or soul had beco more resilient because of that "chain," it didn't an he could act recklessly.
The essence of soul attacks is soul collision;
as long as his soul is stronger, he can crush the enemy's soul.
But the reason it seed to have no cost just now was only because the gap between his soul and the sparrow's soul was too large, making the consumption negligible.
If facing stronger creatures, there should be so consumption, and using it excessively might even endanger his own soul.
While he was lost in thought, Aria and the others had already noticed the mysteriously dead sparrow.
Although the sparrow fell more than ten ters away from them, and most of their attention was focused on the wooden house, the overly quiet environnt made the sound of the sparrow hitting the ground particularly noticeable.
They glanced at the sparrow that showed no wounds, their expressions quickly turning tense.
The sparrow died inexplicably;
they hadn't detected any abnormalities before this.
"How did it die?"
"Is there an enemy?"
"Be careful."
It wasn't that they were being overly cautious;
it was just that this was a critical mont for Gauss.
But they didn't go forward to check the sparrow's situation either. Instead, they circled around the wooden house, vigilantly surveying their surroundings, afraid that so mysterious enemy might erge from unseen places.
Seeing his teammates' nervous state, Gauss knew the commotion he caused had frightened them.
To prevent them from worrying too much, he controlled his ntal form and quickly rged back into his physical body.
The familiar feeling of solid strength returned.
He slowly stood up, stretching his slightly stiff joints from sitting for so long.
With his movents, the layer of lustrous white fluorescence around him gradually receded inward, rging into his body.
His overall aura had undergone significant changes again.
His eyes were deeper and sharper;
in his every gesture, his perception and control over the surrounding magical energy had risen to a whole new level.
He pushed open the wooden door, letting warm sunlight and fresh air pour in, while also eting four pairs of eyes filled with concern and tension.
"Gauss!"
"Lord Gauss!"
"Captain!"
"How do you feel?"
"Don't worry, I've successfully advanced to level 5." Gauss spoke, giving his teammates reassurance.
"That's great!" Aria and the others, who had been waiting for so long, breathed a sigh of relief.
Aria suddenly rembered the matter of the mysteriously dead sparrow from earlier, pointed it out to Gauss with her finger, and asked nervously.
"By the way, Gauss. There seed to be so strange movent earlier;
should we investigate the surroundings?"
"It's fine. That was testing a new ability." Gauss scratched his head.
"Ah?"
Aria blinked.
All their tension was for nothing—the culprit was Gauss himself.
Gauss smiled and briefly explained to his companions.
The [Magician] level increase, with Intelligence reaching 15 points, seed to have created a wonderful chemical reaction when combined with his secondary profession [Sword Soul].
In a way, he now sowhat resembled the "psychic masters" from so works he had seen in his previous life?
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