After their classes, Asahi and Mayumi met up with Fumiko at one of the entrances. Soon, Trish stopped by on her black armored SUV to pick them up.

Asahi sat on the front seat, while Fumiko and Mayumi sat on the back seat.

Trish drove them directly to the mansion.

Upon getting there, as they passed the front gate, Mayumi spoke. “Damn. I’ve seen the video of you two here, but that really failed to convey how big this place is.”

Fumiko nodded. “You can easily build a few research labs here.”

After Trish parked the car, and they got out, Asahi spoke. “Aurora, some music, please.”

Suddenly, life gained some faint background music.

Mayumi spoke excitedly. “This is so spooky; how does it work?”

­– There are communication devices spread around the entire property, so I can communicate without attracting more attention than I already do. –

Fumiko’s eyes brimmed with curiosity. “Are you Aurora?”

– That is correct. –

Fumiko then turned to Asahi. “Can I see her hardware?”

He chortled, nodding. “Sure, let’s start there.”

The room underground had a specially reinforced pitch-black door. Inside the 6x6m room, there was a quadrilateral 40cm-tall dark green platform that occupied almost 90% of it. On each of its rounded corners, there was a 1m-wide and 2m-tall cylinder.

The bottom half of those cylinders was made of the same material as the platform, while the top half looked like a tank with light green liquid inside. Each of those tanks contained a 60cm wide sphere of synthetic tissue.

On the center of the platform, there was another cylinder, but 50% bigger. There was a light green glow coming out of each of those tanks.

Fumiko’s eyes sparkled, like she had found the greatest treasure in the world. “Wow, it’s beautiful.”

– Thank you. –

Mayumi chuckled. “I agree. How fast is the hardware?”

Asahi smiled. “Do you know how fast is the fastest Earth-made supercomputer?

Mayumi shook her head.

Fumiko interjected. “Atlas, in Germany. 2.37 exaflops.”

Asahi nodded. “This one is 153 exaflops, and has Psionic capabilities.”

The girls’ eyes widened. Trish had no idea what the jargon meant, but she knew that supercomputers were used to make unfathomable amounts of operations per second.  She could also do the math in her head, which told her that it was over sixty times faster than Earth’s fastest supercomputer.

When the computer was chosen, Asahi just went with the System’s suggestion, and since Trish never had much interest in hardware like that, she didn’t pay attention to the numbers, just the visual.

Fumiko’s mouth was agape. In that room, no one even came close to knowing as much about computers as she did, and she knew that humans were probably centuries away from reaching that level of technology.

After ten minutes or so, when the girls recovered from the shock, they went exploring, which was something that Asahi purposefully didn’t do before.

Every single one of the eight bedrooms had its own bathroom, and walk-in closet. There were two kitchens, two living rooms, a library, and a small movie theater. And that was just the main house.

Behind the house, there was a large high-end pool, with a hot tub in it. Near it, there was an outside kitchen and dining area as well.

There was also a tennis court, a guest house, a staff dormitory, and a building. Inside the building, there was a basketball court, a gym, a sauna, and a locker room with showers.

Around the property there were beautiful gardens, that have been maintained by an irrigation system, and small gardening drones controlled by Aurora.

After the tour, Asahi made a table and four chairs appear in the dining area near the pool, where they had a nice meal while they talked about how to furnish the house.

None of them were interior designers by any stretch of the imagination, so Asahi asked Aurora to learn everything about interior design, and give them options in how to decorate the house. Obviously, video game paraphernalia was a must.

They ended up going with a modern, yet slightly rustic style to match the property. There were many human-sized statues, miniatures, framed posters, and other video game related objects around the house, but all matching the décor.

One of the living rooms became a gaming den, with everything they could possibly want. The one normal room that wasn’t touched was the library, which would be left alone until Fumiko finished her masters.

Trish had no input to give regarding the library either, since she didn’t have any attachment to physical books, and for the time being, she didn’t want to explore other planets’ literature, leaving that for when she hit a wall with her own writing, and couldn’t evolve it by herself anymore.

The training room was made to look like the interior of a gym, and was doubled in length and width. Many advanced training machines that looked like were from a sci-fi manga were installed, spending over 400,000P on them. Since he had the points, he also spent a million on a Mana Refinement Chamber.

Although it had that name, it was also quite useful to train anything, since the increased mana density had many benefits besides just refining mana. As he had learned before, the highest the mana density on a planet, the more evolved the creatures that lived there became.

When they were all done, they installed a Teleporting Pad in a sealed room, on the underground floor. The pad looked like a black disc with a white runic cipher engraved throughout its border, and a diameter of 4m.  Asahi could put and remove a door from anywhere he was, so he preferred to keep it sealed.

Aurora also had instructions regarding the house, including who was allowed to do what. Fumiko, Mayumi and Trish had full permissions regarding the property.

The sun was about to set when they finished everything.

Unfortunately, Trish had an appointment that night, since it was her mother’s birthday, so she just left them at their building, and went home.

As promised, everyone had moved from the apartments he bought. He and Mayumi told the University that they would take care of their living arrangements themselves, so the University could give that benefit to someone else.

Lìshǐ Fen was so efficient, that even his and Mayumi’s building clearance card were already re-registered on the on their network. They didn’t have to do anything regarding that.

Asahi chose the sane route of reinforcing the entire property without changing its appearance.

As for the apartments, with the hallway of the 9^th floor empty, he made construction isolating booths appear in front of his five apartments.

They were sound dampening cubicles that were put in front of the door of apartments that were under construction. Those had become quite common when doing renovations in apartment buildings.

Since the apartments themselves had thick walls, and were designed for noise to not leak between apartments, a silent renovation wasn’t suspicious in the least.

He fused their apartment with 902, and made many changes in them.

Their rooms remained the same, aside from being reinforced, and Fumiko gained a room of the same size.

The living room tripled in size, gaining a VR section. The kitchen was relocated and expanded, with the same happening with the bathroom, which gained a large and very high-end hot tub.

They also added a fourth room as a guest bedroom.

The teleporter was put on the apartment above theirs, 1001. The whole apartment was sealed, despite still looking like it had a functional entrance door, and all windows were covered with blinders. One of the rooms in that apartment became a computer room, with another computer like the one in the mansion.

As for apartments 903, 904, and 905, he did what Asahi told them they would do, turning them into their group’s office.

There were two master bedrooms with their own walk-in closets and bathrooms, two guest bathrooms, and plenty of open space. However, there was no furnishing.

Invisible communication devices were also spread everywhere so they could talk to Aurora.

After they finished everything, Asahi sent a message for the three other group members, asking them to come to his building with him and Mayumi, because he had a proposition for them. Sex jokes from Setsuko came at blazing speed.

They had dinner and watched a movie. The girls were very tired from all the excitement throughout the day, so they went to bed, but before they did, he gave both of them their own personal cleaning device.

The only thing left, was for Fumiko to move out of her room that was given by the University.

 

Right after the girls fell asleep, he teleported to the mansion, and went to the training room.

At the end of the training room, there was a door, and although it was also a sliding door, it was different from the other ones in the house. The door was dark blue, 3m-tall and 2m-wide, with golden runic ciphers engraved in its entire surface.

‘Finally, I get to test this thing.’

As he walked towards it, the door opened.

The interior of the chamber looked like the upper half of a sphere that had a radius of 7m. There were dozens of 10cm compartments of cubic shape within the wall, only visible due to the small translucent doors.

‘Alright. Please, buy me all the appropriate boosts, manuals, and fill the chamber with the adequate mana crystals.’

As soon as he thought that, the compartments were filled with five crystals each, like the ones he sold to the Consortium, which emitted a light glow, making the chamber look quite pretty.

He immediately felt an unusual lightness in his mind. It was an incredibly comfortable sensation. He also stopped for a bit to appreciate the newfound beauty of the chamber.

‘Thank you. I assume that they can’t detect the existence of this chamber.’

[ Correct. ]

He then started to read the manuals.

Unlike ki, which flowed through the body, mana resided inside the soul. To put it properly, the soul was a type of pocket dimension inside the body, used to store mana, and was linked to the body through one’s consciousness.

The manuals he read explained how to sense mana, and how to properly utilize it.

The casting method that he was learning was completely different from the one used by the Consortium.

The Mages of the Consortium channeled their mana by altering its frequency, and externalized it through visualization. It was a mixture of instinct and intellect. Particular gestures helped with properly reaching the frequency that the spell required, while chanting helped with the visualization.

What Asahi was learning however, was called True Casting, which was the strongest and most efficient way to cast spells throughout the universe, if you somehow managed to do it that is. Within his soul, he would form magical formations composed of runic ciphers, which would benefit tremendously from his intellect and understanding of the inner-workings of mana.

When he finished reading everything, he took a deep breath.

‘Those boosts that allowed me to learn how to better memorize things are really paying off.’

As he thought that, he sensed Trish’s car arriving in front of the property.

He teleported outside, on the driveway in front of the main house.

She parked the car, and got out of it wearing sports attire, carrying a backpack in her hand.

He hugged her, and gave her a light kiss. “How was your mom’s birthday?”

She smiled. “Uneventful, which is the best-case-scenario for me. Although my parents don’t throw galas, or anything like that, there are always some pretty influential people there, and their children.”

“From your smile, I assume that none of them hit on you.”

She chortled. “They know better by now. Have you started training?”

“Sort of. I finished the reading part, at least for the basics.”

She gave him a light kiss. “Let’s go then.”

Together, they went to the Refinement Chamber.

Trish stared at it in awe. “Wow, it looks so pretty, and it feels so comfortable in here.”

Asahi nodded. “Yeah. System, please provide Trish whatever manuals and consumables that will help her.”

Her eyes widened. “Wait, what?”

[ Will do. ]

“Did you think you would train without the cheats? Well, unless you want to train without them, it’s up to you.”

She kissed him. “Nope, I want the cheats. Juice me up boss.”

He laughed.

[ First, you will need to read. When you are finished with that, I will provide you with the rest. ]

She nodded, and left the chamber.

Asahi lied down on the center, and slowly tried to feel his mana.

It took him a couple minutes, but it was there. He remembered that feeling, which was showed to him by the System on the day his Arcana was unlocked.

What he didn’t realize back then, was that his mana was like sludge.

He took his time and felt it, every part of it, then started to slowly move it.

The refinement process was a bit complicated, requiring one to shape and reshape their mana, over and over again. The highest the density of the mana around them, the more effective it was.

However, there was a catch. It was extremely taxing on the body. That was why the mages took some concoctions while refining their mana, to mitigate that fatigue.

But Asahi didn’t need that.

Slowly, very slowly, he felt his mana change. After a while, when he felt that he got the hang of it, he kicked things up a notch, using an advanced method. One would have to divide their mana in two, and make two intertwining whirlpools that gyrated in opposite directions, which would create the equivalent of friction, and make the refinement go faster.

It was much harder, due to the amount of concentration required, and the pain that it would generate.

To Asahi, it was more than worth it.

He had asked the System to jolt him awake when it was time for him to leave, in case he lost track of time.

As it usually happened, he did. At one point he felt like something was poking his mana, then opened his eyes.

[ Time to leave. ]

Despite his body feeling a bit tired, he didn’t sweat a single drop.

‘Huh, I expected to be drenched.’

[ It is more akin to a mind-over-matter placebo than actual exertion of the body itself. ]

He nodded, feeling Trish asleep in one of the bedrooms. ‘How was her training?’

[ If I was capable of feeling fear, I would use the word frightening. ]

‘How frightening?’

[ She does not need boosts at all kind of frightening. ]

He smiled, teleporting to where she was asleep. ‘That’s so hot.’

She was completely tucked in, with only her head out of the covers.

He kissed her cheek, and left a note saying that he had to go home.

‘Aurora, please take good care of her.’

< I will. >

He then went home through the teleporting pad.

 

During breakfast, he described his training to the girls, who were visibly interested in every word. Before leaving

In his business class, he met Thea, and invited her for a sleep over on the following Friday, to which she replied with a resounding and excited yes.

After classes, he met with his friends from the group project and went to his building.

When they saw the sound dampening booths in front of the doors, they looked at them quizzically, and got more confused when Asahi led them to apartment 904 instead of 901.

He opened the door to the booth, then the one to the supposed apartment.

As they entered, their eyes widened, looking at the huge open space.

Amaya was the first to speak. “Is this an office space?”

Mayumi nodded. “Yup.”

Ryota looked like a bewildered child.

Setsuko furrowed her brow. “Okay, what is it?”

Asahi chortled. “You’re really on guard, huh? Alright, here is the deal. Would you guys like to go all out on our game?”

Amaya looked at Asahi with great interest. “Of course, but what exactly is your suggestion?”

Asahi smiled. “There are two bedrooms with walk-in closets and a kick-ass bathroom each. What I’m suggesting is for the three of you to live here for the most part until the game is done. If you agree, we’ll spend the day talking about what to order to make this place a proper office for us.” He then tapped Ryota’s shoulder. “Including a recording booth with all of the bells and whistles.”

Ryota’s eyes sparkled as he imagined himself engineering the room. He then looked at Setsuko with pleading puppy eyes.

Setsuko hugged him, kissed his cheek, then looked at Asahi as she chuckled. “Wow, that was a ruthless move. I respect that.”

Amaya had a pensive expression. “You prepared all this, without talking to us first. I know that you don’t expect us to be dazzled by it and accept it just because of that. What if we say no?”

Asahi shrugged. “I’ll do something else with the place. Maybe and ice-skating rink, who knows. Oh, but you would make Mayumi cry.”

Mayumi then made the same expression as Ryota.

Setsuko laughed. “Holy shit, you two are merciless.”

Amaya looked at Mayumi’s pleading face, and chuckled. “I’m in, of course.”

Setsuko nodded. “We’re in too, otherwise my cute little Ryota will get sad. Oh, and we wanna win too.”

Ryota kissed her cheek and hugged her tight. “Thank you, Se-chan.”

Mayumi hugged Amaya, kissing both of her cheeks.

Letting go of the hug, Amaya spoke, with a tinge of red on her cheeks. “This is going to be really expensive. If you prepared all this, I’m assuming you already have a budget set aside for it.”

Setsuko looked at Asahi with curiosity. “Yeah, I also assumed so. Can you tell us our spending limit? We need to know that for the equipment and such.”

He smiled. “The budget has no limit.”