24 hours later...

"Yes, we did it!"

"We're finally done with ALL of the inscriptions!"

"My back... Somebody, please massage my back..."

"How OLD are you? You look like you're in your 20s and yet..."

"Shut it!"

 At the end of the second day, the assistant mages, Sage Adelle, and Alternis finally confirmed that all of the inscriptions were correctly restored. They all stood up from their crouched postures, stretched, and had fun at the expense of a certain individual. As they began to be rowdy, Alternis asked, "I understand that these inscriptions attract more mana from the soul and outside, condense the mana, and purify them. But what's the role of these deep grooves?"

"They deliver the purified mana from these inscriptions to the terminal at the center of the room."

"What's the point of that?"

"Well, the central terminal has the most important job of delivering the condensed mana from the mindscape to the body. Without this process, we won't be able to utilize the purified mana and make our spells more powerful."

"...Then the next set of tasks we need to complete is cleaning up the mana channels. What's the point of doing all that hard work if we're not able to enjoy them?"

"Now that's a good plan. But for now, I'm going to have everybody go to bed."

"Alright, see you all tomorrow!"

After uttering this statement, the people within the chamber cheered and left. The dark room littered with clean, white runes and magic circle enchantments was left alone. However, after a few minutes, Alternis came back with some cleaning supplies and started cleaning up the black, smelly gunk within his mana channels.

'It's not enough. If I don't keep working throughout the nights, will I have enough time to seek out other aspects and complete their ALL of their tasks? I'm highly doubtful of that. I'll need to start utilizing the miscellaneous [Mana Clean] spell to help clear out this trash.'

He began his cycle of meditation and cleaning up the channels while practicing his spells in an effort to train several skills at the same time. In the middle of his clean-up phase, his teacher walked in with a fed-up look.

"...Alright. Tell me this: why do you keep working for so long each and every day?"

"Because I need to seek out other aspects and complete their tasks 100%."

"You're even cutting down your sleep to only four hours per day."

"[Meditation] helps me rest and recover my [Concentration]. I dream that I'll be able to cut down on my sleep completely when I level it up enough."

"......Why do you keep putting yourself through the wringer?"

"...I'm surprised. You're actually interested in me?"

"The way you've calmly handled my teachings and assistants tells me that you're not like the others; you didn't beat them in frustration when you spotted their mistakes nor did you complain even once when I instructed you on more efficient ways to sense and manipulate your mana. The only thing that concerns me is the way you always keep running yourself ragged in moments like these. Why do this to yourself, kid?"

"......It's because I have to. Do you know what happens to students like us after we graduate from the military academy?"

"I do not know. We... didn't have much reason to ask and commit the answer to memory..."

"Then allow me to shine some light onto our fate: we are brought to the front lines to clear out the monsters in our city's surroundings. I have heard horror stories of how one would be lucky enough to come back from the battlefield with only a limb cut off. It's infamously known as an execution ground."

"...If it's this bad, why don't you try and travel to another city?"

"I don't have the funds nor the permit to get on a line of carriages leaving for another city. The government would never grant a travel permit to an orphan for whom they 'graciously saved and carefully nurtured' within the academy. If I want to get out of this horrendous city, I would need to be at least a Tier 2 Mage or Tier 3 Warrior to safely sneak out and travel alone to another city; bandits and monsters won't just stand by while a pack of tasty-looking humans travel nearby."

"......"

"You can gloat openly if you want."

"I apologize. I know you're going through a hard time, but when I think of all the people getting what they deserve, it makes me so happy."

She genuinely smiled at the miserable fate of his classmates. As a dedicated student of the military academy, he couldn't just stay silent as she experienced schadenfreude at the expense of his fellow colleagues. Even if he will have to go to the front lines one day, he can at least repay for all the good that the academy and his co-workers did for him. Therefore, he looked at his teacher with righteous indignation and reprimanded her, "Yes, I agree. When I sometimes get stressed out or depressed, I think back to the desolate future they'll all experience, it calms me down and gives me so much joy."

......As the teacher-student duo opened up and sympathized with each other, Adelle said, "Alright then, I'll go ahead and search for more helpers tomorrow. A few other military student got to aggressive with my assistants and... well, I doubt they'll come back to my facility in the foreseeable future."

"...So that's why you were gone for the whole morning. Wish I could've been there to watch. You'll have to tell me about their pathetic screams sometime."

"Don't worry. I knew you would miss out, so I recorded it. When you have time to spare, you can watch it with me."

"T-teacher! Thank you so much!"

After he finished tearfully worshiping his teacher, he went back to his work while Adelle left to sleep in her bedroom.

With renewed energy, he continued cleaning up his mana channels while practicing his spells like [Mana Clean]. After he finished cleaning up five mana channels, he finally felt his [Concentration] reaching its limit, despite leveling up many times. He put the cleaning supplies away and slept for the rest of the night.