Yongno was now lying on a boulder, breathing quietly as if he were asleep. However, Mari had reached a much higher level of mastery than Yongno, and she was well aware of his true status as well as the situation within him.

“... Unbelievable. How can he engage in self-contemplation for three days straight without meditating or going into a trance after reaching enlightenment?” murmured Mari in amazement.

Self-contemplation was a high-level spiritual ability that allowed players to look within themselves. Three days of being in a trance would only feel like a minute or two. Yet, time would still flow at the same rate in the outside world, and the timeframe might even feel longer than the actual duration. Therefore, most users couldn’t self-contemplate for more than an hour, but Yongno had been doing it for three consecutive days.

Mari said, “Basically, players need mental strength and incredible focus to self-contemplate, but perhaps this guy is an exception because he’s enjoying the process.”

Was it sustainable for someone to study or perform complicated tasks for three straight days without any breaks? That would be akin to studying or doing any other mentally draining task for seventy-two hours without taking a break, eating, or sleeping. Realistically, this was almost impossible since the longer one spent performing high-quality intellectual work, the worse their mental health would become. Even if someone had the requisite fortitude or a high attention span, random, distracting thoughts would always appear.

However, this could be put into a different perspective. For instance, what if someone played their favorite game for three days straight? Would there be a difference between working hard and enjoying themselves? While there were people who’d say that playing games for so long would be quite a challenge, logically speaking, playing a well-liked game for that duration would be much easier.

“Geez, what a freak!” snorted Mari.

Whoosh.

Yet, before she sighed, she felt a resonance, and Yongno’s inner qi moved violently. This meant only one thing, and that was No Living World; the esotericism of the Golden Pill Immortal Technique was open.

Mari exclaimed, “Oh my god, did he open the first realm of the Golden Pill Immortal Technique? How could he do that after only knowing the technique for a month and possessing such a small amount of internal force?”

It was impossible, but Mari had no choice but to believe what she was witnessing.

“Phew! Okay, done,” Yongno said.

/Your Spiritual Power (Type: Internal Martial Arts) has increased by 30 points!/

/Your 20 unspecialized Spiritual Power points have been converted to Internal Martial Arts!/

/Your Willpower has increased by 27 points!/

/Your Magic Resistance has increased by 20 points!/

Yongno gave a satisfied smile as the messages appeared one after another, but he then noticed something strange.

“Eh? Why did my Willpower and Magic Resistance increase by so much?” wondered Yongno.

Mari replied, “That’s because you’ve been self-contemplating for three days straight. Circulating qi or meditating affects the player’s Willpower and Magic Resistance.”

“Oh, I see- Wait, has it already been three days?!”

“Uh-huh, it’s been exactly seventy-two hours and forty-five minutes. Did it feel that long?”

Yongno thought for a moment, then shook his head. “No, but I was in there for some time. Still, I can’t believe it was three whole days. How much time was that outside the game?”

“Come on, can’t you do some math? As you know, time in DIO is six times faster than in real life, which is a one-to-six ratio. So, it’s been approximately twelve hours and seven minutes.”

“Whoa, I love how time flows inside this game. It would have been wonderful to study here for my college scholastic ability test!” exclaimed Yongno.

Mari sneered, “Then would your test results have improved?”

“... Nah. Come to think of it, I would have just spent more time here.”

‘I’m a troublemaker~ Studying is boring~’ Humming, Yongno stood after lying on the rock for so many hours, working on relaxing his stiff body to return to the ocean.

“Hold on for a second,” said Mari.

Yongno responded, “Why? You said I’d been here for six hours. Let me dive once more before I go grab some food.”

“Why are you being narrow-minded when you’re gonna dive again either way?” Mari put her hands on Yongno’s back, and his qi began to move.

“Eh?! This pattern is…!” shouted Yongno.

“Don’t move!”

Even without her warning, Yongno couldn’t budge as if something was holding him back. Mari, however, kept circulating his more-abundant inner qi.

Mari said, “I’m gonna start reciting the mantra, but you don’t need to memorize it since I’m gonna use a technique to forcibly engrave it in your mind.”

“Wow, that’s awesome! You should use this technique on students. You could make millions of dollars from it.”

“...”

Mari frowned at Yongno as he compared the technique and mantra to nothing more than a test-taking strategy. However, she just sighed at his silly remark and continued explaining.

“The two mantras that I’m trying to pass to you are called the Great Strength Vajra Hand and Qi Heaven, respectively. One is a Hand Skill, and the other is… a type of Qigong Technique.”

“A Qigong Technique… Is that different from a cultivation method?” asked Yongno.

Mari blurted, “You’ll figure it out later, so please keep your mouth shut.” Then, she began to recite mantras for the techniques while performing a high-level skill to directly inject the information into Yongno’s mind.

Yongno had no idea how advanced the techniques were, so he was amazed by the implantation itself.

“Whoa, the concepts are just being put into my brain! Though, compared to the Great Strength Vajra Hand, Qi Heaven is too long…” he exclaimed.

“Shut up.”

Mari paused as if Yongno had distracted her from the skill. Her brows furrowed, but she still looked too beautiful to give Yongno any sense of crisis.

He whistled, “Ay, yay, yay, watch your mouth.”

“Sorry, Oppa, but I can even verbally assault you.”

“Really? I wonder what that would be like.”

“Shut the f*** up, Oppa.”

“...”

When Yongno zipped his lips, Mari began to recite the mantras again. However, it took quite a while, and the sun was setting when she finally finished. Outside of the game, an hour had passed.

“... That’s a lot,” sighed Yongno. He shook his head, feeling a little dizzy since a huge amount of knowledge drifted about in his mind, easily exceeding a dozen encyclopedias.

Alas, Mari didn’t give him a break. She asked, “Do you understand the infused mantras?”

“Um… one seems to be a method of concentrating force and making it explode, and the other is… It’s tricky to describe, but I’d say it’s like extracting oxygen from the air, condensing it, and then creating its liquid version. It’s also comparable to adding high pressure and heat to a lump of coal and making a diamond. I can’t articulate it precisely, though it could be described as filtering internal martial arts to the limit and transforming its nature.”

Mari nodded at Yongno’s clumsy but insightful explanation as he understood the gist of the mantras.

“Cool, then try using them,” said Mari. She was well aware that this was almost impossible, but she said it anyway.

Yongno raised his right hand. “Okay, hold on… Good.” Then, he struck the sandy ground.

PFOOM!

The sand shot outwards in a fan shape as if Yongno had exploded a bomb within the granular substances.

/You have gained a new skill - Great Strength Vajra Hand!/

/You have gained a new skill - Hand Skill!/

“...”

Yongno uttered, “Hmm, this isn’t bad.” Then, he lifted his hand and pounded the sand again. Like a massive handprint making its imprint, the sand was pressed down about 30 centimeters.

/You have reached Rank 8 in Hand Skill!/

/You have gained the title of Entry-Level Hand Skill User!/

Despite the messages appearing, Yongno murmured, “So, these are ways to concentrate power but only with a narrow range… Eh?”

He noticed something weird. Just now, Yongno had used two powerful skills, but only half of his internal martial arts had been depleted. When he first attempted Body Strengthening, he was drained of internal energy. Compared to his previous situation, his growth was phenomenal.

“I know that the skill I used earlier had awful efficiency, but how can it improve to this extent when my stats have only increased by one and a half times? Do you have any idea what’s happening?” asked Yongno.

Mari nodded, “It’s because you opened the first realm of the Golden Pill Immortal Technique, Oppa. If users practice the external world of this cultivation technique, they can intensify their internal martial arts.”

“Oh, you mean Mercury?”

“Mercury?”

Yongno replied, “Uh-huh, I like your metaphors, so I’ve decided to name them after the planets. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto… Are they correct? Anyway, now I have eight left….”

“...”

“What’s wrong?” asked Yongno, looking at Mari merely standing there unresponsively.

Mari took a breath, then another. Eventually, she spoke in an unusually trembling voice. “... Alright. Would you now perform Qi Heaven?”

“Oh, you mean the longer mantra?”

“Yeah, the longer one. You said it felt like turning a lump of coal into a diamond.”

Yongno replied, “Right. Okay, let me try to perform it.”

He closed his eyes, and his internal qi began to move with a resonance. When Yongno raised his right hand, the air in front of his palm started to sway.

Whoosh––

“Oh my god….” Mari felt breathless at this result, which she wished for but, ironically, didn’t want to happen at the same time.

The wavering lump of qi gathered and spread soft light, then finally…

Fizzle.

“Eh?” Yongno seemed confused as the light disappeared powerlessly.

“...”

He opened his eyes in surprise and found Mari’s grim expression. Feeling bewildered, Yongno murmured, “Hold on. This is weird. It gets blocked! Did you miss the mantra or recite it incorrectly?”

THUD!

At that moment, an immense force squashed the ground. Yongno turned around and saw a gigantic handprint on the sand behind him. It was approximately ten meters deep. He hadn’t dug anything and had merely pressed down and made that big hole.