I don't get hungry or tired for another full day. Not doing overly strenuous activity along with my increased mana control base has made it much easier to go long stretches without these necessities. Other than a few small breaks to get up and stretch or drink water, I gather Qi and train my mana control for an additional 24 hours.

Over 15 million MP is absorbed over the 2 total days, and a good amount of Qi has entered my core, raising my capacity. It's not visibly noticeable, but I feel as if I'm filled with slightly more energy.

It may be just a placebo affect for the time being, but I'm excited to push the limits.

With my stomach rumbling and a few yawns coming out of my mouth, I walk over to the opposite side of the Domain and take a nice hot shower in the portable camper set using ice and fire magic summoning as to not waste too many resources.

Once changed into a fresh pair of clothes, I reach into my storage to make myself a large meal. On top of that, I crack open a new edition of one of my favorite comics and sit back on an air mattress covered in blankets and pillows up against the mana shielding's white wall.

I fall asleep and have a long and rejuvenating rest, then relax in the morning for a few hours as well before venturing back over to my cultivation area.

Just existing in the dense energy-filled environment naturally gathers Qi, but when I sit down and concentrate, the absorption rate increases much faster.

I get in the cycle of training 2 days on, 1 day off.

The relaxation state of Qi gathering puts me in a flow state, making time feel as though it doesn't go by. All I have to do is focus on naturally moving my Qi around in a constant pattern around my body while letting my perception and stat-boosting skills activate at a low rate while my plunderer skill replenishes my MP.

I get into the rhythm of a zombie-like trance where the only time I need to stop is for water breaks and, of course, food and sleep once roughly 48 hours is up.

On my 24-hour off cycles, I read, sleep, and journal. Using a few notepads, I meticulously write down what I was doing last in the world outside over and over. I repeat a few conversations and actions that have occurred over the last few weeks in a notebook just to make sure the memory of these events doesn't slip too far into the back of my mind.

This is the error I made last time I used this Domain to train. I didn't take into account that reality has come to a halt outside and wasn't well prepared to re-enter society. This time around, I'm covering all my bases.

My schedule is very relaxed, and I grow more every day, making a tally on another separate page every time the clock hits [00:00], signifying another day has passed.

Ten cycles go by, meaning a full month passes, and a few huge changes start to occur.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

The Qi in the air noticeably lessens.

Not because it's leaving the Walls at a rapid rate, but because it's staying contained in my body.

Before, I thought it might just be my mind playing tricks, but now, I'm certain that I feel at least a 10% increase in my Qi capacity.

My mana control increase is much more trackable. I've processed over 150 million MP, and I'm practically glowing with extra power. It's not as fast as just killing high-level monsters and using my MCP absorption skill on them for maximum percent gains, but it is fairly efficient, and my control is raising without having to level up.

As another 2 months pass, I get in the routine of doing pushups, sprints, squats, and pullups with heavy stone manifested weights and equipment. I'd like to keep my body in the state of being active even if I don't technically need it. This doesn't cut into much of my gathering time; I just add it into a few hours of my 24 hours off-time routine.

More and more of the Qi in the air begins to fade away during this time too. It's about half as dense in the air as when I started. My base raises from what I can tell, another 25% or so, making an educated assumption that I've gained over 1/3 of my initial base since I entered. My mana control, on the other hand, has raised by an even higher amount, roughly 500 million MP.

The rate at which I'm fatigued lessens, and the efficiency that I can heal my fatigue increases. Since entering this session, my mana control has raised over double what it was when I began.

I continue to train.

All the stress and worry that has built up over the last few weeks and months in the outside world starts to dissipate too.

The stronger I get, and the more time I have to formulate a plan for when I get out, the more relaxed, calm, and calculated my overall demeanor and outlook on my situation comes to be.

Another 3 months in the Domain pass before the Qi circulating in the air has either been fully absorbed by me, or it seeps out through the walls of the domain very slowly. I gain roughly another 1/3 of my initial base. If the Qi in the air stayed as dense as it did at the start, I would have been able to most likely absorb more in the time I was sitting in here.

However, my mana control only continues to rise at a slow and steady exponential rate. I manage to burn through nearly 1 billion more MP. This over doubles my mana control base again, bringing me to a much higher level than when I entered, almost a 2.5x increase.

Although I'm brimming with power, I haven't gotten to truly test things out.

I stop gathering Qi in the middle of my session today and stand to my feet. The Qi around me is less dense than the natural air in the outside world.

"I've hit the limit. It's time to break out of this place."

I put the comics and novels I completed into my storage and let out a sigh looking at the ones I still have yet to catch up on. Most of the good food and miscellaneous items stay in my storage, but I decide to leave all the dirty laundry and used camping gear sets behind. It'll be easier to just buy these again rather than try to salvage them of any usable materials.

Once holding everything I care to keep with me, I reach into my item storage and pull out my sword.

"Let's see how much I've grown."

I charge up my blade with as much mana as possible, activate my skills, and get into the same powerful stance I did before entering this domain. Then, let a wave of dense black flames erupt from my sword.

It's impressively larger, hotter, and denser than last time; tearing an enormous hole in the shielding wall that wraps upward to break part of the ceiling and downward breaking the floor in sections too.

It hits the back of the void in mere seconds and a huge flash of white light shows that it's made it to the outside world. The rectangular room I stand in shakes, and my theory that Qi would escape through the open hole comes true as I watch some denser pockets drift out into the less dense atmosphere in the void.