He rested the scrolls on his lap but did not open the next one immediately.
Speed.
That was the real bottleneck.
Attuning nodes was taking too long. Every skill demanded more, and the higher the node count, the slower the process became. If he continued at this rate, he would spend months just unlocking capacity before he could truly grow stronger.
He needed to increase the speed of attunement.
And that meant absorbing mana faster.
Not just pulling it in passively but drawing it in deliberately.
His mana pool refilled, yes—but refill speed was different from absorption efficiency. Right now, he was letting the environment feed him at its own pace. That was acceptable for survival. It was not acceptable for advancement.
His fingers tapped lightly against the bark.
The Scar was rich in mana. If he could endure the strain, he could turn that volatility into acceleration.
He picked up the next scroll, but his thoughts remained elsewhere.
