Starting from my 11th day in the Corruption Space, I made a few changes to my 'Corruption Repelling' and life-easing routine.

Due to the constraint of time and the huge amount of space I had to cover I couldn't reduce my 'Area sweeping' time, but what I changed was within the other 12 hours of the day.

Other than keeping the hour for eating, resting, and playing with Light consistent, I directly reduced my elemental flow carving time by 1 hour!

The reason for that was quite simple, during my first ten days of carefully carving my Lightning Cell's flow channel, I was able to improve my precision greatly to the point I was confident to pour the same amount of safe mental energy to expend within the day to do the same amount of work that I previously took three hours in only two. Overall, it could be said that my carving efficiency has increased.

As such, with one hour freed, I decided to merge it with my weapon training routine as it was both proving effective and producing actual results, other than the 'techniques' that were stuck at Lv.MAX of the Intermediate stage that only consisted of 'Lightning' and 'Wind' at first, the rest of them were showing the effect of the 'Ian Long' training method as their levels and experience grew closer to the maximum level of the intermediate stage as well.

Sadly, the only 6 hours left of the day that were reserved to be my sleeping time couldn't increase further, but that was necessary due to the circumstances I was in. After all, not only did I have to stay vigilant during my sleep in case the demon or whatever else lived in this space made a move, but I also had to take care not to let myself get affected by 'Corruption' once more which was more probable to happen during my sleep…

However, though I couldn't do one of my favorite things to do as I pleased, I was quite satisfied with my current routine which made me feel no different from being on closed training in some safe spot. I was almost worry-free from the Corruption's 'despair' as my ability continued to increase, managing to even train stuff that has been neglected for quite a while due to the limited time I usually had!

'It's getting closer…'

I could tell that the feeling that I got when I first advanced to the Essence stage that a 'door' was slightly opened was getting stronger by the moment, perhaps my target to advance at least one technique to the 'Advanced' level was closer than I expected.

However, I didn't know that it wasn't the only target that was closer than I imagined until a while later…

`~~`~~`~~`

[ 'Hurricane Steps' has leveled up! ]

'Really?'

Exactly during my 'area sweeping' time on my 29th day in the 'Corruption Space', I was surprised by an unexpected system notification.

'It finally leveled up!'

Even though I was quite the frequent runner and I didn't hesitate to use 'Hurricane Steps' whenever I traveled, this Epic rated elemental footwork technique has been stuck on the first level ever since I received it as a combination of 'Swift Steps' and 'Lightning Steps' that I didn't even bother checking it any longer. However, it seemed like my last month of 'area sweeping' duty was enough for it to have a 'change of heart'...

'Let's see how effective it is…'

As I was still in the middle of the first 12 hours of the day, I didn't have to change my scheduled routine to test my newly leveled-up skill, so I started by slowing my normal speed and pushing 'Hurricane Steps' to take the lead!

'This…'

The effect brought out by the simple upgrade of one level was incredible!

'Perhaps I should decrease my 'area sweeping' time by a bit?'

After spending over half an hour testing 'Hurricane Steps' by decreasing and increasing my speed, I was pleased to find out I could sweep the same amount of area that I did daily in about 10 hours if I were to maintain my speed by relying on the leveled up 'Hurricane Steps'!

Naturally, I wasn't planning to decrease the time by the whole two hours since the faster I got out of here the better it would be, but contributing less than an hour to my weapon training routine would possibly increase its effect by a notch…

'Hmm?'

Just as I was contemplating how to use this surprise level up to my benefits, I suddenly sensed something different yet familiar!

I had been going on 'area sweeping' duty while increasing the scope of my 'Mental Map' for over a month, I was even somewhat sure that I should have covered about 20% of the whole space judging from the geography of the space, but it was my first time that my senses have picked something up for the whole month! It was obvious that whatever caused my Perception and 'Sensory Area' to go slightly haywire like this wasn't something normal!

'It shouldn't be that I met the demon this early, right?'

Disregarding whether it was a good thing for me to leave the space this early or not, I was sure that it was hardly possible according to what Long mentioned. The artifact's transporting ability should have placed us at a certain minimum distance from each other so such occurrence made me slightly concerned. After all, if part of that information was wrong, then who knew what else was different about this space…

'No, I should at least stay of one mind.'

No matter what, Long's few times of providing thorough information about something have all proven completely true and thus made me prepared for various situations, so there was no need to doubt his words so quickly.

'Being on guard is enough.'

I simply slowed down as I readied myself to engage in battle at any moment possible as I approached the location of the signal that my Perception picked off. However, as I finally passed through the cave-like spot's opening, I was once again surprised by the magical scene that appeared before me...