Elora looked at Kadyn and continued to explain when he remained silent. "Though I can use the spells of Life Element, I have to pay a price." She shifted her body and supported her back with the help of a Headboard Slate behind her, straightening herself. Then went on. "Healing element is like a low level of Life Element.

"To cast Life Elemental Spells I need to use more than ten times mana as compared to Healing Element. If My body failed to provide it the Mana Pool inside me would explode. That's what happened when I cast the spell to heal those soldiers. That spell wasn't too terrible, or I would have turned to cripple by now."

"Why did you do that?" Anger flared inside Kadyn's eyes after hearing her explanation. "How could you take such a risk?" He glared at her furiously.

Elora lowered her head seeing Kadyn's angry face like a child who had been caught doing something mischievous. She clasped her hands and replied with a weak and embarrassed and timid voice. "I-I just wanted to try. Because I read inside the scroll of the spell that people with Healing Element could also perform it. I-I never thought..."

"You never thought that it could make you cripple!" Kadyn said, still peering at her. Obviously upset with what she had done. "If something had happened to you what would I tell mother and father. How would I face them?!"

"I'm sorry," she replied timidly.

Kadyn looked at her and sighed. He could not see her upset, and looking at her like that made him feel pain. His expression softened and he said with a soft tone. "Alright, what's done is done. Don't do something like that again, alright?"

Elora lifted her gaze and glanced at him before nodding.

After that Kadyn stood up and walked towards the door, leaving his words behind for Elora. "You can rest for today. I've something to do in the shop." Then he stopped at the edge of the door and turned to look at her. "I'll let Sister Rayna know, just call her, if you need something."

Then without deliberation, he walked out of the room. Elora stared where Kadyn had been standing and a sweet and warm feeling appeared inside her heart. An exciting look emerged on her face and she said. "If father and mother were here they would definitely feel proud of brother. He has become so responsible."

As soon as those words left her mouth her eyes dimmed. "Where are you, mother, father?" As she spoke she curled her hands around her legs and placed her head on her knees.

——

After instructing Rayna and others Kadyn went towards the shop. When he arrived he saw a light inside the Artisan Hall. Hot Rod must be doing something. Kadyn didn't care as no one could steal the shit out of the shop. And Hot Rod would never do such a thing even someone gave him the hundreds of times more courage than he already had, as he had signed the Spirit Contract with Kadyn—if he broke the terms and conditions inside the contract he would be asking for troubles and Hot Rod wasn't that stupid. Definitely not stupid.

Kadyn headed towards the Meditation Room without stopping in the middle, pushing the door open. The first thing that came into his view was the large runes on the ground. It was some kind of formation that gathered the mana from the surroundings and produced a better condition for mediation. Then his gaze moved and fell over the egg that laid at the corner.

Kadyn hesitated for a brief amount of time and walked towards it. He took the egg in his hand and once more activated the fire element. Similar to the before the egg started to lit up and started to suck the fire element, devouring as much mana as it could. Only when Kadyn ran out of the mana did he place the egg on the same spot it had previously been. And murmured. "I wonder what kind of beast is hiding inside this egg?"

He shook his head, driving all kinds of disturbing thoughts out of his mind and walked towards the formation and sat at the centre of it like always and activated Elemental Chaos Formula. He needed to recover the mana he had lost to the egg before trying to breakthrough.

As time passed the people around him started to become powerful. If he doesn't improve his strength he would be trampled by those people for sure. Therefore he wanted to increase his strength. He was once more going to try to break through. As the mana filled his fire pool he looked ahead of him with a grave face.

The vast space expanded in front of his eyes and ten large stars—or one could say sun—burned, spreading the light in all directions. Kadyn took a deep breath and focused on one of the stars. Then on another. He spread his willpower and started to draw them closer to each other.

He was surprised at how easy he could move them this time. Was it because his willpower has improved or because the Meditation Room has upgraded? Kadyn had no idea. But he felt pleased with this discovery. Ever since he failed he never tried again to breakthrough, however, now he started to feel pressure.

First Zephyr. Second Aleera, the mysterious girl. Then the people of the Magic Association. He needed to improve his strength if he wanted to live. He was lucky enough that Barret and Elder Jyn were in the shop when they tried to attack him. If they had been outside, he couldn't even begin to imagine the outcome. Even a normal Rank 1 Magus could deal with him as easy as flipping hands. Or taking a piss.

Sizzle!

The two stars came into contact with each other and a strange sound echoed throughout Kadyn's head. Though he didn't let go of the stars and pressed them closer and closer and closer. In the end they started to overlap each and in no time two stars turned into a single entity. But larger and brighter than ever. Without stopping he grabbed another star using the same willpower and started to press it on the first one that looked larger and brighter than the latter.

This time it took a little more effort but in the end he successfully combined the three stars. Kadyn sighed in relief when he completed this step. Because at this point he had failed previously.

However, he knew that he was far from reaching his goal. Then he moved towards the fourth star. Then fifth. Then sixth. When he reached the seventh star he was panting heavily. Though he couldn't see, he could feel that his body must be covered in sweat, and his face red due to pressure, and his body tremble from time to time.

Kadyn stopped briefly and then grabbed the seventh star and started to combine with the colossal ball of fire that he had formed after combining the other six stars. Though it took a lot of effort, in the end, he succeeded.

Now he needed to combine three more and he would be able to complete the first step of reaching Rank 1. He controlled his surging excitement and sucked a long breath of air and focused once more at the eighth star. He could not afford to fail. Not once again. He needed to succeed and he will not fail no matter what. He clenched his fist and started to combine one big and one small ball of fire.

Slowly. Slowly. Slowly. Just a bit more! He screamed and the big star sucked the small one. He had successfully combined another star. Now his breathing had become uneven, his hands trembled in fatigue while sweat dripped from his red face and his trembling hands, drenching his arse below as sweat dripped drop by drop.

Kadyn panted and winced in pain but he didn't let himself get distracted just because he was feeling uncomfortable and his head felt as if thousands of maggots were crawling inside, gnawing at his brain, eating it bit by bit. He was so close to his goal he could not let himself fail this time. Pain or no pain, he could not fail.

Come on! He screamed inside his head and pressed another star towards the gigantic sun at the centre of his Mana Pool. His speed had reduced to almost the speed of a snail. He was slow but he was still moving, the stars were still combining.

It took forever to combine the ninth star, but he indeed combined it in the end. Kadyn felt the urge to give up, to sleep. He wanted to lie down on the ground and take a nap. He was tired and needed rest, his head felt like tearing from inside due to pain, his body ached and sweat dripped. Sleep. Pain. Sweat. Ache. He could almost imagine himself drenched and smelling like a pig.

He peered at the last star with a tired expression and gritted his teeth. He can't let go of this chance. Last time there were only three stars and his mana pool was injured so severely that he could not even cast Spell Patterns. However this time there were nine stars and combined with the last one there were ten. He couldn't imagine the outcome if failed this time. Sleep. Pain. Sweat. Ache. No matter how much pain he felt he could not give up at this moment.

Sleep. Pain. Sweat. Ache. He winced in pain and he could feel sticky liquid all over his body and his eyes screamed and begged for sleep. His arse had turned numb from sitting for a long time or was it due to the pressure? He had no concept of time.

He sucked a deep breath of cold air like before and started to stir the small star towards the big one as he did to others. However, it wasn't as easy as others. He almost screamed from the effort he had put in it to move the star.