Ever since Emery had succeeded in making the dark element as his spirit core, whenever he cultivated, the stream of energy rushed in like a smooth river flow. Any sense of barrier between the three elements disappeared as the spirit energy nourished all three at once, like an honorable noble lord providing equal rewards to his faithful subjects.

So far, he hadn't experienced any harmful effects. Aside from the unhindered flow of spirit energy, the only thing that had changed so far was the spirit core's color, which previously glowed white but now dark gray. And because of that, based on his previous estimation, he would need two months to increase the spirit force from 40 to 50, however this time, he only needed one month. That one month had passed and the notification he had been expecting to appear did indeed arrive. His palm glowed and showed the following:

[You have reached acolyte rank 5]

[Spirit force 60]

This was a good stopping point for a quick rest, so he stopped meditating, got up and paid his respects to the black dragon.

"I sincerely thank you for the guidance," said Emery, slightly bowing his head.

"Hmpf, thank me once you've become a magus," replied the dragon, once more proning itself to sleep.

Emery understood that no more words were needed between them; hence, he returned to sit in his spot.

In order to become a magus, he would need to have a breakthrough at rank ten. And based on what he had deducted so far, he only needed fifty more spirit force for that to happen. He was halfway there. It should take a couple more months.

Once more, he returned to close his eyes in understanding the elements with all his heart.

[Spirit force has increased by...]

[Spirit force has increased by...]

[Spirit force has increased by...]

Due to his new spirit core of darkness, the rate at which he absorbed the spirit energy couldn't be compared to his previous gathering rate. For every two to three days that had passed, his spirit core got a bit bigger every time the notification alerted him. It went on for a while and just when he had reached spirit force seventy, that was when he noticed the notification for the upgrade of ranking didn't appear. Emery initially didn't think of it at first, making reasons such as it might be late, or maybe he needed it to be seventy-one but when his spirit force already reached seventy-two, Emery broke out of his trance and proceeded to ask the black dragon for insight.

The black dragon sighed and said, "Right, I have heard of this before. You know, humanity's way of ranking is kind of stupid. From what I know, humans assigned rank six acolytes with a spirit force of one hundred. However, to reach the magus rank, a total of a thousand spirit force is required."

Emery's eyes widened at the amount of spirit force he actually required. He did a quick estimation that with his current absorption rate, it would still take five to ten years to become a magus. And with that number, Emery began to feel like this black dragon was untrustworthy and was actually trying to trick him! It wasn't any different from the estimate he had first been given!

He was about to give this dragon a piece of his mind but it continued speaking.

"Rather than thinking of how to reach the magus rank, your priority right now should be meeting the rank six's requirements," said the dragon, giving a yawn. Killgragah added, "You should need a spirit force of one hundred and the element's understanding should be at peak stage."

From the time Emery spent in his return from the Magus Academy into being transported in this spatial space, he had spent four months in Mistshire and another four months with the dragon. He wasn't sure if the year the Grand Magus in Magus Academy had mentioned would apply to a year here on Earth or longer, but Emery had a gnawing feeling he had little time left.

Despite having little time though, he tried to push through reaching rank six acolyte. Now that he knew what requirements he needed to break through to the next rank, he spent whatever left of his time practicing the spells in his arsenal, namely: [Whip splash], [Stone skin], [Fragmentation(except this one)] and [Smoke].

As he withdrew power from the elements inside him, Emery couldn't help but notice that the stone skin and whip splash seemed a bit different from before. The whip splash emitted a slight dark aura within its edges and it could smash the ground with greater power than before. Although he had no way of actually measuring its effectiveness, Emery believed it was stronger than before. As for the stone skin, it also emitted a slight dark aura within the crevices of the armor, and when he tried to cut himself using the moon dagger and it required more force before he started bleeding.

After noticing these small changes, Emery went to the black dragon to confirm his suspicions, but Killgragah refused to answer and only harrumphed. And even though he didn't have any definitive answer from the black dragon, Emery went with the conclusion that this odd phenomena was really due to the changes in his spirit core, which was now dark-colored.

Interpersonal relationships were also odd if a person thought about it. Due to the amount of time Emery had spent in this spatial space and the black dragon being just there, he unconsciously grew a faint connection in his heart despite their minimal interactions. Emery had gotten used to the dragon's habits of occasionally saying ridiculous stuff as if practicing some lines about how much of a powerful being it was then snide comments, watching the outside world for days on end, and sometimes sleeping with a booming snore that at times would disturb his own cultivation or slumber. Despite all the benefits, interesting moments, etc., Emery still formed a wall of distrust against the dragon on purpose. He wouldn't let himself be on the losing side again, Granny's betrayal was still fresh in his mind as if it had just happened yesterday.

In one of the days, after he had finished cleaning himself, Emery was a bit fed up from cultivating all day and practicing the spells. So, he took a piece of wood from one of the wooden containers and fashioned it into a practice sword with the help of the moon dagger.

He held it with his left hand, since his right arm no longer existed, and once he started practicing Emery felt he was starting from square one again.

The black dragon had just awoken from its slumber and saw Emery practicing swordsmanship. It sneered at him and said, "What does a magus need a sword for? Focus on your magic, dumbass!"

Emery rested the sword on his shoulder and said, "Once I get out of here, only a portion of the spells' power can be used in my world. I still need something to protect myself with. However, if you have something that can help me better than this, then that'll be the time I'll lay down the sword."

That was the reasoning he gave to the black dragon, but in fact, a lifelong dream since childhood wasn't something that could be easily abandoned.

More days passed, and eventually so did weeks, Emery continued alternating his practice sessions between the sword, magic and cultivation because like his previous experience in caring for the herb garden, actual application was truly needed to increase his understanding of the elements. And as for increasing his spirit force, it of course went higher, but the time in between each point became longer and longer.

Emery couldn't truly point a finger to what was wrong, but he could feel that breaking through rank six couldn't be just done with sitting here and cultivating all day. And while he was pondering what he should do about his spirit force, an information appeared on the symbol in his hand:

[You are invited to join the second year in Magus Academy]

[Duration: Three months]

[The recall spell will activate in 30 days]

From notification, it seemed like his initial suspicion of the next year the Grand Magus had mentioned coincided with a year from Earth. This bit of information though weighed heavily on the back of his mind. Of course there were many things he wanted to do at Magus Academy: meeting his four friends, apothecary training, learning advanced spells, and probably finding a way to restore his non-existent right arm.

Just one of the reasons above was enough to make him not want to give up this opportunity. He only had a month left, and getting out now was the top priority. He stood before the dragon and once again demanded to be let out. So, he didn't care about the dragon's anger and scorn because he needed to be able to go to the Magus Academy no matter what.

Unexpectedly, the dragon's answer wasn't the one he was expecting. The dragon sighed and said, "You really don't give up that easily, do you? Well, I'm getting tired with the same view of the outside anyway,

Authors Note

Thank you to my readers who came to the event in discord.

Mithra, Cryo, This, DemonShadow639, ItsRandom_dank, and Rehis, congratulations on winning the coin vouchers. Truly, thank you for the support, these prizes were only possible because of you, my dear readers. Don't forget to join Avans Discord community for discussion. www.doomsdaypillars.com and click discord link.