Hours had passed since the little seed formed inside of him. The tiny seed hovered over his dark core and spun slowly, surrounded by the three-colored elements.

He concentrated for quite a while, before he managed to feel a subtle connection with the seed. The feeling was similar to having a long vine coiled on all four of his limbs, and each of his movements felt more in tune with nature now.

​​

As instructed by the High Priestess, Emery tried to cast the [Nature Grasp] spell.

Now that he was trying it consciously, it took him a few minutes of intense concentration before his mind became one with his surroundings again, a sign of the skill's activation.

Oddly, the spirit energy he received from the spell did channel into his dark core. Instead, it was absorbed by the seed.

While [Nature Grasp] was active, he could tell the three elements inside his body were glowing a little bit brighter.

Right now, he wanted to savor the victory of being able to cast this single plant spell; however, he couldn't cast any other spells he had, be it plant, earth or water.

It seemed like the path connecting his core to those three elements had disappeared, leaving him unable to harness their power even though he was still able to perceive those elements.

Whatever was happening, it's definitely out of his current comprehension.

Emery spent the next few days concentrating on his core and cultivating the natural elements, still to no avail. Normally he would receive a notification of spirit force increase. But this time, he couldn't feel anything rather than a constant glow of the colorful elements and the seeds.

Not sure if he was doing it right and not willing to waste time, Emey was forced to once again seek the High Priestess for counsel, but yet again, he was stopped by the chief. Something about the high priestess doing a close door cultivation for a while.

At this point he had no choice but to consult another 'expert'.

He ran towards the stone formation and entered the Khaos space, only to feel Killgragah's annoyed stare at him. The dragon was enraged that, after receiving an upgrade to his dark core, Emery was still wasting too much time outside the khaos space.

The dragon kept on sarcastically asking him to cultivate his dark core, before he stopped talking and narrowed its eyes at Emery. Killgragah had finally realized an anomaly in his spirit core.

Emery mentioned the seed, but it appeared the all-knowing dragon had no knowledge of it. But for the dragon, the anomaly seemed to be too tiny, insignificant to become a problem to Emery's dark core.

He sighed and added.

"Boy… For a human, rank 8 is the peak of one's spirit foundation, while rank 9 is known as the core formation… It means, reaching rank 9 would finalize your foundation and solidify your core. I will say it again, stop playing around outside and focus on cultivating your dark core!"

Usually, Emery would dismiss the dragon's words as unimportant, but this time, he could feel the dragon's sincerity, so he answered with a nod. It was true, he had not practiced in the Khaos space for a while, and thus he decided to take a few days to focus on training here.

He sat cross-legged on the floor and began to concentrate on the flow of energy all around him.

[Your spirit force has increased]

[Your spirit force has increased]

Emery rubbed his sore legs and stood up, before checking his spirit force using the symbol on his palm. A week had passed and the Khaos space shockingly gave him a six point increase in spirit force. That meant, his spirit force increased at double the rate then before.

To make sure he wasn't seeing things, he spent another week meditating in the place. Yet again, the same thing happened.

[Emery Ambrose]

[Battle Power : 61 (46)]

[Spirit Force : 324 (248)]

[Spirit Core of Darkness – Stage 5]

[Fey Bloodline – Rank 3]

[Acolyte Rank: 8]

Twelve points of increase in spirit force within a mere two weeks. He nodded and smiled while staring at the notification screen. At this rate, he could reach his target of 500 points in less than a year.

Right after he finished thinking, the dragon spoke, as if reading his mind.

"Hahahaha, kid… I told you so! In no time, you would be able to open that door! Did you see now? I should have severed those elements ages ago! Aren't I brilliant?! Hahaha!"

Emery's brows twitched. No matter what the dragon said, he was still unwilling to neglect his three other elements just like that. But on the other hand, he had been struggling for these past two years cultivating at such a slow pace and he would be lying if he said that speed increase did not make him happy.

He was riding on top of his glee and he once more concentrated, not wanting to waste any of the energy all around him. Right as he closed his eyes, he felt energy rush into his dark core.

[Your spirit force has increased]

[Your spirit force has increased]

He cultivated his spirit force for another week, before suddenly a movement from outside the stone formation caught his attention. Emery walked out of the space and saw Morgana approaching. Well, he did tell Morgana before to find him if something important happened.

Besides, it was high time for him to take a break. He did make a lot of progress, after all.

He walked closer and asked, "What is it?"

Morgana showed him a little white parchment with a tiny writing in them

"It's a bird message from Camelot."

Emery nodded, uncapped the scroll case and looked at the letter inside. There was only one simple message.

"We have a lead on the witch's whereabouts, come here and check – Arthur."

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Written by Avans, Published exclusively by W.e.b.n.o.v.e.l,