The topic went into how to achieve level one hundred, and Mash was a bit surprised to receive any guidance. He had been left alone for the levels so far and was surprised to get the information. However, the information had answered many questions for Mash especially as to why there weren’t that many powerhouses around.

There were only two known methods to reach the next rank, and that was to kill a person at that rank in single combat. Or to clear a dungeon of that rank singlehandedly. Doing dungeons above your rank was considered impossible, so killing someone of the higher rank was a much more feasible method. That also explained why so many never got to that level. Many people completely give up on the struggle, if they knew that this was one of the requirements. Each person to make it to that rank would have needed to accomplish one of the two tasks, so killing them sounded just as impossible as the task itself.

This wasn’t limited to silver rank though, and there was another requirement needed for the rank after. Jack couldn’t tell Mash of that requirement but told him that he would find out after getting to the next rank. Mash found it reassuring to hear Jack talk about it like a foregone conclusion. However, Jack did allude to the requirement likely being the same at level two hundred. However, that was speculation on his part, as only the guild master had the information. Mash could only grunt in response to that, surprised to hear that even Jack hadn’t been told everything. Assuming it was the same condition, who would Mash have to kill to achieve that level?

Thinking about who qualified for that, he realized the list was very small. Other than the kingdom’s leaders there were only two others he knew of that were at that level. One was known to have fought a demon, and the other was the one who killed it. Both were heroes, even if they didn’t have the class for it, and no kingdom would dare to touch them. If anyone so much as tried to kill them, they would be branded as traitors of humanity. The gods might be at that level, but he realized he wasn’t certain about that either. All of that was a problem for the future and a distant one at that.

Wait, what did that mean about Red’s family. If one of her ancestors killed a king, then shouldn’t they have reached that level. How did the rest of her family even manage to kill someone like that, and did that mean that someone in her family was level 200? Mash felt like that story didn’t make much sense anymore and made a note to ask her about it. Hopefully, she would be willing to share. His thoughts moved from that to the other high leveled people he had met, and he thought about what they must’ve done to reach that level. Alex was there, and so was Arthur now.

Then it hit Mash. Arthur had to have killed a person at that level to reach the next rank. Even if that was a dungeon, he hadn’t entered alone. At first, Mash assumed that his brother had killed the boss single-handedly, but Jack had specified that it needed to be a person. This meant that his brother must have killed another human being, and there shouldn’t have been many in the dungeon. He would ask him about it, sure that Arthur wouldn’t lie to him. This line of thought did lead him to ask another question.

“When do knights find out about this?”

Jack only shrugged his shoulders from the other side of the table, indicating that he had no idea. Well, he could find that out from Arthur too. Honestly, Mash still had a few things he was confused about but didn’t know what questions to ask. He needed time to process the information and tried excusing himself.

“I’m going to head home for today. I’ll have some questions for next time.”

“Sure, but your tournament fight is in two days, don’t forget.”

Jack responded casually, but Mash stared at him with some confusion.

“Shouldn’t it have been next week?”

Glaring at Jack, Mash spoke not hiding the anger in his tone. He wasn’t ready for a fight and wouldn’t be in two days. He needed time to acclimate to his new class and still needed to do a lot of research. Not to mention, he needed to visit the Colosseum too. Somehow, it seemed like he was getting busier.

“You ranked up, and those matches start sooner. No worries though your first fight shouldn’t be too difficult.”

All Mash could do was sigh when he heard Jack’s words. they weren’t all that reassuring, but he guessed that Jack was a pretty good judge of strength. If he thought that Mash would have an easy time, then he would believe so. Plus, he had planned to make his opening fight a spectacle by revealing his lightning magic. It was uncommon magic like his wood was. Any magic that was not of the most basic elements were considered uncommon at the least. The conversation died after that bit of information, and Mash decided to push back his visit to the library until after the tournament. He needed to do some preparations.

He didn’t linger in the guild, nor did he move leisurely in returning home. Running through the streets was not very difficult. Honestly, Mash expected to bother people as he ran, but with his draconic domain, he could easily avoid crashing into people. Several people had been startled when he ran by, but Mash didn’t collide with anyone. Hearing a few people throw curses at him was a new experience, as most of the time, people wouldn’t even speak to him.

Once he arrived, he immediately checked with the head butler to see if his brother was back. He still hadn’t returned so Mash went to the training grounds first. There were so many things about his skills that he needed to test and eagerly ran into the space. First, he needed to understand the changes to his wooden creations and his efficacy with lightning magic. Subconsciously, Mash had expected to receive a lightning magic skill, instead, he got a combination skill of his two magics. He formed his usual weapon from the new type of wood. The wood was a dark brown, and the light hitting it seemed to give it a whitish outline. Mash could feel the wood vibrate a tiny bit in his hand. It was such a small motion that he would only feel it if he was focusing on it.

Next, he channeled a small bit of lightning through the wood. He held the weapon out in front of him, still unsure of how resistant his body was now. The lightning didn’t escape the weapon violently, cascading off the blade into small strands that struck everything around it. He had never seen anything like it, and even when a few of the strands lanced towards his body, he didn’t feel any pain when they struck. It seemed like his affinity and resistance had gone up significantly.

However, he knew that this was only a small part of what he could do. He could feel the lightning within the wood and felt a connection to it like the wood. The connection wasn’t as complete as the one with his wood, but he was able to manipulate the lightning slightly. Pushing the lightning to the tip of his weapon, it shone with a pulsing light. Finally, he released it, trying again to form a single bolt rather than the branching storm he usually made. It didn’t work, and the shape he imagined broke after only a few feet, turning into a branching tree of light. Finding himself able to look upon the sight, told him that his eyes had also adjusted to the magic. Even though it still hurt his eyes a little, it was a beautiful sight. The image only lasted for a fraction of a second, but it had truly looked like a tree of pure light.

That was only one aspect of his new abilities though, and he moved to test lightning in its raw form. Raising his empty hand towards the opposite wall, he tried to form lightning and hold it in place. That was another failure, as the lightning immediately branched outwards, launched like a projectile in front of him. He was surprised at the power though, as it rivaled what he needed Priscilla for in the past. He guessed that opening a fight with that would also end those fights. It seemed like his lightning capabilities were much improved, and he finally let Priscilla help.

Through the bond, he had felt her desire grow as she saw how much stronger he had gotten. Ever since his class upgrade, she wanted him to truly test the bounds of their combination. She had been patient though and gave Mash the time he needed to rest and deal with things. So, he gave in to her desires and let her guide him like before.

“Go ahead, we’ll try all the things you want.”

“Finally.”

As soon as the message entered his mind, outlines for different types of magic sprung forth at extreme rates. This was more than she had been able to manage before. Significantly more, and he asked her about it.

“Did you get stronger too?”

“No, but I have more access to my original power. During your evolution, I managed to siphon off some of that power to finish another body, that plus the improvements to your mana have changed a lot.”

Mash could somehow feel a grin as she finished her explanation, and he didn’t hesitate any longer. He was curious to see what she had planned. The first thing he noticed was that she started forming replicas of herself again, not as many and not as large either. She filled them with some lightning before disconnecting and letting them move about like living creatures. The inherent life of Priscilla’s wooden clones was probably the strangest aspect of his new abilities. When this had happened before, Mash tested it with other animals and found that it didn’t work. He realized this likely only worked due to Thunder-wood Imitation. Somehow that skill replicated Priscilla’s old abilities, and the wooden copies he made were connected to him like her extra bodies were.

The creations spread out from him, and he realized that the range of his control was immense. After they got a decent distance away from him, each fired a miniature version of the attack he used earlier. The power was clearly lower, but it would be more than capable of stunning most monsters. Considering these creations, he bet that each was several times stronger than the fire ants he fought before. And to think that in a prolonged fight he could have dozens, maybe even hundreds, of larger versions rampaging in a fight. Truly a one-man army.

Priscilla wasn’t done with that and formed two unique outlines in front of him. The first fired directly from his hands. Raising his hands in front of him, he followed the complex outline. It was something she hadn’t done before and had a lot of his energy colliding with one another after a short distance. As he activated the magic, several bolts of lightning shot from each of his hands, but instead of branching into a tree, the two bolts collided with another after a short distance. The resounding explosion lashed out at everything, striking his wooden creations as well as everything in the room. The resulting explosion hit him too and launched him backward. However, he was more bothered by the heat than the force, and it felt like his skin had started burning.

“What was that?”

Mash sent the message dazedly, still confused by what had just happened. It had been a powerful explosion. The force didn’t form a crater, instead, it melted the ground around its center. Priscilla didn’t reply right away, seeming to bask in the power she had helped make.

“That was one of most powerful skills in the past, though your power was still lacking.”

Her response was filled with pride and smugness, and Mash was left wondering what the full attack would’ve been like. She didn’t send him an image though, instead of saying it was something he would need to earn. Rolling his eyes, he moved on. There was still one more thing he needed to test today. Today, he would become a dragon.