[Author's Note: Sorry it's kinda late, losing a little motivation lately. Although the major plot has already been decided, writing it's details is taking a lot of time and I've been trying to lengthen each chapter to around 2k words per chapter instead of 1.3k per chapter

Also, if you can remember chapter 1, the following 2 people were the same ones in the intro of chapter 1. (I have revised chapter 1 a while ago to mention some of their brief characteristics, in case you started reading before the revision)

Hope you enjoy

-Cienz]

Chapter 45: Required Materials

A figure rushed into a room in haste

The room was a simple study, filled with several bookshelves full of book. At the far end of the room was a large wooden desk.

The figure approached a man sitting behind the desk

"Second brother, is it true that eldest brother has arrived? where is he?"

The figure with the short azure blue hair asked a middle-aged man who was sitting down as he was reading a book.

"Third brother, why are you in such a hurry? Eldest brother is in the recuperating room, but right now he forbids anyone from seeing him", the middle-aged man with crimson flowing hair and golden streaks.

-SIGH- "Eldest brother finally comes back and he is in the recuperating room.. Second brother, I have been searching for our little sister. I'm sure that eldest brother would know where she is."

"Oh? Eldest brother told me that little sister had reincarnated herself recently, perhaps only a hundred years ago. Don't worry, she is just playing in the mortal realm"

"Reincarnated? Why now?! The tournament between the realms will soon arrive. Although I have already found a suitable candidate, we'll need to find another candidate to represent us", the azure blue haired man declared.

"Although I am not sure what had happened, eldest brother assured me that he has already found a possible candidate. Besides, I have 1 or 2 potential candidates as well. We still have enough time to gather them, don't worry too much", the carefree second brother assured

"I just hope what happened last time doesn't happen again"

The azure blue haired third brother was slightly worried

....

"Oh, brother-in-law, what can I help you with?", Riss greeted Teo as he approached the counter

Teo arrived at the Emerald Pavilion after completing his training at the Martial faction. Last night, he couldn't wait to try out the inscription that he memorized from Emily's necklace but didn't have the necessary materials for the inscription to work.

There were two different ways the whole inscription was written in, one was carved into the gem while the other was written in elemental energy.

It was similar to how old man Cien created an array midair as he upgraded Teo's eyes. Teo slightly remembered the scene before passing out and knew that it was an advance technique of writing.

Luckily for Teo, the advance writing technique was described with the second half of the array book. The array book's second half did not focus much on arrays, but rather several ways of writing them.

There were sections of the book that talked about creating arrays that were not directly linked to each other. The book also mentioned that arrays could be created using items in place of symbols. Other sections talked about a multi-layered arrays that was not written solely in a 2-dimensional piece of paper but rather a 3-dimensional space. This method of writing arrays used the advance writing technique of using world Qi as its ink.

There was also a section of overlapping arrays. Different from multi-layared arrays, the overlapping arrays are solely 2-dimensional arrays that overlapped each other.

Teo had briefly looked at the various topics within the book. Although he did not fully understand it, he had grasped the idea behind them.

Although there was instructions on how to learn the writing method, it required Teo to be able to manipulate world Qi. There were many ways of manipulating world Qi written in the book but there was one method that Teo was slightly familiar of. It was similar to the manipulating stage of an elementalist, but instead of manipulating elemental energy, it would manipulate world Qi.

Looking at all the other methods of manipulating world Qi, Teo was overwhelmed by their difficulty. With his ability right now, he, who was not even in the movement stage, did not have much hope for these techniques.

Luck for him that arrays were not restricted to a singular path but many diverging and converging paths.

Teo had to be creative.

If he could not write using world Qi or elemental energy as ink, then he would have to find another way.

What Teo needed right now was materials. He required materials to experiment on possible methods and so he decided to visit the Emerald Pavilion's materials section.

"How are you, sister-in-law?", Teo greeted.

"Came to see little ol' me?"

"Of course. I am looking for some materials as well. I wonder if sister-in-law can help me."

"Sure thing. Do you know what you are looking for?"

"Not all of them", Teo replied as he looked around the room.

There were several materials enclosed in glass casings. Some within the glass counters.

"Do you have any large void stones?", Teo inquired

Void stones were usually cut into small marble size stones and large void stones are quite rare because it's uses were limited. Void stones are transparent stones which could be cut to look similar to diamonds and some would even show minor inscriptions as to imitate void jewelry.

"We have a few, but they are expensive. Each one is 1 gold. They aren't covered with the academy's discounts because they are not materials students should be using. Although I can reduce the price to 94 silvers, it's still going to be very expensive"

Despite the 6% family and friends discount, the price was still enormous.

"I'll take one"

Although it was expensive, with Teo's current finances, he could still afford it.

Riss was slightly shocked, but she also knew that Teo could afford it.

"Are there any carving tools for sale here as well?"

The academy provided standard carving tools to students who took a class that needed it. For an inscription class, Teo would of course have access to these tools, but these tools were ordinary and would easily break. Teo needed a tool that was extremely sharp and durable.

"Of course we do, come follow me"

They walked to the other end of the room, it was littered with several tools and contraptions used to process materials.

Within a glass case were several carving tools. There were small knives at a tip of a wooden pen. Some knives were shaped similarly but others were shaped in an odd manner.

"These are the carving knives we have, you can see that the prices are quite high. No academy discounts for these as well"

The knives were priced around 50 silver, some even going up to 1 gold.

As Teo looked at the various knives, he picked a knife that was worth 80 silver. This small knife was designed for delicate and precise carvings. It was extremely sharp and very durable. Although it was the not most expensive knife, Teo was sure it was the best knife of them all.

With his eyes, he could see that there were invisible inscriptions written on this knife that enhanced it's durability and maintained it sharpness. The most expensive knife was 1 gold, it was a good knife but the only thing that made it expensive was the detailed design on its handle. Teo did not care much about what his knife looked like; as long as it was useful, the aesthetics was not important.

A he was looking at the other tools, a strange wire caught Teo's attention.

"Sister-in-law, do you know what this is for?", Teo pointed at the strange looking wire of varying widths.

"Oh this item? This one is called a drill wires. It is use to make small holes through tough materials. At the very ends of them are very sharp knives"

Teo decided to buy some drill wires as well as some regular wires. After that, he ordered some void powder as well as ink mixtures as well as other various items. He thought of several methods to write the inscriptions and arrays that he was planning, and picked out many materials that could possibly help him.

After buying so many items, Teo had spent almost 4 gold total, leaving him with a little over 15 gold.

"My, brother-in-law sure is a big spender, maybe you should treat me sometime too?", Riss teased

From the items that Teo bought, she deduced that Teo was learning inscription, but she couldn't figure out what the large void stone was for.

'Perhaps Teo wants to be a jeweler', she thought

....

When Teo came back to his cave. He laid all the materials he bought onto the floor.

Teo was tired from his training, but his piqued interest gave him the drive continue on his experiments

The time he allocated for reading books had almost vanished. Although he wanted to read books, experimenting and learning more about the inscription took over his desire to read books.

This decision was not only fueled by his curiosity, but was also fueled by something important as well. After the year ended or when he had successfully finished with his experiments, he could go back to reading books as much as he wanted, but this was more important right now.

....

The week continued on in a similar fashion. He would gather Qi during his elementalist class, then head to the Martial faction headquarters for training, and then come back home and study recreating the inscription and forming an array from it.

As he slept, he would go into the inner world either continue planning for his array or meditate and gather thick world Qi into his body.

On the last day of the week, Teo, Windle and Lia arrived at the Martial faction headquarters. This was a special day for both Teo and Windle. It was the day that they would both have their first lesson in combat.

"Are you guys ready?", Lia asked

Windle nodded, his face was solemn. He had mentally prepared himself for his first spar. He had also secretly practiced within an isolated training room at the academy's training grounds.

Teo on the other hand yawned. He was slightly mentally fatigued. Although meditation helped recover from his mental fatigue, he had been working his brains out non-stop with his project.

Like a mad scientist eager to progress on their research, Teo worked his mind to its limits that even meditation did not help as much. His time limit was a year, it was not short but it was definitely not long.

He wanted to create a gift for his sister before she left the academy and he knew how precious a void jewelry was. He was like an engineer without having all the required parts. Although he understood the inscriptions of the void jewelry, he had no means of writing with elemental energy and thus had to find a way around that problem.

"Teo did you not get enough sleep?", Windle asked

"Yeah", Teo answered

It was not that he did not get enough sleep but his mind was clearly tired.

'Maybe I should slow down a bit', Teo thought.

Although he felt rushed because of the limited time he had, after these few days, he felt that he should be able to complete his little project before the year was over even if he slowed down.

Even without the old man Cien's guidance, he was confident with his abilities.

The three saw Rowen, Gina and another person sitting nearby the entrance and they approached them.

"Kali why are you here?", Lia asked the third person

"Senior Gina asked me to come for something today", Kali responded

Kali had long black hair that was braided to the sides. She was as tall as Windle and her skin was slightly tanned, eyes were hazel brown.

"You guys finally arrived, Let's go I reserved a private arena for us to use", Rowen said

They arrived at the Martial faction building but did not enter. At the side of the entrance was a staircase that led them to an underground hallway.

The dark hallway was long and Rowen and Gina led everyone towards a specific room.

As they entered the room, a bright light coming from within temporarily blinded them for a bit. Compared to the dark hallway, the inside the room was illuminated by several light stones that made the room as bright as outside.

Windle and Teo looked around the room and noticed at the side of the arena was a rack of wooden weapons.

-Gulp-

Teo was slightly nervous and excited as well. Although his mind was fatigued all his attention focused on the upcoming spar.

"Okay first lets have Teo spar with Lia", Gina suggested

Rowen nodded in approval