Kai was currently resuming his training of mastering his fear over the cold which he gained from his past life's death.

"Ice is an attribute of mine, I don't need to fear my own power. My power is my own, the fear that I have is superficial."

The ice had already melted and the waterfall was functioning as it was before but it was albeit colder than before. Enough water would be able to melt ice and enough ice would be able to freeze water. They were elements that benefit each other yet were enemies.

If a water attribute user were to fight against an ice attribute user, they would be defeated in a dominating fashion. But if a water attribute user were to fight with an ice attribute user, they would create combinations that would be impossible to do alone.

The elements that didn't have any relations would be darkness and light. There are secondary elements from light and darkness but there's rarely anyone who have dual attributes of darkness or light and another primary. Kai's case of darkness and a secondary element of ice is the only Reo has ever heard of.

Kai breathed in and out as the freezing of the waterfall slowed down.

"I should be able to control it."

The freezing stopped but Kai had to focus immensely.

Reo was looking at Kai from the side instead of making some preparations because he was worried. This was the first time that he saw Kai hold genuine fear. He may have been afraid of other things some other times like when he died in the illusion world but Reo had never seen Kai so afraid that he shivered at the mere thought.

"I'm not the weak one I used to be."

The image of the woman crying for him as he dragged his cold, half-dead body to her came to his mind.

Kai grit his teeth and the freezing of the waterfall had begun once more. Kai's body became colder and colder until half of his body was encased in ice. Reo looked at Kai but didn't help him, he had to conquer this on his own.

"Dammit, how do I control you?!"

Kai yelled inside himself as he looked at the ice that was spreading rapidly.

Kai saw a figure of a monkey at the edge of the waterfall which rapidly retreated once the monkey saw it spread.

"Scarlet Ant Primate..."

Kai remembered the name of the monkey and the figure of the one who defeated those monkeys with the same element that he, himself feared.

"That's right, I just have to be like her. Someone who isn't afraid of anything."

Kai cleared his thoughts but the ice was still spreading, but this time; Kai wasn't afraid.

After a few seconds, the ice gradually receded.

"That's right, it's only an element."

Kai's voice became ice-cold as he talked.

Reo frowned when he heard Kai's voice.

"The power of ice has taken over his emotions."

Each second, the speed that the ice receded was even faster than before. Normally, ice shouldn't be able to recede like this but this wasn't Kai's attribute; it was the cold that was spreading from his body, to be able to freeze water, how cold would that air have to be?

As the waterfall turned into water, Kai's body wasn't touched in the least. There was cold air surrounding him which created a thin wall of ice to cover himself.

Kai stood up and walked on land and faced Reo.

"I did it, let's proceed."

Kai calmly told Reo.

"Kai, listen to me. You lost to your element, it's gone out of control once more and ate your emotions. The power of darkness harnesses your negative emotions and lets them run rampant but the ice element eats your emotions; if you stay like this for long, even your personality may be affected."

"I see."

Kai simply replied.

"I can't really help you with the process of recovering but at least remember how you act from your memories. We'll now go to the next part of your training."

Kai didn't respond and just wordlessly stared at Reo.

"You're creeping me out."

"Is that so?"

Kai made a rhetorical question but his expression didn't change at all.

"We're going to use some moves using the power of ice. Your task is to accurately hit the targets I will set with [Icicles], you should already know how to use it because Mio had told you and even showed you."

Kai nodded and then walked towards the trees.

"This is gonna take some getting used to..."

Reo went into the forest and made some targets on trees, the rule was that Kai would use a single icicle per tree and the training will end once he accurately hits the middle of each target flawlessly.

"Alright, ready, go!"

Kai leaped forward as his eyes scanned each and every tree in his surroundings.

Once he saw something that looked like a target, Kai raised his palm.

"[Icicles]."

Kai calmly let out a single word without any emotion behind them.

Multiple crystals of ice appeared in front of Kai but only one shot forward to the tree.

Kai didn't look at the target again and switched his eyes to the left, another one of the crystals shot out and Kai's vision scanned for more. It was only after an hour did Kai finish and went back to the start of the forest.

"Alright, let me check."

Reo turned into smoke and went inside the forest, half an hour passed and then Reo came out.

"You managed to accurately hit...one."

"I see."

Kai nodded and just proceeded to stare at Reo.

"This is so annoying."

Reo sighed and shook his head repeatedly in the process.

A week passed and Kai finally accurately hit every target. Another week passed and Kai could split rocks with an [Ice Blade] perfectly. Two more weeks and Kai's [Ice Wall] could resist Reo's attack.

Another week and Kai's [Shadow Ball] increased in radius and damage. One more and Kai's [Dark Beam] and [Dark Railgun] could pierce a fifteen meter thick wall of stone. A month passed and Kai mastered [Shadow Assimilation] that Reo had used on him on the day he left to the point where he could transfer over to five different shadows under the sun in one cast.

But the most improvement he had gained in magic was with his healing magic, he can heal his superficial wounds in an instant and heal grave injuries in only an hour, he had learned this magic in the span of three months.

You could say that he improved dramatically. And now, Kai's final test for controlling magic begins.

In the two months that he trained, Kai still had no emotions to speak of. Although emotions that are out of control can be calmed, having no emotions would make it drastically harder.

But due to him having no distractions with his emotions, Reo knew that Kai improved at a much faster pace.

"Alright, we'll start with your final test."

Reo was now currently in front of the inner circle of the forest, this was the smallest part of the forest but also the most dangerous. If traversed by foot, it would take one at least three months of walking. If traversed by carriage, it would take at least a month but that doesn't take in the fact that there are plenty of beasts here. But of course, that is only if you go by normal speed.

The Darkwood Forest is split into three. The Outer Area, inhabited by the humans. The Middle Area, uninhabited by humans and inhabited by beasts. And finally, the Inner Circle, its name comes from the fact that this are is formed in a circle, it's located deep inside the Inner Area and is also called the Dead Zone as nobody who goes in here walks back alive; believed to hold the Disaster-class beast kings. The biggest area is the Inner Circle, followed by the Middle Area, and lastly the Outer Area

In the past year, Kai had stayed in the outskirts of the Middle Area and trained in the depths of it with the waterfall. If Kai ran back to his home now, he would take at least two days of running at full speed.

Kai was standing in front of Reo with a blank face.

"Normally, you'd panic but I guess this saves me from the hassle. Your test is to stay in the inner circle for an entire year, right now it's early-Winter, I will transport myself back to the Spirit Realm and come out during early-Winter of next year. This will provide you the battle experience that I can't teach you. I've told you how to survive with resources in the area, I don't mind how you live in this year but be sure to at least kill twenty beasts of mob-class or five fighter-class beasts each day."

Kai nodded then proceeded to walk inside the inner circle.

"With your current body of C-class and magic rank of E-class, fifth step; I have no doubt that you'll succeed this year if you don't encounter the beast kings. Your magic is abnormally thicker than most and your E-class, fifth step should be able to conquer at least a mob-class beast. Coupled with your body of C-class, fighter-class beasts should be able to give you trouble but you'd probably be fine. Farewell and good luck."

Reo vanished into smoke and Kai walked inside the inner circle.

"That's right, I'm not the same person I once was. I will complete this test and get home to my family. My power of darkness won't go out of control anymore, my ice attribute won't freeze my surroundings anymore, I am strong."

Kai walked deeper and deeper into the inner circle until he finally encountered a single beast, it was shaped in the form of a tiger but its eyes were red and its fur was a flaming orange.

"Inferno Tiger, Disaster-class beast..."

Kai's eyes widened under the pressure of the tiger and he begun breathing quite heavily. His emotions had returned.

"...I have to run..."

Kai weakly told himself as he was prepared to leap to the left and run but the Inferno Tiger turned around as if it had no interest in someone like him.

Kai was both relieved and annoyed. The Inferno Tiger merely looked at him for a few seconds before it turned around and lost interest. He was relieved because he wasn't killed, but he was annoyed because he thought he had become stronger than before but when he looked into the eyes of that beast, he knew he was only a second away from death.

"I must get stronger."

Kai made another vow and ran deeper in the forest whilst avoiding the direction that the Inferno Tiger had walked through. It is said that Disaster-class beasts and Apocalypse-class beasts have a mind of their own and command many beasts under their strength, if it was any other beast, Kai would undoubtedly be attacked so Kai knew that what the information said was true.

As Kai turned the corner, there were ten mob-class beasts, the Wolfen, his old enemy. And behind him, sprung up two fighter-class beasts, the Shadow Panther.

Kai placed one hand behind him and another on his pendant. On the hand on his pendant, Superbia appeared. On the hand that was behind him, [Ice Blade] materialized.

He brandished his two blades and aimed it at the two opposing parties.

"Come!"

Kai yelled which signalled the start of Kai's first true battle with beasts on his level.