Akata sat there, confused as ever. ‘I’m supposed to feel being here yet not here. Be illusory and be tangible. What? Does he think I’m one of those Illusory Phoenix Lilies?’ Akata thought for a moment and his eyes went wide.

Akata reached into his bag of holding and pulled out a small flower that was bright orange and had the glow of the sun. The flower brought a boundless amount of life force in the area. When he held it in his hand it felt like it wasn’t there at times and other times it felt like it was.

‘Flickering between illusory and tangibility. Is this what illusions are supposed to be like? In its illusion state it’s almost like a false image being displayed. But how am I supposed to find this illusion within me?’ Akata thought for a moment.

“Ah! I’m a plant cultivator now, so can’t I just copy what Peizhi Xiuying did?’ Akata held the flower in his hand and started rotating his plant cultivation base. He then rotated his red rune and started to absorb the life of the Illusory Phoenix Lily.

The suction came from the red rune and the power was given to his plant cultivation base. The Illusory Phoenix Lily quickly drained its color and lost all of its luster. Even after it felt completely drained, Akata felt that he was still missing something.

‘Something isn’t right. Even after draining it completely I haven’t found the element of illusion yet.’ Akata frowned and then a memory came to him. ‘Wait, there should still be a spark in this flower.’ Akata rotated his red rune once more along with his plant cultivation base. He put the full force of his cultivation base on display. He washed his nature sense over the flower to search for the remaining spark within it.

He searched frantically for that spark. Right in this moment, he felt more in tune with nature than he had ever been before. His mind, body, and soul were all calm and connected with nature at this point in time.

Finally after a bit of effort he saw a bright orange spark deep within the flower. It would be undetectable to anyone who wasn’t a plant cultivator or wasn’t experienced with plants. And with that spark the Illusory Phoenix Lily wouldn’t die at all.

Akata’s red rune rotated and focused in on the spark that was in the flower. The spark didn’t have a chance since it was being directly targeted now. The spark was quickly absorbed by the red rune and refined it into a usable substance for Akata. The spark’s energy was then sent to his plant cultivation base in his dantion region. It flew to the sprout that was in his dantion region and was absorbed inside of it. The sprout trembled vigorously and and glowed with an intense orange light. The sprout flickered between illusory and tangibility as the aura it produced became stronger.

All of a sudden a blast of energy exploded out of the sprout as it grew to three inches. The original white sprout now had a hint of orange in it. The life force it now had was much more bountiful.

‘3rd Grade of the Seed Rank. Not bad… not bad at all. And the life force from that Illusory Phoenix Lily seems to have a much greater effect than I thought it would. I feel much more lively than I ever had.’ Akata was pleased with his efforts.

He sat in meditation focusing in on his plant cultivation base. This was where the illusionary spark of the Illusory Phoenix Lily had been placed. Akata watched as the sprout in his dantion region kept turning illusory and back. Now that Akata could feel the effect within him, it made it much clearer to know how to put the skill into effect.

‘So that’s how things are.’ Akata smiled. Akata waved his hand in the air causing his cultivation base power to erupt out. His sprout slightly shook as he evoked the element of illusions and mixed it in with his cultivation base power. He then thought of the image of the sun and moon that was within the clouds and waves and recreated it.

The image appeared in the air along with the power of the element of illusion. The image was a dim purple, almost on the verge of blinking out. But, almost as soon as it appeared, it blasted out. The blast sent Akata flying backward. He wasn’t prepared for the blast and therefore was sent flying about a meter.

“Ah! What was that? I thought that I had it perfectly. Did I do something wrong?” Akata looked toward Tabet and asked, clearly quite flustered.

“Haha! Yeah, your core was all wrong and the element of illusion was barely there as well. You’re not going to get it in one day, it takes practice to get used to creating runes. Give it a few more weeks and maybe you’ll be able to have the rune last for a moment before blowing up.” Tabet laughed away as he saw the look on Akata’s face.

Akata’s eye twitched as he listened to Tabet laugh away. He thought this was going to be an easy task to accomplish, but in fact it wasn’t. He first had to familiarize himself with runes and then become adept enough to use them without any problem.

Akata shook his head and focused his mind again. No longer paying attention to Tabet, he readjusted himself. He thought of the image of the sun and moon and infused the image with the element of illusions. He waved his hand to produce the image infused rune and a dim purple light sprang out.

Boom!

The image once again blowed up almost as soon as it appeared. Akata was much more prepared for this to happen as he wasn’t pushed back from the explosion. His eyes showed brightly as he attempted it again and then again. He continued continuously as he struggled relentlessly to keep the rune from blowing up.

Bang! Bang! Boom!

Even after half a day of continuously creating runes, Akata wasn’t able to hold the rune for even a second. His eyes were bloodshot as he created rune after rune. His robes were tattered, from all the explosions, to the point that his body was barely being covered.

‘What am I doing wrong? Could I have messed the image up? Or maybe my cultivation base isn’t high enough.’ Akata was getting frustrated the more he didn’t succeed in keeping the core of the rune from blowing up.

After a few more hours he let out a long disheartening sigh. “UUGH! Why is this so impossible? This can’t be right, I feel like I’m getting nowhere with this. Even after practicing with this for over half the day I can’t keep the core from blowing in my face. How do you do it?”

“Umm… I just do it I guess. It’s not that hard actually; it just takes time to get used to controlling the rune. Balancing the power of the core and the element just takes practice. Just keep at it and you will eventually get the hang of it.” Tabet saif with a light smile on his face.

Akata gave him a fierce glare. Then he simply turned his head and gave a harrumph. He closed his eyes and focused solely on understanding the illusion element within him. ‘He said to balance the power of the core and the element. Well my element seems to be normal, but this core seems weak when compared to it. So to keep it balanced I should either weaken my illusion power or make a better core image.

Making a better core image would be the more plausible thing to do given that I want the most power, but I don’t know how to make a better one. And I don’t want to ask for another core image either. But decreasing the power of my illusion element will also be hard to do.’

Akata had more skill in the element of souls, which is an outer element. Since he had a more innate skill in outer elements, his skill in inner elements was boosted as well.

It was like if you were skilled in the sword you would be powerful. But even if you had to use a stick, you would still have the knowledge of using a sword and will still be able to make it a strong weapon.

The same concept applied to elements but on an innate level. The stronger your main element, the stronger all the other elements you learn will be.

Thus trying to weaken an element that was naturally strong was a hard thing to do. Akata would have to bring the power of the element down to a level that he had never used before. It would be especially hard seeing as he had just learned the element of illusions. But he was in a rush and therefore wanted to get a grasp on it as fast as possible.

‘I only have two months on this island. I have to learn all I can within these two months, but if I can’t get past this then I can’t learn anything else. So I have to learn to balance the core image and the power of the element as soon as possible.’ Akata felt flustered to an extreme degree.

Akata calmed his mind and tried to rethink what he should do. After a bit of time his eyes filled with decisiveness. ‘Well I’m not aiming to be weak so I will figure out how to make a better core image. One that will match or even surpass the level of power of my illusion element.’

“Tabet. How can I make my own core image? Can you teach me how to do that?” Akata asked, his voice filled with determination. He wasn’t going to go back on his choice of making his own core image to get stronger.

“Make your own core image?” Tabet was extremely surprised. Didn’t Akata just get into runes. He was still on the process of balancing the power. How could he want to make a core image now? “Are you sure you want to make a core image now? It would be better to learn how to balance the power you have now.” Taber tried to dissuade him.

“No thanks. I feel that I have to make my own core image in order for me to get an idea of balancing my power.” Akata said.

Tabet thought for a moment about how Akata had skill in an outer element. ‘Maybe this is because he has an outer element skill. Could his power in runes be higher than others?’ He thought for a moment.

He nodded his head toward Akata. “Okay you can make a core image, but I can’t teach you. Not because I’m not allowed to but because I don’t know how. The only ones that knows how to is my father and my grandfather. Only once I reach the Beast Rank will I be able to learn how to. So you have to ask my father about that.”

Akata nodded his head. “When I fully recover can you take me to your father then?”

“Yeah sure.” Tabet replied. In his eyes a bit of hope could be seen.

Akata nodded his head once more then closed his eyes. He was seated cross legged and began to replenish his energy.