"Yeah" he replied smugly, "That should be good enough."

"Oh is that so you brat?" He smiled coldly, "Then I want to see you come up with something better and practice by yourself."

Ventus once more kneeled and kowtowed.

"Revered master, forgive me!" he cried, " I've been so blind to your magnificence, forgive me, please!"

Richard just snorted with an angry face, but it didn't take him long to laugh and signal him to come closer. In his eyes, Ventus was just a kid, a mischievous and bratty one, but nonetheless a good kid. It wasn't long since he lost basically his entire life to that evil fire, and yet, he moved forward and embarked on this trip with him. Maybe, he thought, it was one of the perks of being young.

Ventus walked down the several rolls of stone benches of the arena and headed towards the square fighting space. As he arrived Richard instructed him to sit down beside him and prepare to execute his refinement technique.

Richard moved around Ventus and sat down cross-legged behind him placing a hand on his shoulder whilst making a hand sign with his hand.

"Release!"

A shattering sound echoed in the depths of Ventus mind. The seal on the green pill crumbled and the massive pill mana burst off, gushing great amounts of energy into Ventus's stomach making it bulge.

Ventus executed his whirlwind revolution technique and began the refinement. As Richard's senses were focused on the boy, he noticed that the technique by itself was of really high standards, even higher than what he estimated initially. Even though he knew the theory, he had never focused on analyzing its execution.

He was a grandmaster magus after all, without hard work and talent he wouldn't have reached where he got today. However, his most defining trait is that he was a research aficionado. Upon finding a new discovery, he would immediately head out and explore it to the fullest of his abilities. When the association reported that a countryside magus had achieved the grandmaster standard and had developed the groundbreaking tornado policy, he got himself a copy and travelled to see for himself how it was executed. Alas, his efforts were in vain as the man died before he had a chance to converse with him properly and discuss the technique.

As Ventus executed the refinement technique Richard observed its effects. The technique was faster than most of the regular in terms of circulation and refinement. It had the special property of, instead of the regular urging of the mana to make it move inside the meridians and core, making the mana rotate just like a bullet would when fired out of a gun inside the meridians making it speed up tremendously. Richard estimated that the technique allowed Ventus to refine mana three or four times faster than the average magus.

Even with that incredible speed, Richard estimated that it wasn't enough. At Ventus current speed and efficiency, he would still take another two days to completely refine and fully recover his core. But if he wanted to implement his training regime to the maximum efficiency, he couldn't afford to let Ventus waste such time.

As the pill mana flowed through Ventus's body he felt a weird phenomenon take place. A foreign energy entered his body and began to affect his refinement. At first, it made Ventus refine and absorb the pill mana more thoroughly, enhancing its healing effects. Then, it sped up his flow up to ten times its original speed.

Normally, such speed in an unprepared body like Ventus would shred the meridians to pieces and break the core apart, essentially crippling the individual and causing internal damage to other organs non-related to mana. But due to Richard's precise control, it did no damage whatsoever and instead, greatly accelerated his recovery.

The core recovered at visible speed and in minutes it was completely restored and strengthened. The meridians and the rest of the body were also quenched in the overflowing pill mana received an upgrade as well. In ten minutes the recovery was complete and the pill was fully refined and converted into inner mana.

Ventus now was full to the brim with mana. His body seemed to emit a faint glow around it as it contently vibrated with energy. He knew even without looking too cautiously that his body was healed and he was back to his prime, His core was filled to 100% and he felt as if he could shatter a mountain if he so wished.

Richard ceased his actions and stood up releasing a light hot breath, Ventus followed promptly and stood up as well. Richard moved a few meters away from him and turned to face him, his hands were behind his back as he wore a serious semblance. Ventus knew that the time for him to learn had come.

"First kid" He spoke, "Before you learn the technique, you must learn something that any earth magus has to learn if he truly strives for the top."

His body glowed with aura. That aura at first was around all of his body, but then it started flowing towards the ground, eventually, only his feet glowed. At first, Ventus did not understand as no phenomenon manifested in front of him, but soon, the ground vibrated gently as if a heart was silently beating below them.

"Old man, what's going on? why do I feel like there is a heart beneath my feet?" Ventus questioned confused.

"Oh," Richard spoke surprised, "You can actually feel that so quickly? I thought I would have to pour more mana into this!"

"Truly talented, truly talented," He said smiling, "Well kid, what you feel beneath you is the world's pulse."

"World's pulse?" he asked stunned "As in, the heartbeat of the planet?"

"Precisely" he replied, "As every life has a pulse, so does the world that houses all lives"

"If you pay enough attention, or if you stimulate it a bit, you can feel that the world itself is alive and has a pulse of its own," he explained, "If you ever wish to master any earth magi art to the fullest, you must communicate with the world."

"Communicate with the world..." Ventus mused.

Soon enough his eyes were closed and his focus was directed towards the earth. Seeing his apprentice's proactiveness he retracted his mana from the ground, he would let him experiment on his own and if any doubts were raised he would guide him more directly.

Ventus began circulating the mana inside himself. If flowed inside him like a liquid substance that would advance or retreat at his will. A portion of the mana first exited the core and spread throughout his meridians, then it reached his muscles, bone, veins and other tissues. His body began to glow with mana that formed a short white aura around himself. This was general mana reinforcement.

He then retraced the excess energy from the rest of his body and began to guide all of it towards his feet, the aura likewise began to disappear and converge towards the ground. In instants, all the mana he had on his meridians was now focused on soles. He began to ram the mana towards the ground with all with will trying to make his mana connect to it.

This problem arose some thoughts on his mind. At first, he thought that slowly guiding the mana wouldn't work for him since he was new at this, so he tried the brute force approach. The energy on his feet went upwards towards his tights, and then fired back down at rapid speed and ram at his soles. To his disappointment, all that did was make his feet shine for an instant and then return to the regular reinforcement glow.

Then he figured the quantity of mana he had urged was too little and as such he willed more mana and repeated the process using up to 50% of the mana on his core all at once. And once again, all he achieved was make his feet shine even brighter than before.

"I refuse to believe I cannot do this!" He mumbled angrily as his calm face began to contort into an angry expression.

The last thought was that he just wasn't trying hard enough, and so, tried his best.

He then mustered all the mana in his body towards this effort, he willed it all towards his head and made it glow like a lightbulb. He then willed it all down at the greatest speed he could and it crashed down at his feet making it look like he had two flashbangs for feet as they released a blinding light for an instant. But alas, his efforts were for nought.

"Why is it that my mana won't connect to the ground? Why can't I make it leave my body?!" he grumbled.

He stopped his efforts and opened his eyes as he stabilized his flow and returned his mana to his core. Not even 100% was enough to break through the ground and connect with the world, he did not understand how Richard did it so effortlessly. He turned to him.

"How did you so easily connect with the world? what did you do old man?" he inquired frustrated.