There was a lot of contempt in what Ikenga did to Armad. Asking you to kneel before someone was like saying you were inferior to that person. It was obvious for Kings and nobles, but when a commoner like you asked you to kneel to them then it became something else. This thought had been recurring in Armad's mind ever since he parted with Ikenga.

The main thing that caught Armad's attention was how Ikenga indicated he could get in and out of the wall prison freely and without any problems. The man could be lying, of course, but how else would he be there? At the moment, Armad didn't have time to investigate the information, so he decided to keep it aside and try to escape the prison again. If it failed, he would return to Babara and figure something out.

He was fully aware that another intrusion into the wall without a proper plan was suicide, so he came up with something and chose the part of the prison that was far from the wall and had little snow to test it. The whole place was ravaged by a strong wind more than any other part he'd been to and, so far, there was no sign of any prisoners in the vicinity except for him. He wrapped himself in a thick sweater from his storage ring and walked deeper into the wilderness, reaching exactly where he wanted to be.

The prison was special. No one was locked up behind bars and everyone had the right to walk around, to build houses if they wanted to, to give birth and live, and to do whatever they wanted. But you would never get out of it, that was the condition. Armad had the map of the prison he collected from Sailári and had identified the most dangerous landmark in the whole place, somewhere so dangerous the prisoners didn't visit willingly. Guza, they called it.

As he went deeper, the trees began to lose their snow coverings. The cries of dordor and djinns got louder. Armad smiled and went further into the darkness of the forest ahead.

Shortly afterward, he was greeted by a huge leopard that was bigger than any leopard he had ever seen before. It was three times his height and had as much flesh as a giant. It pounced on him.

Armad closed his eyes to differentiate its kind. The species of beasts that could use pol were classified as demonic beasts. For example, if this leopard could use pol, it would be called a demonic leopard. Demonic beasts were much faster and stronger than their counterparts who couldn't use pol. And many of them exclusively depended on human flesh for survival. It was the same demonic beasts that caused the prisoners to avoid the forest.

As Armad focused, he could feel warm air stirring in the chest of the beast. It was demonic. And yet, he didn't try to escape or make any attempt to summon his lightning.

He waited until the leopard was an inch away and he called his Bend.

He disappeared from his position and appeared behind the leopard. The leopard stopped midway to the attack and looked around for its prey. It attacked him again as soon as it saw him. Armad disappeared again only to reappear above it. The leopard swiped its claws at him but he disappeared again, not attempting to counter it.

Photon jump had 12.2% core collapse and he could only use it once before his awakening. Now with his awakening and accidental expansion of his core following the demise of his djinn, his maximum core collapse that was compatible with life had risen from 16.75% to somewhere around 82%, which meant he could use the jump up to six times in a row without causing too much stress to his core. Anything beyond that would be a problem. So he dodged the leopard two more times and stopped. The next jump would be the seventh jump in a row. Since he regenerated at 0.01% per hour, it meant he wouldn't be able to use the jump again until after a month.

Armad closed his eyes and sensed the demonic beast behind him. It was furious and was coming at him with everything it had got. He let it sniffed his odor before he disappeared again.

At that moment, Armad felt his thousand years of pol shook. He felt dizzy and started coughing up blood. The demonic creature turned to him. Its claws seemed to be getting longer.

Armad had never violated the law imposed upon him by his grandfather when it came to core collapse, that was, he'd never collapsed his core beyond the maximum limit compatible with life. But this time, he did it.

When the leopard reached him, he gritted his teeth and jumped again. He reappeared behind the leopard, blood trickling out of his eyes and ears. His groans turned into a scream as the pain reached his bones. It was as if coal was being placed on his skin at strategic places. And the leopard became increasingly more aggressive, swiping at him for the eighth time. Armad wanted to jump but his body went stiff and he lost it, falling to the ground unconscious. His body turned into lightning.

The leopard threw its claws at his neck but the lightning pushed it back. It attacked again, and again. At one point, it managed to graze his arm but the lightning burned its claws to ashes. That seemed to have calmed it down a little, and after hesitating for a while, the beasts released a defiant scream and left.

Armad remained in this state for an unknown period, after which he woke up and found himself surrounded by demonic, white-eyed, red lions.

They were just waiting for him to turn back so they could eat him.

Having realized he was still alive and had regenerated his core, which must have taken at least fifty days, Armad smiled proudly and turned into flesh and blood. The white-eyed demonic beasts came straight at him.

"Photon jump!"

He reappeared at a distance of about ten feet away from them. This made the lions grew even angrier and they attacked again. The same pain and agony he had experienced before came back. When he fell unconscious, the lions tried to eat him alive but they couldn't eat lightning.

It was another fifty days or more before he woke up and repeated the same thing over and over again. He would collapse his core and almost die from the consequences, only surviving by his lightning form, and he would try again. He'd forgotten how long he'd been there when his essence board glowed.

After calming down, he finished the surrounding beasts with a single swipe of his finger and then turned in the direction of the wall to try again. With this upgrade, he could use the jump at least ten times in a row and still have around 17% of his core available for Bending.

This second attempt was based on his knowledge of the jump and how it worked. It allowed him to travel so fast from one place to another that it looked like he was teleporting. The first time he tried escaping through the wall, he discovered that the photon jump was not teleporting him around, rather it was increasing his speed to unknown levels, which made him disappear. So if one jump was able to take him half of the way through the wall, then how about two or more jumps in quick succession?

In short, Armad was going to jump several times in a row to escape the wall. He had no idea if it would succeed but he was ready to try it.

The upgrade would allow him to easily beat his opponents since he could simply keep teleporting around the battlefield and launching deadly attacks from unexpected positions. He even intended to give it a new name but eventually decided to just call it photon jump level 2.