Late at night, Alica was still trying to make the meditation skill to work on Kaylen. They had tried all afternoon to make it work, but nothing was happening. The skill that Alica wanted to teach Kaylen was an insignificant mana cultivation skill. But nothing was working. Alica had tried to teach Kaylen different kinds of mana cultivation skills, but nothing had worked.

"Fuck it! I will teach you the essence cultivation skill and let's hope this time it will work." Kaylen could hear the tiredness on Alica's voice. Alica then explained how the skill worked and that is was far slower than the mana cultivation. The essence cultivation increased all the stats at the same time, and that was why it was slower. And that was the downside of the skill, and why most people focused on mana. Although they were some crazy martial artists that were obsessed with essence cultivation. When Alica finished explaining how the cultivation worked, Kaylen executed the skill.

Useless Essence Cultivation.

Every full 60 seconds you gain 10 level exp.

Every level on this skill lowers the time between the exp.

"I learned it." Alica let out a tired sigh and said. "That's good, now let's go and take a bath and after that sleep." They did their thing and went to sleep. An hour later Kaylen was awake. She used her skill like the previous day until the sun was up. The Basic Body empowerment skill now 96 level, 4 more levels and she could get a better one. Alica came to her room and both left to the Academy without a name.

They passed the guards and went to the office with the 'everything green lady'. "Good morning," Alvaerele said. "You came here to get the pass correct?" She said while she was reading something on a paper. "You came at the right time. The pass was made just a few minutes ago." She picked the pass and gave it to Kaylen. "The classes for Kaylen will start on the first day of the new year. I have put her on all magic classes and some of the physicals ones."

They left the Academy, and roam the city. "When will the new year start?" Asked Kaylen. Alica was confused. "You don't even know that?" Sigh. "It will start in sixty-two days from now." She paused for a few seconds and then she said. "Come, I want to show you my favorite shop. It a magic shop with many things, but the most sold things are the magic staffs and trinkets."

After a few minutes of walking. They were on the front of a dark blue building. The building had a sign saying 'Marinth's magic things' and a picture of a fairy holding trinkets. On the displays, there were the most expensive things you could buy. Staff, trinkets, magic papers, spell books, magic cyclopedias, biographic of mages, plants, pills, drugs, spell scrolls, amulets, rings, bracelet and more were on the windowed displays. Kaylen was instantly attracted by all the different kinds of books that the shop was selling.

A small bell made some noise when Alica opened the door. The owner came running from the other room that was at the back of the table he used to make the trades. "Princesse Alica, it's nice to see you again to my shop." He gave a bow and added. "You give me prestige every time you come here. And more and more mages come here. I'm really thankful for choosing my shop for your magic things." And he again gave a bow. "Now, what can I help those two beautiful ladies today?" He has a down-to-earth man, and never let the honor that he gained from Alica to get on his head. Although he liked the money that came his way, he never let that affect his research on magic and magic items.

"Hmm, do you have any new item?" Asked Alica. Kaylen was looking at all the things that the shop was selling.

"Yes, of course, I have a new thing. Let me show you." He went to the other side of the shop and pointed at a staff that was high up on the wall. "This staff here, I made it yesterday. I infused it with a magic core of a high mana monster."

"And what's the effect of the staff?"

"It doubles the firepower of every spell you cast. It one of my best staff I have made!"

"And why is it not at the front?"

"Because it's ugly as you can see. No noble wants to use something that is ugly. "Who could go around with a black stick and say it can double the firepower of every spell. Of course no one."

"Kaylen, let that thing down, and come here!"

Kaylen put down a trinket that looked like a bomb to most people and went to Alica.

"What do you say? Do you want this staff or something else?"

"And why do I need a staff?" Kaylen said, and she went closer to the stick. Although it was high up on the wall, she was able to detect the carved runes of the stick.

"Well, you have nothing except the ring and the gloves. You need more firepower than that, so I thought the staff could be a good start."

"Okay." Kaylen then tried to use the system to observe the item.

Stick Infused with a level 352 monster core.

Runes efficiency for 'power' at 25%.

Enchanted the power of spells by 88%.

Durability 352/352

"And who is going to pay for it?" Asked Kaylen.

"Of course it will be me. It's not that expensive, it's only 176 gold coins."

"Okay then, let's buy it."

The owner of the shop was happy with what he heard. They did the trade, and now Kaylen had a black stick. They went back to the palace to train. When they were in the backyard of the palace, Alica asked Kaylen. "So, are you happy with your new staff? It doesn't look like much, but it can do the job just fine." "Yeap, I like it, and I want to try it right now!." "No, you won't do it now. We will cultivate first and eat launch. After that, you can go and play with your new staff."

And that what they did for the next two hours. Then a maid came to the backyard, and she told them to come to the table with the Queen and the King to eat. When that was done, they went back to the backyard, and Kaylen took the staff and used the two spells she had.

Kaylen saw that the firepower had been improved when the spell was executed from the tip of the staff. The flamethrower had more heat output and distance, and the firebolt had higher velocity, bigger length and it could travel farther.

"So, do you like it?" Asked Alica. Kaylen nodded with a smile. Not only did she liked it, but loved it, and she wanted to make something like this herself. She went ahead and asked Alica how could she make a staff like this or an item like this. "Well, that is a complicated process and needs many tries and errors before you can make a stick become a staff, and be able to sell it with high profit. I think, my father has some books that teach how to create magic items. Wait here!." That was the last thing she said before she ran to the palace.

While Alica was searching for her father, Kaylen used her staff more and more. An hour later Alica came back with a tome and some wooden daggers. In that time Kaylen had leveled up her Firebolt spell to level 25.

"Her, this is what my father gave me. It's a tome with many techniques and styles of forging, infusing and more. Holy, this thing is heavy! It at least a 10 kilos book. With 1000 pages in it. So, if you want to learn how to make the magic things that you want, you better start reading this thing. You have 62 days before the academy classes start. Now, I will leave this here, and we will get back to training, but this time we going to play with knives."

"Sweat, that's my cup of tea." 'Whatever that means.' Sain and though Kaylen. She was excited about both those things. Alica continued speaking.

"A good mage should always have to know how to fight in close combat if he/she ever runs out of mana. And my style is daggers, well most mages use dagger because we are not physically fit, but mostly mentally. So, what else, I forgot what I was saying." She paused for a few seconds to think and then she spoke again. "Well, never mind that. As I was saying, if mages run out of mana and someone is close, they have to defend themselves, and that is why we use mostly daggers or knives. Now, before we start. Do you have any dagger techniques?" Kaylen shook her head. "Good them, I do not either. I do not wish to ever have to fight a close combat like that, but my parent forced me to do it. So, enough of that, get ready. We will fight only with daggers! Start!"

With that, both ran close to each other and exchanged blows with each other. Alica attack first by aiming at the Kaylen's face. It was an attack that was back up by full contracted muscles. Kaylen dodged the attack, and she felt the air pressure that was formed around the dagger hitting her cheek. While Alica was trying to retrieve the dagger close to her, Kaylen attacked with the same style that Alica did. She aimed at Alica's face, and with the same motion, she forced Alica to dodge. They both continued to attack each other will full force. They aimed everywhere on the human body. But they were at a standstill.

Alica was using the dagger far better than Kaylen was, but the latter had far better physical skills to compensate in the lack of skills. The exchange of continues blows put a huge pressure on the wooden dagger. The wooden daggers were everywhere, some were broken in half, others with just the blade part being destroyed and others handle being caved in so much that it was made impossible to grip.

Maids had come to watch the fight that was going on. Even Molonym the battler had come to watch the fight. Later the Queen and the KIng did the same.

Both Kaylen and Alica were full of sweat, they had kept on fighting for more than five hours. Alica was using her mana to restore stamina secretly. But she was that Kaylen could keep up with her just fine after so many hours. Both were looking at each other eyes, waiting for who was going to do the next attack. Kaylen stamina had regened back to max and so had Alicas, both again attack each other until the last daggers broke down. When that happened, both hit the ground with their faced planted on the backyards ground.

"Impressive." Said Molonym, the Queen, and the King looked at him and the latter asked. "What do you mean? All I saw was a wooden dagger moving around! Those girls are crazy!" Said the King with a real surprised and happy tone. He had seen for the first time her daughter being focused so much on training. "It was that both of them were improving the techniques in real time, but what is more impressive than that was that both never stopped attacking each other even when their hands started to bleed. Look at their hands, that is dedication, my king. Both wanted to win over each other, but manage to get only a draw." Said Molonym. "You are the one who is training with Renna every day, so I understand from whom those words are coming from." Said the king. "That makes me happy, my king." He then spoke to the maids. "Now, if you can please, use healing magic on them and put them to bed. They will be sore for a couple of hours when they woke up. And I want at least one of you to check their rooms respectively every hour. Until they woke up."

The maids moving around with finesse and harmony. They picked up the exhausted Kaylen and Alica and placed them on their beds. They changed their clothes and left them sleep. While the maids were doing their work, Renna asked the battler on his opinion of Kaylen. "I think, she will be a good partner for Alica. They can both worth together, one for close combat and the other with magic. They could be able to make a great combo together. The only thing they need is experience, and Kaylen needs more essence. In time, we will have a great force to deal with the human emperor."

"I agree with everything you said, but I don't like how my little baby is watching Kaylen." Said the king. "She has the look of love on her eyes, and it's with another woman!" "Really? That was your problem? That Alica was finally found a friend, and maybe a lover. She is already 40 years old, what did you expect to happen Virion? I like how Alica has been developing in the last few days, and I don't want you to say anything to Alica! Are we clear !?" Said Renna without a hint of playfulness or anything like that, but on full seriousness. She didn't want to change how Alica felt, nor did she want to change the feeling that Alica she may have for Kaylen. "I know, I know. I just don't want to lose my little child!" He said with tears in his eyes. Many thoughts of Alica leaving the city and his for someone else made him sad, but there was a feeling of happiness too in those thoughts, but he tried to force it down.

"Come on, let's go inside and let things go how they are supposed to go." And that was the last thing Renna said and left with Virion and Molonym.