"The two Nydil Seeds contain enough Ein for you to advance into Middle Elite Exalt realm, but be careful not to overdraw. Condense and contain the rampaging Ein, or else your Ein will be chaotic and hollow." Gol-4 warned.

Oscar fiddled around with the seeds in his hand. "I know. I went through a similar process in the past."

The seeds looked very enticing to Oscar, the temptations whispering in his mind, but he had to stay levelheaded, or else even if he advanced to the Middle Elite Exalt realm, he'd become a liability with shoddy control of a dirty Ein, a burden. With time, such impurities and defections could be fixed, but time was what he lacked. He needed to be a true Middle Elite Exalt.

The battles against Maia and Orden revealed to Oscar, the depths of the enemy and how much more dangerous Ashen Grove was. Simply hearing about their strength as opposing factions were not enough to truly understand, and Oscar felt he had lost out both times, unable to defeat his foes. Thinking of the looming danger overhead, Oscar tossed the seeds into his mouth and swallowed them like pills.

"?" Oscar patted his chest with a confused look. He ate the pills, but nothing happened; the Ein did not explode or burst out within him. He was about to inquire Gol-4 about the lack of reaction, but then he felt it.

The Ein flowed everywhere in his body. All his veins bulged out with a green color everywhere from his face to his hands, and a burning sensation coursed through them as if his blood had become like the magma in the Tectusen Foundry. This feeling of being burnt on every part of his body was not unfamiliar, and Oscar held onto his sanity, keeping his focus through the pain.

'This is just a progression within Elite Exalt realms; if I can't handle the pain now, how will I endure when I need to try for the Knight Exalt realm.' The advancement was just beginning, and Oscar already felt his mind slipping. The Ein rushed into his core, not as a soothing stream but as a wildfire. With each passing moment, his Elemental Spark, the metal prism, spun, becoming more distinct, sharper, and harder.

His core devoured the Ein, not sparing a single drop to be wasted. Oscar felt his advancement nearing completion and his core pulsing to take the final step, but he bunkered down and forced it to stop, condensing more Ein within. If he progressed too easily and allowed his core to continue absorbing the Ein after it advanced, it would be mere fluff and wasted.

"Come on!" Oscar shouted.

He squeezed every bit of the Ein into his core. His hot green veins returned to normal, but they were still bulging out, not from the Ein but from Oscar exerting himself, straining to contain the Ein so his core could complete the advancement with all of it.

Finally, his core could take no more and reached its utmost limit before advancing, filled with the green color of the Ein it took in. Then a blue tide swirled from the center, spreading until all green turned blue and joined the continuous whirlpool. His core began to shine; the light broke out from his inner space and radiated from every pore of his skin, brightening up the entire tent.

Then he felt a pressure bearing down on him, making his body uncomfortable like a cough stuck in his throat. He tried to circulate his Ein but could only extend slightly before an unknown force dispersed it. The outer region no longer welcomed a Middle Elite Exalt such as himself.

Oscar coughed, stood up, and stared at his arm, then his shoulders, assessing his body. He felt strange. His body did not feel normal, as if he had entered a new body, a replica of his own.

"Congratulations on advancing to the Middle Elite Exalt realm. That strange feeling you're getting is simply a symptom of the advancement. The closer you get to the Knight Exalt realm, the stranger the feeling." Gol-4 floated around, spinning.

"Why is that?" Oscar massaged his arms and legs, trying to get rid of the strange feeling.

"It's all in preparation for the Knight Exalt. That realm is when you break free of the shackles of the ground and can fly in the air, but that doesn't come suddenly. The progressions you undertake in the stages of an Elite Exalt slowly change your body to possess that power." Gol-4 explained.

"Huh?" Oscar pulled out a book on basic explanations of the progression between realms but found nothing about this body transformation. It simply described the "It doesn't say anything here, Gol-4."

"I suppose it's not important enough to be put on the pages." Gol-4 shook its head.

"Anything should be written just in case!" Oscar fumed at the author of this book, but he still put it back delicately. The book wasn't the problem, just the author, who neglected a detail, however minute. He returned to staring at his hands and was relieved that his special muscles for Adamasreis had not come undone from the advancement changing his body.

"Gol-4," Oscar called out.

"What?" Gol-4 fell from depletion, but Oscar caught him in time.

"I'm a Middle Elite Exalt now," Oscar smiled brightly. He felt like telling this to someone, and Gol-4 was the only one nearby who he knew.

Gol-4 responded, "Yes, you are. Let's go to the middle region. I am curious about what it may lay there."

Oscar stored Gol-4 away, walked out of the tent, and gazed up into the bright blue sky over Ashen Grove. Trees did not grow in the area surrounding the gate, unable to obstruct the endless world above. Seeing this, Oscar desired to one day fly, and rise above to reach the sun, not on an airship but on his own two feet.

"Only two more advancements to go," Oscar remarked. Though, he had no clue how long it might take. A sweat dripped down his brow as he thought of how much he had gone through to reach this point of advancement. "If I never had the Nydil Seeds, could I have gotten the necessary Ein for the advancement? If I never fought Orden, could I have wasted lots of time trying to rouse the core myself?"

Back when he was a peak Lower Elite Exalt, the only things he could do were to forcibly take in large amounts of Ein to force the advancement like what Robert Raeven did for him, wait for it to reach the state over time, or stimulate it with an extreme event such as the battles with Orden.

The last one couldn't be relied on because of the dangers and the low possibility of it working. Oscar recalled records of many who tried it but failed because they had idle thoughts about the advancement rather than focusing every fiber of their being on survival and victory. The core was a reflection of the emotions and the soul, so it would never get to that point with that mindset.

"Useless worries. I just need to do everything I can with how I am now." Oscar comforted himself. The Middle Elite Exalt realm exhausted nearly everything out of him. Thinking about the future when his present in Ashen Grove was uncertain was pointless.

He walked through the area, observed the many alchemists and fabricators hard at work, and passed by the streams of people arriving and departing. The place that made him pause was the graveyard, where all the fallen had been placed down to rest, splashed with a preservative elixir until the time came to leave Ashen Grove.

'How many are lost in this place?' Oscar thought about the many bodies that could not be recovered and clenched his fist until they were pale. He was only one man, not a god, but he felt sorry he could not do anything for them. The feelings of hopelessness and weakness ruminated in his thoughts, replacing his earlier joy at becoming a Middle Elite Exalt.

"Excuse me!" A voice interrupted his darkening thoughts.

Oscar turned and was taken aback. The one who had called out to him was Kelvin, along with Susan, Esther, and Uren, the people he had saved in the deadly battle against Maia. They looked weary and had injuries, but they were together and alive.

"It's been a few days since then. How have you all been?" Oscar asked.

"We're fine. Since then, we've been cautious and followed up with bigger groups. I'm ashamed to say we can't be as incredible as you and the others." Kelvin responded.

Kelvin's small actions of scratching his cheek and sighing made Oscar chuckle.

"There is no need to be depressed about it. I'm glad to see you all are still alive." Oscar said.

"Of course. You saved our lives, and we're grateful for that!" Susan chimed in, gripping her staff close to her chest. She bowed her head and said, "Thank you."

The other three also bowed their heads and thanked Oscar. He glanced at them and then at the deceased lying on the ground. The death toll was growing, but at the very least, he had stalled it for a short moment.

"You're welcome." Oscar bowed back. "And thanks."

He had allowed the depressing thoughts to fill his head earlier, but now they had cleared up like the sun shining through the parting rain clouds. 'That's right. I did save some of them. I can only keep hoping to save more along the way.'

After waving farewell to the four, Oscar steeled himself and strode ahead. His next destination was the middle region.