Now that the matter regarding the dark elf spirit soul was settled, everyone went on their way and returned to their respective training in preparation for the upcoming Magus Tournament.
After saying goodluck to his four friends, Emery made his way to his room. He planned to continue with his [Spirit Absorption] since the spirit energy mist surrounding his spirit cores had still not been completely refined.
As he gradually cleansed all the mist and absorbed it into his spirit core, Emery also went ahead and studied the new spells he had just bought. Anticipation welled up inside him as he saw the three spells.
[Repulsion], [Attraction], [Anti Gravity]; Emery marveled in his heart as he scrutinized them. Each of these gravity spells had its own set and combination of runes that fascinated him.
However, despite the peculiarities of each, there was part of the rune that was identical and present in all three spells. That exact rune was the basic that Emery needed to understand first before he ventured his way further.
The ability to perceive force known as gravity and to manipulate it at will.
Emery gathered his concentration and studied in earnest. While his body ingested the mist surrounding his spirit core with the help of [Spirit Absorption], his mind gave its all to comprehend the runes in the spell.
Time passed like fleeting clouds as Emery was completely engrossed in his training.
Two hours, eight hours, twenty-four hours.
[Spirit force increased]
[Spirit force increased]
[Spirit force: 1748 (1763)]
When Emery opened his eyes again, he found that a day had passed. He checked his progress and saw he had received a 14 points increase in spirit force. A smile appeared on his face because of the huge boost to his spirit force.
However, that smile soon turned to a frown as he realized something. Even though it had been a day, he could barely sense the gravity force around him, much less do complicated things like manipulate it.
To be honest, Emery initially thought that thanks to his weeks of grueling training in a high gravitational place he would be able to comprehend and not find much difficulty in casting the spell.
It was apparent that he was completely wrong. This high difficulty was to be expected though; after all, gravity was considered as one of the most special branches of the darkness element – just like space.
Not wanting to give up so easily, Emery held back his frustration. He took a deep breath before giving himself another try.
In the meantime, his [Spirit Absorption] was still in work, gradually thinning the mist surrounding his spirit core. As time passed, the dark core beside his nature core turned even more lively.
[Spirit force increased]
[Spirit force increased]
The mist continued to thin out as the hours passed, and after a full day Emery opened his eyes once more.
This time, he was forced to stop due to the fatigue that had built up in his body. However, his hard work was not in vain as his spirit power had greatly increased again.
[Spirit force: 1763 (1776)]
At this point, Emery finally realized that he had gained as many as fifty points of spirit force from what he devoured from the elves but the mist surrounding his core had still not been completely absorbed.
He was both shocked and overjoyed by the unexpected boon.
Devouring the elves amazingly brought him many benefits. But on the other hand, Emery could feel that the sharp increase of spirit force from the absorption process was starting to put a strain on his spirit core. He needed a break from continuing to absorb the mist.
Meanwhile, Emery is still less successful in his attempts to comprehend gravity. Right now, he was still barely able to sense the force of gravity and will it upon a small object. A bowl, to be exact.
With much difficulty, the tableware violently shook as it rose a few centimeters from the ground and stayed there for merely a few seconds before it eventually broke apart when he lost control of the force.
Emery heaved a sigh of helplessness as he looked at the remains of the bowl. Even though he knew it wasn’t helping in any way at all, he blamed his failure on the fact that he was comprehending it at the same time as the absorption.
Now that there were only a few hours before the night of the auction arrived, Emery decided to stop the training for now and spend some time taking a closer look at his new Tier 6 dagger.
Even though it could not be used in the tournament, Emery still decided to familiarize himself with the weapon as he never knew what danger awaited him in the near future. Moreover, he couldn’t just keep himself away from such a precious weapon anymore.
[Shadow Bane]
As both of his hands held the dagger, once again Emery felt a rejection coming from the artifact.
This phenomenon reminded him of the incident with the Excalibur sword. Since it was rather well-known knowledge that most high-grade weapons possessed a spirit of their own, this dagger of his must have possessed one too.
According to what he had read before, he would need to make the weapon accept him as its master, which certainly would not be an easy feat at all.
With his hands still grasping the hilt of the dagger, Emery ignored the uncomfortable sensation he received and promptly used his Spirit Reading to try to communicate with the spirit within the weapon.
“Your previous owner is no more. Submit to me, for I am your new master now.”
Those words seemed to have an effect on the dagger as he saw its blade glistening and shaking slightly. However, instead of softening, Emery winced as he felt the rejection worsen, turning into a wave of sharp pain.
In the first place, Emery was not much of a talker. Coupled with his frustration of not being able to comprehend gravity earlier, he decided to not waste time and display a show of strength upon the weapon instead.
,m He brought the dagger with him as he went into the courtyard. His gaze swiftly swept across the place, looking for anyone. He found Thrax swinging his glaive and walked up to the Thracian before telling him his objective. Being the reliable friend he was, Thrax was happy to help.
“Fine! I’ll be happy to have a spar with you!”
Even though it was just a spar, Thrax didn’t seem planning on taking it lightly as he used all the boosts he had, doing his best to match up to his half-blood friend. Alas, the spar went out of his expectation.
The golden glaive in his hand moved rapidly through the air, striking Emery as fast as wind as hard as a mountain. On the other hand, due to the rejection, it projected Emery was having difficulty raising the dagger, let alone swinging it.
Therefore, it was no wonder the result was a total one-sided with Thrax eagerly overwhelming Emery around as the latter could only parry or dodge the attacks the former threw. This situation continued for a while until suddenly a different sound was heard in the air, causing Thrax to jump backward in a panic.
CLANK!
“No no no…”
Thrax frantically checked his golden glaive and became hysterical when he saw its blade was chipped by the clash.
“NO! My precious!”
Unfortunately, Emery didn’t pay attention to his friend’s antics. W He was exhausted and thus decided to call a quit, for now, storing the dagger back in his Spatial Space.
Moments later, Klea’s figure arrived at the courtyard because of the Thrax’s loud wailing. It took her a moment to understand what was going on, so she looked at the Thracian and said, “Just get a new one already.” she then added to Emery saying, “Let’s go. I don’t want to miss the auction.”