Emery spent his sixth day within the walls of the Earth Institute's origin stone room, he sat cross-legged on the floor, his eyes closed and his mind focused.
The third and final game would start in four days, within that time, he had to be ready. Right now, his most important task was to reach rank 7, nothing else mattered. In order to increase his rank, Emery needed to increase his understanding of all his elements to the middle stage.
In the next few days, he had to bring up his understanding of Earth and Water elements to the middle stage.
Anyone with common sense would see how hard, or even impossible, Emery's desire to reach rank 7 in his limited time frame actually was. However, Emery kept on focusing. He didn't even have enough time to cultivate, why should he waste it with self-doubt?
Emery channeled his mind and focused at the earth origin stone floating several meters away from him. Moments later, he began to feel the yellow-colored spirit lying dormant within his body starting to stir. The moment Emery tasted the feeling, he took out a familiar brown wooden box and swallowed the pearly white pill lying within.
He felt the pill move deep into the center of his body before dissipating into a vortex of powerful energy. Like water bursting from a dam, the vigorous energy travelled through his entire meridians before flowing into his dark core. His dark core felt like a small water bag placed under a waterfall, far too small to be filled with such massive amounts of energy. The energy would make it explode if not channeled, but even if he did channel it, the accumulation of energy felt way, way too painful. All of a sudden, Emery coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"Do not stop!"
Magus Xion's warning echoed in his thoughts,
"Do not ever consider to stop channeling the energy. This is an extremely dangerous method, but stopping will only endanger your body even more without any reward."
Therefore Emery gritted his teeth. He used all his remaining mental energy to bear the excruciating pain, while concentrating to channel the overflowing energy towards the yellow-colored spirit inside his body.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Emery, two figures had been watching his training process. Magus Darius from the Institute of Earth and Magus Xion from the Institute of Darkness watched from just out of sight, with enough distance for them to oversee Emery's training, yet not too obvious to alert Emery of their presence.
"You really are interested in this kid, aren't you? Isn't he the kid from the regular class who managed to make it into first place?"
Magus Xion did not answer the question, as he only kept on watching Emery.
"Did he really take a Spirit Foundation Pill? He is still rank 6! He's just endangering himself!" Magus Darius said, when he saw Emery swallow the familiar pill. The tone in his voice showed he was truly shocked.
The moment Emery spat out blood to the floor, both of their expressions changed for the worse.
"Hey, Xion! What did you do? Stop this! All this for a game…? Look, I know there are a lot of things worth dying for, but the magus game is not one of them."
In contrast to Magus Darius, Magus Xion seemed calm and kept watching Emery concentrate on his training. Darius was able to notice Xion seemed troubled, but his decision to do nothing made the Earth Institute magus so enraged, to the point he had to leave the room to calm himself down.
One hour passed…
Emery kept on gritting his teeth and bear the pain, even as his knuckles turned white from the tight grip he subjected himself onto. The pain did not subside even one bit.
Two hours passed…
Emery's entire body was soaked wet with his own sweat and his breathing had become ragged. He pushed through the pain and continued on.
Four hours passed…
At the moment, time held no more meaning to Emery. All he could focus on was his drive to keep going, to keep controlling the endless deluge of energy and channel them through his dark core towards the yellow-colored spirit.
After what felt like an eternity, Emery finally managed to break through. The moment he did so, he felt as if he had finally managed to pry a rusted steel door from its hinges.
[Congratulations! You have reached a breakthrough in the earth element!]
[Earth Spirit – Mid-Foundation]
The moment the two notifications appeared, Emery spat out another mouthful of blood that swiftly splattered onto the room's floor. It was clear from his gaze and his slumped posture he was extremely exhausted. Without further due, Magus Xion finally moved and grabbed Emery's falling body before it could hit the ground.
Magus Xion took one look at Emery's body and told him to rest. He would need all the energy he could get if he wanted to advance his understanding of the water element.
The next day came, upon waking up, Emery immediately went to the water origin stone room to start his training. Despite his still aching body, he ignored the pain, as he still had matters unfinished.
Just like yesterday, Emery sat in a lotus position within the range of the water origin stone.
On one hand, while he was glad to be able to reach a breakthrough in such a short period of time, Emery felt he was doing something wrong and his practice method could be improved. However, he remembered how his master, a full-fledged magus, was keeping an eye on him. Therefore, with a newfound sense of confidence, Emery took the second Spirit Foundation Pill.
The familiar deluge of energy came back, all flowing towards his dark core. This time, Emery channeled all the energy towards the blue-colored spirit stirring within his body.
Again, just like yesterday, Emery felt an excruciating pain all over his body. He remembered the result from yesterday and decided to grit his teeth. There was no choice but to endure, endure the pain in order to grasp a chance to obtain a quick and significant result.
Unlike yesterday, this time the process took a significant part of the day.
[Congratulations! You have reached a breakthrough in the water element!]
[Water Spirit – Mid-Foundation]
[Congratulations! You have reached rank 7!]
[Spirit Force increased]
[Battle Power increased]
[Emery Ambrose]
[Battle Power: 45]
[Spirit Force: 155]
[Plant Spirit – Mid-Foundation]
[Water Spirit – Mid-Foundation]
[Earth Spirit – Mid-Foundation]
[Spirit Core of Darkness – Stage 3]
[Fey Bloodline – Rank 3]
[Acolyte Rank: 7]
The moment he saw the notification, he exhaled in relief and felt his eyelids become heavy. Right before he was about to lose his consciousness, Emery saw the familiar face of Magus Xion right in front of him.
"I… I did it, Master…!"
"Great, you did great, Emery."
Finally, with all his energy spent, Emery fainted and dropped to the cold floor with a thud. Just like before, Xion took him. But this time, without Emery knowing, his Master took him to a certain castle, where the head of Darkness Institute resided. Soon, they would come face-to-face with Grand Magus Zenoia.