Whoosh…
A gentle breeze wafted through the training room that Leon was in. It had already been a whole day since he returned, and he had immediately continued his training.
This time, instead of his skills, Leon was focusing on absorbing the remaining fragment of the final boss of the Tower of Trials. He had been able to absorb more than half of it, but he had still not yet touched upon its core essence, which was the most valuable part of any core.
The multi-colored crystal floated in the air before Leon. Wisps of dark mana could be seen flowing from the core and into Leon’s core. Unseen to the bare eyes, the edges of the crystal were being broken down by mana and turned into nutrition for Leon’s own core. However, the process was extremely slow.
Leon’s mind was roused as he felt someone stop outside the door to his training room. He let out a deep breath and a plume of dark purple mist escaped his jaws.
“Come in.” He said and grabbed the core from the air in front of him when the person had not yet knocked or entered.
The door cracked open and Dibella’s head popped in. She opened the door a little wider, revealing a dark skinned man behind her. He was roughly six and half feet tall and had a head of white hair. Strands of hair occasionally bore various other colors. At once, Leon knew that this man was Darwin. But for some reason, it was hard for Leon to narrow down on his presence.
The two people came to a stop in front of Leon, and at once, they bowed in gratitude to him.
“Thank you very much!” Dibella said, her voice full of emotion. She had not known that Leon had left to save Darwin. She had been in the middle of a crucial breakthrough when he had left, and immediately after that, she engaged herself with other matters. She had only just been sent to the temple by Leon, confused and surprised, when she saw Michael speaking with someone.
Dibella did not recognize this man, but for some reason, she felt as if she knew him. As if she was more familiar with him than words could describe.
That man was Darwin, the love of her life.
“I am eternally grateful to you, Leon.” Darwin left his bowing position and went down on one knee to show his sincerity.
Leon silently watched them, not wanting to interrupt them and let them go through their apologies. It was the only way that they could shot that they truly appreciated his efforts at the time.
“You are welcome. I did not do it just for you, by the way. I expect you to lend your strength and aid me in the coming battles.” Eventually, Leon spoke up, standing up from his meditating position.
“Of course. It is the least I could do to repay you for this debt.” Darwin immediately agreed. He had already heard the current situation from Dibella and Michael before, and had made up his mind to lend his strength to Leon.
“That’s reassuring.” Leon nodded his head. “By the way, do you still go by Darwin?” He asked.
Dibella had completely settled into her name now, taking it as something that came with her new life and identity. So, Leon was wondering if Darwin also intended to change his name.
“I have not yet decided on whether I will change my name or not. I will need to discuss it with Dibella.” He took a hold of Dibella’s hand and smiled warmly at her.
“Alright, that’s fine. Take your time.” Leon nodded, and after a few more words, the two excused themselves from the room, leaving him to continue his training.
This time, Leon did not bring out the core. He instead decided to focus on his magic. He wanted to spend a day on each of them in order to even out everything. Already, several of his skills were Intermediate grade, and he needed to raise the levels of the remaining skills in order to make sure his power was well caught up for the coming battles.
.
.
Time passed slowly but surely. Leon focused on raising his skill levels, as well as absorbing the cores of the boss of the last floor of the Tower of Trials, and the Despair Dungeon.
The development of Fort White continued without pause, and the people had become so many that they had begun to expand outside of the town’s walls, creating their own solid buildings under the guidance of Rakon, and those who knew what they were doing.
At this point, it had already been two weeks since Leon had returned from the Swamp of Despair. All of his skills had reached the Intermediate grade, bringing his overall strength to a whole new level of power. He was certain that he could go against the boss of the Despair Dungeon and not lose out on the magical front as badly as he did before.
Now, the remnant core of the boss from the Tower of Trials was a small, colorful crystal that was roughly the size of a finger. The smaller it got, the faster Leon had been able to absorb it, strengthening his own core more and more.
At the moment, Leon was preparing for his final absorption session with this core. He was certain that this would be the last time he needed to meditate on this core.
“Alright, let’s do this.” Leon crossed his legs and brought out the remnant of the core from his spatial ring. Immediately, his mana wrapped around it, suspending it in the air in front of him.
A deep breath was all it took for Leon to enter a strong meditative state. The moment he slipped into that state, his mana that was wrapped around the crystal immediately began to burrow into the crystal. The dark mana was infused with Leon’s strong will, which gave it the power necessary to act on its own even without him actively controlling it.
Crack!
The sound of something cracking rang through the room a few moments later.𝑶𝐕𝐿xt.𝔠𝒪