On the same day, after dealing with customers, Kadyn passed the scroll to Elora. The girl looked at him in confusion, and eyed the scroll.

“What is this?” She asked.

“See, yourself,” Kadyn said and walked towards his secret room for practice, of course, without explanation.

Elora eyed his fading back and returned her gaze on the scroll in her hand and opened it slowly. Then gasped in shock. Her eyes widened and her mouth hung open. “Eight-star healing spell!”

Eight-star spells were a supreme treasure for many noble families in the Upper Town. Many families could only dream about it. Now she has such a spell for herself.

Elora took a deep breath and heaved a long sigh. Kadyn was becoming more and more mysterious day by day. 

Where did he get the formula potion formula?

Where did he learn potion making? 

What about the healing formula he gave me? 

No answer. Of course.

Though she never asked him. Once, he said he would tell everything one day. But when that day would come, who can say?

Elora shook her head, shaking all the distractions off her head. She eyed the scroll with shining blue eyes and entered the Potion Hall.

——

Kadyn sat at the centre of the formation and activated the Elemental Chaos Formula. Swirls formed around him and vanished inside his body.

He gazed in the far horizon inside the fire pool and saw a star that appeared and disappeared now and then. This was the tenth star on the verge of awakening.

[Energy Points: 464-4→460]

An hour passed but the star was still the same. Appearing and disappearing all the while. Not even a little difference could be seen. However, Kadyn didn’t falter and continued to work. He knew this was the last star and it would, of course, take longer than any star took before to awaken.

[Energy Points: 460-4→456]

The period between the blinking of the star decreased and it started to take longer to vanish and smaller to appear. Kadyn thrilled, bursting his confidence.

[Energy Points: 456-4→452]

He placed his entire attention on awakening the star and hadn’t realised one more hour passed—this was the time the star awakened.

The entire fire pool trembled and illuminated with crimson light. All ten stars produced amazing glazing burst of light.

All of them burned, mixed with all kinds of fires. There were blue, white, green, yellow, orange and many other colours—it continued to change, never stopping. Though Kadyn had no idea what change in colour implies.

However, different from all nine pools, stood a tenth elemental pool, colourless, dormant, silent—but at this moment it trembled and golden light flickered on it. Though after that it once more went into its dormant state. Assuming its mysterious appearance.

Kadyn glanced at the ten awakened stars, and his heart pounded in eagerness and anticipation. There was only a single step left to reach the rank beyond elementary. 

Should I try? He asked himself, hesitating a bit. Then, he gritted his teeth and decided to give it a try.

At worst I will just fail…

He entered his consciousness inside the fire elemental pool and peered at the ten stars. After the last star awakened, all of them showed their true nature. Right now, they burned in flames. Kadyn could even feel the heat.

Without deliberating, Kadyn covered a  star with his consciousness. After that he tried to split his consciousness and felt as if he was trying to tear his soul apart. 

Damn, what is this? He cursed when the pain bolted through his brain. His mouth twitched in agony.

When the searing pain burst inside his head, Kadyn felt like giving up—he regretted his rash decision. Now he realised why so many people stuck at the elementary magus for their entire life.

However he couldn’t stop here or else, his confidence would receive a huge blow. He slowly brought stars closer and closer—as they neared the repulsive force in between them intensified.

Kadyn sweated, his body drenched and dripped wetly. The excruciation was terrible but still bearable—in these ten days, he went into the practice room whenever he had time, just to get tortured and to improve his willpower. 

“Boom!”

When the stars connected, a huge mushroom blast formed at the centre of contact. Kadyn paled and coughed a mouthful of blood.

No matter what I won’t let you go. 

He bit his tongue to make himself sane and continued to push his limits—when the clouds vanished, he saw the stars had overlapped with each other. This brought great joy in his shuddering mind.

Just half left, he murmured.

He pushed both stars, making them overlap each other more and more. Finally, the two turned into one—Kadyn used his consciousness and moved to do the same thing with another star.

The pressure suddenly multiplied by ten times. No matter how conceited he was, he couldn’t help but quiver. The mountainous pressure crushed on his skull.

Come on! He screamed in his head.

The two stars neared every passing second. Kadyn’s face had turned red, veins throbbed on his forehead, on his neck, and on his face. His hands shivered and his body shuddered, quivering in pain and agony. He looked terrible.

“Boom!”

“Arghhhh!!!”

Before he could realise the situation, a horrible spasm burst into his head. The two stars blasted and scattered in the distance. The one which had already melded with another star, broke into two, too. Dashing in a different direction.

Kadyn laid on the ground without any energy in his body, his body convulsed continuously and his mouth frothed. It looked as his entire energy was devoured by something, leaving only a shell behind.