A foreign sensation spread across her body as she got up, muscles relaxing and contracting of their own accord. More than that, she was puzzled. The fact she had broken through was clear. The how, less so. The only thing she remembered from that time was her findings. The rest was...vague, hazy. As if someone had used an eraser on her memory.

Althea had a vague recollection of someone speaking into her mind, but she had no idea who they were. Or what they had said. For all she knew, it was Pulsie.

"Do you know what happened?" she asked Pulsie, but found the plant hibernating. Mana revolved around him as he grew in size and power, growing as she grew. Althea sighed, furrowing her brows as she sat down and took stock of her gains. There was something on her mind, a worry. But with every moment she was forgetting what it was.

Mana responded to her quite like before, but she could sense more of it. Althea could sense as far as Sentinal now. The pass to Zerolian was visible to her, the sheer drop in mana at the border of her territory clear as day. A curious thing to see, certainly, but she moved on to the next stage.

Althea tried moving mana, and found far, far greater amounts reacting to her. Fire mana in particular would react quickly, but Earth was not too far behind. Air and Water had also increased noticeably, but not as much as the other two. The effect of titles, certainly.

Opening her eyes, she started to stand up, but ended up jumping. The sheer force of her muscles threw her off balance, forcing her into the air and then back onto the ground in a profoundly awkward position. Had it been just a few hours ago, she would have been hurt by such a fall. Perhaps even bleeding due to the stones scattered about.

But she was not.

The Master stage was when the body became noticeably more powerful for the first time. A normal dagger could not pierce her skin anymore, let alone a stone. Jumping up walls would be easy for her. And more than that. The Master stage was known as the stage where one could fly.

Althea called on her mana to lift her into the air, extracting herself from her position. Starting off was difficult, her mana struggled against the force of gravity, but she held on. As she rose into the air, mana gained momentum, and gravity began to have less of an effect. Althea rose up the floors, past the first, second and then tenth floor. An hour passed as she slowly rose into the air.

Mana solidified under her, condensing and growing stronger even as she used it. A Master's mana was condensed enough to lift a person up, but it seemed to her that her mana had been lacking in that. Two hours later, she was rushing up the floors, crossing the thirtieth as the palace's stem split into the six petals.

Althea continued rising, not opening her eyes as she felt her surroundings. Mana was purer here. The palace's magic was older, ancient, compared to what she had seen before. Even the vault had been reinforced in the last millennium. But these higher levels had been abandoned long ago. The elevators took too much mana to work. And few would climb fifty floors when the first three had more than enough space.

Magic revolved around her as she finally reached the highest palace floor. The fiftieth floor. Five hundred meters in the air, she opened her eyes. No, not just five hundred. The palace was on a hill. A hill that was a few hundred meters high by itself. The air was crisp here. A bit thin. Mana had significantly less trouble keeping her afloat, indicating how weak gravity was.

Althea had no idea how high mountains were, but she suspected she was at the height of some of the smaller ones. Mount Everest was nine kilometers high, right? This was nearly one. A ninth of Everest's height had to be a mountain.

Standing up carefully, she took a step forward. Mana moved below her, supporting her steps. Althea took another step. And then another. Before she knew it, she was walking in the air. And then she was running. Mana, pure mana with barely an element around her. Air was the only major element around. Water and some presence, but the other elements stayed close to the surface.

Althea ran forward, stretching her new muscles to test out her enhanced speed. Mana answered her call as she called, filling her core faster than she pent mana. Ten kilometers an hour. A hundred kilometers an hour. Althea ran faster than cars in cities, speeding towards the Bern border. The county spread out below her, the settlements looking tiny and insignificant before the forest.

On paper, the county seemed to be a thriving hub of agriculture, but she saw forests. Just forests. Stretching across the land save for a small strip around Deadre, the county was forest. Althea turned her attention upward, calling on mana to lift her higher, thoughts of her breakthrough forgotten.

Mana grew purer as she rose higher. Althea had thought mana pure at a kilometer. How wrong she had been. Land mana did not reach this high, but sun mana was aplenty. Althea's senses strained for the first time as she began to notice small differences between the mana around her.

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Not pure, no. Mana was still inclined towards air, just hadn't turned into it entirely. A prelude form that she hadn't encountered before. A form that she might never have encountered without this amazing power.

Althea passed through a cloud, realizing just how far she had risen. The farther she rose, the easier it was for mana to lift her up. The air was so thin that she should have been having trouble breathing. But that wasn't a problem yet. Master stage still needed to breathe, but they could hold their breath for longer. And survive with far less air, it seemed.

The clouds passed her by as she began to slowly feel a bit suffocated. The clouds still surrounded her, but she knew it would be dangerous if she somehow fell unconscious at this height. Even Master stage would not save her. Turning herself slowly using mana she used mana to slow fall.

The journey back down was significantly harder. Althea kept making herself fall too slowly, speeding herself up when she was bored, and then slowing back down when she got scared

. The feeling of air blowing past her was exhilarating. Mana changed as she passed by, transforming into attuned mana at stages. If she weren't scared of losing control, she would have tried paying attention to what was happening. Even now, she noticed the stages mana followed.

Mana headed towards the surface as it grew more attuned. A mana that only had a little attunement would be near clouds, and mana that was nearly attuned would be much closer. Even when she reached the palace, such mana still existed.

Althea wondered how mana gained other attunements. The only type of mana she had seen was Air mana. Water mana was there, but scarce. There was much more near the surface, yet she had not seen it formed. What happened? Another thing for her to observe. A smile spread across her face. Even as she was overwhelmed with what she did not know, more appeared around her. There was just too much to figure out.

A ghost of a memory flashed through her mind.

A memory of her being despondent that she did not figure out the diamond properly. The disturbance nearly threw her control off, but she held on. But it told her something. That she did not plan to breakthrough.

How then had she broken through anyway?

sc

A smile spread across Nathan's face as he saw the Countess stumble and then promptly catch herself in the air. Mana swirled around her, making her feel even more like an unapproachable noble. But it was little things like this that told him she was still human.

Nathan had seen much of her in the last few months. The two of them had spent far more time together than was proper. But he didn't care. The Countess' advisors did, but which of them dared question her anymore?

The Countess had left them all in the dust, streaking through the stages of cultivation so fast that none of them even had time to reconcile their views. Nathan was naive and ignorant as far as people went, but even he knew that breaking through to the Master stage in less than a year was not normal. The county hadn't even bothered to release news of the Countess' breakthroughs; she would breakthrough to the next stage before the news spread out.

Then again, he was at the peak of Journeyman himself. The barriers just didn't exist for him once he started the Law manual. At least the Emperor was happy about that.

"Congratulations to her grace, the Countess Guarding Diery for breaking through to the next stage." he said as the Countess finally reached the ground.

The expression on her face morphed, transforming into her usual graceful mask as she realized that she had company.

"Thank you, your majesty" she replied. "Do tell me, what level have you reached?"

Nathan just gave a smile in return. "I have been progressing nicely."

A bit too nicely. For the last month or so, he had passed even the Countess. The Grandmaster manuals were great, but he still felt he was a bit too fast. Not to mention how much his mind powers had grown in the time.

"I hear there is a refugee issue." the Countess began.

"I have already asked the construction to begin building a city." he replied, expecting her to go straight to business.

"Have it be near one of the old cities." she said. "Clearing a bit of the forest should be easy enough, and there should be resources near the old cities."

Nathan nodded. After feeling the effects of the Law manual, he was sure that their ancestors knew far more than them.

"And be sure to enforce the hybrid law. The hybrids can stay in the new city too."

"The new arrivals might have an issue with that." Nathan noted. Merlen was not the worst when it came to hybrid laws, not like some Empires, but it wasn't too accepting. The people from there might have an issue with-

"If they have a problem, then they can leave. The county has to take a hard stance in some things." she said.

Nathan shook his head. Leaving would not be easy.

"I am not sure many will have that option. The other nobles are not really accepting refugees. Not readily." he said.

"Then they should accept that they will live with hybrids. I am sure they will soon realize that there isn't much difference between living with hybrids and living with pure humans."

Nathan wasn't so sure about that. The Countess hadn't seen the things they did while she wasn't around. Medren had the tendency to turn his room into an aquarium while he slept. Why the merman hadn't left already was beyond him.

"The city will not be even close to ready by the time they arrive." the Countess said. "Do you have a plan for that?"

"Yes." Nathan replied. "I already pushed it past the council."

"Oh? What is it?"

"I would tell you, your grace, but I fear Mira might kill me in my sleep." he grinned.

The Countess paid. "Why would she do something like that?"

"Well, you haven't reported for your dressing yet. I hope you haven't forgotten about the farewell party, your grace. Mira tell me that it is the single largest party this decade, and that you simply have to give her five hours to get you ready."

"Five hours?!" the Countess protested, her mask falling apart as shock spread across her features.

Nathan tried not to laugh, keeping his expression steely as he replied.

"Yes, she has employed a hundred maids and the Steward to drag out jewelry from the Diery vaults. I hear she even had seamstresses make a dozen versions of the same dress before she was satisfied. The seamstress was still working on the thirteenth version when I visited."

The horror spreading across Diery county's latest Master made it very, very hard for him to keep from giggling. Oh, well.