Cronix slowly stood up from his position on the floor, his body felt pain all over, but he was able to endure. The crow now stood on Cronix's shoulder.

When he got up and looked around, he noticed his surroundings looked completely different from before, everything was destroyed, and where his teleportation array used to be, now laid a burnt up body.

Cronix approached Tornic's dead body,

I... killed him... What else could I have done? Should I have just given him the energy sealing arrangement? If I did none of this would've happened...

Does anyone else know about the energy sealing arrangement? Are we going to have to run away again? Am I going to have to kill again eventually?

Cronix's breathing grew heavy, and the feeling of dread was coming over his body, but the pendent worked its calming effect.

He grabbed the pendent,

Where do you even come from? Who was that woman who gave you to me? What was her relationship to me?

Cronix had to forcefully pull himself away from these thoughts, nothing good ever happens when someone dwells on topics they don't have answers to.

He looked at Tornic's body, and sighed.

This wasn't the first time Cronix saw a dead body, when he first entered Alktarsha, he accidentally stumbled across a dispute between two five star Casters.

One of the Casters had a tamed magical beast, and the other wanted it for themselves. Long story short, one of the two died and the winner kept the magical beast.

This event was what caused Cronix to never show the crow to anyone.

Using his mental energy Cronix dug up the dirt, until there was a hole three feet deep and wide enough to bury Tornic in.

As he grabbed Tornic's body, something fell off Tornic's waist, it was his magic bag. Cronix first dumped Tornic's body into the hole before grabbing the magic bag.

The storage of the magic bag was six times Cronix's own magic bag, with a base 36 feet and a height of six feet.

Inside the bag were at least a thousand lower grade magic crystals, a mental technique called the External Senses technique, and a spell called Elemental Ball.

The rest were either clothes or daily necessities, with the strangest item being a rectangular wooden token, with the word, 'Ayuna' imprinted on it, and the emblem Tornic was always wearing on the back.

There was also an active formation on the front, and a broken formation on the back.

Well, since you're dead you wouldn't be needing any of this would you?

Cronix dumped out all the contents of Tornic's bag and transferred his own belongings into the bag, he then recollected Tornic's belongings into his old bag.

He tossed his old bag into the hole with Tornic's body, and refilled the hole. Cronix grabbed the biggest stick he could find and stabbed it into the ground as a gravestone; he also put the wooden token in front of the stick.

He paid his respects to Tornic and left the grave.

Life continued for Cronix.

Two weeks passed since Tornic's death and there was no one trying to kill Cronix or chase him out of town, in fact because of his formations he was quite welcomed.

Cronix simply continued creating formations, the only difference between before the fight and after was the amount of techniques he could now learn and the change in his mental energy.

Another thing was that, after the fight he barely saw the crow as much, but he didn't blame them, they were forced to stay inside for two years, now that they had their freedom, how could they waste it?

Cronix was currently playing with his pendant while lost in thought, he was currently on the 36th stroke of the teleportation array.

If one looked closely inside the mental energy lines creating the array, there was a faint icy blue glow.

This was the change in Cronix's mental energy after absorbing the mental energy of existence, if Cronix concentrated enough he was able to create ice, this was the true method of creating the ice of the ice wraith method, not even Mr. Williams was able to get to this level.

Cronix found that he was now able to enter the mental expanse as he pleased, but he avoided doing so.

He despised seeing the flakes trapped inside the red cage, and he despised his weakness for being unable to help them.

But because of this, he was unable to properly practice the ice wraith technique which happened inside the mental expanse.

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Cronix put his current array away, he didn't want to mess anything up, when he put the formation inside his magic bag, he took out the external senses technique.

The point of this technique was to be able to use all the user's senses while only using one's mental energy.

It was actually quite useful for spying and the such.

The instructions to this technique was actually quite simple, it was to properly connect with one's mental energy.

Mental energy comes from the mental expanse which is located inside the mind, which is located inside the brain.

Everything we see, hear, feel, taste, and smell is because our brains, while our eyes, ears, skin, tongue and nose need to go through a special process, mental energy does not.

Mental energy is part of one's consciousness, meaning it can directly send signals to the brain of whatever it detects, the only reason the mental energy user doesn't already realize it is because of how one views their mental energy.

No one at first see's mental energy as a part of them, only as another energy like magic, but once they view mental energy as themselves, then it properly becomes a part of them.

The first step in this technique was to enter the mental expanse and get in tune with the mental...

Cronix closed the book,

It's always the mental expanse! Can't I find a mental technique that doesn't deal with the mental expanse!?

Cronix sighed he closed his eyes, and opened them again,

Forget it, if we can't help the flakes, it doesn't matter, as long as we don't interact with them, they won't go crazy and destroy themselves...

Cronix closed his eyes and immersed himself inside his mind, slowly his consciousness disappeared from his body, and entered his mental expanse.

His mental expanse had slight changes, since he first entered two weeks ago, his mental energy now contained a slight icy aura, and his mental expanse grew a tiny bit bigger.

Before it was the size of a 13 by 13 space, with an area of 169 square feet, but now it's a 13.1 by 13.1 space, with an area of 171.61 square feet.

Cronix looked at the red cage nearby, and backed away from it, he went into the farthest corner from the cage, and 'sat down'.

His mental energy surrounded him, the mental energy wasn't still, it flowed around like air.

"I just have to convince myself that my mental energy is an extension of myself, that's simple enough..."

Cronix stared at his mental energy, repeating the phrase, "You are me and I am you." Of course this was hardly effective and accomplished nothing.

He frowned, "How the heck am I supposed to convince myself that mental energy is a part of me."

With no one to answer him, Cronix flopped himself into a lying position, he extended his arms as if he was trying to grasp the 'sky'.

That's when he saw them, his fingernails, "Nails are just dead cells, but we consider them to still be a part of us."

Cronix sat back up, "The same is with hair, but we still consider them a part of our person, yet why can't I think the same about my mental energy? Mental energy is actually me, yet I can't think of it that way, why is that?"

He 'stood up', "I don't feel any pain when I cut my nails, but I actually get hurt when my mental energy is destroyed."

A slight smile arose on Cronix's face, as his eyes turned to look in a certain direction where a red string-like cage stood, "If I can't think of mental energy as a part of me, I'll just beat it inside of me."

Cronix's body floated back towards the cage, the flakes inside started to get excited, which caused his small smile to change into a frown, and he began hesitating.

"If I can't handle this, I won't improve. If I want to destroy this cage then I must get stronger, and this technique would make things easier."

The first attack Cronix did on the cage wasn't using mental energy, but using his 'fist'. he yelped as he felt the burning sensation.

But gritted his teeth and repeated the action, after five times of hitting the cage with his fist he switched to mental energy.

The flakes inside the cage were going crazy, and it hurt his heart as he saw a few of them collapse, but he was still very confused on why he felt this way.

Cronix sent his first mental energy attack, and muttered, "Mental energy is like your arm, you could move it as you please, it's a part of you."

There was a slight change in the mental expanse.

When Cronix's mental energy hit the cage, it was instantly destroyed, and when mental energy was destroyed, it wasn't the same with it being dispersed, he had to regenerate these destroyed mental energy.

"It's like my skin, when it's destroyed it regenerates, that's how this is a part of me..." He muttered as he winced, he felt like he was being stabbed, "My skin is able to feel things, that's how it's a part of me!"

The change got stronger, but another thing also began happening, Cronix's mood was shifting to one of anger.

Cronix hit the cage five times with his mental energy, and he switched back to his arm, "Your arm, you are able to move it as you pleased, how is that different from mental energy!?"

The change slowly was becoming more and more present, but anger was messing with his mind, and his moments became more forced and exhausted.

Every attack on the cage was painful, "You are able to feel the cage, you can feel this pain when you are using your arm, how is this different from mental energy!?"

Cronix may have not noticed since he was too focused, but it was getting easier to control his mental energy. However the cage seemed to be getting stronger as well.

After only two attacks, Cronix brought back the mental energy, but he didn't stop using his arms.

The pain was starting to get the better of Cronix and his 'body' started to flicker, while his real body was drenched in sweat and his face was distorting, his mental expanse also began shrinking.

And the anger got so present that the pendant had to activate its calming effect.

Cronix stopped attacking the cage, his breathing was heavy, "This body is only my consciousness and isn't physical, but I treat it like it's real."

The connection between user and mental energy slowly started to change...

He looked at his arm, he just realized his body itself was made of mental energy, "Mental energy has always been me this whole time..."

Cronix left the mental expanse, he didn't know how, but he knew that his connection to his mental energy had change for the better, and he wouldn't be able to figure it out until he left the mental expanse.

...

A horse arrived at the entrance of Alktarsha. Somehow no one noticed its arrival, as if it was invisible.

A young man around 17 to 16 years old, wearing black clothing with a large emblem on the back of his jacket dismounted the horse.

The emblem contained a world consuming flame, the letter A was deep inside the flame, with a sword on its left and an axe on its right, underneath the flame was a small section with the name Topaz on it.

"This is the place where that trash died? The strongest ones here shouldn't be higher than the Core Creation stage, to die in a place like this is just sad." The youth muttered.

His reddish-orange eyes scanning the area,

The token is over there.

The young man walked towards the direction of the mines, or more accurately where Cronix and Tornic had their battle.