The water elements in Cronix's room were growing active from his complicated emotions. There was a frown on his face as he thought over what happened during this past hour while he performed cognitive gathering, or more specifically the results he had.

There were no noticeable improvements in his mental energy throughout this entire time. He already noticed it before, but this time it was too much. The causation of all this was because of the ice wraith. It was like a black hole inside his mental expanse, and its greed was only growing stronger.

So while his mental energy was still getting stronger, the ice wraith itself was beginning to absorb more mental energy, and all of this combined to make his mental energy's progression seem stagnant.

Cronix groaned and leaned back onto the bed, "I'm not getting any stronger!"

Kara, who was on the bedpost, looked up, cawed, and flew onto his chest. A deep blue orb appeared behind her, which she moved into Cronix's face. Cronix didn't need to know what she was saying to understand what she meant.

"My stars aren't any better. I'll say they're even worse than my mental energy, at least my mental energy is actually still improving. I just can't see it yet," Cronix muttered, yet he still reached for his magic bag and took out a book. It was the book that was given to him by Riley with the basic water spells.

Without much care for it, Cronix flipped the book to the first spell, it was a water ball similar to another spell he had in his magic bag, the one he got from Tornic all those weeks ago.

"Not that much time has passed since Alktarsha, yet everything changed so fast," Cronix whispered to himself, as he read through the spell. Like the one he got from Tornic, this spell was extremely basic, which was one of the reasons he had no interest in learning this spell in the first place.

Cronix drew his water elements and formed them into a ball, however with this spell, it wasn't how the exterior looked like, but what was happening in the interior.

In this spell, the water elements were supposed to go in a specific motion for there could be an even greater effect than a simple ball of water. This information made Cronix's eyes light up, "So it's like a formation?" Cronix looked at the crow when he asked this, she merely stared back.

Cronix looked back at the page, When I first started working on formations, I read that magic could help with creating formations and after I failed, I completely gave up that thought, but what if that was true, I mean it did say that in the book?

Since the formation-like pattern was very basic, which was suitable for a spell like this, Cronix was able to create it quite easily, and that's when a change occurred with the outside. The ball of water looked like it had little waves going through and around it.

"Interesting..." Cronix smiled at this little ball hovering above his hand like it was a toy, but a little idea lit up his mental expanse, and mental energy seeped through his fingertips, traveling into the ball of elements.

The cold temperature of the mental energy changed the properties of the water, but it wasn't enough to completely freeze it. So Cronix tried a different route. He drew his mental energy towards the water elements and pulled them together until they overlapped each other.

He then waived them together before he brought both hands around the ball, and compressed everything together.

The elements and mental energy both were being squeezed into the same space, yet unlike in the mental expanse, when this happened, nothing came to stop it, and the elements and mental energy combined into one.

This immediately caused Cronix to frown, and he observed the changes within the waterball as well as how different it felt combining the two powers in the outside world when compared to the mental expanse.

This led him to conclude, “This isn’t the same thing, same concept, different results. But going from what I saw from Tornic, this still makes my spell stronger… But why isn’t there anything trying to stop me?”

Cronix gathered more water elements and entered his mental expanse. He gathered his mental energy and the elements to form them into another ball, just like he’s done so many times before.

Yet unlike the one he did a few moments ago, he met the same resistance he always had, and although it was weaker compared to the previous times, it was still present.

This led him to have another idea, and he left his mental expanse, but his mind didn’t leave the water ball inside his mental expanse. Carefully, he controlled his mental energy to leave through his fingertips, but he focused on a specific spot in his mental expanse.

The ball of elements and mental energy reacted and thinned out to leave through his fingertips. They stayed intact through the journey and appeared next to him.

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"I was right, they're different." When putting the two orbs of elements and mental energy together, while they seemed similar, their powers were different.

Cronix could tell with a glance the one from his expanse was stronger than the original formation-like water ball. A small smile crept on his face as he ditched the original water ball, and focused on his expanse water ball.

In the open, with his mental energy fully merged with the magic elements, the room grew even colder than before. Frost could now be seen on the windows, and the ball of water started getting icy.

This ball of water was way easier to control compared to the other one, and with the mental energy inside, when Cronix created the formation it was even stronger than the one before.

This spell could now hold Cronix's interest, and when he thought about using it with the wraith, his excitement only grew. Yet, before he could go any further, a knock and Cayden’s head peeping through the door interrupted him.

“Wendril’s here with supplies for the…” Cayden trailed off as he stared at the spell, “What is that?”

“It’s a water spell infused with my mental energy, what do you think about it?”

Cayden stood in front of the water ball, and poked it, “Earth fuc..!” Cayden shut his mouth and held his finger, trying to warm it up as much as possible.

“This is strong, Cronix.” Cayden said with a stressed laugh, “Before you were already able to fight flawless Casters, I mean you did it horribly, but you still fought them. But with this, I think you can do it slightly better.”

“Maybe, if it doesn’t burn through my mental energy… And what do you mean horrible? I won all my fights!”

Cayden chuckled and ignored the question, “Come on Cronix, we don’t want to keep Lapsa and Wendril waiting.”

Cronix glared at Cayden, but still grabbed his cloak, and followed him out of the room as dark elements surrounded Cayden’s body again.

In the living room, Wendril was taking out equipment from a magic bag in the shape of a backpack, when Lapsa saw her take out a small container full of pills, his whole body visibly relaxed.

That’s one less thing we need to worry about.

“You know what, I don’t really have to take all this out, you guys can just return the backpack after the focuser game, just please don’t break it, it was really expensive,” Wendril said, after realizing how many items were in the bag.

Lapsa awkwardly smiled, and told her, “We’ll… Try not to.” Normally, he would’ve thought it was silly for her to worry about them destroying a bag like this, but they did manage to wreck their first house in less than five days.

“We’ll also try not to blow up this house.” Cayden joked as he entered the living room with Cronix lagging behind him.

Wendril’s face darkened, “Please don’t joke like that, we’re already running low on funds, and if you freeloaders keep destroying everything, I don’t think we’ll last till the focuser game.”

Cronix avoided looking at her when she said that. he knew the majority, if not all, of the house's destruction, was his fault.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Wendril didn’t stay on the subject of the house’s destruction for long, much to Cronix’s relief, instead she pulled out three sets of clothing of different sizes and tossed them to the three boys.

“The Madame wanted me to give this to you guys, she said she couldn’t handle the stench of Cronix during their discussion. But I want to emphasize the importance of these clothes, they have traits that…”

Cronix stopped paying Wendril any attention when he caught his set and examined it. He couldn’t withhold a chuckle. The clothes themselves were rather basic, black pants, and a purple button-up shirt, but on the back of the shirt were the words, “Potpourri Residences”, these were employee shirts.

Cayden also caught his shirt, but Wendril’s words caused him to frown as he wondered if he became nose blind towards Cronix’s, and his own, scents.

Lapsa however had the decency to listen to what Wendril had to say, and her every word concerning the importance of these clothes sparked a fire in his heart.

“No, no, no, I don’t know what that look means, but I don’t like it. These clothes are tailor-made, don’t ruin them.”

Cayden looked up to see what Wendril was talking about, and he flinched when he saw her looking at Lapsa, who was staring at the clothes with an expression that felt more suited to be on Cronix.

Cronix also looked up at Lapsa and smiled. He knew exactly what Lapsa was thinking, and felt a bit proud knowing this, “Look at that, Cayden, he’s feeling passionate.”

“I think he’s feeling destructive,” Cayden responded.

Wendril felt helpless around these three and gave on trying to convince Lapsa. The look in his eyes just wouldn’t disappear, and maybe if they focused on the clothes rather than the house, there might be a less likely chance they’ll destroy this residence.

And with that mentality, she reached into the backpack and grabbed a paintbrush. “Here Cronix, take this.” Wendril tossed him the paintbrush.

Cronix caught it with his mental energy and brought it to his face. The paintbrush looked ordinary, although there was something that caused his mental energy to fluctuate around it, "Thank you?”

His tone caused her to frown, “You have no clue what this is, do you?”

Cronix looked at Wendril’s expression then at the paintbrush. Their cluelessness was really starting to get out of hand, and considering their situation, any more suspicion about their identities could be a death sentence, “I know what this is, I’m not that oblivious.”

“Really, then what is it?" Wendril wasn't going to let this go, for her it was better if Cronix admitted he didn't know so he could stop wasting their time.

"It's... For formations, isn't it?" Cronix asked, using the little hints provided by the brush, and what happened yesterday, this was the conclusion he came to.

Wendril actually looked surprised, "So you do know what this is, that's new. I guess I'm sorry."

Cayden clasped his hands, "Well, Wendril we appreciate the visit and the supplies, but we're pretty busy."

Wendril nodded and got the hint, but before she left, she said, "Madame Potpourri hopes the two of you enter the flawless Caster stages by the Focuser Game." Gesturing at Cronix and Lapsa.