In the eastern part of the Valley of Beginning were another set of hills, plateaus or woodlands. These large area of natural landforms are home to countless of creatures. There were also ruined towers and buildings scattered in the area. Humans previously searched this place for treasures but after more than a hundred years, this place was only visited by people who hunted animals.

These hunters though usually come in groups and they don't really try to go too far east. One reason was that bandits might be hiding somewhere in the place. The second was that the ruined areas might be cursed because some people went missing in this place. Lastly and the most important was that it is close to the eastern forest. This forest is said to be even more dangerous than the southern forest.

Currently though, there are four people venturing near this place. It was Cyziel, Volus, Ortix and Lucia.

"Do you two really need to come? I will really just be training. You two should focus on you own training." Cyziel sighed. He knew that Lucia might not be comfortable with the other two. Ughh! I probably should not have told them that I would be also trying to control this abyssal energy.

"What if you go out of control? Who is going to stop you?" Volus rebuked, furiously staring at Cyziel.

"That's why I brought Lucia!" Cyziel protested.

"Well, If you just want to be with Lucia by yourself then you should have said so." Ortix chortled, teasing Cyziel.

"No! I really need her. Ah---" Cyziel shouted. "I mean. I need her for restricting the Abyss energy."

Ortix chuckled. "That's fine then. We won't disturb you two. I'll be in that other plateau!" Ortix disappeared then reappeared in the plateau he pointed.

"I'll be in that other hill! Do not worry about me. I usually cultivate in mountains or caves in my home planet. Just shout if you need help." Volus smirked at Lucia before flying to the nearby hill.

"Ughh! Ortix is starting to rub at Volus. He is learning to tease people." Cyziel turned to Lucia. "Uhh! Sorry about them."

Lucia shook her head, smiling. She is afraid of the other two but she cannot deny that they would be a great help if ever something actually happened. "No. Its fine. I think it is great that you have really loyal friends. So should we start?"

"Alright! I guess you could stand there for safety!" Cyziel pointed at a place 3 meters away from him. "I'll first try to feel it."

Cyziel sat down on the grassy ground and closed his eyes. He tried to enter his magicus with his consciousness. An incorporeal body appeared inside the world of his magicus. He could see the mass of void energy encircling around a corner of the world. He parted the energy and inside it was the similar colored abyssal energy. The abyss energy seemed similar at first look but it has a more erratic movement. Unlike the void energy that seemed to lack of life, there was multiple small eruptions that is happening in the blob of abyss energy. It is like a solar flare of the sun but it was black in color.

Cyziel, with his incorporeal hand, touched the mass of energy. He was trying to connect with it but it was ignoring him. He willed it to move but it didn't listen to him. He tried to clear his mind and retried his efforts but the more he concentrate, the more he seems to be disconnected. Every attempt he did failed. In his last endeavor, he was not even able to touch the energy. His hand just passed through it.

Cyziel opened his eyes, shaking his head. "I really can't do it. I can't even seem to make a connection with it."

"Cyziel... Did you know that your eyes have turned back to its original color?" Lucia asked.

Cyziel jerked, surprised at the sudden question. "Ah! It must be when I was trying to clear my mind."

"How does your eye color change actually work? Is it a quality of your race?"

Cyziel shook his head. "Ah no! It is a actually a unique ability of mine. Here look!" Cyziel's eyes suddenly turned white and the only thing that was left was an almost non decipherable black silhouette of his pupil. It then turned back to gold. "As you can see I can also turn it to white but it might look pretty weird to some people."

Lucia twitched, not really knowing how she would react." That's --- really unique but do you just will it and it changes color?"

"My eyes change color depending on the energy that I focus into it. I accidentally discovered it when I was young. I was practicing something that is similar to the combat art enhance vision during that time. When I focused aether energy on my eyes, it then turned white." Cyziel answered.

"And your black colored eyes?"

Cyziel paused then took a deep breath. He was pondering whether he should say it or not but he eventually thought that Lucia already know a lot to keep hiding it from her. He told her of the creature that they met in Daraksta. The aura it generated was similar to the creature they saw in the underground ruins but it was more sinister.

When they first saw the creature, it was no stronger than any other abyssal creature that they usually fought. Its like a stupid little child that doesn't know of anything. Still, the other creatures seem to be afraid of it and would usually run away with its presence. This actually saved the group for quite a lot of times because they would only need to beat the creature instead of hordes of monsters. What they didn't know was that it would soon become one of the biggest problem for them.

One day when they encountered it again, it has grown to look like a teenager. It was not only stronger, it was also smarter. They would once again beat it but it still didn't die. They have met it again three other times and each time it was stronger than before. The last time that they fought it, it was as tall as a five story building. Its strength has also exponentially grew. As for its intelligence, it could even converse with the group.

They knew that they should kill it at that time or they won't be lucky the next time. It was also the first time that Cyziel awakened his second ring. With the five of them using their ultimate forms and abilities, they were able to defeat it. Cyziel absorbed the energy remains of the creature to make sure that it would not be able to escape. This is also the time that he unlocked his ability to control void energy.

"Then your black pupils is when you are focusing void energy into your eyes?" Lucia inquired.

Cyziel nodded. "Yep! That is right."

"That creature. Have you really killed it? Wouldn't the energy you receive from it abyssal energy not void energy?"

"Yeah! We really did kill it. I was not able to feel him anywhere but-" Cyziel frowned. "yeah... the energy that came from it might be a mix of void and abyssal energy."

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Lucia frowned, recalling what happened before with Cyziel. "This means that the previous time that you were not able to control yourself, it might be abyssal energy that entered your eyes instead of void energy." Lucia paused, looking concerned at Cyziel. "Are you not scared of it? Do you still want to continue?"

"Personally, I am a little scared but I need to do it don't I? Unfortunately, it seems I have no progress as of now. I also tried some things before and it also didn't work."

"I think there might be a way for you to harness it." Lucia solemnly uttered.

Cyziel eyebrows curled, looking confuse. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"Your emotions remember? What if you try to get angry. Maybe if you try thinking of something that would cause you to feel intense emotions, you might be able to use it. But-" Lucia bit her lips. "It might really be dangerous if you won't be able to control it again."

Cyziel's eyes opened wide. "You are right! Maybe that would work. Let's try it. If I try to keep running away from it then I won't be able to fix this issue."

Cyziel closed his eyes again, repeating the process that he did before. He first tried to remember happy memories which made him smile. Unfortunately, his current emotions are far from enough. The result was that he was able to touch the abyssal energy. He made a few more tries but the extent of his effort was just being able to make the abyssal energy move a little. This result was far from what he wanted so he finally tried a different emotion.

This time, he was thinking of a memory that would cause him to get angry. The memory that he thought happened inside Daraksta. He saw an image of a man hitting him from the back before the man ran away. This man was also one of the friends he met in the dark world. Unfortunately, that man is also the first person to actually betray Cyziel's trust.

Cyziel, with his incorporeal body, walked again towards the mass of abyssal energy. His anger manifested by causing the energy around him to be agitated. As Cyziel reached out towards the abyssal energy, it started to flow like a helix towards his hand. It crept slowly and continuously towards his arms then to his body and his neck.

The thing that was happening in the magicus world was also being reflected to the outside world. When he got angry, energy gathered and condensed around his body making it more perceptible to humans. It then started to swirl around him. When he touched the abyssal energy, a black spot appeared from his hand. It was a similar spot that they found from the corrupted creatures in the underground ruins. From that black spot, dark tendrils-like tattoo started to come out and also crept toward his arm then to his head.

"Gah!" Cyziel groaned as the abyssal energy reached his head in both the magicus world and his physical body.

"Control your anger! Do not let it control you!" Lucia shouted. She was already condensing divine energy in her hand in case of any accidents.

Ortix and Volus also immediately went back to the plateau where Cyziel and Lucia where located. They felt the familiar energy that screamed danger to them.

Hearing Lucia's shout, Cyziel calmed himself a bit. He was still angry but he was trying to contain it. The tendrils in his body retracted slowly until it disappeared from his body except for one area. He could still feel the energy remain in his hand.

Cyziel's eyes opened. It was still in its original gold color. He looked at his right hand and he could see the swirling dark spot in his hand. He could feel the malicious energy inside it. He directed it to the nearby grass and the grass started to mutate. They grew longer and turned red. They also grew small thorns and some kind of liquid started to secrete from their blades. Unfortunately, the patch of grass eventually died.

"I think this is it. I am able to control it." Cyziel smiled before looking at Lucia. He saw that Lucia has a conflicted reaction. "Is there something wrong?"

"That is really great. " Lucia uttered. "But I think that you should not use it."

"I agree with her." Volus nodded. "You still do not know its properties. This world might not even be compatible with it."

Ortix scratched his head. "I hate to say this but I think they are right. It might be too dangerous to use."

"What are you all saying? Every magic is dangerous. It just depends on how you use it. " Cyziel sighed. "But fine, I won't use it for now. I don't even have any use for it yet." Cyziel focused on his hand and the dark spot started to close. See! I could control it! I just need to learn more about it then it definitely would have some other use.

"Are we still going to continue?" Lucia asked.

"No! I think that is fine for now. I'll train for the interschool tournament now. I'll send you back first to the village." Cyziel answered.

"Are you three all participants for the tournament." Lucia's eyes swept the three before lowering her head. She seems to still be uneasy with Ortix, especially after their argument. "I'm sorry. That must be a stupid question."

Cyziel momentarily stared at Ortix.

Ortix quickly shook his head. *What? I didn't do anything!* He softly said which Cyziel didn't really hear.

Cyziel turned back to Lucia, chuckling. "Actually, I don't know yet if I would be chosen but nothing's wrong if I prepared too. By the way, didn't you also reach the top 50? Were you not chosen?"

Lucia nodded. "I recently got ranked 38. I am actually not strong enough to actually fight in the tournament but-" She looked away, seemingly embarrassed. "I was chosen as one of the three substitutes for my healing abilities. The instructors said that it would be good to bring me just even for it."

"Oh! Then you could train here with us. For healing, maybe Volus could even help you." Cyziel suggested.

Volus looked at Lucia. "I am not really the best at teaching these things. You are probably even better than me at this things. But I am fine if you want to learn some things that I know."

"I--Uhhh"

"No need to be fearful of Volus. He is pretty smart you know." Cyziel smiled at Lucia.

"Hmph!" Volus snorted, not happy with the sudden praise.

Lucia agreed and she went to the other plateau with Volus. The four started to practice for the interschool tournament.

Lucia received some knowledge from Volus regarding restoration magic that Volus learned from his planet. Some of it have direct translation to the current known Venturian magic while some are really quite new for her. For example she learned soul directed healing spells. Volus even imparted her information about some other healing combat arts that not even Volus could properly use. One example of it was a combat art for connecting the life force of two people.

After Volus shared the things he knew to Lucia, he started his own training. He first started by cultivating his body. The aether energy around was slowly getting absorbed by his physical body. Afterwards, he went on to cultivate his souls. It was the same process but he was directing the energy towards his magicus then to his soul. Unfortunately, his body and soul was already on a high level so this kind of cultivation has a minimal effect on his strength.

As for Ortix, he started his training by jogging then running. He then proceeded to the eastern forest but he didn't really go too deep as warned by Cyziel. He first checked out the surroundings then marked several creatures as targets. He scared them to run before blindfolding himself. He waited for quite some time before he started to hunt.

Cyziel's training was the most eye catching. He created multiple targets made of different elements then blasted them with his own magic. His targets ranged from human size to golems that are the size of a giant. The numbers of his targets also varied to one to even hundreds. He even asked for help from elementals to actually help him with his training. The elementals are creatures whose body are purely made of a certain essence which gained consciousness when a rare interaction take place between the essence and the nether energy. They are mostly birthed from the elemental planes.

In order to kill an elemental, their enemy should either completely extinguish them or kill their nether consciousness since its like their soul and mind. Lesser elementals are easily killed since their connection with the elemental planes are not that different from humans so they replenish their essence quite slowly. If their essences are exhausted then they die. As for greater elementals, their essences are almost unlimited due to their strong connection with the elemental planes so it would be hard to extinguish them unless you are somehow able to cut off their connection with the planes.

Of course, Cyziel have no plans of killing the elementals. He instead enlisted their help to control the elemental golems that he would create. In this way, the enemies are more natural and not actually immobile targets. The elementals that Cyziel asked for help are actually five greater elementals from each of the five basic elements.

-- Valley of Beginning (A few km away) --

"Hey! Do you all hear that?" A man sitting on a tree stump asked.

"Hear what? Are you going crazy?" A woman, sitting not far from him, uttered.

"No! No! Try focusing your hearing in the northeast!"

"I could hear some explosions. Are some people hunting there right now?" Another man said as he munched on a meat of some freshly cooked animal.

"I can now hear it too!" The woman said. "Should we check it out?"

"Yeah! Let's inform everyone else. I wish it is not the militia!"