When Ryan opened his eyes, he found himself in an empty room in front of an array formation.

An ancient voice sounded, "25th floor failed. Ranking updated. Current ranking, 189th among second years."

Accessing his academy account, he glanced at his merit points and saw the number 3290 displayed. A smile appeared on his face.

"With this amount of points, I might be able to take a class with the President of the Master Inscriptionist Association, Professor Wen Xin."

The notifications on his aurora collar suddenly caught his attention.

"Kieran is already out? I wonder what floor he reached."

Walking to the array formation, he crossed it to join Kieran at the tower's base.

A few seconds later, he saw Kieran waiting for him in front of the tower, waving his hand in his direction.

"How was it?" Kieran asked.

"I was eliminated on floor 25. I was against an angel. I couldn't hurt her with simple attacks, so I tried to use all my crystal essence in a single attack, but it didn't do anything either. And you?" Ryan replied.

"I was eliminated on floor 38. I had to face five lava beasts that constantly changed shape. Their attacks were difficult to predict."

"Floor 38? The gap between the two of us is still as big as ever. I thought I'd caught up with you a little."

"You recently breakthrough to Silver rank. It’s already good that you can reach floor 25."

"You also just breakthrough."

"I’m a double awakened. It’s different."

"Maybe. Next month, I'll go higher than you," said Ryan with a determined look. Even though he knew he wouldn't be able to reach the same floor as Kieran any time soon, he wasn't ready to give up so easily.

"Good luck."

"Shouldn’t you say you won’t let me win easily?"

"Do I really have to say it?"

Ryan sighed before changing the subject, "Did you get enough merit points to purchase your movement technique?"

"No, but I'm pretty close. I also got 1 hour of access to the elemental training ground."

"If you want to train in an elemental training ground, you will have to make an appointment. There are very few spots in these areas, and the training ground maintenance costs are high. With the number of students, the slots are often filled 24 hours in advance."

While explaining to Kieran, Ryan checked the academy network.

"You have an open spot tomorrow around noon for the Lava Pit, the fire elemental training ground."

"I’ll sign up then."

"What will you do about the remaining points you need?"

"I'll accept some smithing tasks. Depending on your level in the inscriptions, we can also try forging an artifact together."

"Forge an artifact? I should be able to do it at my current level. We will need materials to serve as a catalyst for my inscriptions if we want to create one."

"So it’s possible?" Kieran asked, his eyes shining.

"Yes, but the artifact level will be Silver rank at best."

"It doesn't matter. We'll earn more merit points this way rather than doing tasks ourselves."

"That's not wrong. I'm going to find out about the tasks and catalysts we can use. We can try to create one during this week. What do you plan to do now?"

Kieran checked the time on his aurora collar before deciding.

"I'm going to try the gravity manipulation training grounds."

"Ok. Call me if you need help with something."

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"Ok."

The two separated. Ryan headed towards the Master Inscriptionist Association while Kieran headed towards the training grounds.

Checking the academy map as he walked, he arrived a few minutes later in front of a large dome.

Entering inside, he was greeted by a large open training area where several students divided the space between them to train.

A little further away were rectangular metal structures measuring several tens of meters each, forming several hallways between them that extended over several kilometers.

Each structure had a door with a screen next to it. Some of them were open, allowing a view of an empty training space inside, while others appeared to be locked.

Looking around for a moment, Kieran walked towards one of the empty structures.

"These are the gravity manipulation training rooms written on the academy website?" he said once he arrived in front of one of them.

Placing his hand on the screen next to the door, a notification appeared indicating that 5 academic merit points would be deducted to be able to use the room for the next hour.

He quickly agreed before stepping inside, the door closed behind him.

Checking the options the training room offered, he found that he could increase the gravity up to 5.0x. He would have to pay more merit points if he wanted to increase this threshold.

"That looks good."

Closing his eyes, his consciousness entered his spiritual world, which was still surrounded by a layer of crystal essence, where he saw Runihoril occupying Luna with inscriptions. The little whale seemed to have fun chasing after them.

"Master, Luna."

Runihoril stopped manipulating the inscriptions when he saw Kieran.

"Do you finally remember that you have a Master?"

"Sorry," Kieran replied as Luna threw herself into his arms.

"Do you want to get out of here, Luna?" Kieran asked, looking at the whale in his arms.

Luna stirred in his arms as if to answer him.

"Can she come out?" asked Runihoril in turn.

"I'm in a private training room. There's no one there except me, and the room is big enough for her to go outside."

"Good, I won't have to take care of her for a while."

"Master doesn’t want to go out?"

"Why should I?"

"There are options to display a holographic screen for watching TV or series."

By the time Kieran finished his words, Runihoril had already disappeared from his spiritual world.

Kieran smiled at the sight and left his spiritual world with Luna.

Back in the training room, he accessed the room's options under the impatient eyes of Runihoril.

"I had a question for the Master," he said suddenly as he continued to navigate through the options.

"What is it?"

"Today, a strange phenomenon happened during a combat practice."

Kieran began to explain his fight with Elseria and how, with each interaction between their two elements, they merged together instead of clashing.

Runihoril seemed lost in thought when he suddenly said, "You asked me if I had children yesterday, but you didn't answer my question at that time. Have you met an elf with the same last name as me?"

"Huh? Oh yes. She's the one I had my combat practice with. Her name is Elseria Sylnorin," Kieran replied, taken aback by the sudden change of subject.

"Hmm, I see. I don't know what can cause this phenomenon," Runihoril said, a slight smile on his face.

Kieran, who was still browsing the room's options, didn't see this and frowned.

"I wonder why both of our elements are reacting like that."

Finally finding the option he was looking for, a holographic screen appeared in a corner of the training room. Runihoril quickly sat down in front of it.

"What do you want to watch?"

"Hmm, it's been several months since the last time I was able to watch a series. All the episodes must have been released by now. What was the name of the series again? Urgh, I don't remember, that was this series with a demon who had to protect a human, but his powers had been transferred to the human, so he had to stay close to her to use them."

"Isn't this a drama? Don't you prefer an action series?"

"No, it brings back old memories."

Kieran tilted his head, not understanding what Runihoril meant.

'Maybe he knew demons?' he thought.

"It’s this one, My Demon Love Coffee," said Runihoril, pointing to a series on the screen.

Kieran started the series before turning back to Luna.

"Watch the series with Master or swim around the room. If you behave well, I'll try to take you out more often whenever I get the chance."

The little whale circled several times in the air while sending him a message through their souls before starting to swim around.

Kieran shook his head and walked towards the middle of the room. Activating a protective barrier to separate the area where Runihoril and Luna were from the rest of the room, he activated an option to measure his crystal strength.

The evaluation was quickly completed and displayed in front of him.

"Evaluation Completed. Crystal Strength Level: 7,675."

Taking into account his current level of crystal strength, he began to set the gravity of the room to maximum and set up a dummy to serve as his training partner.

Once the adjustments were complete, he suddenly felt a weight all over his body, causing him to stumble for a moment before he regained his balance.

He moved his arms several times before him, feeling how restricted his movements were, a smile appeared on his face.

Activating his abilities, he retrieved his double-bladed sword from his aurora collar and faced the training dummy, which did not seem to be influenced by the room's gravity.

Taking a step forward to rush towards the dummy, a sound of explosion suddenly echoed through the room as his body was sent flying into a wall, while his face had the mark of a fist.

"Fuck."

He spat blood on the ground before getting up. His sword moved quickly in front of him, intercepting a metal fist that pushed him a step back.

Using all his strength to move his body under the gravity, he twirled his sword around himself, forcing the dummy back.

While he was busy with the training dummy and Runihoril was watching his series, without either of them noticing, Luna passed through the room wall without resistance as if it were water.

Soft, happy noises escaped her as she wandered through the hallways separating the gravity manipulation training rooms.

As if attracted by something, she headed towards one of the rooms and passed through the wall.

An intense blue light suddenly filled her vision while a terrible pressure fell on her soul, paralyzing her in place. The horn on her forehead glowed for a brief moment, sending a call for help to Kieran.