We continue climbing the massive mountain together.

The monsters up this high make gaining hundreds of millions of MCP fairly easy for my teammates over the next 24 hours.

Their controls rise to the point where they begin needing far less food and rest.

In just a few days, I've managed to bring them from barely passing the B-Class exams alone to rivaling the mana control of the Apex Region's elite applicants.

At this point, they're all thoroughly convinced that there is something not quite right about us, the two random applicants from the Bedrock Region.

While most applicants from this region should have barely made it into the top 30, we're effortlessly carrying them through the exams. Neither of us have eaten, slept, or shown any signs of fatigue in the days we've been together.

On top of that, Ember and I absorb all of the red fragments in our possession. He even leaves our group to go up and farm more while I stay in range of the three teammates to keep their absorption skill activated.

Occasional questions are asked, but they soon realize whatever is going on here is not something I plan on explaining to them any time soon.

Our ascent upward gets faster and faster the more they grow, and they accept the silent partnership and the decades worth of power gifted to them in just a matter of days.

While each of them surpasses 1 billion MCP in their natural mana control, I consume 13 more fragments, bringing my total up to 15. Every time I do, the crystallization of a crimson gem in my chest gets brighter and brighter.

On top of that, more and more threads of red energy are left behind trailing from the core every time I stop.

I have to continuously regenerate my flesh at more extreme rates as the burning sensation never really goes away now.

Just as Ember said before, it only gets worse.

The more the crystal clear core saturates with red threads, the hotter and more constant this burning becomes.

It gets to the point where even after the initial surge of energy passes, I'm able to imbue small portions of red essence into my skills and enhance their innate qualities.

I test out throwing mana blades at a few monsters as we travel upward and let the red energy flow into them.

I still don't sense them being different in any way... It just feels as if the building blocks of the mana and Qi being used in the techniques I'm activating are far more consolidated. The structure of the attacks is more rooted in reality.

Tendrils of the red threads spread throughout the crescents of mana; imbuing themselves deep into the attacks and spreading through the air they're traveling through as well.

It gives off the visual feedback of the attack being stronger, however, the same exact amount of mana is being used. The more I look at these attacks that I throw, it's like reality itself is bending and weaving itself throughout the energy released to make a deeper impact on the objects it hits.

My mind bends to try and comprehend the phenomenon.

No extra energy is being used, it's just that the presence of these red threads makes the mass and air around the attacks more susceptible to getting hit.

It makes the most sense in the minute or so of clarity that I get when absorbing a fragment, but floods away and leaves me in my thoughts afterward wondering how it works.

Every time I use the divine power, portions of the red threads leave my body, and I visualize the birds I faced earlier with cores that haven't fully formed yet either. They would run out of the red energy surrounding them if they used it up completely.

Despite this, I still test out other skills than just my attacks every once in a while.

This includes my enemy detection and all-seeing eye in my greater form.

Doing so, I can perceive the top of the mountain and the beginning of a new zone that Ember mentioned earlier.

In addition to this, I can directly see the presence of other dense red cores when I use the threads of energy to boost my vision. They don't appear in my mind as energy, more like other ripples or disturbances in space.

Eventually, we come across another awakened bird as a team.

Ember and I stand back this time and let Nat, Dane, and Marcie handle it alone.

I even deactivate my shared stats and mana control buff to see how they'll fare with their own power alone.

The red core awakened I find for them has the remnants of a wind magic element, showing flowing red energy around its wind and sending blades of blood-red wind at all of us from a distance.

The six wandering scavenger birds that stay nearby are quickly taken out by Dane and his pure white wind attacks.

Marcie is by far still the strongest out of the three of them, and most confident in close-range combat.

She's able to weave in and out of the falling birds attacked by Dane, taking control of the real enemy, facing off against it in close-range attacks, blocking and attacking with her spear.

She uses pink walls of manifested mana to disrupt and extinguish any attacks her spear is unable to fend off.

Dane joins in after, sending in a barrage of long-range attacks once the red-cored monster is occupied by its immediate threat, the spear wielder.

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Nat still stays behind, watching from afar with daggers in her hands with sharp eyes. Without the fire skill I've been sharing with her, it seems she'd be hesitant to jump into battle especially with the bright red aura that reaches far out from the creature they're fighting.

In less than a minute, the team takes out the monster, but both Dane and Marcie who were very up close and personal to the bird and its attacks have tendrils of red energy coursing through their veins as well.

Dane has far less, as he wasn't near the denser parts of the bird's aura, however, Marcie has far more.

Her armor was even hit point blank with the attacks a few times.

While they protected her from the brunt of the blow, I can see with my enhanced vision their bodies being broken down just the same as mine is now, just at a much slower rate.

Marcie follows the falling bird's corpse and collects its red core and throws it into her item box.

Nat floats over to Dane first, then Marcie once she returns, and heals them as she would after most battles, and I witness an interesting energy exchange take place.

As her white aura envelops their bodies, I watch the red energy that infects their bodies flow toward Nat and creep into her body instead.

They both seem very rejuvenated while Nat becomes exhausted and filled with the burning sensation herself.

I don't say a word or do anything yet while I watch Nat heal herself. The red threads fade slowly, but they don't go away entirely. Most move toward her chest and begin the process of making a very small pink translucent core.

Ember witnesses this too and speaks to me through our link.

"She's strong enough now to the point where it will be fine. If she's not directly ingesting the stones I doubt even a full month of this would be enough to accidentally spark a core formation. I recommend leaving her with some self-regeneration potions though."

I nod and do exactly that, giving Nat enough potions for a small army to store in her item box before we continue upward.

Another 12 hours pass before we finally make it to the new zone split I sensed before.

During this final stretch up the mountain, Ember and I absorb seven more fragments each, and I don't activate any more unnecessary skills while using the energy to make sure the bulk of it gets saturated into my now very brightly glowing red outline of a core inside my chest.

It practically lights up my entire body red, Ember too, I'm positive it's on the verge of changing into something very interesting.

My teammates have farmed a total of nine red cores and agreed to split them evenly among each other while Ember has periodically gone off to farm extras that aren't in our flight path.

Every hour or so he comes back with dozens of excess fragments for me to store away.

"We'll probably never need this much, but it never hurts to be safe." He says while eating another gem and adding to his red glowing aura.

I eat another one too as what looks like the top of the mountain comes into my line of sight.

Less than an hour passes before it comes into everyone's view, and we pick up the pace even further, flying higher and faster into the sky until we reach it.

Once all five of us pass the cliff's final edge, the view on the other side isn't at all what I would have expected...

Marcie is the first to say it out loud.

"An ocean...? Up here...?"

Rolling waves are all we can see.

The mountain acts like a dam, holding back an endless pool of water stretching out into the distance again.

It doesn't only go out wide, it is deep as well. The mountain's slope is just as steep as it was on the other side. However, there is a slight curve to it. It may not be visible to the naked eye, but with my enhanced vision, especially with the red divine threads coursing through it, I can see this endless sea is sitting inside the top of this stone mass.

The mountain is wide, so even this is just an educated guess, in my vision it just curves off to our left and right into the endless void of sky.

There's a small bit of land between the endless sky and endless sea, about 50 to 100 meters of it, varying in some places where the waves of the sea crash harder.

Small shrubs and trees grow on this long curved piece of land.

We all float down onto it to take a break, and Ember speaks through our link once we land.

"Our best course of action now is to finish absorbing these stones, then leave your teammates here while we take on the next zone. Without a consolidated red core, it would be nearly impossible to bring their mana control to heights to the point where they could take on monsters that can wield orange cores."

I relay the message to my teammates while they set up their base camp.

I create another teleport platform here too, covering it with a stealth barrier and earth magic, while handing out teleport crystals and keeping some for myself.

During this process, a few fully awakened red core birds find us at the top of the mountain, and I watch them take it out with ease and return.

I speak up while crossing my arms and standing with Ember at the edge of the endless sea.

"I've given you all enough power to handle anything that comes your way at this altitude. On top of that, you all have quite the head start against any other teams that make their way this far. I can only think of two, the Apex Region's elites, and some of the higher skilled Vice and Veridian applicants. Do as you wish with them when the time comes. If for any reason you can't handle fighting them, use the two teleport platforms I made for you to retreat and come back up here if needed."

Marcie nods, looking at me with her arms crossed and a satisfied look on her face.

"Sounds good to me. We'll keep anyone from passing this line if they approach."

Then, she turns to look back toward the sky, but says one more thing.

"Oh- and thanks. I'm glad I trusted you. I haven't trusted anyone in a long time. I'll have to show you around the Talton Region when this is all over. I think I can convince my leader to let you come by."

Dane replies next.

"You're leaving right now? When will you be back? Before the 28-day limit is over, right?"

I shrug, and Ember replies before I can get a word in, holding a red fragment in between them.

"We'll be leaving once we awaken our red cores. It won't be too much longer at this rate."

Ember turns and starts walking over to the water's edge, sits down and sends me a wave of telepathy telling me to join him once I'm done so we can finally finish this up.

I nod.

"We'll meet you all once the trial is done. The hard part is already over. You're strong enough to pass this exam on your own now. That was the whole goal here, right? Make it to the top 12? Make the Silca Region proud?"

He smiles.

"Right, yeah."

He pauses, but looks at me with a face full of confidence after thinking over my words.

"I'll collect more fragments than anyone else. I'll show you around the Silca Region once this is all over too."

I smile and nod back.

"Good."

I turn to Nat, and reach into my item storage to pull out a small blue orb and toss it to her.

Inside, an extreme grade fire summoning skill lays dormant.

"If you want that fire skill to stay permanent, eat that. You seem to have a much more aggressive fighting style when you have access to the skill. It might come in handy."

She catches it, looks at the small orb for a few seconds then nods, placing the orb into her item box.

"Thank you. I'll use it if I need it. I thought this would take years, maybe longer, maybe even never. Winning the tournament in stage 4 lets me go back to the Veridian Region right after these exams are finished."

"Yes, and I'm very interested in what matters you'll have a say in when you get a place on that B-Class board as well."

I smile and turn around to go join Ember, but continue speaking making eye contact with everyone.

"Even so, it's not over just yet. Keep training while you can and stay nearby. I have a feeling you're going to need all the power you can get once the other teams arrive this high up. You could still lose your points if they take them from you. It's better safe than sorry, right?"

Each of them nods and scatters off to find more enemies nearby to absorb their MCP while I walk over to Ember and sit down.

He looks toward me and eats another red fragment, then closes his eyes as crimson threads fill his body.

"Let's finish this and move on. Your journey here has just begun as well."

I take a deep breath and do the same, staring off into the endless sea while more threads of ethereal light saturate my core.