As I was sleeping in Sōzokujins room I was awoken by something jumping on top of me.

* “Hey!” I shouted as I sat up

* “Time for training.” Lupus said

* “I haven’t eaten yet.” I said as I was getting out of bed

* “Then wake up earlier, we’re training according to my clock.” He said

* “Fine, but wake up Jin will you?” I asked as I was changing into clothes more suitable for training

* “No need, I was ready the second I heard training.” Sōzokujin said from his bed

* “When did you get changed?”

* “At the same time you did.”

* “Boys! It’s time for breakfast!” Uxor shouted from downstairs

* “I thought you said we were going to train immediately, Lupus.” I said as I grabbed him by the neck

* “I’m ready to go but Uxor didn’t want you to train before breakfast!” He shouted as he tried to shake of my grip

* “We’re coming!” Jin shouted back as an answer to Uxor

* “What are we going to train?” I asked Lupus as we made our way out of the room

* “Your magic control.” He answered as he managed to break free from me and jump up on to my shoulder

* “Magic control?” I asked again

* “You have the magic types of every species so you're incredibly powerful when you go berserk but you can’t control it.” Jin said as he sat down

* “So I need to train on my control over the species specific types?” I asked as I too sat down

* “Exactly.” Lupus said as he started to make his way to his plate

* “How will we train?” I asked Lupus

* “Don’t ask me, today's training is with Uxor.” Lupus said as he nodded toward Uxor who was eating

* “We will be seeing how much magic power you have and how much you can draw out.” Uxor said

* “What should I do?” Sōzokujin asked

* “You will begin the same training program that Loki will go through while here but you will start by raising your magic capacity.” Lupus answered him

* “So I’m training with you then.” He said as he looked to Lupus

* “Indeed you will.” Lupus said

After breakfast me and Uxor went out to the training grounds and Sōzokujin and Lupus went toward a forest. The only instructions that I was given were to sit on a rock and focus my magic power into my muscles, even though I thought it would be easy it proved to be nearly impossible.

* “You're doing it wrong.” Uxor said as she watched me

* “What should I do then?” I asked

* “You need first make it an element, and then a shape by letting it flow into your muscles, your weapon or even another person.”

* “How do I turn it into an element?”

* “Hmm, usually we would just explain the way to use the nature element and then assess what other elements you have and let you train with people with the same elements, but this sure is complicated.”

* “What if I replicated the feeling I had when I fought Jin?”

* “Hmm, sure, try it.”

I tried to focus on how my magic felt back then and then how it would flow into my muscles, I took a deep breath and the magic travel along side the oxygen out to all of the muscles in my body, I opened my eyes and it felt like I could choose what to focus on and filter everything else out, but before I could do anything else I passed out.

* “You really like passing out.” Uxor said

* “What happened?” I asked as I sat up

* “You managed to use the power of darkness imbued with thunder to strengthen your body but you passed out immediately after.” She explained

* “Darkness imbued with thunder?” I asked not understanding

* “When you use species magic you imbue it with a personal element that then seeps into whatever you want to.”

* “So when I was fighting Jin yesterday and he was surrounded by green flames, he was using nature magic imbued with fire magic.”

* “Yes, but it seems your mana reserves are way too small for that level of magic usage.” She said with a light chuckle

* “What should I do then?”

* “Train like hell.”

After that I trained to imbue a set percentage of my magic into my muscles then after a week of nonstop training only taking breaks to eat and sleep, it was time for the next stage of training.

* “You’ll be joining our training today.” Lupus said while eating breakfast

* “Why?” I asked

* “You will be switching training every week, so now you and Sōzokujin will train together until you're ready for level three.”

* “Let’s get to it then!” Jin said quickly standing up

* “Yeah! Let’s go!” I said hoping this would be less tiring than the magic control training

As we made it to the forest Lupus began to explain what we were supposed to do.

* “Sōzokujin already knows this since I informed him yesterday, but from today and a week onwards you will be forced to live alone in this forest, getting your own food and finding your own shelter.” He said

* “So you want us to train while in a life and death scenario at all times?” I asked to get clarification

* “Yes, and you will only be able to use weapons you find inside the forest to defend yourself with.” He added

* “This is going to be rough.” I said looking at Jin

* “Yeah, but it can’t be that difficult.” Jin said

* “Well then let’s get started!” Lupus said and in an instant we were somewhere else in the forest

* “Guess the first order of business should be to find shelter.” I said

* “Yeah, but we need to find something to defend ourselves with first.” Jin said as he looked around

* “Maybe there’s something in that cave.” I said and pointed toward a cave a few hundred meters away from us

As we made our way toward the cave I couldn’t help but get the feeling someone was watching us from a not so far distance, I decided to use the small knowledge I had of how to use thunder magic for locating enemies to see where the thing was, but I couldn’t find it so I sped up my walking pace a little so that we could reach the cave faster as soon as I saw what was in the cave I grabbed Jin’s shoulder and pulled him back.

* “What’s wrong Loki?” He asked as I let go of him

* “Let me focus for a second.” I said as I closed my eyes and focused my magic into them

* “What are you doing?”

* “I’m focusing dark and thunder magic together into my eyes to try and see what's in that cave.”

* “I’ll watch your back, tell me when you find something.”

* “Thanks.”

I open my eyes and focus only on the cave. I see a sword, a slightly opened chest with what looks like armor in it, and a tail of something furry, about the size of a human.

* “I see equipment and a yellow tail with white spots on it.” I said as I stop focusing magic

* “Did you say yellow with white spots?” He asked

* "Yeah, why?"

* “How big do you think it is?”

* “The full length is probably that of a regular human.”

* “Thank god!” He sighed in relief

* “Is that good?”

* “Yes, if it was bigger than that it would kill us immediately, but if it’s just that big we can kill it if we work together.” He answered

* “Wait a minute.” I said as I put my hand in front of him

* “Why?”

* “I would like to try something while it is still unaware of our presence.”

* “What?”

* “Just be prepared to cut its head off.”

* “Sure.”

* “Don’t jump in until I go down, okay?”

* “Why not!?”

* “Because when I use this power I can’t control myself.”

* “It’s the same as before right?”

* “Yeah, it is!”

I closed my eyes and focused on the magic and made it dark and then flowed it through me in the form of fire, I launched at the beast grabbing the sword and cutting of one of its hind legs, and severing one of the tendons on the front legs but got grabbed by the tail and thrown into the wall, I was still conscious but I couldn’t use magic anymore, the beast roared as it reached out to try and cut me with its one good front paw, but before it could reach me I threw the sword toward its neck which Jin caught and severed used to kill the monster.

* “Perfect timing!” I said as I fell to the ground

* “That power makes you so much more powerful but you go almost insane.” He said as he helped me to my feet

* “Yeah, I can do the same thing but with thunder instead of fire but I don’t lose control.” I said as I stood back up

* “Then why not use that?”

* “Because it drains so much magic that I pass out after a second.” I said walking over toward the chest

* “I’ll go further in and see if we can stay here.” He said as he took the sword and left

I looked at the chest to see if there were any traps of some sort, and after making sure it was safe I opened the chest and was surprised by what was inside, it wasn't armor, but two giant glittering stones, one pitch black, and one a greenish color.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

* “Hey Jin, come and take a look at this!” I shouted into the cave

* “No! You come here!” He shouted back

* “Can you move what you found!?”

* “Not really no!”

* “Alright I’m coming!”

As I slowly made it further into the cave dragging the chest behind me, I noticed that it didn’t get dark, but brighter the further in I got.

* “Over here!” Jin shouted from one of the diverging paths

* “Come and help me move this chest first!” I said

* “Coming!”

* “It’s heavy so don’t hurt yourself.”

* “I’m not that weak.” He said as he started to lift it. "Damn, it's heavy!” He said after helping me lift it

* “Told you.” I said. “So what did you find

* “Oh right, over here.” He said as he walked into where he was earlier

* “What is this!?” I shouted in surprise

* “Cool right?” He said with a content look on his face

* “What is it?” I ask as I look at what he had found

There were scales on the ground at least a kilometer long leading to a skeleton of a humongous beast.

* “It looks like the scales of a snake.” I said as I put down the chest

* “And the skeleton of a dragon.” Jin said

* “But these don’t look like normal snake scales, they are as black as the night sky, and as smooth as silk, not to mention the length” I said as I pulled my hand over it

* “Yeah, and the skeleton looks like it hasn't been touched for centuries but it’s still in perfect condition.” Jin said his voice filled with skepticism

* “Anyway, take a look at what I found.” I said as I opened the chest

* “This is!?” Jin shouted in surprise

* “This does not seem like any regular cave.” I said as he admired the stones

* “We need to survive this week and ask mom and dad about this when we get home.” Jin said regaining his focus

* “Your right.”

We kept training against magic beasts we encountered and used the cave with the skeleton and scales in it as our base, slowly we grew stronger and the week came to a close. When we were out training Uxor and Dryadalis came.

* “Congratulations on completing the second week of your training.” Dryadalis said not showing a smile of satisfaction

* “Let’s go home and eat dinner!” Uxor said really excited

* “First there’s something we need to show you.” I said at the same time that Uxor tackled Jin

* “What is it Loki?” Dryadalis asked

* “Follow me.” I said as I started to walk toward the cave

On the way to the room with the scales and the skeleton I explained everything that happened on the first day out in the forest.

* “So you actually managed to work together with someone, Sōzokujin.” Dryadalis said as he gave his son a slight smile

* “It’s only because I had to!” Jin said still embraced by Uxor

* “Anyway, here it is!” I said as we arrived at the location where the things we found were

* “Interesting, this is the skeleton of a dragon general and the scales of a lieutenant rank black titanoboa.” Dryadalis said looking it over

* “And what about the stones?” Jin said pushing his mother of his back

* “What stones?” Uxor asked

* “These.” I said as I kicked the box open

* “Celestial grade nature and darkness metalls!?” Uxor shouted

* “Impossible!” Dryadalis said hurrying over to Uxor. “No way!”

* “I was wondering if we could use the monster materials and ores to make equipment?” I asked

* “Hmm, since you did find four extremely valuable items, I guess that’s a good compensation.” Dryadalis said while looking at the items

* “But who will get which?” Jin asked

* “Can’t both get both?” I asked right back at him

* “Well, yes, but this loot is so valuable that giving one person two sets would be equal to making yourself handicapped in war.” Jin replied

* “It’s that good!?”

* “Yes, but I don't have any use of the black titanoboa scales or the dark element metal, so I want armor made from the skeleton since it boosts both nature and light magic, even though I don’t have light magic, a boost in nature magic is incredibly valuable in combat for an elf.” Jin said

* “That’s a good choice, now what about you Loki?”

* “Hmm, the scales, and the metal boost dark type magic so I want both of them, but if the skeleton boost both then I want that, is it possible to add pieces of the skeleton to the armor made from the scales, and a longsword made from the dark metal that can be wielded with one hand including a sword made from the skeleton that I can use alongside the other one?”

* “I’ll see what they can make with that request.” Dryadalis said

* “Thank you so much.”

After that we went back to the house where I was greeted by Lexia who jumped on to me before I could even enter the house.

* “Welcome back Loki!” She said with a big smile on her face

* “I have just been out fighting monsters so can you let me take a bath before we hang out?” I asked as I tried to make it through the door

* “I wanna hang out now.” She said tightening her grip on me

* “We can talk for the rest of the day, AFTER I take a bath!” I said pushing her of me

* “Promise!” She demanded

* “If I don’t you can pick on me for the rest of the year that I live here.” I said as I walked toward the bathroom

* “I will do that anyways!” Lexia said with a smile

As I was relaxing in the bath I thought about how much Lexia had changed from when I became friends with her only two weeks ago, and one of those weeks I wasn’t even here. I left the bathroom in more casual clothes and sat down to eat dinner, but during dinner Lexia wouldn’t stop talking to me.

* “I went into town earlier this week for the first time after starting to clean my hair properly and wear pretty clothes and so many more people wanted to be friends with me!” She said extremely excited

* “That’s great, I knew you would become popular after cleaning yourself up.” I said between one of my bits of food

* “Do you want to meet them tomorrow?” She asked with a hopeful look in her eyes

* “Sorry but I have to train everyday every week so I can’t really go out and have fun.” I said while stuffing my plate with more food

* “I really wanted them to meet you.” She said disappointed

* “Why not bring them to the house then?” Jin said obviously noticing and purposely ignoring my annoyance at the idea

* “Yeah, that sounds like a great idea!” Uxor said making eye contact with me giving what looks like a sweet smile but what in reality is a sword pointed to my throat

* “Yeah, do that.” I said

* “Really! I can do that!?” Lexia said being filled with hope once more

* “Sure, but Loki will need to use the disguise at all times while at the house just in case someone shows up without notice.” Dryadalis said while pouring wine to his wife

* “I can do that.” I said hiding my displeasure at the fact that I need to meet people while training, at the same time

* “Well then, I guess you won’t be able to keep up with me if you're gonna be surrounded by girls, you little womaniser!” Jin said while finishing his food

* “Ohh no! You're gonna meet them too Brother!” Lexia said giving Jin a look that made him unable to talk back

* “It seems your little sister scares you.” I said to Jin

* “Shut up! You know, terrifying mom is! She's the same way when she’s mad!” He said pointing at Lexia

* “Loki, I’m not terrifying am I?” Lexia said looking at me with the eyes of a little puppy

* “No, you're just a cute little elf.” I said while patting her head

* “Who did you say was terrifying?” Uxor said while emitting the same pressure as the first time I entered this house

* “I’ll go to my room and get ready for bed!” Jin said as he then left the table

* “Me too, I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a week.” I said getting up from the table

* “I thought we were going to talk longer.” Lexia said

* “Sorry but I’m really tired, why don’t you bring your friends tomorrow, your parents are going to force us to hang out then.” I said as I shot her as kind of a smile my tired face could muster

* “Okay, I will!” Lexia said

I entered Sōzokujin’s room and immediately went to sleep on the bed I was borrowing.