They still had a lot of training left to do, but the hard part was behind them.

With one of his big weaknesses now covered, James could focus on learning how to get as much bang for his buck out of his gargantuan mana supply.

But first, he had to spend a few days training alongside Lunaris and Helios. While he had been torturing his own body, they had made great progress within their respective roles. Even their auras were more refined, the fact that they were a tank and a healer being immediately obvious with just a glance.

Just by looking at Helios, one could feel the protective and stalwart air of a tank about him. Lunaris was radiating the calm, soothing winds of a healer through her aura. James didn’t know if it was just his mind playing tricks on him, but it looked like slow, green winds were actually flowing out of Lunaris.

Not only did they become much better in their respective roles, but they had worked together, practicing what they would do in an actual battle. As the main damage dealer, James had to spend a few days learning how to properly work as a team.

Even though James had been accompanied by his friends for most of his existence in this world, he still had been fighting like a lone wolf. It was so ingrained in his personality that it was hard to get rid of.

But with the three dwarves from Hedonia supervising him, they were able to whip him into shape quickly.

For several days, Bacchus, Eruditus and Ruppus were pelting the three friends with the strongest and quickest spells they could conjure, making them dodge, heal, block and parry a mixture of imps, runes and vines that never let them rest.

A week later, Helios’s seemingly indestructible dojo was in tatters. From scorch marks to slashes in the ceiling to even craters, there was barely anything left of the room that was supposed to be nigh indestructible and constantly regenerating.

But at least the trio now functioned much better as a team. Even though Helios had always been more of a tank, and Lunaris was on healing duty a lot of the time, their battles always ended up being more of a chaotic scramble than a properly strategized approach.

Now that they had truly covered most of their weaknesses at an individual and at a group level, it was time to capitalize on their strengths.

They were facing an enemy that struck fear even into the foes that they had barely managed to defeat. So even though they made a lot of progress, more than they ever imagined they could make, they still felt the need to do a lot more.

There was more than a month left, and they had to make good use of it. Lunaris and Helios had a much more straightforward path forward. She had to focus on her healing powers, while he had to just get faster, stronger and more durable.

They were relatively close to level 300, which was a pretty significant power boost since they’d be receiving more awakening skills, so they considered going on a trip to grind some levels.

But they’d have to find some formidable foes to gain any levels at all, and they didn’t have any particular leads at the moment. So they decided to just keep training in the dojo without wasting time searching for whatever horrors could actually give them xp at this point, if they were lucky enough to even find them.

What they’d get from the awakening was a crapshoot anyway, and they wouldn’t have the time to properly learn how to use their new awakening skills. The levels were just too hard to get in the time they had left anyway. They’d have to fight enemies comparable to full-fledged agents, and since they were going on a mission to a Stygian city soon, they didn’t want to risk exposing their powers to agents.

As such, they decided to take the straightforward path of fully mastering their current skills and train their attributes.

James was the one who had the most confusing road ahead of him.

Having as much mana as he did meant that he had a lot of options available to him. But since the enemy was so powerful, he had to pick the absolute best option available. Even if Helios and Lunaris were able to tank and heal for hours, their efforts would go down the drain if he couldn’t destroy the enemy in time.

He actually had enough mana now to freely use his [Chaos Javelin] and [Chaos Flower]. Two spells that could definitely satisfy any offensive needs he might have. And he knew that it would be the right call to train in using them as much as possible. He needed to cut down the cast time, and maybe even increase their power.

But he still felt uneasy. He felt like he needed something more.

Life was never that easy, there was always something you didn’t expect that pops up and bites you in the ass. And he had to be ready for that.

Chaos Flower could deal great damage over a pretty large area. And Chaos Javelin could pulverize anything it touched. But if the enemy had strong defenses that resisted even those, or was incredibly elusive, what could he do?

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“I have to be better. I have to be smarter, more prepared, more informed that ever before.” He told himself.

James was well aware of his own flaws. He had been too impulsive, too impatient, too reckless. And he chastised himself for it every single time, and yet he repeated the pattern.

But he didn’t plan on doing that anymore. He had put his friends through too much grief, and he couldn’t afford to make any mistakes this time around.

With a whole month of training left, he was planning on not only on making his Chaos Javelin and Flower as strong as they could possible be, but he absolute had to prepare a spell that could work in case those two didn’t.

He got to work without delay. Even though the pace of training had been excruciating so far, he didn’t want to slow down for a second. Even Helios and Lunaris were taking breaks, taking much deserved long lunches with the three dwarves, chatting and relaxing their tired bones.

But James was eating as quickly as he could, going back to training his Chaos spells, so fixated on training that even his almost bottomless mana supply was running dry every day.

Despite wanting to figure out an even better spell, ideally hoping for more than just one so he could have several contingencies in case the others didn’t fully annihilate the enemy, he spent his days only training his existing spells.

His arcane meditation and simulation were almost always active, even while he was focusing on blasting spells at the dummies at maximum power. He even thought about spells in his sleep, the vivid dreams felt just like his arcane meditation.

The dwarves didn’t have to sleep, so they were thinking about how they could help James in-between all the other strategies and spells they had to think about. And yet, it turned out that their previous impressions were wrong. It wasn’t easy to think of a strategy for a man with nearly limitless mana. All his existing spells seemed to be enough.

They even told him that he had enough spells, that he should stop worrying and focus on his current ones.

But James couldn’t rest easy. He saw how shaken Denmac was. This enemy wasn’t going to be ordinary, he needed contingency plans.

And yet, he couldn’t think of anything. By now, he had invented so many spells that he couldn’t think of anything that wasn’t a derivative of something he had already invented.

Even after browsing the book Lunaris had given him over and over, and even consulting with the three dwarves repeatedly, he still couldn’t think of anything else.

He wasn’t too worried about it at first, he had a full month of training ahead of him. But as the days passed, the answer never came.

The month passed, and there were just three days of training left. He practiced all the spells he knew, pushing them to new levels. But most of all, he made great progress with his Chaos spells.

[Chaos Javelin has reached level 30. Power greatly increased. Mana consumption increased. Cast time reduced.]

[Chaos Flower has reached level 15. Area of effect increased. Power increased. Cast time reduced.]

Through so much effort that Helios and Lunaris had to forcefully make him stop every night so he could sleep, James had actually made quite a lot of progress. His spells were now not only much more powerful, but he could cast them much faster than before, which was paramount in battle.

But he wasn’t satisfied. He hadn’t been successful in inventing an even more powerful spell. So if his existing spells couldn’t defeat the enemy, he wouldn’t be able to do much about it.

Still, he didn’t give up. The idea of fighting an enemy so much stronger than the previous agent made him so concerned, that he now valued preparation and carefulness more than anything.

He could’ve pushed his existing spells even more, but he really felt like he needed a new spell. For the last three days, he chose to not train at all, and instead he focused on developing a new spell.

He kept his eyes closed for three days, opening them only to peruse Lunaris’s book every now and then, to use the spells presented in the book as starting points for his imagination. He also asked the dwarves for some input from time to time, but this was a problem that only he himself could really solve.

By the time people reach his level, they knows their powers quite well, and no one else can truly decide such important things for them. James had to figure things out for himself. Plus, the problem of having too much mana was quite rare. He had to come up with something that would properly use it.

He was so relentlessly engaged in the arcane mediation that he began longing for the days when he would train by torturing his body. At least back then he could see his progress, but now he felt nothing but frustration as he was trying to solve this problem without any success.

Helios and Lunaris were concerned for his mental state. Too much focus and dissociation through these kinds of mental spells was bound to have negative effects, perhaps even neural degeneration. Every once in a while, they would dump water over him, pulling him out of his trance, forcing him to at least share a meal with them.

“Gotta take at least a short break, mate! There is such a thing as overtraining!” Helios declared with a smile.

“That’s right, life is all about balance! So eat this cookie and have some tea with us.” Lunaris chuckled.

As focused as he was on his task, he didn’t get mad at them at all. He knew they did it out of love, and they were definitely right about the possible consequences. He could feel himself unintentionally slipping into arcane simulation or meditation mode during other activities and even during sleep.

Ironically, it was after being splashed with water, while taking a break with his friends that he finally invented a spell, on the last day of training.

[Skill unlocked: Mana-Starved Bloody Pox]

He had invented an incredibly powerful new spell. And yet he wasn’t happy about it. It was strong, there was no doubt about that. But it wasn’t really the kind of thing that would deal with someone like Garantep.

He felt like he had wasted the last three days of his training.

“Cheer up, brother.” Helios smiled. “You’re oozing strength from every pore on your body. Even if this spell is complete crap, you’ve done more than enough over these past three months. Don’t let unrealistic standards and anxiety keep you down.”

“That’s right!” Lunaris intervened. “I’ve seen this happen to many great mages! They want some mythical, unattainable spell, forgetting to look around and actually do something with their powers. If they did, they’d realize that they had all they needed already. Ironically, many of them end up dying by chasing that unattainable power.” Shen then ruffled James’s hair. “Enough now. Take it easy, you’ve worked way too hard for way too long. I know the enemy is strong, but there’s no need to push yourself so much.”

After she gave him a hug, James finally relaxed. She was right. He could feel the power flowing through him, he knew he was many times stronger than before. He just didn’t want to believe it, he didn’t want to get too cocky and put his friends in danger. But maybe it was time for a little cockiness.