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Legend of the Black Blade
Book 2 Chapter 15

Book 2 Chapter 15

An amazing piece of news shocked the world. A kingdom on the west coast suffered an immense and elaborate coup d'etat but that isn’t that shocking though it is startling. The last known coup to happen was over 200 years ago but the shocking part is the people who took over.

It was a coalition of demons who had long since assimilated into human society. What was really shocking was that the army couldn’t move to stop it. Their leadership was crippled leaving a few who were actually followers of the coup and most soldiers above a certain status required to undergo a loyalty ritual which causes them to withhold restricted information.

It also makes them unable to move against the state which stopped happening after military coups happened, though tyrannies would usually face internal destruction eventually.

What was shocking was the public announcement that travelled continent wide telling all people that the kingdom had been renamed into the Dark Empire.

It instantly set people off because empires are not limited to a tiny size like the nation they took over. This instantly sent off alarms in all their neighbors towards those who are cautious.

That said, what was amazing was when the Great Empire’s own Emperor sent a broadcast denouncing these demon hybrids as evil for the death of so many human leaders they actually hijacked the signal and amplified it.

“My dear emperor, you are truly a hypocritical man.” the leader of the Dark Empire said.

“What is the meaning of this!”? The emperor’s advisor shouted.

“We were watching your grand broadcast but the hypocrisy was a bit much for us to listen to. It is quite amazing how large of a human supremacist you are, my dear emperor.” he said.

“You killed hundreds of human leaders to take over their nation in a tyrannical manner, do you think it is a joke?” the emperor said with his majestic aura excluding.

“Indeed, we did take over and killed hundreds but what is the problem? You humans do that to yourselves time and again. Your ancestors, three generations before your grandfather did the same when your empire was but a minor kingdom. Only when the wave of destruction of the north struck did your family also strike and take control, since then expanding to what you are today.” he said.

“What lies are you talking about!?” one of the emperor’s generals shouted.

“I speak no lies, I am simply reading about proper historical events. The current royal family’s rise came at the death of the entire previous royal family and their dynasty collapsed as your family left no remaining scent of their blood to be used by any possible survivors.” He said grinning.

“This is not about my family’s rise but your deliberate massacre.” the emperor said.

“All war for power is a massacre but you are only worried about my people taking over because we aren’t pure humans, isn’t that right? This is the same reaction humans always have to large communities of monsters living peacefully. In fact, we discovered quite some interesting information about your own orders, my dear emperor. In the western areas of your own empire, a community of ogre and hybrid ogres who were lawful citizens of your own empire, paying taxes, joining your armies and more, were suddenly obliterated by the very army that protects the empire. Reports of this sent out to the public said it was a monster wave but there are quite some interesting images here please look.” the demon leader said and a video opened. It was quite old probably 20 or more years ago but it was on an older model airship and all around were close to fifty such ships charging powerful magical cannons and passing over the town destruction rained before anyone could react.

It was shocking as the emblem of the empire appeared several times as the ships moved around.

“I wonder, what was the reason for this massacre of over 25,000 people. Was it because they were all monster hybrids, maybe you began to fear that they might break off from their own kingdom ruled by their own kind? I have quite a large number of similar records from countless nations whose dungeon residents finally leave and can live more peaceful lives but their descendants are massacred after a few years of people gathering.”

“You are trying to tarnish our name with these false images and cases!” the advisor shouted.

“They are not false, you humans are so confident, you are the cruelest and greedest breed that never should have survived the war with the demon lord. Even monsters are far better races than you all because at least they can peacefully live in large blended communities of various monsters unlike humans. You all helped by the dungeon cores even hide the fact that monsters could easily achieve their own solid bodies by E or D rank simply by properly developing their mana.” He said.

“So you want to fight for the rights of demons and monster races. It is not our fault that so few can achieve it.” The emperor said.

“Oh… I forgot to mention something, my dear emperor. I’m sure you know that most large dungeons end up making dungeon cities which sentient monsters inhabit while they slave away trying to reach D or even C rank so that their bodies finally stabilize and these cities are connected to all broadcast channels thanks to the dungeon’s helping to form the connection despite the space distortion in their interior.” He said.

Instantly the faces of all the men in the emperor’s room changed.

“As we are broadcasting, my dear emperor, this is being forcefully broadcast in every dungeon city in the continent and what i just said, about humans having easy to obtain mana development techniques that could help monsters stabilize faster, that is all true, after all humans are a race that can’t develop beyond D rank without mana and humans can’t open their mana channels to support higher quantities of mana above D rank without their entire magical system being upgraded with mana of purity equal to that higher rank. Tell me, my dear emperor, what are you going to do?” He asked.

All of humanity turned pale upon hearing that question.

Before anyone could move, a voice came from the demon leader’s side, “Sir, all the dungeon’s have forcefully cut all connections.”

The demon leader began to laugh, “Indeed, the two pets of the gods are no different, both greedy for power, one to expand and one to control the flow of power and not allow it to escape, just greedy. Let me tell you humans something, you might believe that we are but a few thousand just like all those monsters who live scattered throughout the continent but counting every member with demon bloodline, we number over 1 million members already. However, you humans are useless because you have never been clearly able to identify it. To fully control this nation of humans, we, of the Dark Empire, accept all demons left in the mud and poverty to come. Humans are below all of us, those of the monster breeds are open to join us, monsters are much greater than humans, your limits are not bound by the limits of the world but by how much you can awaken your bloodlines. We welcome you all but humans are but trash that must be put in their proper place, below all of us higher races.”

The transmission instantly closed forcing even the emperor’s broadcast to be shut but they didn’t have the courage to open it back up.

Logan was watching and once it ended, it didn’t take a minute for a call to come on his communicator.

It was a three way call and it came from his adoptive father.

He thought long and hard before answering, Maxwell and Olivia’s faces appeared.

“Where are you both?” He asked.

“I’m outside of the dungeon Helix in the Union Empire, he suddenly released almost 100 S rank monsters into the lobby and it is utter chaos as many people are running from the city.” she said and clear screams could be heard.

“I’m in Eshen waiting for the storm over Mortis Desert to end to go to Saint Paladin’s city at the center.” Logan replied.

“What are you going to do there?” Maxwell said.

“What’s it to you?” Logan said.

“I want you both here, now. Olivia, you already did the leadership oath, Logan, I need you to join and help your sister quickly start recruiting and training the next generation of the mercenary group. I am going to get in contact with my old group and see if their children are grown.” He said.

“I’ve done the oath, stop being a blow hard, I already researched about the Golden Lion’s old man. I don’t need a sermon on this.” Logan said.

“Fine, if you know then your sister likely knows. What ranks are you on?” He asked.

“E” the two said.

“Still?!” He exclaimed.

“Shut up old man, did you forget that someone caused me to lose 10 years of development? I had a lot to deal with after a year and a half of training to open my channels and recently got to this rank.” He said.

Maxwell stopped and sighed, “Whatever, what you need is something partially rare and have already obtained for you both. It will give you a place to safely train the children while you travel but you need special methods to properly grow it to have the sufficient size to support a mercenary group.” He said.

“You realize that the storm is affecting half of Eshen and the sea is turbulent.” Logan said.

“Then go to a port further west, I don’t give a damn, just get back here because this is more important than you know.” He said.

Logan snorted and spat on the ground, “It had better be, old man.” Logan said and walked to his room and called Storm before leaving with him.

“A lot happened and I will fill you in, we are going to have to go home after all.” Logan said.

“Are you sure?” Storm asked worried.

“Yes. Let’s go quickly towards the west until we can find a port not affected by the storm and still have boat travel.” He said

“Yes master.” Storm said and the two quickly run out of the city and Storm assumes his dragon form with harness and all. Logan jumps on and Storm turns to the west and rushes off getting on the roads while Logan opens a map to guide them.

Olivia was barely able to get the quickest ship out to Eshen since it didn’t have large enough dungeons to be affected by the broadcasts while Logan quickly rode Storm half a day through five port cities until he left the storm. The first city he arrived at with ships still active, he purchased a packet of tickets with all the ships required to reach his home island.

It would require another few hours to reach it and by then, Olivia and him reached the island almost together.

Logan entered the dojo for the first time in nearly 5 years and there was no one training, it was quiet and they walked in where they found Maxwell. He looked no older than when they left and he looked as strong as always.

When he looked at them he frowned, “Your mana feels nothing like that of the Golden Lion technique.” he said.

“That is because I found a better technique, old man.” Logan said.

He snorted, “Oh, is that right?” He said.

“Yeah, much better. I won’t be stuck at B rank like you and will have the possibility to reach S rank or higher. That is how much better.” Logan said.

“Show me.” He said.

“Fuck you.”

“Please stop the fighting.” Olivia said.

“Go back to the one i gave you. That technique is special. It isn’t known to anyone besides us but it is a technique where your mana obtains a special aura strong against demons. You will need that and will need to train that or you will be easy prey to them.” He said.

“Yeah, we know.” Logan said.

Olivia frowned and looked at Logan and he gripped Arashi as he drew her out. “I also learned how to properly swing a sword.” He said.

“Logan!” she shouted.

“It changed again!” Maxwell said before Arashi covered in a golden light and he swung at full force towards Maxwell venting.

Maxwell’s eyes widened before he pulled back his fist and punched with the form of the golden lion’s fist.

The lights burst under the immense power of his fist but the strength of the attack was clear.

Logan straightened his stance and sheathed Arashi.

“That art.” Maxwell said.

“It is what you think, old man. As Olivia about it, even if Elas said not to talk about it, this is not the situation where we can’t not.” He said, “Now tell us about this portable training ground?” Logan said.

Putting priorities in place Logan sat down to Maxwell’s right and Olivia remained standing on his left. He looked at them and sat down and Olivia soon followed. He reached into his pocket and took out two orbs, one of them contained an island with extremely tiny things and the other was familiar as it was very much like Logan’s own island at the start.

“I present to you the Golden Lion HQ. Every main leader has carried this crystal orb containing the core location of the golden lion since it’s fall. Presently there is 100 km of land with wild monsters and at the center is the HQ protected behind a magical barrier. This one specifically is connected to the world and even has a high level magical control which allows you to limit the rank which monsters can grow but battle beasts don’t count.” He said.

“And the other?” Olivia asked.

“It is for Logan to build his own home and train his own band.” He said.

“What are they exactly?” Olivia asked.

“Common people call them portable island orbs or portable campgrounds. The proper name is the Micro world orb. It is capable of growing into a living world and as you can tell, that is true but the limit of the masters has always limited it.” he said.

“So that was it.” Logan said and reached into his magic bag and took his own out. “I got one when I redeemed those keys in Helix. Never understood how to make it grow but this island did expand when I made it rain just a few days ago.” Logan said.

Maxwell’s jaw dropped a bit, “Boy, what is this luck. This is as rare as a dragon’s egg and I needed hundreds of thousands to buy one. I was already preparing it long ago.” He said.

“Tough luck, well at least you won’t be homeless now.” He said.

Maxwell snorted.

“So… how do you make it grow?” Logan said.

“Call the kids you picked up.” He said.

“Huh?” Logan said.

“My eyes kid. I can see six children and a young woman there.” Maxwell said.

“Oh, right.” Logan said and opened the door and called everyone including Jade.

“Damn, where did you find this girl?” Maxwell said.

“She is my battle beast, old man. Jade, this is my no good adoptive father. Oh, this is Jin by the way.” Logan said and summoned the spirit.

Maxwell blinked in surprise as he looked at the spirit.

“Kid, what have you been doing to get these kinds of creatures? So I assume storm now is your weakest breed after getting these rare creatures.” Maxwell said.

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A snort came from the lizard form Storm as he transformed into a human, “I request that statement be retracted. I have already achieved the ancient bloodline of a drake and am considered a young drake.” He said.

Maxwell facepalmed for talking too much, “Fine, I get it, you had a lot to do.” he said and looked at Olivia and she summoned the 9 spirits and used taming magic to summon the goblin. It was now a hobgoblin but it’s appearance was very humanoid and he was dressed in a suit made of high grade materials that could be used in battle.

“This is my servant, I honestly can’t do anything so I trained him to do what Logan can do easily.” He said.

Maxwell nodded and looked at the spirits. “Three F rank cycles, but they are going at it themselves but all of their auras match that new technique.” Maxwell said.

“I already asked, how do you make this grow?” Logan said shaking the orb.

Maxwell ignored him and his golden eye shined as he examined the six children and suddenly froze at the smallest girl.

“What twisted manifestation of sadism is this? Traces of poison in the bones and A rank mana put into a child’s mana pool.” He said.

“So you can see that, I knew the mana felt strange when she was learning to feel mana. It felt compressed. As for the poison, Jade here removed it with a mixture of acupoint treatment and healing magic.” Logan said.

“Good, but this is dangerous, decompressing A rank to unranked mana is quite difficult but this mana has become natural to the girl’s aura. Without a doubt she will easily be able to climb up the development ranks because of that. It is just like if someone resurrects while hoarding a lot of mana but forms only a magical body, they can quickly regrow their bodies. This is why magical soul crystals, a security item to anchor your soul to, are so precious.” Maxwell said. “That said, the talent of the children aren’t much, it would take a while for them to open and grow up.” he said.

“I never recruited them to have instantly powerful fighters. It was because of Jade.” Logan said.

He explained her origins and her current race along with the affliction it came with.

“I see, it makes sense why you didn’t care about talent since you still can’t see much of it. That is fine then. Dedication and effort is just another way to grow strong.” He said.

Suddenly the orb flew with blinding speed and Maxwell caught it casually and tossed it back into Logan’s hands.

“I already heard you the first fucking time.” He shouted. Logan snorted as Maxwell got up. “Come on, open it up already.”

With a roll of his eyes, Logan opened the portal and walked inside followed by the rest.

Maxwell turned to the altar and walked over and called Logan.

“Alright kid, the orb is ‘opened’ to the world with only one method and that is absorbing it into your body's mana pool. It isn’t stuck there, you just have to go through a process to remove it. Now, put the orb in the middle socket here and your left and right hand on both sides and inject mana.” Maxwell said.

Logan looked at him and walked over and at the very center was a small space that was barely noticeable but putting the orb down, it shined and was pulled down until it was half inside hiding all of the lower side.

He started to inject it and instantly felt a burning until the orb became a glowing ball of light. It went on until it shot into his chest and suddenly felt a suffocating feeling like his mana was being sucked up but that sense just spread through his body until it broke out of his body.

When he did, he found that it caused his body to feel much more mana around him.

“Neat trick huh? This is very useful for enhancing your capacity to draw mana. The mana drawn in through the orb will deposit into the mana pool before going inside and slowly it will blend with your own mana.” He said.

“Won’t that mean that people inside will absorb my mana?” He asked.

“Nope, the orb filters your influence out of the mana however, it does mean that people inside will get semi processed mana as you grind it.”

While Maxwell was talking, everyone was already sensitive to mana and quickly felt the difference on their skin as the impure mana was slowly replaced with slightly purer mana.

“This is the greatest benefit, people obtaining higher quality mana from the get go reduces time by a lot.” he said.

“Okay so how do the borders expand?” Logan asked.

“By growing that.” He said and pointed at the altar.

The orb was gone but they were shocked that they saw a grey pulsing object but what was amazing was that the altar had changed and had many grooves.

“This is called a Ley Line tree, otherwise known as a world tree. When you hear the term ley line, it means you are talking about the roots of the world tree that spreads throughout the entire world including the sky continent.” Maxwell said.

“How does it grow?” Logan asked.

“Do you have gold?” he asked.

Naturally, Logan nodded and took out a bar.

“Good, if you have 100 then take it out and toss it on the altar, that is the requirement to germinate the seed and the instant reaction will be expanding the orb’s internal space to about 500 meters and land will form to about 200. You need to then summon elemental spirits to allow them to live in this world where they will cause natural events to form and breed their own kind.” Maxwell said.

“The same elementals that Olivia has.” he asked.

“Yep.” Maxwell replied.

“Then you summon them because I maxed out my capacity for battle beasts.” Logan said.

“You don’t need the bond, summoned spirits require a contract so if you just release the spirit after summoning, it will just be free. It can’t get out though but in a world without ley lines, they would go crazy while in a world with an infant ley line they will be careful and care for their health very carefully.” He said.

Logan slowly nodded and understood. He took out 100 gold bars and put them in stacks of ten and they began to glow each time but when the last ten were placed it was a sudden eruption of mana before a vortex formed and was injected into the seed.

It shook the entire island as mana overloaded the area but finally the rest entered the seed and they watched as the glowing dulled and what was revealed were ten roots spread along the altar and still spreading slowly until it touched the ground. The seed opened and extended until it formed a small sprout with only two leaves.

“Oh my god!” a boy shouted as he looked around.

Logan and the others finally turned and were shocked when they looked and saw the land all over expanded.

Logan looked and felt the mana quantity drop but he felt a drain on his mana as his own mana was getting sucked up. The drain came from the new land absorbing mana.

“Wait, don’t tell me that if i make it rain again, this land will expand to full size like the first bit of island?” Logan said.

“Not completely, only about 20% bigger at most.” Maxwell said.

Logan shook his head, “Alright kids, go back inside I’m going to be busy now.” Logan said, complaining.

Maxwell grinned as he got Logan back in control. He took out a scroll for summoning and together they summoned nine spirits, one of each element and released them. They all gathered and flew around the sapling and they finally walked out.

Sitting down Maxwell didn’t let the subject end there. “Olivia, tell me about the weapon art and mana development.” he said, hardening his expression.

Olivia looked at Logan but he just closed his eyes and laid back. Jade got up and sat behind him and he smiled as she let him use her lap for a pillow.

She sighed and took out the two scrolls.

Maxwell’s eyes turned into saucers instantly. “These are the lost arts…” he said. In fact, tears welled up before he carefully reached out to the mana development scroll and ran his hand along it. He took a deep breath, “I had heard that the ancient knights order had a number of runaways and these people would blend the learned segments of the golden lion’s techniques. The scroll reacts to any technique based off of it and corrects the path when mana following it’s pathing is injected in. That said, people who undergo this can never open the scroll because they are called redeemed traitors and only by undergoing ritual by ritual as a disciple to leader will they gain the ability to train this. The closer the technique to the original the easier it is for the magic of the scroll to allow this change.” He said.

At once, an immense pressure came from Maxwell as his body released a powerful mana. It was scarlet red in color as if blood surrounded him and entered the scroll. It was sucked in by the mouths of the lions and animals on the decoration while the eyes suddenly shined gold. The outlines soon were formed and soon the entire scroll was lit up with a golden light that absorbed the bloody mana before it all returned to Maxwell’s body.

It all gathered in his mana pool and absorbed and began to technique from F rank and smashed through his entire magical system. The pressure was immense but step by step it went up in moments. The magical affect consumed and replaced the mana from start to finish replacing it with the golden lion mana.

It continued until it was B rank but suddenly the pressure intensified and the B rank mana that had been at the peak of development underwent the final step and compressed into A rank mana.

The barrier he could never pass was done in a single stroke and he was the first golden lion to have broken the limit in over 700 years.

The mana continued compressing and finished up by doing a full single cycle on his mana pool.

When the glow vanished, the greying wild hair on Maxwell’s head had turned into a majestic dark gold mane like a king of a lion pride. His muscles seemed to have reinvigorated and he felt bigger but that was because they grew up with him.

If his appearance before had been compared to him 15 years ago, they would notice that his body had grown a bit smaller but that was completely undone. Vigorous power filled his body.

He took a deep breath and tried to calm down his emotions as he placed down the scroll and with trembling hands, tried to open it. The scroll unfolded like it did for the kids making him cry.

The two had long since gotten up from the shock of the pressure. They looked at one another and knew this was more than they expected.

Maxwell took deep breaths as he opened the scroll and rank by rank he read in silence until he reached A rank where his mana was absorbed by the scroll to reveal. In fact, from C rank it had been revealed and this was a mechanism of the scroll to hide the knowledge from being found.

The present technique born from the method of B rank and below showed the loyalty of the knight. One could not get this strong and escape so easily, the oath would have done far more damage than you could expect.

His mind recorded each magical symbol and he breathed deeply and calmed his mind and in a few moments he confirmed everything. Letting the scroll go, it shockingly withdrew very fast and suddenly jumped over to Olivia and fell into her hands.

“It is good, the scroll truly recognizes you as the leader of the Golden Lions. If it did not, it would have stayed in my hands. It is impossible to safely steal these scrolls from their rightful owners, they would self destruct even if they tried. This is a great day, you children stay for about a month, the Golden Lions will finally officially resurrect with the power of the old generation paving a path for you kids.” He said.

“What do you mean?” Olivia asked.

“We now have the true development technique and the weapon arts, we can’t do anything to the demons right now but there is a lot we can do. The first thing is establish an official stronghold, the face of the golden lion and secondly is protect you children. The demons took over an entire nation with deceit and infiltration but we are just as skilled in dark magic as they are if not more. The problem we have is that we are few in numbers.” he said.

“It is great for you all but I still need to get to Mortis desert. Jade is a healer and I need Holy water so that she can bring out the most powerful magic.” Logan said.

“So that is the reason. It is a shame because the golden lions originally possessed a holy artifact called the Golden Lion Statue given to use by the God of the Sun. It was placed at the center of a hidden lake within a secret cave owned and protected by our ancestors but along with the 4th grandmaster, it vanished. Where did you get this?” He asked.

“Helix gave them back to me and later copied perfectly for Olivia.” Logan said, actively explaining and drew out Arashi.

Suddenly she began to glow and expanded into a spear. “He also upgraded Arashi and Hydra into Golden Lion Legend Swords.” He said.

Maxwell’s jaw dropped but he slowly nodded. “Yes, that… that is how it should be. Knights have the golden lion magic sword which absorbs and transforms into other weapons. It is why we have so many forms for the same attack.” he said.

“It is just a pain because Arashi needs to feed like she does with lightning or she gets weak.” He said.

“Really? Hydra doesn’t do that.” Olivia said.

“That is a trait of Arashi. Don’t try to follow it if the sword cannot naturally do that. All swords gather normal mana and form elemental energies naturally. Your sword just requires power to sustain itself compared to others who just produce it to amplify your power.” Maxwell said and sighed.

“This ‘stronghold’ what is it exactly?” Logan asked.

“In simple terms, it is a castle or an entire fortress. To own such a thing, a mercenary group requires at least A rank men.” He said.

Logan thought for a moment, “How many people you knew were B rank?” Logan asked.

“When I retired as the 12th golden lion, there were 10 B ranks, if they have the same reaction as I do and have fully trained B rank then they are likely to equal me. This means 11 A ranks. You should realize that a B rank mercenary group has usually between 200 and 500 people but an A rank mercenary group is no longer a group, they are a mercenary army. Above that…”

“An order.” Logan said.

“Exactly, that is why the Knight’s Order of the Golden Lion fell. The only existing S rank at the time vanished and it had been just after a big war against demon lord fanatic groups. Of course, history never says these things but there is naturally a reason why we don’t have A rank despite S rank vanishing. What is most important is going to be this.” Maxwell said and pulled the weapon arts. “We will have to somehow create golden lion swords or we will be under armed. That or we will have to carry different weapons.” he said.

They understood he was serious about it.

“Where the hell are you going to buy a castle or a fort? All military establishments are under the control of every nation’s army.” Logan said.

“That is easy, just buy some old ruins and rebuild them. Do you think magic is only meant for fighting?” Maxwell replied in a matter of fact tone.

Logan rolled his eyes, “You can do as you want, I am a branch leader already and have a lot to do. Introduce the new leader to the old men but I’m busy getting my own strength to the peak of what I can do.” He said.

He walked out and didn’t stay in the dojo, he felt uncomfortable being there.

“Before you go.” Maxwell shouted he pulled what seemed like a metal frame door and tossed it at Logan who caught it.

“That is a magic door, touch the knob and it will connect to the Micro world. As long as you keep absorbing mana and the purity keeps rising, the border and the land itself will grow as the elemental spirits increase in number and the ley lines grow.” Maxwell said

Logan just stared at it and nodded before walking away and putting it against the wall on the inside of the dojo courtyard and opened it. The door lit up and opened it, the world inside and outside seemed connected as it wasn’t a swirl but a filled world beyond.

Stepping through and closing it, the outside connection cut but the physical door on the inside was still there.

He sighed and headed to the kids and found them just waiting there.

“Alright, since we have a lot to do we can only get started as we are. It might be a stretch but we need to start by properly developing your mana pools and expanding the capacity.” He said.

“How are we going to absorb mana?” One of the girls asked.

“You already do naturally, as you open the mana pool and channels, it will only get easier and more natural. If you want to do this actively, you channel your mana along the widest channels leaving from your mana pool and back.” he said.

He took out his own scroll and taught them the unranked method which used their natural mana to open it.

He took extra care with the smallest girl and had her use only a very small bit.

They used what mana they had to grind the top and as you would expect, it opened up a lot of space but it consumed everything.

Logan watched and smiled weakly. The small bit they opened was almost equal to double the current capacity and if compared, it was like 10% of the complete mana pool yet the expansion was that much.

As for the girl with the A rank mana, her face was pale as she used a very tiny bit of mana and it painfully pressured her body. It was like a strand and she was grinding it extremely slowly but that single strand was only half consumed when she completed a full cycle of her mana pool giving it the first basic opening but as you would expect, the pressure from the compressed mana was finally starting to get supported.

“It seems he wasn’t lying, you are likely to quickly get through a lot of levels of development with this much mana in your body so we have to be careful when we do this.” he said.

He gave her careful priority as she opened her mana channels over the next six hours slowly. Finally she achieved the first cycle and basically unlocked basic magic.

“That is good, your mana can finally channel naturally so your body is going to only get healthier from here. The process was painful so take a rest now.” Logan said.

She was sweaty and nodded while the others were outside.

Logan sighed and Jade went to help her clean up and go rest.

He waited until she came out and called her and Storm and they walked out.

“What is it?” Jade asked.

“It’s time we get training as well. We have no reason to not train and now we have more reason to put all our energy into training.” He said.

“I agree.” Storm said.

Jade nodded.

Logan called out Jin and each took one spot in the courtyard and started to train. Logan did as well but he finally understood what the presence of the orb meant.

His senses spread for nearly 100 meters and mana from all around began to draw towards him.

The other three opened their eyes and they got up before walking out and heading into the woods leaving Logan alone.

Inside, Olivia was inside a massive tree inside the other orb and her face was beat red as she finally bound the orb. However, this altar and tree were the ley line tree of this micro world and the giant tree had to connect to her. The pressure was immense of course but as she finished, she felt the huge connection and life force in the orb.

“This tree has been alive for roughly 600 years, it will support when absorbing mana and gather a lot of mana for you. It might seem unfair but this is the biggest support i can give you to quickly rise to B rank. The children of the other 10 B ranks are all as much geniuses as you and your brother and they can easily challenge for the position of leader. You need to have the power of a proper leader to control them.” He said.

“How strong is the pull?” she said.

“If you focus on absorbing mana, within 1 km you will pull mana. Don’t focus on it, activate your technique as it would and the perfect absorption field will form naturally. 95% will come to this world while the rest will go to you but that 5% is almost double your natural absorption rate.” He said.

“Is this world this big because it is B ranks who raised it for 600 years or…”

“There haven’t been many B ranks, they only appear when a leader is B rank and helps their partners with a special technique to safely transmit some B rank mana to help them break that barrier.” he said.

“Oh.” Olivia said.

“The place is this big because of time however if a new micro world is given an A rank then it would take only a few years to match it. The higher the purity and quality, the better the tree grows. Logan is capable of catching up and keeping up because that is how good his magical talent is. Your brother can actually be used against you so although i don’t want you two to fight, understand that you can’t let his strength be above yours. At least it has to be equal.” He said.

“I understand, his greatest strength is his speed and i got a gold rank mana clad which i can enhance any element including lightning so i can match him. I even got the innate skill so my mind can keep up. I just need to train to get used to the output.” she said.

“Good.” he said.

Like that they walked outside and felt the movement of mana. They looked at the source and saw Logan absorbing mana within 100 meters of himself. It slowed down soon after and he opened his eyes.

“Old man, I just had an idea, that orb you got for me, let me have it so I can vent some of the pressure in Helen’s mana pool. If the A rank mana has an outlet to go through then it would reduce danger for her.” he said.

“No way kid, that girl can benefit from the danger. She can quickly catch up to you even and be a valuable magician so have her waste it all on her own body. I am going to keep this for myself like you said. A mobile fortress is always important.” He said.

Olivia laughed, “You should have taken it when you had the chance.” She said.

Logan just snorted and closed his eyes and began to train once more and started on his mana pool once more.