"He gave all his money to charity and rehabilitation homes for slaves," she told Rachel and even showed some receipts.

Rachel went to Thaha and did a 'door to door' check on Tyren. After three days, nobody in the city knew about any Tyren. There was no family with the Ayurvada name anywhere.

Tyren was a ghost.

"I regretted not going with my decision when you first came to me," Rachel said with a sigh. "I wanted to attach a clone to the soul-pillars just to keep an eye on you. You know, just in case..."

"A clone?" Gaus said. "Just say it, you wanted to send a spy after me."

"It wasn't for naught," she said. "By attaching a clone to you I will minimize the cost of the soul-pillars and I'll keep an eye on you in case something like this happens. If I did, I would have been able to catch him the minute he showed up."

"Then why didn't you?" Gaus asked.

"I didn't want to create any mistrust between us," she said. "And I thought you can protect yourself. I was wrong. You can't protect yourself."

"If you are trying to make me feel bad then congratulations. You've done a good job."

"No, I'm serious. You are weak. You should be able to kill this Tyren guy on your own. Why didn't you focus on your magiwatch skill and level it up to level 50? You told me it's the most powerful skill you have. It's also the skill that allows you to join the loop. Why are you not taking advantage of it?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Gaus said. "I'm still struggling with level 15 opponents. If I level my main skill up to level 50 then killing anything below that level won't grant any experience."

"That's true," she said. "But you are different. Your skill is different. I believe every specialization skill you get will be game-changing. Besides, if killing a level 15 opponent won't give you any experience then you can just kill a level 50 opponent. That's not to mention that every other skill you may want to level up is far inferior to your primary skill. You told me it's ranked as archaic 3, right? Well, that's as far as any skill can ever go."

Gaus didn't think about it this way. He should probably give it a try some other restart.

"You told me you use swords, right?" She said. "It's a good choice but swords don't work without superior mana taming exercises. You have to focus on your mana. If you are strong enough to beat the hell out of him then you won't even need me."

Now, that made sense especially when she said it with clenched fists.

"How does the clone work?" He asked.

"It will be invisible and undetectable by mana sense, longevity sense, mind sense, and soul perception," she said. "But it will be conscious and alert. It will inform me the moment Tyren shows up and I'll teleport there. I'll capture him myself so you don't have to do anything."

This would work. At least in the meantime.

"I want it," he said. "The next time Tyren shows up I want it to be his last."

"Okay," she said. "But you can't always rely on others. You have to get strong enough to beat your enemies on your own. I'll help you with that."

From that day on, his training became aggressive. 13 hours every day: 5 hours in the morning and 8 hours in the evening. Sometimes he wondered if Rachel didn't have any other commitment. She made sure a clone 'guarded' him every moment of the day.

Antelina was... fine. She didn't ask for any answers and most of the time he just forgot about her.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

After one week, he went to see Linc again. He wanted more exercise. He didn't allow how the teacher treated him the last time to hold him back.

Linc put his hand on the table and stabbed it with a dagger. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work. At least, the man was practicing on himself now.

"Would you like to try?" Linc asked.

Gaus grabbed the dagger with more force than necessary. It was time for revenge. He held it with both hands and stabbed the teacher. But for some odd reason, despite all the energy he put in the process, it didn't work. He made contact and he was sure there was no barrier protecting Linc from the dagger. But somehow the tip of the dagger just couldn't penetrate his skin. It felt as if he was hitting metal.

"Try again," Linc said. It was a challenge.

Eager to have his revenge, he stabbed the man again and again until he couldn't do it anymore. But Linc was fine. He had not a single bruise. Hell, he was enjoying it.

"It's called mana armament," Linc said.

Gaus rewound the process. If he was lucky he could just save it without having to undergo another painful experience.

Save library has saved 1 skill

Mana armament

Rank: rare 2

This skill enables you to harden your skin by condensing mana just beneath the surface of the skin. The more mana you use, the stronger the defense. Pain and temperature sensations will be suppressed.

Cost: 1 MP (will increase by leveling up)

He didn't expect to copy it this easily after what happened the last time he tried. It appeared the main reason he couldn't copy advanced levitation was it wasn't just one skill. It was a combination of space levitation, weightless levitation, and mana levitation. Unlike mana armament which was just one skill.

"Are you ready to begin the training?" Linc asked. He sounded genuine but Gaus knew better than to expect any decency from the man.

"Yes, " Gaus said. "Let's do it."

Linc looked at him with raised brows as if expecting him to back out.

Ignoring the teacher, Gaus placed his left hand on the table in a challenging way.

"You can start at any time," he said. His face was indifferent but he was rejoicing inside. What would be the expression on the teacher's face when he saw it? When he realized he couldn't hurt him anymore.

Linc picked the knife and went for his arm. He was merciless. He didn't even consider the possibility that Gaus was unarmed and he could rip his flesh at any moment. The dagger hit his skin and bounced. He felt as if he was pricked by a needle but there was no wound. He was perfectly fine. Linc was dumbstruck. He couldn't believe it the first time so he tried it again, and again.

"Did you perhaps refuse to learn advanced levitation?" Linc asked.

"No, sir, I didn't refuse to learn advanced levitation," he said with as much sarcasm as he could muster.

Linc stared at him silently.

"No matter," Linc said with a sigh. "You have done an excellent job. I would like to see what classification you will have."

"Is it time already?" Gaus asked.

"Yes, it's time," Linc said. "You have ten skills in mana taming alone. What are you waiting for?"

The system didn't give classification until your mana was tamed.

Gaus shook his head. "I'm just not ready yet."

Although he could only have one classification, the system would give him two options to choose from if his skills were good. In the First World, there had been reports of people having three classifications to choose from. The more skills you had at the time of taming your mana the more classifications you would have to choose from.

"Trust me," Linc said. "You can never have enough skills. Some people spent their entire lives without a classification. They always think they can cheat the immortal dais by prolonging the process so they can gather more skills to have a stronger classification. It's futile. Your classification will be derived from your mana and one or two of your most powerful skills. It's as simple as that."

Still, Gaus wanted to have all the advantage he could get.

"I'll come back in two days," he said.

"Okay, " Linc said. "I'll be waiting. Two days."

He went to see Rachel. It was time for his evening training.

"Rachel?"

"Yes?"

"I have a secret skill," he said.

"Yes, you have a secret skill. You've already told me about it, remember?"

"No, not that one. I have another secret skill."

Rachel stopped flipping through the papers and looked at him.

"I have a skill that allows me to copy other people's skills."

She frowned which made him hesitated. Was he making the right decision?

"I... want to copy your skills. If it's okay with you."

He wouldn't blame her if she refused. Who would want to hand over their skills to you for nothing?

"You have a skill that can copy other people's skills and you wait until now to tell me?" She asked. Her frown deepened.

"I... didn't think it was a good idea to..."

"Hell no," she said. "It's not a good idea. Why are you telling me about it now?"

"I'm about to tame my mana and earn a classification," he said. "This will be my last chance. Any skill you give me will be crucial."

A whole minute of awkward silence passed.