Hidden somewhere in the Blacken Soot Mountain is a sealed cave lit internally by crystal lights. Countless books and scrolls defied gravity and floated around in the inside, and at the middle of them Kairos sat hovering in the air. Magically, the items never bummed or touched each other as they revolved slowly around him. Sparkling translucent tendrils seemed to reach out to every item, turning pages and scrolls alike.

If another mage is in this place, it will be hard to say whether the person will be utterly impressed by the amount of mana harnessed by him or weep from knowing that such power is spent on countless Circle 1 magic: Octopid Coil – an entry-level spell used to grab things out of reach.

The Octopid Coil is usually for apprentices trying to learn how to control and direct their spells. Because it is devised for such a purpose, it has a pretty high mana requirement for such a basic magic.

From Kairos’ understanding, mana efficiency is somewhat a huge factor on Axis Mundi though not so much on Gaia where mana suffuses everything.

So it’s not surprising that learning how to handle magic properly is an important lesson to begin with here.

Now, the reason why Kairos is using this spell is because he picked up beginner spellcasting as his first book. As an entry-level magic, it was easy enough to learn that even Kairos who have an average amount of talent could quickly familiarise using it.

Of course, given the ill-nature of those who arranged the pile of books and scrolls, he had to dig through the advance and intermediate materials on the top to get to the one he wanted.

Despite all the obstacles his opponents had placed to delay Kairos, the lad happily dove in as quickly as he could and grabbed hold of an apprentice spellbook with no regards to the time constraints.

If the leaders know that he forgo gaining several days’ time in order to learn Octopid Coil, they will probably beat their chests in disbelief.

His opponents – a group made up of some of the most powerful individuals on the Axis - expected Kairos to have a good head on his shoulders; perhaps even near the level of having a photographic memory.

They believed that to buy time, Kairos will carefully manoeuvre around the difficult books, picking one of the three categories: Aura, Herbalism, or Spells, until he exhausted all the ones accessible to him.

As someone who is confident enough to accept this bet, the leaders of the three races expected at least this much ability from Kairos.

Oh, how have they underestimate him this much?

What Kairos has can be compared to nigh-omniscience. Well, maybe not to the level of knowing everything at once, but it is as close to it as humanly possible.

After all, the speed he needs to memorise things – any number of things – is instantaneous.

Even as all the books and scrolls are turning, each word is entering his mind through the Veritable Sight or Soul Perception, copied immaculately down to the spacing. But what brings him above the level of simple photographic memory is the way the information are stored in his mind.

No matter it is words, pictures, or sounds, at their core these are all mediums to carry meaning to another person.

In other words, it can be said that all information are passed around in an encrypted form – no matter it is done by sight, touch, taste, smell, or sound - only to be deciphered or decrypted in the brain of the receiver into meaning.

Insight - this is what makes Kairos superior to having photographic memory.

Whatever he learnt will automatically find the right sequence or pattern to exist in his memory. Everything he ever encountered exists in his mind in perfect retention and are connected to each other forming new meanings and unlimited potential. This is why he could decipher the ancient dwarven scrolls and alter cultivation manuscripts safely.

From the beginning, Kairos was confident to be able to learn every book and scroll with time to spare. His only concern is the burden of expanding his remaining Ki on Soul Perception.

Despite this world’s utter lack in Heavenly Energy, Kairos discovered that Ki is slowly returning to his Dantian.

It is an illogical thing, considering the condition of his health, all the Ki he had left should be desperately holding protecting him, holding on to a fine balance to prevent his injuries from worsening.

Yet the past week, he found himself recovering.

When he carefully searched within himself, the anomaly was found surrounding the Yggdrasil Treasure in his Dantian. The artefact had been unresponsive after sealing itself to prevent its power from further wounding him internally.

It exist in an immaterial form attached to his Ki Centre – an energy core that is considered stabilised energy. If the Yggdrasil Treasure is unsealed, it will affect the balance and may even tear it apart.

However, even when it is well-contained, the World Tree’s seedling is affecting Kairos intimately.

When he introspected using his spirit, he could see the dragonlings in his Ki Centre playing around the small world tree sprout.

It was as though a new world is forming within him, and this strange new place is causing his Ki to metamorphose into something completely unknown.

The Ki that Kairos forms from practicing the Origin Cultivation Method is a very simple type of energy.

Highly potent and concentrated, it allows Kairos and his friends to fight longer and attack harder than their peers who practice weaker cultivation methods.

However, besides being top-class quantity and quality of Ki, there is no special effect attached.

It is a strange thing because most cultivation methods result in Ki with all kinds of attributes. There are Ki that specialise in invading an opponent’s body, disabling the enemy, or having strange effects that are often unthinkable.

If there is anything unique about the Origin Cultivation’s Ki, it might be its ability to become any element that the practitioner has affinity to. For example, Alan who is proficient in Fire, Light, Life, and Death elements can turn his Ki into any of those four attributes, but in effect this does little to nothing as other cultivation methods will also refine Ki with one or more elements.

Compared to others the Origin Ki is plain and simple and had left Kairos wondering many times in the past. But now, thanks to the Yggdrasil treasure, his Ki is finally developing its first property: Regeneration.

In fact, Kairos is counting on this new attribute for the next week, it is the basis for his confidence in taking on the bet in the first place.

Normally Ki is created by directing Heavenly Energies into one’s meridian channels then refined in one’s Dantian, and as one’s cultivation increases it will slowly strengthen the Cultivator’s life force.

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But recently, Kairos’ Ki had been recovering by itself. Like a tree absorbing nutrients from the soil, it is replenishing itself using unconventional energy sources; mana and stamina. He deduce that most likely this is because these two energy types are closely related to Ki.

However, they do not seem to be the most effective sources. Instead, the artefact is most likely altering his Ki so that it can become the energy source.

The Yggdrasil seedling that Kairos fashioned into a treasure was called the Anima Infinitus because it is a generator that could continue to create Ki without needing Heavenly Energy or other resource – in other words, Energy Creation.

Such an ability is well within the domain of gods, and hardly understood.

Kairos is counting on the regeneration property of his Ki for the next week, but with the Anima Infinitus sealed, it will be taxing for him to provide the needed mana and stamina.

Because of this, having eleven or twelve days instead of ten made no difference. Gaining two more days will not be enough time for him to recover.

Gritting his teeth, Kairos turned his attention towards providing mana for the spells and Ki for his Soul Perception.

The memorising and learning are the easy parts, whereas flipping those books and trying to keep so many reading materials within sight is life and death.

Kairos’ lips twitched involuntarily just thinking how strange this is. Sometimes he thinks that there is a higher power out there playing with him.

…..

Meanwhile, life goes on outside of the cave.

In the ten days while he is away, a lot of things happened.

The brewery and shops that were placed under Kairos’ name were renovated by order of King Hogard.

Remodelling of this level no doubt caught the attention of the gnomes and there are already a few high ranking officers that came over from the sister city, the Royal Garden, and are demanding to see Kairos.

At the same time, the leaders of the three races – gnomes, humans, and elves – have also made their next move.

In a small room at the middle of nowhere, several portals are opened facing each other.

These magic gateways connect two spaces together and can be used to transport more than people and goods. Right now, the portals in this place is merely the size of a person’s head and is only used to transfer sound and image.

Each portal reflect the appearance of a dignified person. If someone from the Axis was to see the people attending this meeting, they will immediately recognise that these are all people with absolute power.

High Kings of the humans, High Lords of the gnomes, and the Royal Elves.

If all of them agreed on one cause, the whole of Axis Mundi will have to bow down to their will.

Few will expect that these leaders are meeting for one young lad.

They expect Kairos to fail miserably in learning anything useful with that much obstacles they placed before him and are in discussion of the next step.

One of the royals from the elven race spoke first, “We should arrange another gamble soon. Are the preparations done?”

The person speaking is Lynr Dainsfon, the leader of a powerful noble faction in the elf kingdom. Their party intent to remove power from the current Elf King, Veritus.

It is this person that contacted the human High Kings and arranged for the summoning of heroes to this world to kill Veritus.

In this meeting, the other conspirers are all present. The gnome High Lord, Thunderstalk and the human High King Blectt Rowan, leads the other two races with the same cause.

Of course, this coalition is formed with mutual benefits in mind. If one day, anyone of them felt it is no longer favourable to be in this party, their agreements are as binding as the four winds.

The High Lord Thunderstalk snickered proudly, “You should be worried about yourself. My people are already in place since a week ago. Even now, they are knocking on his shops’ doors.”

High King Blectt Rowan cleared his throat, “If we fight amongst ourselves all the time, how can we still work together? Don’t forget that this time our target is a summoned hero, and one that had jumped out of our control. It’s best if we don’t take him too lightly.”

Hearing this, his highness Lynr Dainsfon’s face blackened, “Speak for yourself. You humans are the ones that claimed you can summon heroes that could be reined in, and then one of your Jarls get killed by someone you summoned on the second day.”

“Enough! What’s the point of bickering?” Blectt Rowan shouted angrily. This time, he is truly offended. How dare that elf mention the Jarl that was killed by Kairos? Wasn’t it because of Lynr’s faction wanting to kill their own king that they summoned those gullible heroes?

Now that a small hiccup happened, it became their fault?

“Don’t forget, our target this time is the boy, not each other. I have already secured the girl. With her and the conditions we can offer, it is likely he will accept another bet.”

Thunderstalk scoffed, “Say that after you capture that girl called Relestia, or the father and daughter following him. If you fail this time, don’t forget that the gnomes are only in on this for the profits, we will be pulling out from this operation.”

High King Blectt Rowan fumed angrily but he held back whatever was on his lips.

The elves contacted the humans to remove their current king. For Blectt, this is an opportunity of a lifetime to weaken an old enemy. If the heroes somehow destroyed Elf King Veritus, then the balance will definitely tilt towards the humans.

With the ability to summon heroes to do their bidding, the human kingdoms ought to be the strongest force on the Axis but they never managed to conquer the world before.

In fact, they came close many times in the past, as their iron-clad Aura Knights stomp across the lands and challenged every army in their path, but they were always defeated at the end.

Each time they were about to succeed, human greed will show itself and they will fall apart to the internal power struggle. But the few times that the humans worked as one to take over the world, they failed because of the absolute strength held by the Elf King Veritus.

In the past, even if all the summoned heroes work together, no one sees any hope in defeating this legendary immortal elf, but it will be different with a faction of the elves intending to betray their king.

Unfortunately, right at the start of their plotting, Kairos and Relestia escaped from their grasp.

If this two bring the news that the summoned heroes are intending to kill King Veritus to the elven kingdom, it will definitely hinder their latter plans. Of course, the consequence for such a thing is a mere hiccup.

The most important part is the unlimited potential that Kairos had shown so far, and the frightening power hidden within Relestia.

If not because of these two young heroes that left Blectt Rowan’s control, he wouldn’t have invited Thunderstalk to join their party.

For the gnomes, as long as it is profitable, they are willing to partake in almost anything.

Even if the endeavour is risky, as long as it will pay them enough, they will consider it. If not for the clear benefits of buying rare gems and powerful weapons cheaply, the gnomes wouldn’t have made their garden city next to the dwarves.

Lynr Dainsfon nodded at Thunderstalk, “Do not worry. This time as long as the boy accepts our bet, we will definitely be able to catch him. At that time, we will extract every last brew recipes he has and you will receive what you asked for.”

“We gnomes can extract it from him ourselves. No one else must know the recipes.”

The elf raised an eyebrow as if scoffing at the idea of jeopardising this cooperation for the sake of some alcohol’s making list.

“As you please, gnome. But you must promise not to harm him permanently.”

“That’s fine, but in return two must promise your race will never to ask him about his recipes.”

The three quickly agreed then Thunderstalk said, “This time because the boy wanted our gnomish herbalism secrets, you have invited us to participate. To show you our sincerity, the next gamble we have prepared a Stage 9 Treant Guardian for the following battle.”

At once, Lynr and Blectt gave Thunderstalk looks of great wonder and then afterwards, rejoicing.

If the gnomes had prepared someone of such strength, then the next gamble will definitely be their win… as long as the boy accepts the bet.

“We have prepared one of our Grand Cross Knights for this battle,” Blectt Rowan said.

Lynr Dainsfon expected the humans to bring out one of their aces only gave the High King a little nod then said, “We elves also prepared a Circle 9 Arcane Archer. The arena is also prepared. If Kairos wants to save the merchant’s daughter and to have all the time to read the things he asked for, he will definitely fight against our warriors.”

…..

At the same time, things were moving fast on Gaia as well.

Tommy leading the battle hardened berserkers, Saint Empire soldiers, and Snowdrifts members have set up camp near Avalon.

In Tommy’s hands is a small pouch that Kairos gave him in case that something happened. When he first received this, he didn’t understand at that time, but now thinking back it is very likely that Kairos had predicted the southern mage nations will kidnap him.

Against powerful Paramount Cultivators, Kairos will definitely prepare a lot of trump cards, and one of those aces in his sleeve is definitely Grand Magic.

Undoubtedly he knew the consequences before casting that spell at the end.

Tommy unfurled a small roll of paper, no larger than his finger.

On it wrote Kairos’ instructions for them, “By now, you should been declared as deserters. If I am right, then this will be a great opportunity.”

Tommy blinked a few times to make sure he had read it right.

He already knew his brother is a well-renowned strategist. In the military, many even hail him as one of the greatest minds to be born.

But looking at this message.

“Hahaha, my kid brother… you really are on another class of your own. You can’t even call this a prediction. Gosh… This is already on the level of becoming prophetic. I-I think, I should to say a prayer to whoever is your enemy right now.”