Three men sat unconsciously, leaning on one another, and tied together with rope in the corner of a room. After Ellios’ explanation about why these people may have barged into the shack, the reason being, at least according to him, getting revenge for the incident at one of Naiccos’ gates, Luke listened to him as he continued talking.

“He must’ve bought the information from a passing slum resident,” said Ellios as he motioned at the burly man whose jaw was hanging loose with his chin.

““A pair of people carrying a bloodied man”… We certainly would’ve been hard to miss once we entered the slums, and that’s putting aside the fact that the slums are infamous for being the center of intelligence gathering operations.”

Luke nodded at Ellios’ obvious deduction, choosing to change the topic, at least until the three men woke up.

“Where are Anastasia and Norma?”

“Anastasia stormed off after Norma’s provocation and has yet to return, while Norma left on some other business she had, so I was left all alone…” replied Ellios, letting out an exaggerated sigh at the end.

“…It’ll soon be evening, so if Norma’s not here before we leave, how can she collect a sample of my blood?”

Waving his hand to the left and then to the right a couple of times, Ellios replied with a mischievous grin on his face.

“She had already collected the sample while you were sleeping. Oh, but don’t worry, I made sure that it really was just a sample on your behalf.”

Luke’s eye twitched in reaction to this. He didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry.

“Why did she want a sample of my blood in the first place? I thought about it, but nothing came to mind.”

Shrugging his shoulders, Ellios didn’t have an answer either.

Seeing as the conversation had come to a halt, Luke stood up from the chair he was sitting on and kickstarted the conversation back up.

“…The second phase of soul cleansing. I believe it was a success.”

Smiling, Ellios nodded from behind Luke.

“Of course it was. I thought it was only obvious, especially after how fast you were able to deal with these three using only elemental augmentation.”

Clenching his fist, Luke smiled.

‘I was many times faster than even a human in peak physical shape, to the point that time seemed to slow down around me as I moved. Although that’s only an illusion, it demonstrates how fast I’ve gotten after going through the second phase of soul cleansing. And by elemental augmentation, I’m sure that he’s talking about physical enhancement using an elemental… I didn’t know that there was such a term for that.’

While Luke was having his monologue, Ellios finished writing something on a piece of paper and left it on one of the chairs in the room, since the table was broken into pieces.

“It’s time to go. Norma won’t say no to a bunch of test subjects as compensation for the table and the door.”

“…Test subjects?”

Hearing those words caused a sense of unease to wash over Luke, with the frown on his face clearly showing it.

“Don’t you worry your pretty head about it,” said someone as they entered the shack through the doorway, which was devoid of a door.

‘Norma!’

“Replacing the locking mechanism will be a bit of a bother, though…” said Norma with a sour look on her face as she crouched down and fiddled with the pieces of the broken door.

Luke couldn’t help but mutter out, “Won’t you ask us about what happened here?”

Norma looked up at him, still crouched down, and put a finger on her lips with an innocent yet hollow look in her eyes.

“There’s no fun in rushing things… After all, I’ll have all the time in the world to talk to them once they wake up…”

‘…Insane. She’s insane.’

That’s all Luke could think of the woman at that moment. The pair of eyes that contained a deep contradiction kept fixedly looking at him, and as if he could bear it no longer, Luke urged Ellios to leave.

As he was the one who first asked Luke that very same question, he agreed, and they promptly left the shack.

The slums presented themselves to Luke for the first time, as if dragging him inside of them.

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‘Although it’s nearly evening, this place is just too dark! And unnaturally so!’

From Luke’s perspective, it was as if someone pulled a semi-transparent dark veil over his eyes. From time to time, he could also see some form of miasma slithering around in the form of strings, reminding Luke of serpents.

“Do you see it, Luke?”

“?!”

‘He knows what it is!’

Ellios’ sudden question startled Luke, and that reaction easily sufficed as an answer. Before Luke could speak, Ellios placed his hand on Luke's shoulder and wore a gentle smile as he continued talking.

“Do not be afraid. What you’re seeing now is the natural energy of this place. Make sure to remember this feeling, as this ability is only an aftereffect of reaching the second phase and will soon wear off. The better you can feel the mana, the easier it will be for you to progress to the higher phases. This is a rare opportunity, so focus your mind!”

‘This disgusting dark smog is mana? I can’t even imagine something that filthy being a part of me…’

Luke averted his head in resignation, but Ellios grabbed his chin and forced his head to keep facing the slum’s dark atmosphere.

“Focus.”

‘How do I even do that? Do I need to imagine this energy entering my body? Do I just need to be comfortable with it being there? What exactly am I supposed to be focusing on?!’

As if reading his mind, Ellios advised Luke.

“You just need to focus on the feeling of perceiving this energy. Nothing more and nothing less.”

‘Clear your mind, Luke. Remove any unnecessary thoughts. Feel it. Deep within me…’

Narrowing his eyes as veins popped across his eyes, Luke didn’t let his focus drop for even a moment.

‘…! There it is! A link—a string of mana connecting from the back of my eyes all the way to my soul. Focus on it! Reinforce it, and don’t let it slip away!’

“…ke! Lu…!”

‘I can feel it! It’s getting clearer and clearer!’

The semi-transparent dark veil turned into a crystal-clear image. It was as if a dark mist surrounded Luke completely. He could barely see in front of him. And just as he immersed himself in this feeling…

“LUKE!”

Ellios slapped him across the cheek as he called out to him in a loud voice.

“Huh?! What’s that for?!”

“You fool, I told you to focus, not to deep dive! Wipe your nose!”

“…My nose?” Luke said as he put a hand up to his nose.

He could feel a sticky substance adhere to his fingers and wondered what it was, taking a look at his fingers.

‘Blood… Huh…’

It wasn’t a simple nosebleed, as the scarlet blood streaked across his lips and dripped down his chin onto the dirty cobblestone below his feet.

“This is why I said that you cannot perform this ability at the second phase! You’re overexerting both your mind and soul.”

‘He’s basically telling me that I’m still too weak… Well, he’s not wrong in that regard.’

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Luke wiped the blood from his nose and nodded, taking a look around at the slums.

Although Luke could no longer see the dark mana spreading all around him, the slums weren’t that bright to begin with. Stench spread out throughout the streets, and not much light got through to the district, with the hanging roofs, tents, shacks, and other forms of makeshift housing being stacked together too densely.

The roofs were similar to the ones Luke saw in Millef’s marketplace, the difference being their quality. They were made using scrap cloth and were amateurishly sewn together as a protective barrier from the weather.

As he walked through the slums with Ellios, a third person soon joined them.

It was Anastasia.

According to her, she was hanging around the shack and was waiting for Ellios and Luke to leave so that she could leave together with them.

Three people also followed closely behind them.

Deciding not to waste any time, she recruited new guards for their entourage. These men could be trusted, as she was introduced to them via a reliable connection both she and Ellios had used in the past.

They were a bit stronger than the previous three guards, seeing as Nikolai took care of them with relative ease.

They were there to be used as fodder or as backup, so neither Anastasia nor Ellios paid much heed to the deaths of the previous three guards.

Veteran mercenaries like them knew what they were signing up for, so there wasn’t a need to dwell on such things.

Ellios suggested that they should once again head out of the city so that Luke could start his training and also to use the money-making idea Ellios had when Luke asked him about making money.

But Luke had other matters to attend to. He had to visit the Water Temple embassy detachment and check up on Lala.

After somehow managing to convince Ellios to start with his training tomorrow, they were now standing in front of the embassy detachment building. Luke tried asking to go alone as it would be a bother to explain everything to Lala, but Ellios wouldn’t budge on this, saying things like, “I need to meet these people my disciple trusts and worries so much about!”

Evening arrived as Luke entered the building with Ellios and Anastasia in tow. He at least convinced Ellios to keep the guards outside.

The receptionist, Marvin, burst into a big smile and was about to welcome the people until he saw Luke in the lead.

His smile crumbled, and the man stared the three people down with the most deadpan expression imaginable.

“It’s you… I truly hoped you left for good, but oh well… Who are these strays you brought with you?”

Ellios and Anastasia were still in disguise, with Ellios looking fairly generic and Anastasia being straight-out unpleasant to look at, so Marvin talking down to them was to be expected considering his personality.

Both Ellios and Anastasia kept quiet, as Luke had already told them about this receptionist’s temper beforehand.

‘Trying to explain anything to him would be a waste of time.’

So instead, Luke replied with a question of his own.

“Where’s Lala?”

Marvin didn’t mind not getting an answer. It’s not like he cared about what Luke had to say.

“Hmph. You have the gall to ask that when you’re the reason she left.”

‘She probably went out to look for me. I just hope she didn’t get into any trouble because of me…’

Deciding that keeping his questions short would be for the best, Luke continued with a slightly worried expression on his face.

“Where did she go?”

Snorting in response, he continued reading the book in his hands.

“Bah, how should I know? Go talk to Leon; he’s in his office.”