A little over three months.

For ninety seven days, Tom did nothing but eat, train and sleep.

The specific pathways that he had traversed with the help of [The Fool’s] aura were something that Tom had managed to commit to memory. Even then, the process of utilising the Control Glyph in battle was far more arduous than he had expected. Not only did he have to factor in the fairly negligible time lag between the activation of his [Deck Card] and the Control Glyph’s modulation, but he still had to adjust for external factors like his opponent’s reactions.

His biggest challenge though…. was Aleph’s training itself.

The Control Glyph wasn’t something others could teach. Either you possessed the talent to utilise it or you were determined enough to power through it. Though… perhaps there was a third way. A high enough [Mental] stat would probably do the trick.

Aleph couldn’t help him master the rune itself so instead she boxed him into situations were he would be forced into using it. One moment they could be making small talk over brunch and the next second a block of crystal would come hurtling at his abdomen. If he wanted to avoid the bruise, he had to quickly manifest a flame lance and kill the crystal block’s momentum.

He failed. Again. And again.

Even in the midst of sleep, the sound of a crystal brick whistling through the air would immediately rouse him. Because Aleph, being the harsh taskmaster that she was, refused to allow him to drop his guard—even in sleep.

Tom’s eyes slowly opened, revealing a calm gaze. He was seated on the floor in a meditative posture, his back held straight and his legs crossed.

He had found that simply dedicating two hours a day to visualising the Control Glyph helped increase his reaction time in combat and meditation in general helped him recenter his thoughts.

“I am ready,” Tom’s voice resounded with a poise that he had been lacking earlier as he kicked himself back onto his feet.

A second later, his [Revenant Claw] phased into reality, settling perfectly onto his left hand.

“You know, I’ve seen plenty of valuable artifacts but…. none of those came with the ability to phase from the void. It’s unsettling.”

“It amplifies the base effect of common cards by 75%,” Tom answered the unasked question without any hesitation. He didn’t want to lie to Aleph any more than he had to.

“Hum,” Aleph mused. “That is both impressive and disappointing. What a stupidly unbalanced [uncommon] artefact.”

Tom’s eyes grew keener at her words, but ultimately he refrained from commenting.

“Shardweave Regalia.”

Despite having seen it before, Tom’s attention was still captivated by the crystalline armour that Aleph had donned almost instantaneously.

He was also grateful, for it meant that he could go all out without any worries.

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His attacks weren’t powerful enough to pierce her armour, after all.

Aleph flicked a golden coin in the air without any further discussion.

Tom had to prove that he had mastered the Control Glyph to the point of freely using it in combat if they were to move their plan to the next stage.

Both fighters focused their gazes intently at the rotating coin’s arc.

A clink sounded out as the coin bounced off the floor.

Tom’s gaze sharpened. A chain-reaction that he had been painstakingly cultivating over the last three months occurred.

Although he still wasn’t as quick as the first time he’d fired off the flame lance with [The Fool’s] help, he had bridged the gap to the point where the difference was negligible.

“Now we’re talking!” Aleph cheekily exclaimed as she gracefully sidestepped past Tom’s Control Glyph charged flame lance.

What she hadn’t been expecting was the second flame lance that hurtled toward her, already having covered a quarter of the distance separating them.

Tom had not only anticipated that she would dodge her attack, but after studying Aleph’s fighting style for three months he had made an informed guess at the direction she would dodge in.

Drawing her sword, Aleph wildly slashed at the flame lance, causing it to dissipate.

A grin spread across Tom’s face.

He had forced her to draw her sword.

But this was only the beginning.

[Revenant’s Claw] switched his active card to [Water Propulsion].

Instead of firing a linear, highly-compressed torrent of water, Tom once again used his Control Glyph to reduce its intensity and conversely, cut down upon its casting time.

A fine-tipped water arrow was sent hurtling forward.

Aleph dodged.

The grin on Tom’s face grew wider as he fired water arrows in rapid succession,completely unconcerned about the toll it would take on his Soul Power. He had plenty to spare, after all.

Aleph was gradually pushed back as she was forced to evade and block his flurry of water arrows. Although she wore her Shardweave Regalia armour, she acted as if she didn’t— as if a single strike would grievously wound, if not kill her. Since it was in the nature of his [Water Propulsion] card to launch a body of water forward at high speed, the lesser volume had only intensified its effect.

Aleph had only finished parrying the latest round of attacks when the water arrows stopped.

Her gaze flashed over to Tom, who had summoned a large rock from beneath the earth. The large rock lay dormant upon the floor, causing Aleph’s guard to rise by a few degrees. She hadn’t seen this move before.

“Earth Bullet,” Tom muttered under his breath, causing a small, misshapen chunk of rock to separate itself from its larger counterpart and speed off towards Aleph.

A loud thump rang out as his Earth Bullet embedded itself into the wall behind Aleph.

“No matter how fast you are…,” Tom muttered, as he sent one Earth Bullet after the next flying towards Aleph.

After dodging the third one, Aleph was forced to materialise a crystal shield in front of her to shield her from the impact.

‘This is it.’

The moment he had been waiting for.

[The Flame] - [Water Propulsion] - [Earth Manipulation] - These were the only three cards the Control Glyph worked on.

Aleph had told him that not all Glyphs worked on all cards, but at the same time there were ways of using Glyphs on cards that might not be revealed without extensive research. And considering all the possible varieties of common cards…. She had no way of knowing which would work on which.

He just had to figure that out himself.

But… he didn’t need the Control Glyph anymore.

[The Shadow]

It was moments after Aleph had noticed the absence of Earth Bullets pelting her shield that her reflexes picked up on the glint of a blunted metal sword.

Tom was inches away from victory.

At the same time, Aleph’s shield shattered.

A heavily panting Tom held his blunted sword against Aleph’s crystalline helm but at the same time, a second crystalline sword fashioned out of the shield that had been guarding her seconds earlier floated mid-air, it’s blunt tip pressed against his neck.

“Congratulations! You pass!” Aleph cheerfully chimed.

“You weren’t even…..,” Tom paused to take a deep breath, “...fighting back and all I could manage was a draw,” He muttered under his breath, though the smile on his face stood in contrary to his statement.

“Guess that just means I’ve got a long way to go,” Tom acknowledged, though at the same time an interesting thought flashed through his mind.

‘I wonder how Aleph would react if she knew I was only level three.’

Regardless, it was finally time to revisit the Zelez Dungeon.