"Killgragah, I have returned!" shouted Emery, as he stepped into the Khaos Space.

Unexpectedly, the usually grumpy dragon didn't seem to be mad this time. In fact, it also didn't seem to be interested nor excited about his appearance.

It batted one of its eyes at him and said, "I see you have managed to create the dual spirit core. Congratulations! It's a very exceptional achievement for a human" The dragon appeared to be laughing and said, "You can thank me for that."

Emery knew the dragon had only wanted him to train the dark core. He severed his spirit core the first chance he got. It was a glaring truth between the two of them that the dragon never had supported his dual core idea, not even once.

Even though that was the case, what Killgragah said did hold some truth to it. In some kind of odd way, the dragon did have a hand in this matter.

To make the dragon's odd mood improve, Emery decided to praise the former till kingdom come. "That's right. You are absolutely correct, Your Excellency. O, Supreme beings. If it wasn't because of your greatness, all of this would never have happened."

"Hufff!" Unlike usual, the dragon only seemed slightly appeased by his flattery, which was apparent from its response. It seemed this time it was really disappointed with him.

Realizing that, Emery knew it was time to use his back up strategy,

"Killgragah, I have good news!" He said 'excitedly'. "I will fight that witch in five days!"

There was still no response from the mighty dragon after Emery said that. However, that indifferent attitude it displayed would not fool him, as he saw the slight movement the other party's lips did. The dragon was definitely amused by the news.

Confident with his guess, Emery continued on.

"Alas, it's such an unfortunate fact the witch is much stronger than me. It will be a pity if your student here dies in such a fight. Don't you think so?"

Finally, he managed to incite a reaction from the dragon with the words he just said.

"Huh?!! If you lose against the witch again, I will never allow you to enter the Khaos Space again!" He scoffed. "Heh! And If that's the case, death will be the best case for you!

Emery was silent as he heard Killgragah's words, but he really was waiting for another reaction from the dragon and a few seconds later, Killgragah really did open his mouth.

"Come closer! Let me see your spirit core!"

Like the usual, the dragon beamed an aura at Emery, causing him to hover in the air a little. Emery himself proceeded to check in his current stats.

[Emery Ambrose]

[Battle Power: 73 (55)]

[Spirit Force: 567 (418)]

[Spirit Core of Darkness Stage 5]

[Spirit Core of Nature - Stage 1]

[Fey Bloodline Rank 3]

[Acolyte Rank: 8]

Ever since his journey from Gaya temple, which was 2 months ago, Emery had managed to raise his spirit force by 34 points. This was actually a pretty satisfactory improvement

It took the dragon a mere minute to basically understand his current condition.

"Hmm Your dual spirit core has indeed improved your cultivation tremendously. It even allows you to pass the limit of rank 8 acolyte. But this also means it will be harder for you to reach rank 9 now..." Killgragah said with a complicated tone.

On one hand, the dragon was happy Emery's cultivation had greatly improved. But on the other side, the aftermath of this improvement left a somewhat bitter taste in its mouth.

Killgragah was about to say more when he noticed something. "Hmm!? Your aptitude also increases! Huh! About time!"

Emery could only smile wryly when he heard the contempt in the dragon's words.

In the meantime, Killgragh had been mumbling words as he read through Emery's stats. After he was done, he told Emery to cast all the spells he knew.

[Whiplash], [Water Breathing], [Stone Skin], [Soften Earth], [Mud Wall], [Entangled], [Fragmentation], [Black Smoke], [Shadow Step], [Hidden in Shadow], [Enfeeble Blade], [Dark Matter], [Blink], [Spatial Gate], [Spatial Storage]; every spells in Emery's repertoire, both from nature and dark element, that he regularly and rarely used were all casted in succession in front of the mighty dragon.

After what seemed to be a spell performance ended, Killgragah could be seen nodding his head.

"Your spells have certainly undergone a substantial improvement of their own... I can even see you manage to create a bridge between your two cores!" Killgragah groaned. "Urrghh!! Your spirit cores are too complicated for me!"

Emery could understand Killgragah's limitation. Even though the dragon was a mythical being and had lived a very long time, the dragon was still a beast after all.

There was no way he could expect guidance with a standard similar to that of Magus Academy's teachers and mentors.

"Alright. Now let's see if you are able to absorb the Khaos energy faster."

Emery nodded his head and quickly sat in lotus position. He immediately focused his concentration as he dove into a deep state of cultivation.

It was the first time he cultivated the Khaos Space energy with his dual spirit core and the results were amazing, he could feel a rush of energy filling both cores.

[Spirit force increased]

The familiar notification that came to Emery's mind certainly felt the same as melodious music to his ears. But after a while, it was followed by a little strain in the channel he created between the two cores.

"I see you are trying to balance the two cores! It was no easy matter, especially here!"

Emery nodded and understood, if Nature's Grasp could give him a slow wave of energy, the Khaos Space was like a fierce river. Emery started to chant the Dao cultivation to control the flow.

To his surprise, Emery could feel the dragon sending him an aura to show him how to cultivate the dark core better during such a sittuation.

[Spirit force increased]

It was the second increase today, which quickly excited him.

With the help of his [Nature Grasp], Emery prviously could only increase his spirit power by three to four points per week. But now, he had received two points increase in a mere twenty four hours! A massive improvement!

However, the mighty dragon was still disappointed with this result.

"Huh?! Only two points? Still disappointing!" Killgragh commented as he saw Emery's elated face.

The dragon might look disappointed, but the fact he still helped him just now really made him feel grateful. He just couldn't help but wonder what kind of earth-shattering talents this dragon had seen before.

Taking his thoughts off the reverie, Emery once again gave the future a thought. He had about nine months left until the recall to the academy. And with his current rate of spirit force improvement, he might be able to reach or even go past the 1000 spirit force requirement.

But for now, he was more concerned about the duel he would be having in four days. Five to ten more points in spirit force would not bring much significance for the upcoming battle. Hence, Emery needed to bring something different to the table.

He looked upon Killgragah and smiled. "Kilgragah, it has been three years since we have known each other, right...?"

The dragon opened one of its eyes and looked at him. "...So? I am more than 3000 years old, kid. A mere three years is nothing to me!" He said. "Just blurt it out! What do you want?"

Emery beamed his brightest smile at Killgragah as he said, "You see, the blink spell and spatial gate are amazing. So, I wonder if you have any other spells you can teach me." The smile turned into a grin as his true intention was revealed.

"Huh?! No!" Killgragah said with a grunt. "Kid, I am this close to killing you myself for making me wait all these months. Focus on getting to rank 9 already, not only will the secrets of Khaos be open for you, I will even teach you a rank 5 spell. As for now, No! This great being has no desire in teaching low level spells."

What Emery was doing at the moment was truly the peak depiction of shamelessness. Even so, he would rather be shameless now, than lose or at worst die in the battle to come.

"So, is there nothing at all you can do to help in the battle?"

Unexpectedly, Killgragah raised his massive body and said, "Of course, I do. How about I come out of this place and burn all those barbarians for you How does that sound!?"

"Wow! That's a bit too much, but YES!!" replied Emery energetically. "Please do! That should do the work!"

"Are you stupid, kid!??" Killgragah said loudly.

With his claw, Killgragah showed the chain that was tied to his neck. "I'll be honest with you, kid. If you are able to break this chain for me, forget about those barbarians, I'll even let you ride me as a reward!" He said, while laughing boisterously at Emery.

Emery, on the other hand, seemed unperturbed by the dragon's laughter. In fact, he wasn't affected by it at all.

"It's a deal then!" He calmly said. "I will take your word for it."

This matter was naturally not possible to be resolved for the current him, but Emery would definitely make the dragon keep his word in the future.

The dragon then continued to babble that, if he had focused on the path of darkness, he would have receive the secret of Khaos now and all his problems would be easy to deal with.

At the moment, Emery still needed a way to help for the upcoming battle and the Dragon seemed unable, or unwilling, to help.

He accessed his spatial storage and tried to think of ideas as he rummaged through its contents. Looking at his stats and the items in his spatial storage, Emery decided to try to do the one thing that should be able to quickly change the result of the battle.

Apothecary.

Written by Avans, Published exclusively by W.e.b.n.o.v.e.l,