Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+

In an instant, Aurus manifested his soul once more outside his body as a soul vessel. This time, he could not help but notice the improvement of manifesting a vessel in terms of speed. Not long after that, he then split up the soul vessel into two. He then did a test to see the level of burden he would obtain while manipulating the two separate vessels independently, noticing that the level of burden on his mind was significantly reduced after fusing the two skills together.

Of course, he continued to split the soul vessels once more, increasing the number of soul vessels in front of his field of vision to four, then eight not long after. Surprisingly, Aurus could still think quite actively while controlling the eight vessels as they moved in different directions, which allowed him to deploy a greater level of protection once the war starts.

Just as he was about to call it a day, a thought popped up in his mind all of a sudden as he decided to split the soul vessels into two once more.

Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+

At this point, he now had 16 soul vessels in front of his field of vision, each having a sixteenth of the Soul Power of the original soul vessel. As for the burden on his mind, it was more or less equivalent to the level of burden he felt while controlling eight soul vessels with only the [Nine Worlds Soul Morphosis] skill. Then again, that was only when he did not move the soul vessels in different directions.

Once he did attempt to move the 16 soul vessels in different directions, although he came to the conclusion that it would allow him to see more of the landscape in the heat of war with the vision portion of the skill activated, he was severely debilitated in the mental area just like before, only allowing him to put up a basic level of protection around his body. Nonetheless, he was quite satisfied, deciding to use the 16 soul vessels if he was going to act as reconnaissance, and the 8 soul vessel form when he was going to attack and act as reconnaissance at the same time.

"Well then, I guess my control over multiple soul vessels has improved, increasing it to 16," Aurus said to himself, very satisfied with the improvement the newly fused skill brought. Not long after that, he told Fenrir and Charisa that he was going to head towards another part of the Tower of Seclusion as he wanted to test out the destructiveness of his skills.

The two found no problem with that and told their master to still be on alert. In response, Aurus let out an aura of slight happiness before disappearing in front of the two's visions, heading towards one of the dummies situated within the Tower of Seclusion.

While the whole Tempest Branch Alliance was preparing for the worst in the upcoming war that was going to befall them, an Animate was currently trying to fulfill the last goals given to her by her master, which would ultimately allow her to transition into a stronger cla.s.s among the cla.s.ses of the higher ranks.

x.x.xX Continent, Seraph Kingdom, Arcana Tower.

Glurg glurg…glurg glurg…

Within one of the training rooms that were allotted to those that reside within the Arcana Tower, a young woman was arduously manipulating a small ball of water in front of her, trying her best to solidify the shape of the ball as a sphere. At the current moment, although the shape of the water ball in front of her was more or less a sphere, to be more exact, there were still times where her control over the water ball would falter, making the ball ripple every once in a while.

This young woman was none other than Erea, Dane's only student who was trying to master the Lower Level 1 spell she recently bought in a bid to allow her to transition into a stronger Rank 3 cla.s.s.

Splas.h.!.+

"Aah!" Erea could not help but scream out as the water ball she was controlling had abruptly burst. Due to the water ball bursting, it was a given that Erea was soaked by the water. Nonetheless, she was not angry over the fact that she was not able to control the water ball properly, which led to the slip-up that made the water ball burst.

Instead, she took a few deep breaths with her eyes closed, before sitting down on a nearby chair as she recalled the sensation she felt while manifesting and controlling the water ball. From there, she reflected on her mistakes, which allowed her to ponder on how she could reduce the time of manifestation, as well as increase her level of control over the water ball after manifestation.

"If I manipulate my mana in a way that would allow the whole water ball to roll clockwise, that would allow me to have a greater chance to fully control the ball. At the very least, that would allow me to call the activation of the spell a success. Then again, that isn't a true [Aqua Sphere] though since that would need me to mimic the movements of water in a natural setting, taking into consideration the ripples, the breeze, and so on," she started to mutter to herself as she reflected over her possible workarounds to activating the spell successfully.

"Of course, I could remedy this if I put more time into improving my affinity with the Water element," she said not long after, only to chuckle afterwards as she added, "If I have both ideas, why not just do both at the same time?"

Fwoos.h.!.+

She then stood up from her chair, extended her right arm as a small fireball manifested on her palm. Not long after, she manipulated the fireball to travel all around her body, drying off the water that was on her robe. While looking at her exquisite control over the fireball, she could not help but ponder over it as she muttered to herself, "Hmm…how about I take some of the things I do while controlling this fireball? Then again, this fireball is the only Lower Level 1 Spell I have mastered so far."

Step. Step. Step.

Not long after, she headed towards the center of the training room and stood there, closing her eyes as she attuned her body to the mana in the surroundings.

Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+

A few seconds later, a blue haze started to appear around Erea's body, to which she opened her eyes as she extended one of her arms forward, a magic circle appearing a few centimeters away from the extended palm not long after.

"1st Circle. Aqua Radialis Opensei."

"[Aqua Sphere]!"

Swis.h.!.+

At the very instant she finished chanting the incantation for the spell, the magic circle started to glow a faint blue hue, to which the blue haze around her started to congregate towards. Bit by bit, the magic circle she created started to shrink, to which a water ball that was growing in size bit by bit was replacing the magic circle's place.

Eventually, a water ball that had the diameter of two tennis b.a.l.l.s manifested a decent distance away from Erea's extended palm, slightly rippling here and there. Just as she noticed this, she then muttered to herself, "It's time to test it out."

"Spin!" she shouted out as a portion of her mana started to circulate throughout her body, channeling outwards through her extended arm. She then released this mana through the tips of her fingers, with each strand of mana making its way towards the slightly unstable water ball in front of her, forcing the movement of the water that made up the water ball to spin in a certain direction.

Swis.h.!.+ Swis.h.!.+ Swis.h.!.+

A few seconds later, the whole water ball was spinning in a clockwise direction, its form not even becoming unstable after Erea walked close towards it, making sure to maintain control as she got closer. Seeing that there was no chance for it to burst into multiple droplets right now, Erea could not help but feel elation as she screamed inwardly with joy, "Success!"

Glurg glurg…

Just as she screamed inwardly with joy, the spinning water ball slightly rippled, which made Erea calm down from her sudden bout of joy, continuing to maintain her full concentration on controlling the water ball. After attempting to move the water ball in a few directions, finis.h.i.+ng off by letting her water ball circle her body, she dispersed the water ball not long after, filled with the feeling of excitement and satisfaction after finally manifesting a water ball without making it burst.

"Now, I just have to make it into a true [Aqua Sphere]," Erea said to herself while going over the methods to gradually reach that stage. Not long after, a thought popped up in her mind all of a sudden as she said, "Since I can now successfully manipulate a water ball somewhat, I think I can try casting the two Lower Level 1 spells I have at the same time."

Attuning her body to the mana in the surroundings, a faint red haze started to surround her body a few seconds later. She then raised her left arm as she opened up her palm, to which the red haze converged towards as a magic circle appeared on it. Not long after, a stable yet fiery ball of fire manifested on top of Erea's left palm, bobbing up and down as it was radiating a decent amount of heat.

She then took a deep breath and let out a long sigh before raising up her right arm. "Now, it's time to cast [Aqua Sphere] and control the two of them at the same time."

She opened up her right palm as she split up the consciousness in her mind into two, letting one control the fireball that was currently hovering, while the other one was to manifest the water ball and control it without making it burst.

Unfortunately, since she was not used to splitting up her consciousness into two as she had not gone through a training regimen for things like these, a greater portion of her consciousness was still focused on the fireball, with only a small portion focused on the water ball she was trying to form.

Whirr…whirr…

As she chanted the spell for [Aqua Sphere], only a small amount of blue haze surrounded her body as a magic circle appeared on top of her palm, flickering every so often. A few seconds later, the magic circle made a cracking sound as it dispersed into mana, with the blue haze that was covering her disappearing as well not long after.

Seeing as her first attempt failed, she could not help but sigh as she dispersed the fireball on her left palm. A few seconds later, she could not help but chuckle as she muttered to herself, "This is just the first attempt. There's still a ton of room for improvement. I will achieve what teacher told me to do!"

Just as she was about to start on her second attempt, a voice that was extremely familiar to her resounded throughout her mind, prompting her to put what she was doing aside as she headed out of the training room she was in, heading towards a higher floor of the Arcana Tower.

Creak…

Erea slowly opened up the door to one of the rooms found in a higher floor of the Arcana Tower that was only reserved for higher ranked mages. At the very instant the room was fully opened, a man in a black robe that was wearing black rimmed eyegla.s.ses appeared in front of Erea, a smile appearing on his face as he saw Erea and said, "Ah, if it isn't Erea. Come in and have a seat."

Erea lightly nodded to the man's words, closing the door behind her before sitting down on a chair that faced opposite the man. This man was none other than Dane, Vanadir's helper, as well as Erea's teacher.

"Teacher, why did you call me to come to your room all of a sudden?" Erea could not help but ask as it was indeed a sudden message from his teacher.

"I apologize if I delayed you or anything, but I just wanted to check up on you," Dane answered back with a light smile on his face. He then added, "I also wanted to talk with you regarding something."

"Ehem." Dane cleared his throat before looking at Erea with eyes that exuded seriousness as he asked, "How's your progress in achieving my goals?"

"Err…" Erea recalled what she had done for a while before responding, "I have already achieved most of the goals you've given me, teacher. The only goal left that I haven't accomplished is casting two Lower Level 1 skills at the same time."

"But your stats are eligible enough for you to transition to a Rank 3 Cla.s.s, right?" Dane asked back, looking at Erea with a hint of curiosity.

Erea nodded to her teacher's question, responding, "Indeed. I've been feeling that I could transition to the next cla.s.s at any time now, but I delayed that due to the goal you gave me, which you said would allow me to transition into a stronger Rank 3 Cla.s.s."

"I see, I see. Good job," Dane replied while nodding his head, a smile appearing on his face while nodding. After a moment of silence between the two of them, Dane's smile was wiped off as he leaned closer towards Erea, asking, "Erea, you do know that I'm Vanadir's helper and advisor, right?"

"Yes, I do, teacher," Erea responded with a nod. "The Ninth Prince of the Seraph Kingdom, Prince Vanadir Seraph, right?"

"Yes, that Vanadir." Dane nodded. He then opened his mouth not long after as he said, "Anyways, I have a question for you."

"Would you like to join Vanadir's faction in the fight for the throne?"

"Eh? Pardon?"