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nThe next morning, Grey woke up earlier than usual. He felt very refreshed after the long rest he had. Since he still had time before the tournament starts for the day, he went out for his physical training. He noticed his spiritual energy was stronger than it was previously.

n“Hmm, this is strange” Grey tried to think of a reason which caused this, and the only reason he could think of was that it increased due to his constant use over a short period of time.

nWith the increase in spiritual energy, he noticed he could feel the elemental particles in the air more clearly and his mind was more relaxed which in turn increased his focus. He felt his control over the elements was better than before.

n“I should be able to attempt it now,” Grey said confidently. When he noticed how strong his spiritual energy was, he suddenly remembered there was a technique he had, but had never attempted it since acquiring it.

nElemental fusion.

nHe got the technique after breaking through to the Arcane Plane, but he had never once tried to attempt it since he felt his control over the elements wasn’t good enough yet. But with this current increase in spiritual energy, his confidence increased.

nGrey calmed himself, he wanted to be in the best state before attempting it. The sun was just about to rise, the light from the rising sun passed through the trees and shone in the serious-looking face of Grey.

nWhen he felt he was prepared, Grey slowly stretched out his right hand. He put all his focus into sensing the surrounding elements. He slowly started using his spiritual energy to carefully guide the lightning and earth element slowly towards the top of his outstretched hand.

nAlthough he also had the wind element, he didn’t want to add it as well since controlling two elements at a time was already tiring. If he were to also add the wind element, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to fuse them.

nGrey totally lost himself in what he was doing and soon, lights made of brownish and silver color started congealing at the top of his outstretched hand. Slowly an orb started taking shape with two different colors intertwining perfectly in it.

nAfter the orb grew to the size of a fist, it suddenly started trembling. Clearly, it was starting to become unstable.

n“Shit” Grey cursed out when he noticed he was losing control of the orb. He tried to regain control over it.

nThe trembling increased and Grey’s heart suddenly tightened, the orb was about to explode and Grey felt an energy that scared the life out of him. The power contained in the orb was terrifying, if it exploded on his palm, he would definitely die.

n“Fu*k!, it’s going to blow” Grey cursed again before he threw the orb in one direction and dashed towards the other direction.

nAs he was running, he suddenly heard a deafening sound.

n*BOOM*

nThe orb exploded in the forest, Grey’s heart started beating faster and faster, when he turned to look, he felt the scare of his life. The explosion was expanding from the spot and moving towards him.

n“Shit, **, **” Grey cursed repeatedly and employed lightning steps enforced with the wind element. He was practically on the verge of crying.

n“Why didn’t they say it was this dangerous” Grey was running like his life depended on it? Oh wait, it does, if he gets caught up this close to the blast, he would definitely lose his little life. It was clearly stated that the technique was dangerous, but it wasn’t stated how dangerous it was.

n***************

nInside the valley…

nChris was sleeping peacefully. Brown was lying lazily on the ground.

n*BOOM*

nThe sleeping Chris woke up from the sound and walked outside his little cabin. He looked towards the forest with interest before disappearing from his previous spot.

nBrown also raised her head vigilantly and was about to fly out on seeing Chris disappearing.

n“Stay here”

nChris’s voice echoed out, but he was nowhere to be seen.

n***************

nInside the Academy…

n*BOOM*

n“What is that?” Blake suddenly looked towards the forest behind the Academy. Lightning danced on his body before he disappeared.

nAt different places on the Academy, different instructors were heading towards the location of the blast.

n“Did you hear that?”

n“Of course I did, I’m not deaf”

n“What do you think made such a loud sound”

n“I don’t know, but from the direction of the sound, it came from behind the Academy”

n“Do you think it’s an enemy attack?”

n“Who would be stupid enough to come here and attack us?”

n“The Starlight Academy?”

n“I don’t think they have the guts to dare”

n“We shouldn’t bother about this, the instructors will take care of it. Whatever it is”

nDifferent conversations started off among the students. The explosion shook the surrounding, some students thought it was the handwork of the Starlight Academy, others thought maybe some experts were fighting.

nThe explosion became the hottest topic among the students.

n*************

nBack at the forest…

n“Creak”

nThe sound of rock grating against the ground sounded out.

n“Bang”

nThe rock fell on the ground with a loud sound.

nA youth who looked messed up appeared in sight, his hair stood straight and his face was covered with black substance. He was covered in armor which appeared to be made of rock. Some parts of the armor had holes in them, this was clearly a result of the impact.

nThis was the new defensive technique he learned, earth armor. It would form an armor on the body of the Elementalist. The strength of this technique increases with the strength of the Elementalist. For now the armor is made to rocks, as his strength increases, it would be made of jade, before turning to crystal and then finally diamond.

nGrey looked at his surroundings with a disoriented look. He was still playing out what just happened.

nGrey was currently over six hundred meters away from the blast. After the blast occurred, Grey tried running, but he was unable to surpass the speed at which it was moving. Luckily, he managed to get to the outer regions of the blast where the strength of the blast wasn’t as strong as the central region.

nGrey made an earth wall to try to reduce the impact of the blast, after doing that, he also used earth armor to protect himself, he had to be extra sure. Fortunately, the wall was able to help him reduce the impact, but he still suffered from the little that passed through.

n“I could have lost my poor little life if I didn’t act fast” Grey whipped off the sweat on his face, he truly did feel fear when he lost control of the orb. The earth armor started falling apart from his body.

n“The instructors will probably come here after this blast, what will I tell them if they asked me what happened?” There is no way the blast won’t attract the instructors over, and since Grey was currently the only one near the blast, they would naturally question him.

n“There’s no way I can tell them I was practicing a new technique, the strength of the blast exceeded what someone who is still at the Arcane Plane can do,” Grey thought hard about it.

n“Thankfully I didn’t try it out when I was in the Academy” Grey sighed, the thought of the consequences of destroying his home and maybe putting the lives of other students at risk terrified him.

n“I should probably leave here” Grey turned and immediately started walking in the other direction.

n“Where are you going?”

nA voice suddenly rang out.

nGrey’s heart tensed up when he heard this, but he didn’t show it out. He had learned to mask his reactions well, so even if he’s shocked or afraid, it would be almost impossible to notice it from his body language.

nHe turned around calmly only to see Chris standing midair looking down at him with interest. Chris was the first one to arrive here since his place was closer to the site of the blast, and he was faster.

n“Teacher, I’m heading back to the Academy” Grey replied calmly.

n“What happened here?” asked Chris

n“I have no idea, I was training when I suddenly heard an explosion, luckily I wasn’t too close to it” Grey answered.

n“Hmm, okay. You should head back now”

n“Yes, Teacher,” Grey said and quickly dashed away from the place.

nChris’s eyes followed the shadow of Grey till he disappeared from his sight.

n‘Seems like this cook of mine has some secrets, interesting’

nChris heard everything Grey said when he arrived. When he arrived at the site of the explosion, he didn’t sense anyone. He knew there was no way the person who did this attack would have already escaped before he arrived.

nHe suddenly heard movements coming from some distance away and headed towards the place. When he arrived, he saw Grey pushing off a wall he used to protect himself from the blast. After hearing what he said, he knew this was done by Grey.

nBut what he still couldn’t figure out was how someone in the Arcane Plane could make an attack which strength equals someone at the Early stages of the Origin Plane, it just doesn’t make sense.

n“Whoosh”

nChris looked over when he heard this. He saw Blake coming towards him at a very fast speed.

nBlake quickly appeared in front of him.

n“Senior” He quickly greeted as he saw Chris.

n“What happened here?. Oh!, and I saw Grey leaving here just now,” Blake asked. When he was flying here, he saw Grey leaving the place. Since Chris was already here, he must have met Grey.

n“I don’t know, seems like whoever did this already fled before I arrived” answered Chris.

n“So fast?,” Blake was surprised. He knew just how fast Chris was.

n“Did the blast affect Grey?” Blake asked, he remembered how Grey looked when he saw him. Grey was like a beggar in the street. Some parts of his clothes were torn, so he guessed Grey might have suffered from the blast.

n“He was able to act quickly and use his defensive techniques, but he was still impacted by it. But he should be okay” said Chris. He knew there was no way Blake would think Grey was involved in what happened, if not for accidentally hearing what Grey said when he arrived, he still wouldn’t have thought Grey was involved also.

nThe other instructors arrived while Chris and Blake were still conversing about the blast, Blake told them what Chris told him. They decided to investigate the site. After searching for some time and finding nothing, they all went back to the Academy. But they agreed on increasing their guard since they still didn’t know what caused the blast.

nGrey got back to his house and finally heaved a sigh.

n“I was lucky today, but I did learn some things from this attempt”

nAlthough he was scared by the blast, he was also amazed by the strength of it. If he could master it, he would be able to easily defeat everyone in the Arcane Plane, he wouldn’t even be scared of battling those in the First stage of the Origin Plane.

nGrey decided not to attempt it for now since he wasn’t as confident anymore. But he would try it again in the near future.

nAfter he took his bath, he waited for his friends to arrive before they headed towards the arena.

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