The next lesson had been harder than Atticus would have expected. Using shadow bind on moving objects had been incredibly challenging.

He had to keep track of the darkness molecules and make a connection while they moved. It didn’t help that the shadow was constantly changing shapes!

Regardless, Atticus had still been able to achieve it. He had to continually adjust the bindings to follow and immobilize the moving target.

Atticus had been truly excited when he learned this ability. He could imagine hundreds of scenarios where this would come in handy.

The next ability Atticus had been taught was the void shield. It involved creating a barrier of pure darkness that could block and nullify powerful attacks.

It was all about layering.

He had to create layers upon layers of shields until they were powerful and sturdy enough to withstand even the strongest of attacks. Atticus also had to ensure that the molecules were tightly held together and focus on increasing the density and structural integrity of the barrier.

Then Atticus moved on to creating and maintaining multiple void shields all at once, blocking attacks from every angle.

After all this, Ulithi took a while to regain some composure. Atticus’s rapid progress had once again shocked him despite already expecting it.

“Honestly, you’ve learned basically every advanced ability of the darkness element. Fucking monster…”

He had muttered those last words, but Atticus had still heard him clearly.

Ulithi shook his head. ‘Should I teach him?’ He pondered. To him, Atticus was already far too overpowered. Giving him another strong ability didn’t sound fair at all.

However, that man was currently watching and would know if he didn’t teach Atticus everything he knew.

Ulithi sighed.

“Listen. What I am about to teach you is something I believe is unfair for you to learn given your talent. But the world has never been fair in the first place,”

‘Sounds powerful, what is it?’ Atticus’s curiosity had already been piqued. He completely ignored Ulithi’s words and focused only on what he deemed important.

Ulithi sighed as he saw Atticus’s curious face. ‘Is your current power not enough for you!’

He wanted nothing more than to shout this out loud, but he held himself back. It wasn’t worth it.

His demeanor suddenly turned serious.

“Just like the light element has the capability to heal, the darkness element also has the ability to drain life. The first part of learning this is to know that it is possible. And the second part, will the darkness molecules to do as you wish,”

Atticus’s brows furrowed. “When you say life, what do you mean exactly? Is it mana? Or health? And where does this drained energy go?”

“Yes, you absorb both the mana and life force of the user. However, life force is a bit tricky, so I would suggest sticking to mana for now. There are obviously limitations, of course. One is that you have to weaken your opponent significantly to the extent that they can’t fight back anymore.”

Atticus listened to Ulithi speak without saying anything. He had a lot of questions, for example:

“Why can’t I absorb life force? What makes it tricky?”

Ulithi hesitated before deciding to explain.

“Life force is a complex and integral part of living beings. It is intricately connected to our biological and magical systems. Draining life force requires a deep understanding and control over these systems, which is beyond the current capabilities of our darkness manipulation. Honestly, I believe only a paragon of the darkness element could achieve this feat.

“Attempting to drain life force without the necessary expertise can lead to severe unintended consequences, such as damaging the target’s vital organs, disrupting their biological functions, or causing irreversible harm. Said harm could also extend to you too.”

Atticus nodded seriously. ‘At least I can still drain mana.’

He thought it was a slight bummer that he wouldn’t be able to drain life force. However, it was still a win for him. Being able to drain mana was way better than nothing.

Seeing Atticus staring at him a little impatiently, Ulithi couldn’t help but shake his head. ‘What a kid,’ he thought.

Then, Ulithi went ahead and explained just how it could be achieved. It was quite simple and also followed the principle of how Atticus had made mana flow through his fire construct at the fire sanctum.

He could latch a tendril of darkness to his desired opponent and simply will the molecules to absorb mana from the target and pass it towards him.

This was why the target had to be completely exhausted. If they had even a modicum of strength, they would try to stop their mana from getting siphoned.

However, Ulithi had only taught Atticus the theory. He had no intention of allowing Atticus to attempt it on him, lest the little monster suddenly suck away all his mana.

It sounded impossible, an Expert rank draining a Grandmaster rank’s mana. However, considering everything the poor old man had witnessed today, could anyone blame him for being careful?

Since he had decided to teach Atticus all he knew, Ulithi went ahead and showed him some unconventional tricks utilizing the darkness element.

The first had been shadow communication, simply using the darkness to send messages through shadows.

Next had been shadow puppetry, which involved manipulating shadows to control objects or create animated figures.

The lessons in the darkness sanctum went on for hours, but eventually, they came to an end, much to Ulithi’s relief.

“You’ve basically learned everything you need to know. All you have to do now is train more until you master them. Good luck,” Ulithi said.

He waited for no response and abruptly disappeared from Atticus’s view. Simultaneously, Atticus also found himself standing outside of the darkness sanctum, his vision back to normal.

‘What a weird old man,’ Atticus thought.

In the span of a few hours, Atticus had met far too many weird characters. He couldn’t help but be glad that it was finally all over.

It had been intense and crazy, but he had persevered and learned the seven elements.

‘Now, only one remains,’

Atticus shifted his gaze to the intense white sanctum up ahead.

The sky above was a churning mass of dark clouds, illuminated by flashes of intense lightning.

Bolts of electricity crackled and danced across the sky, illuminating the landscape with a stark, electric brilliance.

The air was charged, and the ground seemed to vibrate with the sheer power emanating from the sanctum. freeweɓnvel.com

The lightning sanctum.

It was the last of the eight elements of the Ravenstein family and the final lesson he had to take before he could finish this aspect of his training.

The thunderclaps were deafening. It was as though the sky knew it was next.

Just as Atticus was about to move, the sky abruptly rumbled and lightning descended downwards, striking Atticus at blitzing speed.

In the next instance, Atticus’s gaze snapped open, and he found himself standing on what was undoubtedly condensed lightning.

And in front of him was a man who radiated an aura that made Atticus want to immediately bow and worship him: Magnus Ravenstein.

“You’ve exceeded my expectations once again,”

Magnus greeted Atticus with a small smile. He had been watching everything during these past days, and although he wasn’t like the others, he was shocked. However, there was another feeling mixed in; pride.

He had given the boy three months to master each of the seven elements. While he had anticipated Atticus being done in less time, less than a month was mind-blowing.

Atticus smiled and simply greeted,

“Grandfather,”

Magnus nodded, his aura changing.

“You have successfully learned seven out of the eight elements. Are you ready for the last element?”

Atticus nodded seriously. He felt an immense amount of pressure emanating from Magnus, but his determination was unyielding.

“Good,” Magnus nodded in approval. ‘I like those eyes,’

Atticus’s eyes were filled with determination despite everything he had just achieved. It filled Magnus with more pride knowing that he didn’t let all that get to his head.

“Now tell me, Atticus. Why would my own grandson, the grandson of a paragon of lightning, despite having proficiency in the element, have such terrible control?”

Atticus’s mouth twitched. His control couldn’t be that bad, right? Why was his grandfather exaggerating?

Magnus’s demeanor abruptly changed, the air crackling with lightning.

Atticus could not fathom the speed despite his high perception, but at one second, only he and Magnus were present in the area. In the next, five humanoid figures materialized in front of him, each made of white lightning.

They stood rapt and still in front of Magnus as though they were experienced warriors who had been trained for generations.

“You are not allowed to use any other element or abilities except lightning. You can only utilize true lightning, not the one you’re used to. You will battle these five until you learn everything I’m about to teach you,”

Atticus’s gaze flashed, his mind working with speed as he tried to comprehend the current events. Wasn’t Magnus supposed to teach him?

However, he wasn’t given the chance to think.

“We will begin immediately,”

Five streaks of lightning blitzed through the air, reaching Atticus and unleashing attacks from different directions that crackled the air.

Atticus’s gaze narrowed, his expression becoming frigid.