Ning made his way to the Trobble store to meet up with Byron.

“You are here!” Byron said with a hint of surprise in his voice. It was still morning, so he hadn’t started working just yet and would at any time. “I had thought you had already left.”

“Oh no, I was just in my room doing nothing but…” he slowed down. “Actually guess what I was doing?”

“Huh?” Byron looked confused to hear that. “What do you mean guess? Guess what?”

He couldn’t make sense of Ning’s words, but under Ning’s coercion, he gave up and looked for whatever it was that he could find. However, it didn’t even take him 3 seconds to realize what was different when he did give it some thought.

His eyes widened. “But it… but it hasn’t even been that long,” he said. “How are you so close to entering the Essence Soul realm?”

“Ooh, am I?” Ning asked. “I was only trying to show off the Essence Manifestation realm that I reached.”

Even that alone was enough for Byron to be surprised about. There was no way of telling if he would’ve outright fainted if Ning made any mentions of all of his 8 cores reaching the same level.

“Congratulations,” Byron said, his face still keeping the look of shock he felt.

Ning sat by the side. “I came to practice making some swords and shields,” he said. “Now that I reached the Essence Manifestation realm, it should be possible, right?”

“Y-yes,” Byron said. “Do you want to test it out now?”

“Sure,” Ning said. “My daughter will be out for a few hours, so I will need to practice before she returns. Let’s start now.”

Ning started walking to the backyard while Byron quickly followed him. Byron couldn’t help but look back outside, thinking of Ning’s daughter going around the city.

He wished no other problems such as last time would come about once again.

“I’m surprised you didn’t leave the city already,” Byron said as he followed. “After the commotion you caused over 2 weeks ago, I thought you would’ve left.”

“Well… no,” Ning said. “My daughter had something to do, so I couldn’t leave. We will probably be leaving in a day or two though. Apparently, she learned about a fun city in the northeast. Something called… Ularis City?”

“Ulharis City,” Byron corrected him. “Is your daughter interested in the Star Beast Institute?”

“That’s it,” Ning said. “That’s why she wants to join. That beast institute. She kept telling me about it the last few days. I wonder where she learned it from.”

“It’s actually a pretty big topic in the town, especially around this time,” Byron said. “They will have their first round of admission in half a month, so many people make their way there around this time.”

“Is that so?” Ning asked curiously. “Why from here?”

“Well, it’s easier for people to travel through the sea around this area than go through the road. Considering the recent increase in bandits, not many like taking the long path there.”

“Instead, they just come to the ocean, take a quick trip to one of the port cities, and take a short way there,” Byron explained.

“Hmm, I see,” Ning said as they arrived at the working field. “Well, I’ll have to think about it if there’s only half a month left. But that’s for later. Let me make a conduit right now.”

He cracked his knuckles and looked around. “What should start with? Any idea?” he asked.

“Do wind,” Byron suggested. “It is the easiest and it’s not very concerning even if you mess up.”

“Wind… okay, wind it is,” Ning said and got ready.

Byron stood quietly, watching Ning begin to convert the air in the surroundings into an artifact. However, even as seconds passed, Ning didn’t start.

Byron turned around to look at Ning with a confused look on his face. “What’s wrong?” Byron asked. “Do you need me to teach you how it should be done?”

“No, no, that’s I’m fine on,” Ning said. “I’m just wondering if maybe Lightning isn’t the proper Essence I should use it with. I know lightning and Wind have some common in them when Qi is involved, but since Qi is not involved, I wonder if I should go a different route.”

“What? Qi? What do you mean?” Byron asked. “Isn’t your core Lightning? Just use it. There’s no point in dawdling around unless you have a Wind Essence Crystal. But I wouldn’t suggest using those for your first time.”

“Oh no,” Ning said. “I wasn’t thinking of using a crystal at all. I was thinking of using a Core. A different core.”

Byron’s face went blank for a few seconds. “A different what?”

Instead of answering, Ning switched his cores. Of the other 7 Essence Cores he had, the Lightning switched with one that was in his opinion the closest to Wind.

Sound Essence Core

As soon as the switch happened, Byron sensed it as well. His eyes widened in shock. “You… you are…”

“Sshh!” Ning said before giving a wide grin. “How is this? Is this good enough for Wind?”

Byron was too shocked to answer.

“Well, I suppose I’ll have to find out on my own.” Ning sent out Sound Essence from his core and sent it into the air. The air was constantly moving, so unlike rocks, he couldn’t capture it all at once.

What he did capture glowed with a soft greenish-white hue and hung in the air. Byron quickly realized what was happening and stepped aside. He knew that it was going to be impossible to breathe at any moment now.

As Ning continued, he felt the air around himself grow still, and he could no longer breathe any air. Not that breathing problems had ever been a priority for him.

He continued using his Essence to capture as much of the air as he could. 5 minutes later, he was staring at a massive solid chunk of air that had gotten still, glowing with a soft green-white color.

Now that he had made the hybrid form, it was time to pull it all together into an object.