I turned and twisted, cold sweat dropped from my back, as I clenched my teeth in panic. Tortured by a nightmare, I couldn’t get any proper rest. I turned and twisted, cold sweat dropped from my back, as I clenched my teeth in panic. Tortured by a nightmare, I couldn’t get any proper rest.

  It was an early morning, so early that nobody should have been awake at this time. 5 am… I stood up, feeling VITA turn into clothes. I sighed. My limbs felt slow and weak, and my eyelids felt like they would glue together any minute. My stomach grumbled. Even the bones itched with pain.

  Your SE has increased by 1. From 22 to 23!

  I slammed open the door, “What a terrific way to start a day…” The station was unusually cold. My eyes opened wide as I saw a familiar figure, sleeping against the wall.

  Steel, with eyes closed, snored loudly. She has grown at least five centimeters since I last saw her. And I haven’t been able to see her recently… I didn’t even know where her dorm was. Sighing, I shook her shoulder.

  “Wake up.” My voice felt scratchy.

  Steel shook in her sleep and swatted away my hand. Wish I could’ve had this kind of sleep.

  “Wake up!” I strengthened my hand and flicked her horn.

  Her eyes snapped open, and she yelped loudly. Dizzily, she scratched her head, looking around. “Hello, Magnus…” She said sleepily, almost closing her eyes. I flicked her horn again.

  “Ouch!” She groaned. Steel gasped. “Magnus! I need your help!” The green dragon jumped up, grabbing my hand.

  A dangerous feeling sank in my stomach. “Did something happen to Kory? I haven’t been able to talk with you lately.”

  Steel tilted her head, “Eh… No? I’ve taken the Soldier Training Course and we’re going dungeon delving! I need a partner, and Kory doesn’t want to go.”

  “You’ve slept here just to tell me that?” I sighed.

  She stood straight, unashamed. “I was excited. Will you help me?”

  “You know, I have my own courses.” I shivered thinking about ELEVATE. Maybe I shouldn’t go after all. “And I need to learn a combat technique if I want to go dungeon delving.”

  Steel smiled brightly. “That’s fine! It’s going to be this evening; we have plenty of time.” Was she deaf?

  I had to switch the subject. “How is Kory doing?”

  “She’s good! The human guy helped her improve the technique… he said something about it being a miracle… I don’t remember.” She shrugged.

  At least she got distracted.

  “So you’ll help me?”

  Or not. I groaned. “Fine, if I manage to survive today’s ELEVATE course, I’ll help.” I flooded my body with starpower, letting it revitalize me like coffee. “Also, have you learned a better strengthening technique?”

  She grinned, showing her fangs in their full glory. “I have.” He started laughing. “Look, look, it’s a precursor transformation technique!”

  Steel, take several steps away from me. She put her hands down like a crab, tensing all her muscles. Her aura flared like a sun, filling the room with green. Quickly, I made a detection technique.

  Through her body, starpower slithered across her muscles, moving outwards from her scales, almost like my strengthening technique that came from my core. She roared, and the starpower coalesced within her body, spinning like a hurricane.

  Then Steel started growing. Underneath her VITA, her muscles started bulging as she increased in size. Her legs became wider, her biceps bulged up, and her height increased even further. The movement of her starpower wasn’t something I could ever replicate, yet she did all that just by screaming.

  Dragon’s Might Technique

  Affinity: Adaptable (Emerald)

  Description: Temporarily awakens the true dragon genome.

  She grew at least two heads higher and looked like a massively muscular ten-year-old. Absolutely monstrous.

  “What do you think? That’s more impressive than your starpower stick.” Steel grinned, putting a thick hand around my neck.

  “Y-yeah…” Her standing emissions already reached 20… I had to keep going to ELEVATE if I wanted to contend. “You know, let’s eat. We can figure out all the complicated stuff later.”

  Her eyes shone with happiness as her body slowly deflated. “Yeah! Let’s eat!”

  We moved to the cafeteria. Surprisingly, there were already several people here, yet there were no courses that took place even close to this time. After taking our sandwiches and marshmallows, we sat down.

  Steel wasn’t much of a speaker and ate like a hungry beast, shoving the sandwich into her mouth with alarming speed. I twitched my face, flooding my brain with starpower, while focusing on catalyzing the processes. Time slowed down as I patiently bit into my meaty sandwich, ignoring the constant unease.

  In my mind’s eye appeared the first page of the ice bomb technique. The book was much clearer and to the point. It required four fundamental forms to use. Compress starpower with the starpower compression form, turn it into cold plasma with plasmafication form, imbue it with the freezing form, and finally launch the bomb with the force form.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  This was nowhere near as complicated as the mind acceleration technique, despite having more forms. Even breakfast was an opportunity to read more. And it was a fun read, until...

  “Who is that?” Steel’s voice stretched out due to acceleration.

  I stopped the technique, turning my head towards the intruder. It was the familiar copper-headed weirdo. Rolling my eyes, I said, “Hello, Louize.”

  “Greetings.” Impolitely, she placed her plate on our table and sat down next to Steel. Her orange eyes narrowed.

  “Hello!” Steel waved happily and bit into her second sandwich.

  She put her hands into a steeple and stared at me, boring holes in my forehead. And here I thought I could read in peace.

  “What do you want?” I bit a piece of marshmallow. Those things just got tastier and tastier with each day.

  A faint blush appeared on Louize’s cheeks. Gathering her courage, she whispered. “How do I get Ivaldie?”

  I was so tired of this drama! Can’t a man just learn magic in peace? Nevertheless, who was I to deny her? I had to be magnanimous. I scratched my head thinking… “First, be your own person; Second, be direct: you can’t slide around the issue, if you want to get her, you need to be straight to the point.”

  She scowled. “Is that it?” Pressing her hands against her temples, she looked down. “I tried everything I could, and that’s the solution? It can’t be true.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You haven’t tried well enough then. If you want to get her, you have to overwhelm her with your feelings.” Louize furrowed her brows, listening carefully. “Show her just how sincere you are, how nothing can stand before you two, you get that?” Surely love between these children can’t be that complicated, yet my words only made her frown more. “Don’t beat around the bush and just say what you want.”

  Louize clenched her fists. “That’s snakeshit! How did you do it!?”

  I winced, shifting my facial features to accelerate my mind. I glanced at Steel. The girl was listening intently but didn’t want to talk. If I wanted to help Louize, I needed some help myself. “Say, Louize, how good are you at combat techniques?”

  “Are you implying I’m bad?”

  “How good are you at long-range techniques?”

  Her mouth opened, as if she was about to say a retort, but she stayed silent.

  I guess she would be of no help. “Well, that’s too bad.” I shrugged. “I won’t tell you the secret.” I myself wasn’t sure what made Ivaldie look after me, but it didn’t matter. If Louize couldn’t help me learn the ice bomb, then she was useless.

  Despite that, a smile crept on her face. Even her copper scales shone just a bit brighter. “I think I understand.” With a devious grin, she stood up. “You can have my food, human. See you soon.” With that, she stood up and left.

  I glanced at Steel. “Do you have any idea what she was talking about?”

  Steel shrugged. “Can I have that?” She pointed at the half-eaten sandwich.

  “No. That’s mine.” Steel’s smile turned upside down. My stomach rumbled after eating one portion. That damned growth panacea made me insatiable. I got back to reading and eating, while Steel stared at my stolen portion with envy.

  “There you are!” And Kory was here too. What’s with these people waking up so early? Should I wake up earlier, too?

  “Hey, Kory… You look great, actually!” Bags under her eyes were gone, and she even grew slightly.

  “Thanks! Avennture helped me improve my technique. Did you know that I’m a genius at restoration? And the R&H professor was impressed with my ability to heal!” Immediately, she started bragging.

  What was I doing with my time? I got traumatized in the tribulation altar, and then Simona taught me nothing useful. “Yeah… So, where’s your food?”

  Kory smiled. It looked unnatural on her usually bleak face. “I didn’t want to feed Steel more! She’s already giant!”

  “Hey!” Steel looked pitiful.

  “Kory is right. How the hell are you so huge?”

  Steel shrugged. Kory nodded. She looked much more alive without the shadow of death pressing on her shoulders.

  “We should meet at 13:30 in the training room I usually use. Does that work for you?”

  Kory shook her head. “I can’t. I’ll be busy at the restoration course… All day.” She sighed, looking down.

  “I can!” Steel raised her hand.

  I wiped my mouth with my cloak. “I guess you’ll have to miss out.” I stood up and stretched. “I have to go now. See you later!” I waved goodbye. The pressing distress didn’t stop; my hands were still shaking. I needed some time alone.

  “The courses! Mine begins now!” Steel groaned and bolted away.

  “Ehm… Goodbye!” Kory frowned.

  That was awkward. Despite the conflicting feelings, I headed towards the ELEVATE room. I looked at each shadow, hoping nothing was there. Silhouettes of crimson blood shone outside of my vision, making my blood boil. I had to get my shit together.

  Standing on the tribulation altar was Siege. Grinning like a crazed beast, he snapped his eyes towards me. “Oh, look at that! You’re early, kiddo!”

  I took a deep breath and bowed. “Can I skip today?” My heart just couldn’t handle another session with that thing…

  Siege rolled his eyes. “Sure.”

  He accepted far too quickly. “A-are you sure? You won’t kick me out?”

  The bones in his hand cracked; it twisted like a snake. He didn’t blink. “Yeah, I won’t. It’s not like you have to use the altar every time; you know? If you want a break, you can have it.” I needed rest.

  “Thank you, Professor Siege!”

  “Get out of here! I’m busy.” He pressed his shoulder back, with a crack, setting the bone.

  “Y-yes…” I left as quickly as I entered.

  Luck was on my side today. I exhaled all the stress and headed towards my training room. Sitting down in the corner, I got to reading.

  ---

  Compression Form learned at Initiate rank!

  Plasmafication Form learned at Initiate rank!

  Freezing Form learned at Initiate rank!

  Your SE has increased by 1. From 23 to 24!

  The walls of the training room were covered with ice frosting. Near the floor, a dark-purple mist floated from all the unsuccessful plasmafication attempts. I gathered my courage and accelerated my mind.

  I flared starpower, and the energy surged through my hands. As if I were polishing an invisible ball, I rapidly moved my palm, compressing the flow of starpower into an orb. A faint light started shining between my palms.

  The next step almost always messed me up. I made horns with my other hand, keeping focus on the compressed starpower. Rapidly rotating my wrist, I weaved the starpower into a spiral, and then thrust the horns into the glowing ball.

  The image of charging particles stayed clear in my mind as I spun my hand. The ball started glowing brighter, and from within it turned to purple; the matter flowed upwards like a cold flame. It was surreal.

  Excitement nearly broke my concentration, but I managed to remain calm. With a ball of cold plasma resting in my hand, I had to make it even cooler. Infuse the essence of low temperature inside.

  The freezing form was similar to the light form, except with two more fingers and a different wrist angle. I focused on the ball of starpower, on its individual strings, and let its structure change into a structured geometric one.

  Tiny snowflakes sprang out over its spiritual surface, and I felt cold passing through my hand. I wasn’t done, adding the property of freezing to the plasma ball, until I lost sensations in my hand.

  The ice bomb was complete, and if it were to blow in my hands, I would be toast. Looking at the wall, I clenched my fingers and, with a force form, I threw the ball forward.

  The bomb turned into a streak of light and hit the wall. The air itself compressed inwards and then, with a loud screech, it exploded outwards, covering the wall in a sheet of starpower-ice and making the room freezing. I let the mind acceleration go, feeling a migraine hit me all at once.

  Ice Bomb Technique learned at Initiate

  My mind felt at peace when the certainty of real magic surrounded me. I was not going to die; this was real and reality was magical.