Since they had spent several days, and even more than a week, intently focused on their training, it wasn't a surprise that they made some progress.
The only shock brought by Mindle's breakthrough was how strong she got. She was the group's greatest direct firepower.
Her breakthrough to the third level happened inside their room at the inn, and it looked like the entire room would catch fire as Mindle bathed everything around her in flames that surrounded her body. Though, it was merely her converting the surrounding lightning attribute and neutral mana into fire attribute so powerfully that it looked like flames.
Although, the flames disappeared when Mindle stabilized her third level of power.
However, things didn't end there, as only a couple of days later, it was Lucy's turn to reach the next level. And unlike Mindle, who broke through to the next level but stayed within the same division, Lucy was crossing through to becoming a medium level spirit beast.
In order to reach the fourth level, a greater amount of mana and mana affinity wasn't enough. One had to have great enough control and manage to condense their mana. Turning the floaty gaseous substance circling their body into something similar to a liquid state. That was the requirement and way to reach the fourth level.
Lucy didn't have any trouble doing that and smoothly condensed his mana while converting and absorbing the mana in his surroundings to keep his mana pool full. Since he tried to shove in as much mana as he could and kept condensing it tighter and tighter when he finally completed his breakthrough, the mana in his pool was almost like tar. However, the mana, despite being thick and viscous, moved through Lucy's body with incredible speed and exploded outwards, enveloping their room in complete darkness.
Despite all four of them having great vision in dark or poorly lit circumstances, Lucy was the only one who could see after he used his mana to cover everything in darkness. Even when Toz and Mindle conjured flames to see how they affected the darkness, the light from those flames didn't even spread throughout the room. The fire itself could be seen, but no matter how close it was held to other things in the room, nothing except the flame was visible.
After a few minutes, Lucy retracted his shadows, revealing the room and his companions again.
"Impressive," was all Toz had to say since, despite being speechless, he wanted to compliment Lucy for his breakthrough. Lucy was the only one not picking up their jaw from the floor as Toz wasn't the only one speechless. Mindle, who had recently broken through and was proud of her power, felt like her place in the spotlight was short-lived and got back to training. Although Nil didn't need any further motivation to keep training, what Lucy had just displayed made him even more eager to reach the fourth level as well.
The group had known that crossing into the next division would bring a great leap to one's power, but what Lucy had displayed still shocked them. While still being in the third level, the group had confidently fought and won against several fourth level beasts, but as Lucy was now, he would hardly need to fight before he defeated his opponent.
That was how powerfully he managed to condense his mana thanks to the increased talent and size of his mana pool he got from the bond through Toz's inclination.
Things didn't end simply with Lucy breaking through since his new level of power reverberated through the bond, reaching the other three as well. Although it wasn't anything concrete, Lucy's new level made him more sensitive to the flow and functions of mana, making it easier to control. That improved sense was partially shared with the other three, making it easier for them to properly convert, absorb, and control their mana.
It was especially so for Toz, who also possessed the darkness element. It wasn't as if Lucy's understanding of the element was passed to Toz, but his sensitivity to the element was.
Although Toz's control of the darkness mana had increased, he still prioritized breaking through with the metal element first. Partially for his own sake and because he was already getting close to reaching the fourth level with it, but Lucy's breakthrough had made him realize that he could help Nil reach the fourth level quicker if Toz got there first, thanks to their bond.
However, it would still take some time before Toz, Nil, and Mindle caught up to Lucy, so until then, they continued training and looking for things to do while passing the time. And simultaneously finding ways to earn money. Toz almost wondered if he should start a food stall and sell food just because he could earn money doing something he enjoyed doing. But he discarded the idea since he would have to invest a lot of money before turning a profit, and that was if he was successful.
Instead, the group, with the help of Lucy, carefully started investigating the forest. Just the edge, though. But since almost no one dared to go into the forest anymore. Fifth level mages more proficient at stealth snuck in sometimes, but with practically every beast going crazy, there was a significant risk of dying even if one was good at avoiding detection.
However, without the incessant light of the Lightning Clouds obliterating every shadow, the dark forest turned into a place where Lucy and his darkness magic thrived. With Lucy keeping them hidden the group could harvest the resources that recently had spiked in price since few dared to enter the forest and harvest them.
Although the group could only harvest the simplest and most common materials right at the edge of the forest without putting themselves in unnecessary danger, they still earned a lot of money. More than they had when they were practically idling and passing their time by training.
Unlike the Stone Balls and their Stone Blood, it didn't look like the plants and beasts they killed to harvest materials from, would go extinct anytime soon. And so the group had secured a pretty steady source of income that pushed them ever so much closer to the goal of eight thousand gold that would buy them their first grimoire.
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