Despite targeting most of her concentration on Toz's sword, Taienra kept the island going in the direction of Pirate Haven.
The island's inhabitants might have found a way to navigate and control their travels through the Void in Taienra, but they could only guess how much time they spent floating through the Void.
The only way they had to measure time was through the progress they made. And the first significant sign of progress was Toz's breakthrough to the fifth level. Toz naturally wanted to be hailed as the winner of the unofficial competition among the island dwellers. However, his claims weren't supported by the others since they wanted to be first and because Toz was already a step behind. He hadn't won the competition. He had merely joined the race.
When Toz tried to rationalize his difficulties in advancing through the levels due to his multiple elements, all the cats shot him down by saying it wasn't a valid reason. Toz could only sigh and accept his fate as the group's slowpoke before getting to work on bringing the next element to the fifth level.
Toz considered getting to work on his spells right after his darkness mana reached the fifth level, but he decided to refine all the other attributes first. It wasn't like his spell was going anywhere.
Toz chose to refine his void attribute first, but it wasn't like it mattered much since he was going to do them all in one go. And it became easier with each successive refinement, so Toz didn't spend too much time on becoming a fifth level mage at the sixth refinement. During the last few elements, the thing that had taken the most time was waiting for his mana pool to recover and get ready for another round of expansion.
By the time Toz finished his sixth refinement, the other cats also started showing signs of progress.
Without his friend to play with, Lucy had put serious effort into his training. Maybe because he felt it was his fault Joshua had pushed himself and was currently comatose. But Lucy was in the lead, with Asilean in second place, followed by Nil, Mindle, and Scrael.
However, since Asilean was at the sixth level and would cross divisions during his next breakthrough, it was very unlikely for him to catch up to Lucy. It was the same with Scrael.
It almost looked like it would be a repeat of last time between the three of Nil, Lucy, and Mindle. Though, Nil and Mindle were more focused on beating each other than catching up to Lucy. One wanted to make things right by winning, and the other wanted to keep their win streak. It was a tight race between Nil and Mindle.
However, there was an unexpected claim to the second place. Since Hods required more space for his training, he had been training a little off to the side, so no one noticed his progress until he suddenly displayed the power of a sixth level fighter.
Nil and Mindle still didn't want to lose to one another, so they continued their fight, even after both of them had already lost to Hods.
It didn't take long for the results to come. It was Mindle's victory. She got revenge for her previous loss.
Nil accepted the defeat with some grace despite attributing the loss to how he had been busy reinforcing the island with magic. Though, since he didn't have to do that now that the island was part of Taienra, he vowed to win the next time.
On another part of the island, Joan was also making steady progress. Both toward finishing Toz's coat and toward becoming a fifth level enchanter. The study, reparation, and improvement of the enchantments from Toz's previous coat kept helping Joan train her mana, especially when she used the enchantments she learned together when creating Toz's new coat.
But even when the coat was almost complete, Toz still had no idea what it looked like since Joan stopped him from looking. He could only await its completion eagerly.
But Toz didn't spend his time waiting idling around. He was working on his spell where he trapped his target's mind and body in inescapable and infinite darkness. He had made some progress with the void magic, but it had also led to setbacks in another area.
When Toz combined the different attributes, it was nigh impossible to awaken the darkness mana and bring out its full potential, which he needed for the spell's completion. Since it became even harder to create a spell when using several elements, Toz held off on that and decided to focus only on using darkness mana in his spell.
However, mixing darkness with other elements had still given Toz an insight into the nature of workings which gave him a push in the right direction.
Toz combined the new insights with his original thoughts and began playing around with his darkness mana while staring into the Void.
The original idea was to simulate the darkness of the Void and concentrate it around a single person, isolating them from the rest of the universe. With the help of his visualization of the Void, Toz managed to partially awaken the true nature of darkness mana. However, the spell drained his mana at incredible speeds, making it unfit for extended combat, especially if Toz was up against multiple opponents.
With the help of Lucy, Toz realized that the darkness of the Void wasn't absolute in the way he first expressed it in his spell. But Toz hadn't found a way to properly convey that understanding without drastically limiting the spell's power.
However, Toz's experiments while combing darkness with other elemental attributes had given him an even deeper understanding of darkness. Unless combined with void mana, darkness acted in the background while mixed with the other elements.
It turned constructs of metal into a matte black color. The orange flames turned black and lost their light. Lightning bolts also accepted the color of darkness. Spatial tears turned almost invisible since a veil of darkness covered the space vortex.
No matter what attribute darkness was mixed in with, the element retained its original shape. But the darkness' influence was still noticeable, even if not immediately apparent.
The problem came when adding the understanding into his spell.
