At first glance, the light coming from the cave didn't look any different from before.

But for Deborah, who had stood there unblinkingly staring at it, even the most minute change was crystal clear.

As a rank eight mage, her senses were far sharper than those of a normal person.

Despite noticing the difference, she had no idea what caused it.

As time passed, however, the light continued to slowly dim.

"Is there a problem with the light mana? He's still inside…" She fidgeted nervously.

"What should I do?"

/////

"Rank three."

A satisfied smile spread across Nova's lips.

The light core shone brightly beside the other two cores, dwarfing the wind core by at least half its size.

Nova felt the changes and couldn't help but murmur, "It's a pity, my body's limit seems to be rank three for now."

After he had finished thoroughly tempering his light core for the second time, he felt his insides tremble under the massive amount of light mana in his core.

If he hadn't stopped when he did, a situation similar to what had happened when he first formed his wind core might have occurred.

"No matter, no matter."

He got up and stretched.

Standing in the cave now, having refined the light core so much, he felt like a fish in water.

Then he moved his gaze toward the deeper regions of the cave and recalled Deborah's words.

'What's so dangerous that I shouldn't go to the end?'

Right now, he felt so in tune with the light element that he didn't think there could possibly be any danger in this cave.

The more he thought about stopping and turning back, the more he felt he was missing out on something.

'I must see what's at the end.'

His eyes focused, and with a shake of his head, he cleared his thoughts and stepped forward.

////

Five minutes later.

The light element was now stronger, but he still didn't sense any danger.

Even now, he had yet to see another person in the cave besides himself.

'I'm at least a few kilometers in, and I don't see the end… who dug this cave?' Nova thought.

His uninterrupted, calm steps echoed through the space.

Soon, twenty minutes passed.

Light element flooded Nova's vision, much stronger than before.

'Hmm? What's this?'

Finally, a sense of slight unease crept over him.

Nova halted and looked down at his body. His clothes seemed to be on fire, some parts melting without any flame, and his skin had started reddening. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought he was in an oven, not immersed in what was supposed to be the gentlest element, even regarded as holy.

But that was only Earth's distorted perception of the light element.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

In the Universe, across myriad civilizations, light didn't necessarily mean good, and darkness didn't necessarily mean evil.

While the light element was indeed used mostly for its healing properties, it was also an element many used for its speed and offensive power, rivalling that of any other element.

Frowning, Nova thought, 'What could possibly be at the end of this tunnel that even at rank three I can't get close?'

Considering that Nova's newly formed core was as strong as that of a rank seven or rank eight mage, after going through two more temperings, it was now on par with a rank nine or rank ten mage. The latter which didn't even exist in Vireah.

That meant, if he couldn't approach the cave's depths, then possibly no one else could either.

As his skin gradually reddened, he cast one deep look ahead before muttering, "Fine. I'll accept this loss, but I won't leave without taking something."

He glanced around and quickly grabbed a meter or two of the walls and cave floor that were filled with light mana before leaving.

'Since there's no light mana at home, this will do.'

/////

Step.

Step.

Deborah was staring worriedly at the wall of light, struggling with herself over whether she should call the Tower Master, when she heard footsteps coming from it.

A silhouette gradually grew larger.

"Sir?" she called out.

From the light, Nova soon emerged and nodded at her.

Seeing him uninjured, she heaved a sigh of relief. I thought something bad had happened to him, but it seems he followed my advice.

He looked at her and asked, "You also have a place to train thunder?"

Deborah nodded, offering a small smile. "Yes, sir. Thanks to the seniors' work, the Magic Tower has built a zone for each element so that mages can study without venturing outside."

"Each element?" Nova's eyes shone, and he immediately asked, "You have one for the darkness element?"

"Sir, how do you know about that element?" she wondered aloud, then shook her head.

"That's an element I've only seen in old books."

All the enthusiasm Nova had been feeling quickly evaporated in an internal sigh.

'It would've been too good to be true… but since she said books mention it, that means it must exist somewhere in this world, at least it did at some point. I doubt I'll have enough time to search for it though.'

He then said, "Bring me to the lightning area."

/////

Starting with lightning, he moved on to metal, ice, wood, fire, water, earth, and, lastly, wind.

Each core reached rank three, their strength far exceeding what a normal rank eight mage could achieve.

Wanting to build a similar place for his subordinates at home, Nova didn't forget to grab dirt, water, rocks, leaves even trees weren't spared from the various zones rich in elemental energy.

When Deborah first saw this, her eye couldn't help but twitch.

Being the princess of the Vireah Empire, she abhorred such actions of "stealing." Her seniors had spent countless years roaming the world to gather materials and create these zones for the mages to enjoy. She didn't like seeing their efforts being trampled like this.

But being on duty, and with Nova being someone who had helped her, she closed both her eyes and let it go as she was also too shocked to react.

Her shock had begun in the lightning zone, the first place where she could clearly see what Nova was doing.

At first, she didn't think much of his desire to visit every zone, assuming it was just a personal passion, because, in her opinion, Nova was a knight.

That was until she saw him sitting down and turning the area into a vacuum for several meters, absorbing so much lightning mana that it could have electrocuted a rank five mage to death.

At that moment, she covered her mouth to stop herself from screaming, unable to intervene from such a distance. But as time passed, she saw Nova still breathing. In fact, after a few minutes, the lightning pouring into him only increased, yet he didn't show an ounce of pain.

From that zone onward, as she saw Nova repeating the process in every area, she had already grown numb to it.

She had read many books in the library, but not even in those legendary stories of the past was there anyone who could absorb so much mana in a single sitting without exploding.

////

Hours later.

Nova walked beside a blank-faced Deborah as the two strolled through the various grounds of the Magic Tower.

One was in high spirits, beaming at having finished forming the elemental cores for all his elements, while the other wondered what the point of studying magic was.

She couldn't fathom how someone could have so many affinities, nor how they could be so extraordinarily strong, but she didn't dare pry into Nova's secrets.

'Nine cores, all at the third rank. My wisdom, intelligence, skin, and bones are enough. If only I could improve my organs, I would be able to refine the cores further, but that's easier said than done,' Nova thought to himself. 'I need to find a way…'

The only reason his skin and bones were durable enough was thanks to the bone tempering liquid and the black energy that had taken residence in his skin before permeating his bones, greatly strengthening them.

His organs, however, weren't so fortunate, and compared to the rest of his body, they had become his weakness.

His gaze roamed across the campus, and having sorted his thoughts, he asked, "Miss, where's the library?"

Now that he had formed his cores, what he needed most was to study how to use mana more efficiently and to learn spells for the different elements.

In short, he needed to learn everything a mage studies in their lifetime in just a month.

Deborah numbly looked at him, then cracked a small smile. "I'll bring you there, Sir."

She soon led him toward one of the faculty buildings on campus, where the largest mage library in the empire was located.

It was so vast, in fact, that when Deborah led Nova inside, his eyes widened slightly. Three entire floors, as large as fields, were filled with books.

While Deborah greeted the librarian, Nova walked to the nearest shelf, picked up the first book, The Catalyst Dilemma, and began to read.

Like that, time passed.

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