Death... and me

Three days later, back in the same place, Rean and Roan could see the ghastly faces of the rest of the group. The worst off among them was surprisingly Malaka, who made them wonder how she made it back here. She had a big hole on the side of her chest that had barely avoided a vital point. Nevertheless, it was still quite nasty.

Fortunately, Rean had forged a chain mail to use under their clothes, which Malaka also had. Qia provided a lot of Earth Element as Rean crafted the equipment. With that, as long as Spiritual Energy was sent inside, Earth Element would gather in the equipment, increasing their defense a lot. If not for that, Malaka might have died for real.

Rean quickly gathered Light Element as Qia and Calina helped Malaka up. They weren't that much better off than Malaka but could still be of some help. Following that, he activated his Instant Recovery skill to heal her. Of course, he was going to heal everyone else after that.

Roan looked at all of them and nodded while talking, "It seems like all of you really took this separated training seriously. I can see that all of you had quite a few unlucky moments, but that's good. Now, take out the Demon Cores. I want to see just how many and what level of demon beasts all of you have killed this time around."

Sure enough, each one of them threw bags of Demon Cores on the ground. Roan examined those cores and could see that each one of them had defeated at least four or five demon beasts above their cultivation levels. That was not too bad, in his opinion. After all, the amount of Spiritual Energy to finish such Demon Beasts should have been very high. That meant that they all had to recover after that, which also took time.

"Very good. I'll have Frandin head to the Alchemist Guild later to sell them. The Spirit Stones acquired from it are yours to use."

However, Agis immediately shook his head as he said, "No, my part can stay with the main pile as always. Rean already made this amazing sword for me, and you created this nigh suicidal but definitely impressive training routine. I followed all the steps and improved more than ever, even with this planet's lack of Spiritual Energy."

Roan didn't mind and simply nodded as he said, "Up to you, then." Following that, he looked at the rest and asked, "How about everyone else?"

Qia and the others also agreed with Agis's words. As crazy as it was, it didn't change the fact that they reached this level because of Rean and Roan. Besides, it made them feel bad to rely on Rean and Roan all the time. At the very least, that would provide them with their own Spirit Stones without using Rean's all the time.

Roan then took out his Demon Cores as he placed all of them inside a single bag before looking at Frandin, saying, "You heard, right?"

However, there was no response. One must not forget that Frandin... followed Roan. When Roan and the others looked at him, it looked more like his spirit had already left his body. It was to the point that Malaka felt happy that she was at the state of near death.

'Just how terrifying was it to follow Roan this time around?'

Frandin was lucky that Roan could use the Light Element like Rean. That being said, he healed Frandin's injuries when they reached an unbearable point. Though that wouldn't stop Roan's training. Frandin wasn't even given time to recover his Spiritual Energy and Soul Power. After the first battle against the demon bulls, Frandin had been battling at 50% or less of his energy reserves. Roan simply never let him completely rest up.

Frandin couldn't help but remember Roan's words.

"What will happen to you if you're pursued by someone much stronger and have no time to recover? Would you just give up your life like that?" said Roan back as he snorted. "I'm doing it for you to understand that you wouldn't always be able to battle at your peak condition. Besides, forcing yourself in this situation will definitely bring even more of your latent potential out."

That's why although Malaka seemed to be the worst one out of them at the moment, Frandin had been in her state or worse at least three times. He thanked the heavens that he had also asked Rean for chain mail.

Roan narrowed his eyes, seeing that Frandin didn't answer.

*Pah!*

*Ouch!*

Roan immediately slapped Frandin's backhead, which brought the guy back to reality.

"Ah! Sorry, I was lost in my thoughts," said something that sounded like Frandin's voice from that spiritless body. "The demon cores, right? I'll sell them once we're back since I'll also have to go to the Formations Guild." After hearing that, Rean and the others couldn't help but feel some pity for him.

Roan then sent the Demon Cores into the Dimensional Realm before continuing, "Alright, time to test everyone's Soul Power Points."

As Roan said that, the Soul Measurement Crystal appeared in the middle of the snowfield while saying, "I hope all of you followed the training schedule to the boot. If you did so, all of you should have surpassed the 40 points I required."

Frandin and everyone else couldn't help but swallow a bit of saliva after hearing that. As much as they followed Roan's training schedule (Mostly because they were afraid Roan would find out if they didn't), they weren't sure if they reached it. Sure, each one of them passed through a few dangerous situations, especially Malaka. But after looking at that zombie who was once called Frandin, they wondered if it was enough.

As soon as Rean finished healing Malaka's injuries, Roan called her first. "First, Malaka. Your Soul Power Measurement before was 28 points. In other words, you must have attained at least 12 points during these last three days."

Malaka nervously nodded as her trembling hand touched the crystal. She truly didn't want to think what Roan would do if she failed. Malaka's Soul Mark lit up before she sent her Soul Power into the crystal. A few minutes later, her result appeared at the top as two numbers far greater than what Malaka expected had appeared.

-Soul Power, 59-

Malaka felt like she had seen a ghost as she muttered in disbelief.

"That much?"

Sure enough, Roan was right. The improvement of a new driver during a specific time would be much greater than an experienced one. Malaka's Soul Power was a testament to this fact.