Elemental Cats

After Lucy finished his report, he took a quick nap before disappearing again. Although he had found the most likely suspects, he hadn't uncovered their plan or discovered any information that would be useful in stopping them.

Now that Lucy had found a clue, it would at least be a little easier to unravel the rest of the mysterious conspiracy. Toz was only worried that Lucy would become too eager and take unnecessary risks and put himself in danger. And while there might not be much Toz can do to prevent that, he can prepare himself in case something untoward happens by becoming stronger.

So after Lucy left the tent again, Toz began training.

The last time he trained, he had pushed his lightning mana to the limit of the fifth level. The way he had gone about doing it had also injured his mana pool a little since it was a recklessly stupid method. But now that he had recovered, Toz was more than ready to bring his lightning mana to the sixth level.

Toz put away the grimoire and sat down on the bed so that he could concentrate on his training. If he had the grimoire next to him, it would be too easy to follow a whim and try to learn the spell instead of refine his mana. The grimoire was a lot more interesting than simply training his mana, after all.

With a mind mostly free of distractions, Toz began absorbing and converting the mana around him in order to strengthen and refine the lightning mana inside his mana pool. Since he was already close, it didn't take long until he surpassed an intangible threshold and reached the sixth level with his lightning mana.

Toz breathed out a sigh of relief. Now that he was done with lightning, he only had metal, darkness, and space left. And since each successive refinement was easier than the last, it wouldn't take nearly as much time.

Toz wanted to dive into the grimoire again after refining his lightning mana to the sixth level. But his success with learning the spell, or rather lack of, told him it would be more beneficial if he finished refining all his attributes to the sixth level.

Since his mana control, sensitivity, capacity, and the power of his magic all increased each time he refined one of his attributes, Toz would get a more base but reliable increase in strength if he prioritized that instead of the grimoire. If he could successfully learn the spell in time, he would naturally become more powerful than if he only refined his attributes. But he didn't want to take that chance when his and the cats' lives were at stake.

And whether or not he learned the spell, Toz would still have to refine all his attributes before he would even think about breaking through to the seventh level. Technically, he didn't have to refine all his elements before breaking through to the seventh level. But Toz had personally experienced the benefits of laying a solid foundation by doing that.

Toz, as a sixth level mage, had mana reserves that could easily rival a high level mage. And the quality of his repeatedly refined mana allowed him to easily ignore the difference in levels.

Breaking through to the next level, especially if it was the next division, would definitely grant him a quick and easy boost in strength that a simple refinement couldn't quite compare to in terms of immediate improvement. But if he didn't reach his full potential at each level by refining his mana, Toz would lose out in the long run, and there would be no way to recoup those kinds of losses.

After refining his lightning mana, Toz only had to decide what element to do next. But since it seemed like he was going to be hiding his presence and sneaking around a lot in the future, he quickly chose darkness.

He would have to bring space to the seventh level if he wanted to make any kind of real, useful progress with that element. And Toz was mostly using his metal element as a supplement to his other magic and combat, so even if he wasn't going to focus on his stealth capabilities, darkness was still the most obvious choice. One of his most effective spells was his darkness spell, Void's Embrace, after all.

Well, it didn't really matter much in which order he refined his elements since he was planning to do them all as quickly as possible. He wasn't going to refine his attributes half-heartedly. He just wanted to be done with them quickly. So he wasn't wasting as much time on resting.

Refining his darkness mana took Toz a little while, and when he was done, his shadow flickered. It was nothing compared to the rain of sparks that fell when he refined his lightning or the surge of heat when he refined his fire. But it was still proof that Toz had rushed it a little instead of taking his time and grasping complete control over his refined element.

Next up was his metal mana. Toz was more used to metal, considering it was his first element, and he had more experience with it, so it would likely take less time than space, even if he did metal before space.

After refining his metal mana, nothing of note happened to his body and surroundings, and Toz began refining space with confidence.

His guess that space would take more time, even while being the last element he refined, came true. But thankfully, it wasn't that much of a difference, and before he knew it, Toz had already refined all his six elements, successfully becoming a sixth level mage at the sixth refinement.

A feeling of power surged through Toz's body and mana pool, and he stretched his body as if he had just woken up from a deep sleep.

Toz was eager to learn the spell he got from Hassandra now that he didn't have to worry about his mana training. But he had already been cooped up in his tent for too long. It was time to stretch his legs and get some exercise.