Preparations

Joe walked over to the handkerchief, which seemed even more tattered than before. He picked it up and activated his heart magnet. The handkerchief seemed to vibrate a bit, but he didn't see any elements coming out of it.

It seemed that the space element he got for his heart was an excess.

'I guess I won't be getting anymore space elements from this thing.'

Joe sat on his bed, since he no longer knew what to do. The space element was too rare, and he couldn't find any kind of stable source.

Suddenly, Joe was overwhelmed with helplessness at his special element.

'Well, let's see if I can manipulate any elements at all.'

A Wizard could control any element in the world. It all depended on their affinity. Most people had average affinity with all elements, allowing them to perform basic magic.

Some examples would be digging a ditch with earth magic, lighting a fireplace with fire magic, or washing a plate with water magic.

However, a Wizard's Wisdom represented the upper limit of magical elements one could manipulate. If someone had a low Wisdom stat, they could only manipulate a certain amount of magical elements.

Virgin age represents the purity of mind, which directly affects the amount of connection with the elements. Virgin age was only shortened as Wisdom.

Joe held out his hand as he tried to connect with the elements. He began to see spots of color appear in his vision, however, he did not see as much of a variety of colors, only the basic blue, brown, red, etc.

The Scripture mentioned that one could see all the elements during their ascension to Wizard status. Afterwards, all special elements would remain invisible, unless they absorbed said special element, or became a Sage.

He willed the red particles to gather in his hand with all his might.

"Ah!"

Joe was startled out of his focus by the intense heat on his hand. It was on fire! He waved his arm frantically as the flame followed his hand.

Quickly, he used his mind to will the elemental particles to disperse. The fire began to blow out slowly as the heat on Joe's hand decreased.

'I guess I'll need some training.'

Joe rummaged through what he had left of the rewards. He only had some fruits he didn't yet consume. The fruits remaining were what increased his Wisdom, and what he believed to be a Wisdom refinement fruit, as well as a strange fruit.

It looked like a rainbow colored apple. It was also quite tiny.

He decided to eat it to see what it did. He was already a Wizard, so it would still help him, even if not as much as before becoming a Wizard.

This time, Joe laid on his bed so he wouldn't have to after the drowsiness of eating the fruit. He put it in his mouth. This time, the fruit didn't melt.

He bit into it. Nothing happened. He began to chew the fruit as he examined it's taste. It's flavor changed from time to time. Sometimes it was sweet, sour, tangy, or spicy.

He continued chewing and he noticed there were no seeds in the fruit. Time passed, and it was time for the last bite. When he put the last piece of the fruit in his mouth, he felt as though a powerful shockwave passed through him, starting from his heart.

He began to see the elements again. His heart magnet was activated. He waited a while with nothing happening. He couldn't turn off his heart magnet though. It seemed as though it were waiting for something.

Joe waited for a few minutes, with nothing still happening. Joe stood up, only to be greeted by a wall of darkness.

'Another ambush? Why?'

The wall of darkness began to rush at Joe, ramming itself into his body. As Joe braced himself for impact, the wall of darkness dived at him.

After a while, the expected impact didn't come to Joe. The wall of darkness seemed to have disappeared completely. He quickly scanned himself with his mental power.

Upon looking at his heart, he quickly noticed that there were more spatial elements inside than before.

When seeing this, he decided to refine the elements.

A Wizard could refine the elements in their hearts to increase affinity as well as the attraction force of the element.

Anyways, the amount of spatial elements were already the maximum in Joe's heart. He used his mental power to squeeze the space elements in his heart together like a hydraulic press.

The spatial elements surprisingly compressed quite easily. Perhaps their spatial attribute made them more susceptible to compression. Regardless of the reason, Joe continued to compress the elements together, squeezing them tight.

In a matter of minutes, he had already completed his First Compression. The purplish black blob in his heart was now a more ominous gray.

Upon seeing this new color, he activated his heart magnet again. This time, the handkerchief fluttered toward him, slowly gliding over, however the elements inside did not escape. Nothing new happened.

Joe was quite disappointed with this development, however, it was already late into the night. He was already quite drowsy from everything that happened so far, so he took some time to sleep for the night.

…

By the next morning, Joe had decided to return quickly. Before anyone got wind of Rhad having the second official volume of the Virginity Scripture, as well as his passing, he decided to quickly snatch the Scripture before anyone else who knew about it might.

He walked out to the elevator before realizing he had no idea how to use the elevator. It was different from just pressing a floor number and waiting, as what Arkan did the other day was rather complicated.

Joe became rather dispirited, having to interact with strangers and all. He walked around knocking on the doors of his floor before someone opened their door.

It was a man who looked to be on his late twenties. He opened the door looking quite haggard, as his dead fish eyes scanned Joe.

"Um. Hello mister, I don't quite understand how to use the elevator, so, I hope you can help me with it."

At these words, the man put on a slight smile.

"Alright then. You must be new here if you don't know how to use the elevators though. What's your name young man? My name is Ralph."

"Oh! You're the guy I heard screaming yesterday right? What was that? My name is Joe, by the way."

Ralph was rather surprised as he didn't think that Joe would know that he was the one who screamed.

"How did you know that was me?"

"Arkan told me. He was my guide. He seemed like a nice person. He liked to talk though, and it seemed he disliked quiet atmospheres."

"Ah yes, Arkan. He loves to talk, but he knows the time and place. It's no wonder he jumped on the opportunity to speak more. He feels uncomfortable without some ambient sound, so he likes slightly loud places."

"I see..."

Joe nodded his head at that.

"But anyways, why do you wish to head down to the bottom floor? Is there something you must do outside?"

"Yes, I need to register my absence for a time. I'm going to be using a spatial device to head back to Earth."

Ralph's expression changed at that.

"Well, young man, I'll tell you some things now. You don't need to register your absence, which means you don't have to go to the lobby to talk to someone. You can just go. After all, I don't see a Tower Emblem on you, so there shouldn't be any problem in leaving out of the blue."

Upon hearing this, he realized that Ralph had a pinkish gold emblem on his chest. It showed a pure white circle in it, with the number seven on it.

"A Tower Emblem is a sign of affiliation with the Nine Towers, since you seem confused. Anyways, you should just head back to your room and return to Earth quietly."

Joe nodded his head and listened to Ralph's instructions. They exchanged farewells and Joe headed back to his room. He activated his heart magnet and charged up the handkerchief. It began to vibrate as darkness enveloped the area the handkerchief originally took.

He stretched out the handkerchief as the darkness began to grow. Joe became uneasy at the thought of walking into the darkness, but he continued nonetheless, swallowing his saliva.

Joe walked into the darkness as a sudden feeling overcame him. His heart began beating quickly, as though he were on a rollercoaster ride. His heart magnet unconsciously activated as a result, and the darkness was slowly being brought into his heart.

An indeterminate amount of time passed, as the space elements followed Joe throughout the portal.

An odd sound that sounded like a lightsaber echoed throughout an alleyway as Joe fell through a dark vortex and onto the ground, with an cloak of darkness surrounding him, only visible to the magical eye.