Chapter 17: They are mine

Elias sat on the edge of the pillar, bending his body forward as far as possible to reach the clouds. Although he could extract something, he still needed to touch it.

Unfortunately, the clouds were much lower than the pillar's top. Even as he bent forward as far as possible, his fingers were unable to reach them.

"Come on, just a little more!" he exclaimed, reaching out as far as he possibly could.

The composition of the clouds was even more impressive than the Dragon Bones. Even if he could extract just one material and merge with it, it was extremely useful to him. Before returning, he wanted to take as much as he possibly could.

............

Material Composition: Tears of the Sky (98 percent), Breath of the Divine (1.5 percent), Dust of Creation (0.4 percent), Essence of Lightning (0.1 percent)

Weight: None

Thickness: 200 Meters

Material Stability: 20 percent

Extraction Possibility: Low Possibility

.............

Unfortunately, he couldn't touch the clouds no matter how hard he tried. He had to get down from the pillar, just as people had climbed up.

He started checking the pillar, trying to find the handholds that were used for gripping. Once he found a handhold, he carefully moved down, putting one foot above the protrusion on the pillar.

Not wanting to fall to his death, he moved extremely slowly to make sure he didn't slip. Fortunately, his hands didn't feel as weak as before. He wasn't trembling anymore.

Although it was hard, he managed to hang on the side of the pillar and started moving down. Occasionally, his foot missed the opening in the pillar, but he was able to keep his balance with his arms alone.

A few minutes later, he finally reached the same level as the clouds, unable to see anything around him. He could only see the mist that formed the clouds.

He stabilized his body with one hand and touched the clouds with the other.

"Extract!" he commanded.

Right after he finished the command, he grabbed the pillar with his other hand, expecting a similar storm as before. He didn't want to be sent flying again. With the trial over, nothing was going to save him.

Just as he expected, a storm appeared around him. The storm was so heavy that it blew off the clouds that weren't at the core. Only a small section of the sky had been cleansed of the clouds, thanks to the storm that had appeared.

The other participants had already returned to the ground, including the descendants of the other major families. Many of them were waiting to be led outside, but they were told that there was still one person who had yet to return.

All of them were waiting for Elias, growing more frustrated by the minute.

"Hmm? What's that in the sky?" a youngster called out, pointing at the sky.

The others also looked up and noticed a small storm near one of the pillars. Around the storm, the clouds had disappeared, which allowed them to see the sky from the ground. It was something they had only seen from the top of the pillars before.

"Isn't that the pillar selected by that Ashborn kid?" another youngster asked.

"Wait, is that him hanging by the side?!" another person exclaimed, seeing the figure of Elias, who looked like a small dot, stuck between the pillar and the storm.

"Where? Why can't I see anything?" Most of the youngsters weren't able to see Elias, their abilities and class being much weaker.

Meanwhile, the descendants of the major families had gained much better classes. They could see Elias as clear as day. What truly surprised them was the storm.

They could feel that it wasn't a normal storm. There were no such storms in this place before, after all. It definitely had something to do with Elias.

"Just what exactly is his class?" many of them wondered.

All of them were observing the storm, which grew weaker by the second before it completely disappeared.

High in the sky, Elias was hanging by the pillar like a koala trying to hold on. However, unlike a koala, he couldn't afford to fall.

Fortunately, the storm was pushing him away, which helped him hold onto the pillar. He couldn't even imagine the consequences if the storm had been pulling him instead. It would have been a nightmarish difficulty.

Still, only after the storm disappeared was Elias able to sigh in relief. At that moment, multiple screens started materializing before him, one after another.

...........

Tears of Sky: Extraction Failed.

Breath of the Divine: Extraction Failed.

Dust of Creation: Extraction Successful.

Essence of Lightning: Extraction Successful.

...........

Even though he was only able to extract two out of the four materials, he still felt glad. With the low possibility of extraction, he had been expecting a complete failure after all, having prepared for that disappointment.

With the disappearance of the clouds, he saw two small crystal vials materialize, each smaller than his fingers. Looking at them, he felt as if they couldn't even hold more than a single droplet of water.

One vial was deep blue with a small lightning symbol around it, while the other was light brown, each made from a crystal that felt similar to the awakening crystal.

He quickly reached out to grab them, only for his expression to turn to panic. Before his hands could even reach the vials, they started falling.

"No, no, no!" Elias exclaimed in disbelief, but there was nothing he could do. Even if he jumped after them, he couldn't catch them.

At this point, he could only hope that they wouldn't be destroyed in the fall, which seemed almost impossible. Still, he quickly started climbing down. Even if the vials weren't broken, it would be a disaster if they were taken by someone else.

After a few hours of climbing down, he finally reached the floor. He saw that the vials were still intact, but his expression didn't look good.

Both vials were in the hands of another person, who was also a descendant of one of the few major families.

"They are mine. Can you hand them over?" Elias asked, not thinking straight. He simply reached out his hand, demanding his items.

Elias didn't know why, but he heard many shocked gasps around him, as if he had committed some great sin.