For him. For his Igni.

'What in the…'

Kael's jaw dropped in surprise as he noticed something strange.

The Fire elements were usually spread all around the room, right now however, some of them were concentrated around him and orbiting around him, just like Igni's Fireball.

'No wonder he didn't get tired or ran out of Mana…'

Kael realized it.

'He wasn't using his Mana to begin with, he was directly controlling the Fire Elements in the air. I would have never won even if my Mana reserves were 100 times larger than what I currently have.'

Kael laughed inwardly before he opened his eyes and glanced at the little Dragon still munching on his meal, then, a question appeared in his head.

'Can I do it as well?'

What Igni was doing was controlling the Fire Elements, concentrating them at one point, and somehow creating a fireball through it. 

It didn't sound very difficult.

After all, even Kael could control these Fire Elements and from what he deduced from Elira's reactions, his control over these Elements was much stronger than most people. 

So instead of gathering them in his Mana Core, why not gather them in front of him and try to create a fireball using Igni's method?

It was definitely worth a try.

Kael closed his eyes and started controlling the Fire Elements. Soon, however, he faced a problem.

Right now, he could only control ten of them at the same time, so while he was able to bring ten elements together without any problem, when he tried to focus on other elements, those ten he had gathered spread out.

It was as if these elements themselves did not wish to be too close to each other.

'How is he doing it?'

Kael wondered in his head.

In the Fireball Igni had created, Kael could sense that there were tens of thousands of Fire Elements all bound together, and unlike in his case, these Fire Elements didn't seem to be trying to get away.

'…Is he controlling all those Fire Elements at the same time?'

Kael thought of an absurd possibility.

Was that even possible? 

If Kael could control such a ridiculous number of Elements at the same time, it would only take him one cycle of meditation to refill his Mana Core to the brim! 

It would mean that he would essentially never run out of Mana! 

Even now, after practising like a madman for hours, he was barely able to control ten of them. Sure, Kael believed that this number would increase as he continued to practice, but... to reach the level of being able to control tens of thousands of Fire Elements might need years. 

And Igni was a baby!

Sure, he was a Fire Dragon, he was supposed to be good at this stuff, but he was a baby!!

A one-day-old baby!

'No…

This must be something else…

I need to look into it.'

Kael thought inwardly as he shook his head. He still had too little knowledge about this world to be thinking about such theories.

Instead of wasting time like this, he should focus on his training.

Thinking about it, Kael closed his eyes again and, completely ignoring what little Igni was doing, he started meditating again.

Once again, the cycle of filling up his Mana reserves before expending it all started. 

Igni, who stayed on Kael's lap, continued to copy his actions.

He closed his eyes when Kael did and summoned a fireball when he did. It was a game little Igni was enjoying.

"Kyu~"

With Igni's company keeping him reassured and warm, Kael continued to grow stronger.

[Ding!]

[Mana: +1]

[Intelligence: +1]

[Intelligence: +1]

…

…

Hours passed by. Soon, Althea was back. Kael stopped meditating and went to the bathroom. After freshening up and keeping Igni inside the Sanctuary, he went together with Althea to start today's training.

For some reason, all his instructors looked even more enthusiastic today.

General Deren's training intensity had shot through the roof. The old man was heavily relying on Althea's healing magic. He was treating Kael like a muscle—breaking him up, letting him heal, and breaking him again.

It was hell.

However, as torturous as it was, Kael could see the effectiveness of this method, so he pushed through.

However, this hell didn't end with General Deren. After the General, it was Commander Arlan's turn, and today…

Arlan had brought an active soldier for him to spar with.

Yes, the gorilla-like man wanted him, who had just started his training yesterday, to spar with a soldier who had years of experience.

At first, Kael was still a little positive. After all, he had learned Basic Hand-To-Hand Combat last time, so how bad could it be?

Very.

It didn't take Kael long to realize what 'very low' mastery meant.

Sparring with the soldier was nothing more than a beatdown session where the gorilla Arlan mocked him every time he was down and needed Althea to heal him.

After Arlan, it was his sister.

The woman had tried to kill him yesterday. Today, however, she seemed to have come up with a better way than just to kill him.

It was torture.

She raised the temperature around him to the point where even his sweat evaporated before falling on the ground, and in that harsh condition, where his throat was parched, his body trembled as it battled with the extreme heat, and his vision was blurry…

She made him cast Fireball and wanted him to aim correctly when he could barely see the targets ahead of him.

And what was worse?

Every time he missed the target, she raised the temperature around him even further. It had gotten to the point where he passed out from heat more than once, and Althea needed to use her magic to heal and bring him back to normal condition before the torture restarted.

All this while, Elira herself sat on what seemed like a beach chair, reading that 'Supreme Harem God System' book of hers and drinking what seemed to be a cold drink, with sunglasses covering her eyes.

The Court Mage definitely knew how to enjoy herself.

After the Court Mage, it was Marshal Therian's turn. Kael was glad that the Marshal was much more sane than the others around him. The session was similar to yesterday, where the Marshal taught him the theory.

One thing to note was that the Marshal had postponed his 'test' from a week to two weeks from now. Kael asked why that was the case, fearing that his progress was slower than what the Marshal expected. The Marshal, however, reassured him that it wasn't the case and that he had his own reasons.

Kael didn't bother asking any more questions either.

Then, Master Tamer Lyric appeared. Kael, however, shook his head when she asked whether his Bond was ready to come out yet. In the end, the woman could only teach him the theory.

And honestly, after hours of Spartan-like training that pushed him to death every single second, hours of learning theory was another form of mental torture.

Kael's body ached despite him just sitting on a chair, listening to Lyric's words. Sure, Althea's magic healed him, but the memory of all that pain still lingered. Even focusing was a challenge for him.

And this torture continued for days…

No, actually, it got increasingly worse with every passing day.

Kael, however, pushed through no matter how difficult it got.

What he saw in the vision—he was going to avoid that ending, no matter what sort of hell he had to go through in order to do that.

For him. 

For his Igni.