In the training room, I can finally test out my new short swords. The more I look at them, the more I fall in love with them. I channel my Imra and activate my skill. I notice it flows much more easily—it takes less time and is simpler to shape to my will. This is perfect! A weapon that truly suits my fighting style.

I begin a sword choreography; I need to warm up my body before any serious training. Today, I'll be imagining an enemy with a typical human build. I need to focus my body and abilities on a bipedal opponent. I start swinging my swords while activating four skills at once: Sword Reinforcement, Cold Mind, Pseudo-Domain, and Lightning Step.

My body moves like flowing water—attacking, defending, blocking strikes with my blades, darting around the room with my eyes completely closed. I'm trying to infuse more Imra into my swords to make them both stronger and sharper, but the overload is starting to affect my brain and body. I can feel fatigue setting in quickly as I use a large portion of my arsenal.

The Imra isn't responding properly due to the quantity I'm pushing through. I feel my control slipping—sometimes the blades lose their solidity, or their edge returns to normal. I focus my mind more, working little by little to bring it back under control.

The harsh training ends with me completely exhausted. My body is drenched in sweat. Even though Imra doesn't get consumed like mana, I can feel it weakening, and my control becomes clumsier; my mind also begs for a proper rest after being pushed to the limit. I take a well-deserved break, pulling out some sandwiches I bought earlier this morning on my trip back to town. I stored them in my storage bracelet.

I've gained a new level in my sword skill. The other abilities remain static—just one more level in Cold Mind and I'll be able to evolve it to Rank II. I'll finally have all my abilities at Rank II and one at Rank III. I focus on my cube and feel a strange sensation—nothing harmful, just a light breeze brushing over my body. Since I don't have an answer and it doesn't seem dangerous, I decide to ignore it until I can ask Grandma later.

With a full stomach, renewed energy, and the rest I needed, I resume training. This time, I'll switch from physical to magical training. I review my abilities again before I start. I can feel them gradually stagnating. They haven't been leveling up as quickly as I'm used to—probably due to recent events.

I begin by creating ice spheres up to my mental limit without using my mental skill. "Six is pretty good to make at once." With my skill activated, I can push it up to seven or even eight depending on how hard I concentrate. I make them vanish and use the leftover mana to create more concentrated constructs. These spheres gain more consistency, and I can feel the mana growing unstable if I try to create another. My limit is three without mental support.

I start playing with them—moving them from side to side, making one disappear and recycling that mana to create another. I know how powerful these concentrated spheres are against someone of my rank; I even managed to injure a higher-ranked Hobgoblin with one. But... it's not enough. There are people far stronger than me in this world. This just isn't enough.

Sitting down, I start brainstorming ideas. Nothing interesting comes up in the first few minutes. I glance at the bracelet on my hand and decide to take a look inside. Among all the items, I find the key to my future improvement: The spiked ball I won at the fair a few days ago. It could be a good starting point—a base for what my future skill could look like.

With fresh inspiration, bubbling excitement, and boosted motivation, I begin forming the new construct in my mind. This new sphere will give cutting power to my orbs—something they've always lacked.

Normally, my spheres are 20 cm in diameter—I reduce them to 15 cm. Control becomes smoother and mana consumption drops a bit. I try adding spikes—six in total. If we placed the sphere inside a cube, each spike would point from a different face.

Creating the first spike was easy. The others became progressively harder. Focusing not only on a spherical form is challenging—if I hadn't practiced armor creation, I wouldn't have managed to shape these spikes.

One is enough for now. I begin channeling ice mana into the sphere. Do I want to use ice mana for the spikes too? Maybe I should try electric mana instead.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. My brain starts to sweat at the task of combining both elements into a single spell. I activate my trusty Cold Mind skill—it always saves my skin in situations like this.

The task becomes slightly less complex. I manage to concentrate a smaller amount of mana into each spike—around 20% of what the sphere itself uses. The difference is, if you add that 20% for each of the six spikes, I've only used slightly more mana overall than the original sphere.

The problem is the mental load of creating a new prototype and using two different manas at once. My mind grows more agitated than usual. But after a few seconds of wrestling with the sphere, I manage to control it. I no longer fear causing some kind of explosion from poor control.

A smile forms on my face, and I feel like jumping for joy—right then, I get a mental notification. I almost lose control of the sphere from the surprise, but I manage to suppress it just in time and dispel it safely.

The notification caught me completely off guard. I read it and reread it until I could believe it. I gained three skill levels in one go. Letting my mind run free and pushing my capacity—does this come with such rewards?

Another notification arrives at the same time—the one I've been waiting for these past few days. COLD MIND – LEVEL 15! I finally did it. I can now evolve my precious skill.

"Cold Mind has reached level fifteen. Possible evolution paths are opening…" Serene Mind, Fearless Warrior, Cold Processing, Glacial Focus.

"Four options…" I recall Grandma's advice—the first is usually the general improvement with no specialization. Fearless Warrior sounds like a combat-focused evolution. I may have fulfilled that condition by fighting the Hobgoblin that day. It's a useful skill, but I don't only use this ability to fight.

Cold Processing... the name tells me little. Is it focused solely on keeping calm while making decisions? Not a bad choice. The last one is the one that catches my eye: GLACIAL FOCUS. It sounds imposing—and powerful. I use my mental skill to fight, calm my emotions, make better decisions, and more. What ties all of that together? Focus. It's always focus that lets me think clearly and find new ideas. Let's go with that. I choose: Glacial Focus!

"Cold Mind has evolved into Glacial Focus."

I take a moment to check my updated status:

Maki – Age: 8 – Amethyst Beginner SKILLS: Fortified Construction (III) – Level 1 Sword Reinforcement (II) – Level 8 → Level 9 Pseudo Domain (II) – Level 6 Lightning Step (II) – Level 5 Concentrated Spherical Formation (II) – Level 4 → Level 7 Glacial Focus (II) – Level 1

I activate the skill immediately. I instantly notice some changes—my mind feels calmer, colder, more focused. I try building the 2.0 sphere again. My mind flows better through the construction—no delays, no stabs of pain in my head even after I finish it. I also feel the effects of gaining three skill levels.

Amazing! Seriously, this is incredible!

"Should I test my limits?" I grab my swords and infuse Imra into them—no problems so far. I activate Pseudo-Domain—my head feels a bit uncomfortable, but not enough to stop.

I take a big step and start fighting imaginary enemies. My mind can still keep up with the movement—it's a bit of a strain, but I'm not slipping. My domain holds steady. I'm not losing control of the 2.0 sphere. My Imra is still strong.

"Let's go one step further." I use my movement skill—like always, it gives me a little hammer-blow in my head. Should I lower the distance and mana? I test it again, and things go better than expected. I can use the skill at half power, which is still equivalent to a normal Amethyst-Rank user.

"This is perfect." I almost shouted with joy. My mental control has grown exponentially—my brain can now handle many more tasks at once.

I keep fighting imaginary enemies. When I'm not using my movement skill, I make the new sphere disappear and rebuild it. It takes twice as long to rebuild the 2.0 sphere while in battle mode.

My life clock alerts me—it's nearly dinnertime. My body and mind are tired. I decide to end training in the most satisfying way possible. I throw the 2.0 sphere at the wall to test its new destructive power—watching, waiting for it to explode…

BOOOOM! Something unexpected happens. Through my pseudo-domain, I see the wall destroyed—an enormous hole in the center, frozen over. At the same time, I see currents of electricity crackling near the edges. The entire training room begins collapsing, starting with that wall.

I sprint out the nearest window. The moment I touch the grass outside, I activate Lightning Step to get even farther away. Turning back, I see the house finish collapsing in front of my eyes—only scattered wood and rocks remain.

Oops? SHIT! I thought the walls were like the ones in my training room—they usually survive thanks to enchantments. I've messed up. How am I supposed to explain this to the Baron? When my parents find out, they're going to punish me for sure.

I stand there for a few seconds, staring at the mess, thinking of all the ways I might explain this and avoid punishment when I get home.

Almost two minutes later, I sense—through my ability—that two people have arrived behind me. I don't know if I'm lucky or cursed, but it's Sol and Camux.

How am I going to get out of this one? Do I need to start working to pay off the damage? Not even Glacial Focus can help me find a way out of this—nor calm all my nerves.

"What happened here, Maki?" I can't see anger in his eyes—only confusion and concern.

"…Oops?"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.