Chapter 22: Power of a Single Drop.
Tiana then turned around and went back to her room, She didn't know what to do now, Normally she should be cultivating but she didn't bring any Elemental Crystals with her, and she can't even go finish her mission which was to hunt 5 grade 3 Magical Beast because she might be spotted.
" Sigh looks like all I can do now is to cultivate normally. " Tiana then closed her eyes and entered into a meditative state.
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Athan woke up after 5 hours...
Looking at the clock, it was only 2 PM in the afternoon, He then once again let the black whirlpool suck all of his energy before falling asleep.
...
Athan woke up once again before doing the same thing, emptying his huge amount of psychic energy into the black whirlpool and falling asleep.
...
When Athan woke this time, He looked at the clock and thought, ' 12 AM, it's time I guess. '
He then got up from his bed, took out a hood & his gown from his bag, and left the room before arriving in front of Tiana's room, and knocked a few times.
Tiana opened the door with sleepy eyes and asked, " What is it? " but right after that, her eyes changed as she remembered what they planned, ' I almost forgot about it and fell asleep, But he remembered...'
" Did you forget that we plan to go to your home to bring your things here? " Athan replied with a smile and asked, " Don't tell me you forgot about it? "
" Of course not, Let's go..."
" Wait for a second girl, Wear this hood, and gown. "
Tiana blushed a bit hearing him and took the hood and gown from him before wearing them.
Both then left the house and started walking in a certain direction as Tiana took the lead and Athan followed her.
...
After walking for 10 minutes, they arrived at the Area where Core-Disciples were staying.
The Houses here also had their personal ground and there was also a lot of space between each house although they were still a bit shabby than the house given to Athan by Lafurge.
Both of them walked a bit deeper in the area for 5 minutes before Tiana finally stopped.
She pointed at the house on the left side and whispered to Athan, " This is my House, Wait here for a while, I'll pack my things. "
Athan looked around before whispering, " Go ahead, I'll be on the lookout for you, Just don't take too many useless things with you, Only pack essential things like your Crystals, Clothes, etc. "
Tiana rolled her eyes which Athan did not see and said, " I know! "
She then went towards her home and entered inside.
Athan then spread his psychic energy around so that he can sense his surroundings.
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After 15 minutes Tiana finally came out of her house with 3 bags.
Seeing Tiana coming out, Athan waved his hands and those 3 bags flew towards Athan.
After that, he stretched his hands towards Tiana and said, " Grab my hand..."
Tiana did not answer as she was shocked by what just happened.
Athan then directly grabbed her hand and flew up before going in the direction of his home as the three bags floated behind him.
Tiana was once more shocked as he looked at Athan and said in disbelief, " Y-you even opened your Psychic Realm? and judging by how you are flying easily, You must have cleared a lot of grey impurity. "
Athan looked at her and said with a smile, " I've cleared all of my grey impurities. "
Tiana's mouth wide opened hearing that and then she shook her head while thinking, ' Impossible, He is just 18 years old, and he is training as Elemental Warrior on top of that...' She then got curious and asked Athan.
" When did you start your training? and you are an elemental warrior, right? "
Athan did not answer instantly as they already arrived at their home, He first floated down before answering her with a laugh, " haha, It's not even been 2 years since I've started training as Elemental Warrior, and not even a year since I opened my Psychic Realm. "
Hearing something so absurd, Tiana obviously didn't believe him and just rolled her eyes before picking up bags and going inside.
Athan understood that she did not believe him. He then entered the house and asked her, " Do you have a mission to accomplish? I know core disciples need to finish missions. " Saying this, he waved his hands and controlled her bags with his psychic energy then opened her room's door and put them aside inside her room before he continued, " And didn't you accept anyone as your master?
You don't have to worry about that bastard if you have a core elder as your master. "
Seeing that her bags were put in the room by Athan, She sat on the chair, took a deep breath, and told her situation," I just joined Thunder-Fire Valley six months ago, seeing that I had Dual Elements and both of them were high-grade, I was directly accepted as Core-disciple, My current mission is to Kill five Grade 3 Magical Beasts. "
She then paused for a few seconds as she continued as she trembled a bit and spoke as her voice turned a bit hoarse, " 2 core elders wanted to accept me as their disciple but I rejected them because both of them were old men and I didn't like how they looked at me, and among the 3 female core elders, two elders were not in the valley and the third female core elder didn't accept me as her disciple so I don't have a master."
" Later I saw that Henil, That bastard always followed me and looked at me with dirty eyes every time, so I went to 3rd Female elder myself and request her to accept me as her disciple and even told her about Henil, but she still rejected me. " Tiana's eyes were on verge of shedding tears but she held them back.
Athan was confused as to why that female elder didn't accept Tiana as her disciple but since he told Tiana he would help her, then he will definitely help her...of course, he will help her without making reckless moves.
' Anyway, Let's cheer her up for now. ' Thinking about this, he flashes a smiled at Tiana and said in a confident voice, " Let's go finish your mission first and forget about that Henil, Nobody can do anything to you as long as you are with me. "
Tiana's cheeks turned a shade pink as she fell into a daze hearing Athan's words.
Seeing no response from Tiana, Athan grabbed her hand and just floated outside before going in the direction of the Training Jungle on the island where core disciples usually hunt magical beasts.
Tiana just stayed silent even after Athan grabbed her hands but her face said otherwise as she was blushing even more.
She took a few deep breaths to calm her throbbing heart.
She then looked at Athan who was looking at the front but seeing his face closely once again caused her heart to beat faster so she looked away instantly.
After just 5 minutes, They arrived at the Training Jungle as Athan and Tiana floated down.
" Let's go, You can finish your mission now "
Tiana just nodded without looking at Athan as she started walking forward.
Athan just shook his head and followed behind.
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Tiana and Athan ignored Grade 2 Magical beasts and went a bit deeper to find Grade 3 beasts as they didn't want to waste time.
Soon, They encountered their first grade 3 Magical Beast in the forest. It was Grade 3 Flaming Liger.
Athan hid behind the tree and watched as Tiana started fighting.
She attacks the Flaming Liger first with her Waterball but the Flaming Liger easily dodge it, and then The Flaming Liger opened its mouth and threw a fireball towards Tiana.
Tiana didn't try to dodge and just used Water Sheild which easily solved the Fireball.
' I need to lure it close to me, otherwise, I won't be able to hit it as it will dodge my attacks. ' Tiana starting thinking about a strategy and didn't attack, But Liger threw two more fireballs which Tiana blocked with her water shield.
But Tiana's water shield was destroyed by the 4th Fireball and seeing this, The Flaming Liger dashed towards Tiana.
When the flaming Liger was 5 meters away from her, She threw a Lightning Ball and disrupted the movement of Liger it experienced paralysis, and immediately after that, Tiana use Water Bullets to kill the Flaming Liger, The Water Bullets spell has high penetrative power as those condensed drops of Water energy can turn into powerful Water-type attack with high speed and high penetrative power.
This attack is even more effective against This Flaming Liger because the Flaming Liger is a Fire attribute Beast which caused its defense to not stand a chance against those Water Bullets.
Tiana then arrived before the dead body of the Flaming Liger and pulled out its teeth before putting it away in a small pouch that is always hanging at her waist.
" Good job Tiana, That was clean. " Athan came out from behind the tree with a smile as he complimented.
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Just like this, Tiana hunted 4 more Grade 3 beasts easily, It's just the last beast she hunted, known as Redwood Vine Beast gave her a bit of trouble but it was nothing serious as it was just a little scratch on her right leg.
Her mood appeared to have changed as she smiled at Athan and asked, " Shall we go back now? "
Athan smiled faintly and said, " Of course not, I still don't know how powerful I am currently, especially my powers of Elemental Sorcerers, so I want to check them a bit here. "
Hearing his words, Tiana got shocked because all these times she thought that Athan was only Elemental Warrior.
But then She thought, ' He must have just recently started cultivating, So I doubt he is that strong as Elemental Sorcerer. '
Thinking about that, Tiana nodded to Athan as said, " Okay then, Let's check your strength as an elemental sorcerer, by the way, which Elemental Affinity you have? "
Athan first grabbed Tiana's hand and sped up towards the deeper in the jungle which scared Tiana and before she could say anything, Athan answered her question, " I have Fire and Thunder Affinities. "
" WHY ARE YOU GOING DEEPER? " Tiana shouted with fear because Athan was going deeper inside the Jungle.
" Don't worry, I can beat Grade 5 Beasts like they are toys as for Grade 6 beasts, although I haven't fought them before, they shouldn't be a match for me. "
Tiana almost fainted hearing what Athan said as she obviously could not believe what Athan said.
Of course, nobody would believe it if they heard of an 18-year-old boy having the same strength as an Elemental Archmage.
" Y-you stop right now..." Tiana said tremblingly but Athan just said, " What?? I can't hear anything. "
' Since you don't believe my words then I guess my Actions will make you believe, Also I want to see the power of liquified Elemental Energy. '
Athan now could sense his Energy Realm without going inside, and after a whole day of Automatic cultivation, Both Fire Crystal and Thunder Crystal only produced 1 drop each.
Tiana said a few more times to stop but Athan just ignored it and sped up as they finally encountered their first Grade 6 Beast after 5 minutes of speed flying.
The Grade 6 beast, Fire Scaled Green Winged Lion. This beast was a bit more than 5 meters tall and 3 meters long, It known for its tough fire scale and it could release a unique energy ball consist of Flame and wood elements which after the explosion, Produces toxic gas.
The Fire Scaled Green Winged Lion was sleeping and Athan actually had no intention of waking it up.
He looked at Tiana before signaling her to keep quiet and hid her behind a thick tree.
Afterward, Athan slowly came forward and stopped when he was 50 meters away from the beast.
He then controlled a drop of Fire Energy from his Energy Realm and brought it out, As soon as the drop of Fire energy came out, the surrounding temperature increased quite a lot, But it didn't wake up the lion because The Fire Scaled Green Winged Lion's Normal temperature was very high because of the Fire Scales that covered its body.
Athan could feel a tremendous amount of Fire energy inside that drop. He then imagines controlled the drop of fire energy to turn it into a Fire Ball but he could not control the expansion of energy from the drop of Fire energy as It becomes a Big 5 Meter Radius Fireball and it was getting even bigger but Athan then controlled it and gradually compressed the Fireball into a 2-meter radius Fireball.
Seeing this scene, Tiana was so shocked that she could not believe what was happening in front of her, even though she was seeing it.
She pinched her cheeks and felt pain before realizing that what she is seeing is true.
' But how...? '
Seeing the heat and power of Fireball, Even the Sleeping Lion was disturbed as it woke up but before it could roar, Athan Threw the Fireball towards the beast.
50 meters is a very short distance so The Fireball hit the Lion before it could do anything.
and...
*BOOM....*
Athan then dashed towards Tiana as he grabbed her hands and flew upward lest she gets hurt by aftershocks.
Both of them then looked down to see the results but they were left speechless as the Fire Scaled Green Winged Lion was blasted to pieces, few burnt lumps of meat and Bones were the only thing that left there.
Tiana was dazed seeing the devastation caused by that fireball and Athan was also equally shocked as he thought, ' so this is the power of Elemental Overlord? DAFAQ!!! That was just one drop, JUST ONE. '
Athan didn't know there is a huge qualitative difference between Gaseous Energy and Liquified energy, Suppose it take 5 KG gaseous energy to form 1 drop, And now, an Elemental Archmage creates a Fireball that cost 5 KG Gaseous energy and an Elemental Overlord creates a Fireball that cost 1 drop, and they both throws their fireball towards two different small hills with the same size, the result? [A/N: KG here is only used for analogy.]
Elemental Archmage's Fireball can level the hill but Elemental Overlord's Fireball can obliterate the hill completely.
Both can't be compared in the same dimension.
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Athan then looked at Tiana who was dazed as he nudged her hand that he was holding and asked with a smile, " How is it? I'm very powerful, right? "
Tiana looked at Athan as she blankly nodded but deeply she was so impressed that she could not think straightly, ' He is the same age as me!! wtf...'
Athan laughed seeing her reaction as he flew back in the direction of their home.
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Few minutes After Athan left, An old man with a white beard and white hair arrived looked at the remains of the Lion while floating before thinking, " Which supreme elder was bored enough to throw a Fireball here? They should all be in closed-door training to understand the mystery of elements. "
Shaking his head, the old man flew away.