Liam had two ideas for both darkness and chaos.
For the former, he wanted it to synergize with his Shadow.
Something that could remove the illumination of a small area in order for his Shadow to work at full strength.
A smoke bomb, to be exact.
Something like that required gaseous darkness, held together by a solid, darkness-made container.
It had to be big enough to envelop Liam’s fighting range, and last at least 30 seconds.
And for the latter, he would just build upon the Controlling Chaos spell.
Harnessing the power of his chaos required Liam to delay its destructive power.
Otherwise, it would just be a one-dimensional energy that could only destroy.
There had to be more to it than that.
Obviously, Liam didn’t have any problem with the explosiveness of his chaos.
But if he could decide when it exploded… that would be massively different.
Overall, the former would be a Rank 2 spell, while the latter a Rank 1.
Since darkness was so much more malleable and easy to manipulate, Liam could definitely make something like that.
He had already made several Rank 0, and even Rank 1 spells with simple functions.
They didn’t really help his battle prowess at all, but they were good practice.
Not having it explode in his face (like a certain red energy) was always nice.
///
It took roughly three weeks for Liam to make the spell, which he subsequently named Shadow Bomb.
To extend the Shadow Bomb’s lifespan, Liam added a bit of liquid darkness to moisten the noxious gas.
By the end of it, he had succeeded.
In his accommodation, Liam placed several torches all around.
Then, Liam activated the spell.
Tendrils of darkness gushed from his right hand, swirling over his palm to form a plain, black sphere.
It was small, barely the size of a baseball. 𝒷𝒹ℴ𝓿𝓁.𝓬𝓸𝓂
Liam shook the sphere, which let out a muffled slosh with every shake.
Liam then cloaked himself with his Shadow, which was weakened by the illumination.
A moment later, Liam forcefully threw the ball on the floor.
BOOF!
Dark gas instantly filled Liam’s entire accommodation, oozing through the cracks of his ceiling.
The fire torches were instantly extinguished, and Liam’s Shadow reverted back to full strength.
Its effect lingered for exactly thirty seconds, before slowly dissipating into little wisps of fading smoke.
Liam took a deep breath and heaved, his bloody eyes drooping with exhaustion.
That took time.
But it was an astounding success.
At the age of 17 and a half, Liam had finally made a Rank 2 spell!
‘I just know making something with chaos is going to be even more of a pain.’
Liam shook his head.
‘At least I’m close to advancing. It should be another week at most.’
///
Another three weeks passed.
That was the amount of time Liam took to make a Rank 2 darkness spell.
The Shadow Bomb.
And it took him the same amount of time to make a Rank 1 chaos spell.
Oh, and during that time, Liam also advanced to the solid-stage.
His darkness had grown unadulteratedly black and lethal, but Liam didn’t get a chance to test out its power.
He was too focused on making a chaos spell.
Liam quickly realized how hard it was to delay the explosion of his newly advanced chaos.
It was extremely difficult.
So much so, Liam changed his line of thought.
‘I’ll try something with that later. My inscriptions just can’t hold down the chaos anymore.’
Instead of delaying his explosive energy, he wanted to make it focused on a single point.
It would still have its destructive powers, but honed instead of wild.
That would strengthen it considerably, but it would only affect a small area.
And after three weeks…
In his quarters again, Liam raised his right leg above his head.
On the ground of his accommodation, there were countless craters and pieces of cracked ground.
Chaos gathered at the back of Liam’s heel, but unlike before where it would surge wildly without any particular shape…
It now vaguely resembled a small spike.
A moment later, Liam struck the ground with his backfoot.
CRRKH!
There wasn’t any massive explosion, and the floor didn’t completely shatter with the force of his strike.
But when Liam lifted his foot, there was a precise, 5 meter hole in the ground, 4 inches in diameter.
Liam laughed weakly.
The destructiveness wasn’t lost.
It was simply honed.
Focused Havoc.
That was the name of Liam’s Rank 1 chaos spell.
With all his responsibilities done, Liam thudded to the ground unconscious.
///
As Liam worked on making a spell for his chaos and darkness, unaware of the audience outside his home, several events happened within the following months.
More and more Royals were seen entering the Ilalian Main Lands.
The Temple wasn’t aware of the nature of their discussions, but it was obvious what they were doing there.
More hunting parties left the Main Lands, and nearly every prefecture surrounding it.
The bounty on Liam’s was up for all to grab.
Even those living in Safe Zones had joined the hunts in their greedy pursuit for that alluring 3 million.
This put pressure on the Temple.
Other islands were also being explored.
By extension, the Ravenous Leash Sect also sent out several hunting parties that scattered across the island.
They would naturally explore the northern, southern and western side of the island.
However, before they could do so, the Temple employed a countermeasure.
Some of their spies would join the hunts and give false information to the bounty hunters.
They’d spread rumors of Liam’s description in distant prefectures within the Main Lands.
It was effective as a delaying tactic.
The Leashes had left the island and headed towards the Main Land prefectures first.
The frustrated parties would spend weeks trailing from one dead-end to another.
But it merely delayed the inevitable.
Hiding within the Isolation Chamber until the whole thing blew over was a possibility.
Yet, if the Leashes found out about the emptiness of the western island, it would be obvious of an invasive, hostile force.
Sooner or later, Liam, and subsequently the Temple, would be found.
For this, the Temple had to get a bit reckless.
They sent parties to recruit weak, small-size Sects in their cause.
And the attacks on the two mid-size Sects were set for the next week.