The bud swelled as if pulsating with life and energy from within. Its outer layers, once a deep shade of emerald green, began to unfurl, revealing delicate layers of vibrant petals or leaves. The unfolding process was akin to a dance orchestrated by nature itself.
As the bud continued to bloom, its true essence was revealed. Petals unfurled with a gentle, yet purposeful, precision, exposing intricate patterns, vivid colors, and mesmerizing textures. Each petal or leaf exuded an ethereal glow, as if imbued with the very essence of magic. The air became infused with a subtle, sweet fragrance, carrying hints of ancient wisdom and serenity.
He didn’t even know that his sense of smell could be activated in his mind, but the flower was so magical that it managed to achieve it. He felt reluctant to pluck the flower that adorned his mind. It was the most beautiful thing in the desolate plains there. It was also the result of a week of hard work.
The flower might look so beautiful, but to grow it he had to kill 100 Magical Beasts. He also needed the flower to break through. After going to the forest every day for the last week, he noticed that the behavior of the beasts was changing.
On the last day, he had to spend a lot of time to find the beasts. All of them suddenly went back into the Inner Forest. This mysterious phenomenon could only mean that the Beast Wave was now imminent.
Before starting his breakthrough, he went outside to Daphne’s room. She was still inside her room, but he had no choice but to disturb her. He knocked on her room.
She heard the knock and quickly came to answer the door.
“Yes?” She asked him.
“How is your training going?” He asked her.
“It’s fine. I can try to break through at any time,” She said. “Why?”
“Don’t wait then. Do it. The Beast Wave might start soon,” Leo said seriously.
She was surprised. “How do you know?” She asked him.
Leo faltered a second. “I… I went to the forest. I saw that the beasts retreated back to the Inner Forest. I’m not sure if that means a beast wave, but better safe than sorry.” He said.
“Why did you go to the forest? It’s dangerous there!” She scolded him. He smiled sheepishly. This was why he never told her before going to the forest. Thank god she didn’t know about his other trips.
“It was only once. Don’t worry about it. But breakthrough now. I’m not near that point yet, but I will try to reach it, ” he said.
“You aren’t? Didn’t you start training before me?” She asked him.
He nodded. “It means you are more talented than me,” he said.
She took the answer and left back to her room. He also went to his room to prepare for his breakthrough. He couldn’t tell her that he wasn’t mainly training in aura, so he just said that he wasn’t as talented to explain how he was not as strong as her. Either way, he was still progressing faster than a normal person.
Even looking at Daphne, she was able to reach the stage she was in now in around 4 months. Compare that to someone like Clarice who had trained for a few years to reach the stage she was at. Of course, this was because she didn’t have access to as many pills as both of them, but still, she was not as talented as them.
As for Leo, he was just an anomaly. His body let him take those many pills without a problem, so he was able to quickly reach that stage.
He went to his room and entered his mind. One trick he learned was that he didn’t actually have to bring any of the leaves outside to train. Since the magic was entering his mind anyways, he just needed to hold the leaf inside the mind and it would still attract the magic to his body. He would also be able to absorb the magic quicker that way since he didn’t have to circulate the magic that much that way.
He took a deep breath and plucked the flower. It was a very painful experience for him, but he needed to do it. Once the flower left the plant, he immediately felt a rush of magic. All the magic around him suddenly charged into him. They were attracted by the flower he had.
He quickly absorbed all that magic and started forming his third star. The third star was a lot more difficult to form because of the massive size of the star. The star itself was going to be ten times as big as the second one, so the cloud was currently 1000 times as large. This size made it very hard for him to control the magic in the cloud.
He started squeezing the magic and used the magic he obtained using the flower to start compressing the cloud. It was a lot easier with the abundance of magic the flower gave him. Compared to a 3rd Circle Beast Core that he saw at the auction, this flower gave him 5 times more magic.
He felt the star was starting to compress. It quickly reached a tenth of its original size. Now it became a lot harder for him to compress, but he still put his energy into doing it. After another 30 minutes, it reached another fifth of its size. He only needed to compress it by half, and he would finish compressing it.
That was easier than said. It was harder to compress that last bit than the entire cloud into its current state. He took an entire hour to successfully finish bringing the cloud to a hundredth of its size.
After that, he wrapped the cloud with his magic and started forming the star. It quickly collapsed into itself and let out a blast of magic. The magic vibrations left his body and shook the entire house. It was so strong that it also affected the entire neighborhood. He was now a proper 3rd Star Mage. He had successfully become one of the top ten most powerful people in Solhaven.
Leo wasn’t aware of what he just did and kept absorbing the rest of the magic in the flower. He knew he couldn’t waste it and started forming the fourth cloud as well. He was going to use that magic later to consolidate his breakthrough and learn the new spells he would have access to.
He was planning on letting the plant absorb the entirety of the fourth cloud to replenish the flower. After all, the only reason he had broke through was because of the plant. He was going to treat it very nicely as a gift. He was going to grow it like his baby.