Now that he reached the Steel-Tier, he basically reached the same Level he reached in the past, even though now he was countless times stronger than before. Strictly speaking, in the past, he reached Level 15, but right now, he was way stronger; his Mana was several times denser and purer.
Not to mention, his physical strength and other physical aspects were tremendously enhanced, so right now, he could defeat himself from the past several times over with closed eyes.
The only unfortunate thing in all of this was that he was left with only 3 Bronze-Tier Mana Crystals as he used all of them during his breakthrough to the Steel-Tier. The reason behind his was his race, as it required much more Mana than the average species.
Even Yvraine, who now reached Steel-Tier, used way fewer Mana Crystals, only used only two Bronze-Tier ones, while Samiel used 7 Bronze-Tier Mana Crystals and around 45 Steel-Tier ones to reach the Steel-Tier.
This could be attributed to some kind of balance of the Cosmos. The stronger the species were and the stronger racial attributes they had, and not to mention, if they had some special and unique abilities, their progress would be slower and more costly compared to others.
After he looked at the remaining three Bronze-Tier Mana Crystals, he decided to use all of them to increase his Level; as he started draining them until nothing remained from them, Samiel's Mana increased and reached Level 12.
[Your Level has been Increased.]
Now that he reached Level 12, he could control 180 Undead altogether. His combat prowess increased tremendously with his Steel-Tier Mana, as he could use more spells and his Ultimate Ability [Winter Ruler] for a prolonged amount of time.
Meaning he could now easily take on Bronze-Tiers probably up to Level 35 or so; also, it hugely depended on their Classes and Races, but even that was great. Aside from Level and experiences were great factors, aside from skills and abilities. In combat, the Level was not everything, as other factors could decide the end o the fight.
As he was thinking about the amount of resources he would need to sustain this tempo of cultivation, and this was not counting all things he would need for magic experiments, creating strong and unique Undead, and other things, he got a headache from just thinking about it.
That was another advantage that the huge factions had because they could easily eliminate all side-effects that the Superior Races had. In the end, with their enormous amount of resources and other things at hand, they could provide those members of the Superior Species like Samiel with enough resources to have the same training speed as even ordinary talented humans, who had the fastest training speed.
"Are you finished?"
Yvraine stretched her body as she reached the Steel-Tier, as he knew that look on her face.
They technically lived together for several weeks, and Samiel was good at observing people, and he learned some of Yvraine's habits and studied her personality. He knew that Yvraine was rather battle maniac, though she was very good at hiding it. Still, she cannot hide her battle lust every time perfectly. It always manifested itself subconsciously when she encountered someone very powerful and special.
"We can fight after ten minutes; just give me some time to adjust."
Samiel said as he was still adjusting to the Steel-Tier Mana, which was countless times stronger, denser, and more potent. The density and potency of the Mana were essential to every Class Bearer because the more dense and potent the Mana was, the more powerful their spells and Abilities would be. Not to mention, for Caster, this had another effect, which was basically a cheaper casting.
After he adequately adjusted to the Steel-Tier Mana, Samiel went to Yvraine so they could spar together because both of them wanted to test their power against each other after reaching the Steel-Tier.
In a split of seconds, Yvraine appeared before him, slashing at his throat with her twin jade blades as she ferociously attacked Samiel, as her blades just bounced from his throat while he used [Winter Ruler] to create a layer of Ice around his throat to protect himself.
Yvraine was very fast, like, very, very fast as she left after her just afterimage as she rushed at Samiel.
It was risky; even Yvraine widened her eyes in shock as she watched Samiel to defend in this way when she noticed that frost had crept up to her twin blades, and they started feeling colder, to the point that her hands started freezing.
[Your proficiency with the Ultimate Ability Winter Ruler has increased by 2%.]
Samiel heard the notification from the Akashic Records because he found a new way of the usage of the [Winter Ruler].
'That man is absolutely crazy.'
She thought when she watched Samiel block her strikes in this bizarre way, where most people would die; thus it was a rarity to see someone using Ice in this way. Because if the attack was just a bit stronger, then you would die with a severed head. Only people who attempted to do this were those without a bit of self-perseverance or those who were absolutely confident in their abilities.
Yvraine then ignited her twin blades with some kind of flame that Samiel didn't recognize, but he could see that she expunged the frost that he cast onto her twin jade blades as Yvraine attacked him once more.
During their spars, he never used his Undead or more dangerous spells from Necromancy Arts or, nowadays, the Void Magic, and fought solely with his martial arts or the [Winter Ruler].
Undeads were forbidden due to the first time they fought, Samiel beat her badly by overwhelming her through pure numbers, and Samiel didn't really want to use Necromancy Arts or Void Magic because it was dangerous, and if by some accident, Yvraine didn't dodge or blocked properly, she could be severely injured in a pretty nasty way.
Samiel materialized an ice sword in his right hand as he blocked Yvraine's attack. At the same time, he started decreasing the temperature in their surroundings, as frost penetrated through the entire building as it started freezing. Yvraine could see her breath in the frost.
He did it because he knew that in this way, he could greatly hinder her movements and decrease her agility, which succeeded as Yvraine's speed has receded to about one-fourth, which was a very good result, as now Samiel could clearly see her movements without any problems.
With each passing spar, Samiel's control over the [Winter Ruler] and its proficiency increased tremendously, as he started to use it more and more in actual combat aside from Necromancy.
He even asked Yvraine what would be the best Magic to go with his "ice-like ability", to which he got the answer Winter Magic.
Unfortunately, the Winter Magic war was rare, only known by Gods of Winter or one reclusive faction, known as Frozen Court, which was located on the 67th Floor of the Tower and had dominion over several worlds and dimensions across the Cosmos.
Frozen Court consisted exclusively of Ice Users or anything related to Ice banded together, as they were not limited to single species or occupation and were considered a very powerful faction.
The entire Frozen Court acted as some kind of elective monarchy, where they basically chose their leader based on the power of Ice Ability or Magic. The Monarch who was elected then was named Monarch of Frost and ruled till the day he died or was defeated by a more powerful Ice User.
Naturally, this didn't mean only Ice, Frost, or Winter users were members of the Frozen Court, as the Frozen court has countless other professions and experts, but only those with the abilities mentioned above have sway or voice in the faction's matters.
Unfortunately, Frozen Court was an extremely reclusive faction that didn't want any visitors; even the Floor Advancement Quest that the Ruler was issuing was to withstand Froststorm for 1 minute so everyone could leave as soon as they arrived.
67th Floor is home to countless species and races that live in cold areas, like Snow Trolls, Yetis, Yuki-Onnas, and other species that prefer places like these. For example, one of the significant species of the Frozen Court was Frost Demon Tribe and Ice Dragon Flock. This alone made the Frozen Court one of the more powerful factions in the Cosmos.
Suddenly five 1st Level Spells Thunderclaps were shooting at him, as Yvraine cast them in a split of a second due to her extensive knowledge. Samiel knew that even though she was Steel-Tier, her knowledge of the Arcane and Magic would probably eclipse even some Legendaries due to her background.
She told him she had studied Magic extensively since she was young. After all, Silvermoon Elves were all inborn Arcanists, as Magic was deeply rooted in their entire existence. And because all Silvermoon Elves were naturally-born Arcanists, and especially those of the Imperial House and monstrous aptitude for the Magic.
Thus all of them were forced to learn as much Magic as possible, especially the Magic Theory in their younger years, and Yvraine was not an exception. She studied more common types of Magic, but unfortunately, her knowledge of the School of Necromancy was non-existent.
Though on the other hand, she was very skilled in the Elemental Types of Magic or, for example, rare Ward Magic, and could create Magic Wards and Magic Barriers.
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