Taienra was the only one who knew exactly how far away they were from Pirate Haven. But since that knowledge was more like instinct due to her nature as a Starry Sky Whale, it was difficult for the others to understand what she meant when she tried to explain how far away it was. Taienra resigned herself with a sigh and just told everyone to be patient instead of trying to explain further.
Since it was so far away, Taienra didn't feel like rushing and tiring herself out when she could take it easy and enjoy the trip while at the same time deepening her connection with the trees.
After the battle with the three void beasts ended, and after everyone had recovered, Toz told Taienra what he knew about the trees and what he had found out during his stay on the island. From that, Taienra expected the trees to absorb her mana and become filled with the star attribute.
The trees did accept the mana from Taienra's body, and it almost looked like they absorbed the mana as well. But Taienra could tell that the trees didn't take the mana for themselves. They only let the mana circulate the island.
It took a while until Taienra figured out that the trees were using the purity and strength of Taienra's mana to enhance the mana they actually absorbed. She didn't understand how she did it, and she didn't mind it either. She could still control the star mana around the island, and the quality of the other types of mana increased, making it easier for the other island dwellers to train.
Since Taienra could use the mana in the trees for her own magic, she had gotten an incredible leap in strength after fusing with the trees. Although the mana stored in the trees wasn't quite as dense and pure as the mana in her body and mana pool, there was so much mana it was like having a secondary mana pool.
The only thing Taienra was worried about was how the island would change when she grew or reached a new level. Since she was at the sixth level, her next breakthrough would put her in a new division, which always came with significant change. She could only hope that it wouldn't be too extreme.
Taienra wasn't the only one worried about breaking through to the next level.
Although Toz wasn't about to cross into a new division, he was falling further and further behind everyone else on the island. While he had refined his mana a fifth and a sixth time, the cats had made steady progress toward the next level.
Toz wanted to catch up, but he also wanted to further develop his skills and proficiency with the various elements under his control. Toz was sure that mastering void magic and how to combine his different attributes would bring his strength to incredible heights.
However, he needed to be more imposing if he wanted to become a proper Pirate King, and being at the fourth level was quite far from what one would describe as imposing.
Eventually, two realizations made him prioritize honing his control over his magic instead of training his mana.
It would be easier for Toz to train his mana if he had greater control over his attributes.
And it didn't matter, even if he became a Pirate King while he was at the fourth level. The only thing that mattered was that he had the strength to back up his position. And becoming something along the lines of 'the weakest but strongest Pirate King' sounded like something that would be fun.
With his mind set, Toz began practicing the use of all his attributes, and his first item on the list was successfully mixing one element with void magic.
Toz had already come pretty far in that aspect while creating Scrael's leg, so he continued combining void and metal.
Even after several tries, the only thing that changed was the metal's color and rigidity. The metal became a dull, colorless grey that was slightly softer than ordinary metal constructs. However, Toz noticed that it was a lot more accepting of foreign mana.
He hadn't been bothered by it before since he used swords of his own mana that didn't interfere too much with his magic. But after he tried making a simple sword combining only void and metal, he realized how smoothly his mana flowed through the sword while he sued magic.
Toz became more and more excited for the moment his sword was complete with every discovery. Since he wanted to maximize its potential, Toz had put off creating it until he had a better grasp of his attributes and the various combinations of them.
After metal, Toz continued with darkness. It was a natural choice, both because he acquired darkness thanks to Lucy shortly after bonding with Nil. But also because it was the element he had put the most effort into training lately. Since Toz wanted complete his spell, he trained his darkness mana first. Though, his progress had been put on hold with everything that happened.
Toz wasn't going to make much progress in training his mana while experimenting either, but he hoped mixing darkness with void would help deepen his understanding of darkness magic so that he could improve his spell further.
Unlike with metal, Toz didn't create a construct while combining the two elements. Toz began experimenting by adding void mana to his own shadow since he was more interested in the interactions between void and darkness rather than the interactions between void magic and darkness magic. His spell was inspired by naturally existing darkness, after all.
The change to his shadow was subtle at first, but Toz quickly saw how his shadow seemed to have melted after being infused with void mana. The outline turned soft before collapsing and spreading out like ink over the ground. A few strips also disappeared into the ground. As Toz looked closer, he realized that it would be more accurate to say that the shadow passed through the ground rather than into it.
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