Chapter 17: The Path is long and Arduous But I am different.  

Just as Athan came out of the pool, The door of the hall opened and someone entered.

Looking at the person, The old man bowed and said, " Welcome, Elder Lafurge. "

Lafurge shook his head and said with helplessness, " Stop old man, I told you many times you don't have to bow to me. "

The old man just stayed silent as lafurge shook his head because he knew the old man will not change because he is a strict follower of rules here.

Then Lafurge looked at Athan as his lips twitched a bit before speaking " You kid, is giving me one surprise after another, First you opened your Psychic Realm, and now this. "

Hearing this, the old man was shocked while Athan just smiled with a face that says, ' i already told you that I will awaken affinities soon at that time. '

Lafurge understood but he just shook his head while saying, " I understand and I admit that I did not believe you at that time, but you said you were just feeling that you will awaken affinities and get powerful, so say, how could someone just believe you just because you were " feeling like that? "

Lafurge then looked at the old man and asked, " So? how long the fishes glowed for? 5 minutes? "

The old man shook his head while saying, " No, the Fishes glowed for 10 minutes and I believe they continue to glow if they did not run out of elemental energy. "

" What!!! "

Looking at Lafurge's reaction, The old man thought, ' Yep I had exact same reaction. '

Lafurge looked at Athan like he was looking at a monster and said, " You little monster...."

Athan thought while grinning, ' if I told him about my other secrets then he would probably get heart attacks hehehe '

...

...

Lafurge then took Athan directly to the Core of Thunder-Fire Valley that was a Floating Mass of wonder.

But after arriving at the HQ he made a request to Lafurge, " Actually, I don't want to be known by anyone right now, I just want to peacefully practice, so if you can arrange me to a place where there is abundant of Fire and Thunder elemental energy, I'll owe you a Favor. "

Pausing here for a second Athan continued with a serious expression, " I am not being arrogant but my favor will be very helpful to you, think about it, because, I have this FEELING that I'll become very powerful. " After finishing, he gave a faint smile that contained unwavering confidence.

Lafurge became speechless but then revealed a thoughtful expression.

After a few minutes, He said to Athan with a serious expression, " Since you've already shown me two miracles I'll bet on you this time and take a risk for your favor in hope that it will be helpful to me in the future. "

Athan gave him thumbs up before asking, " So what risk are you talking about? "

Lafurge first took Athan into his home inside the Floating Palace and closed the door before saying with a serious expression, " I'll send you into a Danger Zone that was conquered by Thunder-Fire Valley, That danger zone is connected to the Source of Fire Element and Source of Thunder Element so It contains abundance amount of Thunder and Fire Elemental energy."

Hearing that Athan was excited.

" But..."

' Oh didn't hear him saying BUT in a long time,' Athan calmed down hearing `But` of Lafurge.

Lafurge took a breath before continuing, " I'll have to sneak you inside the zone because it only opens every 100 years, and only holy sons, holy daughters, and core elders are allowed to go in "

Athan was confused as he asked, " But there will be security at the entrance of the door right? how will you sneak me inside? "

" Of course there will be security and the one who secure that place is also a core elder, every core elder needs to take turns every year to secure that place and my turn is after 6 months, so you have to wait for 6 months, When my turn comes, I'll sneak you inside, until then I can let you stay inside one of my house in this floating island. "

Athan nodded hearing the plan and said, " Alright, But you have to tell me the later stages and how to cultivate now since I awakened affinities of Thunder and Fire element. "

Lafurge waved his hands opened a cupboard in the room before pulling out two books, He then gave both of them to Athan while saying, " One of the books explains how to train and the other book has information about later stages. "

After Lafurge took Athan to another Palace which was smaller and went inside, nobody really paid attention to both of them as they were all busy with their works, of course, everyone's not Elder Onuk.

Both of them arrived at the desk in the palace, The lady behind the desk looked at lafurge and said with a smile, " What do you want Elder Lafurge? "

Lafurge also smiled in response and said while pointing at Athan, " Sister Ruzi, This here is my little brother, Athan, as per my Authority as Core elder, I can allow two of my relatives to live inside this floating island right? "

Sister Ruzi looked at Athan and then at Lafurge as she said with a smile, " Of course you can Elder Lafurge, so I'll register his name as your relative ok? "

" Yep. Thanks, Sister Ruzi. "

Afterward, Lafurge took Athan to his new home outside the palace.

Looking at his new home which had a private area around it, Athan thought, ' So this is my new home? It's damn good. '

This house was like a small bungalow, It seemed to be built with white stones and looked solid with a very good design, although not as good as designs found on Earth, it looks good nonetheless.

Arriving here, Lafurge did not go inside and just said, " This is your new home, now you can start the practice by forming your elemental sea but first I suggest you clear the grey impurity inside your Psychic Realm before forming your elemental sea. "

Lafurge took a breath before speaking, " As you know, The Higher the grade of affinity the smoother their path of Elemental sorcerer is until they reach Elemental Mage. And you seem to have an even higher grade Peak-Grade Affinity, you won't have trouble control your elemental energy and as for spell casing, That depends on your understanding, There are spells methods listed at the end of the 2nd book, you can read and learn them.

But first, Clear the grey impurities so that when you absorb elemental energy you can directly refine them after forming Revolving Refinement Gate and skip the arduous work that elemental mages have to do, and directly become Elemental Archmage."

Athan nodded as he excitedly thought, ' Damn, So I can directly become an Elemental Archmage? FK!!! '

Seeing Athan's expression Lafurge sneered, "You're not alone in that one, Many people have done it like that, If they can unlock their Psychic Realm Before reaching Elemental Mage they can similarly skip Elemental mage stage,

but Creating a Revolving Refinement Gate is also not that easy, no one succeeds in the first try and it directly explodes once you fail to form it resulting in total drainage of your Psychic Energy and some damage to mental health. "

Athan just smiled and said, " Don't worry, I am different from others. "

Lafurge rolled his eyes as he bid farewell to Athan, " Alright I'll come back after 6 months, until then try to clear all grey impurities in your Psychic Realm. "

After waving his hands at Lafurge, Athan went inside his new home, He didn't waste time looking around and just directly laid in the bedroom before opening the book which contains the next stages after Elemental Mage.

Athan looked at the book while thinking, ' Now that I'm looking carefully, this book only has few pages...don't tell me that Lafurge scammed me? '

Athan opened the first page which had the same introduction as the book he found in his old home, He turned 3 pages and found the description and details of the next stage.

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Stage 6: Elemental Archmage

- To become an Elemental Archmage, One needs to Create a Revolving Refinement Gate inside their Elemental Sea using their Psychic Energy after all energy inside their Elemental Sea is refined manually by them in the Elemental Mage Stage.

- The use of the Revolving Refinement Gate is that From now on they don't need to manually Refine their energy after the normal energy is absorbed by them but when they absorb the energy, they pass it through the Revolving Refinement Gate which refines the energy before going inside their Elemental Sea.

- This way, They are constantly filled with refined Elemental Energy inside their Elemental Sea, unlike Elemental Mages who need to refine them manually and runs out of refined elemental energy quickly if they use it in battle.

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Stage 7: Elemental Overlord

- To Reach this stage, Elemental Archmages needs to transform the gaseous elemental energies inside their elemental sea into Liquid form but to do that, They need Mystic Energy which is a higher form of Psychic Energy and to get mystic energy is the most difficult stage because to get the mystic energy, They need to comprehend the true nature of Psychic Energy and once they successfully comprehend the true nature of Psychic Energy, They need to pass the test of Inner demons, Once they successfully pass the test, their Psychic Energy will successfully transform into Mystic Energy, and Their Psychic Realm will also transform into Mystic Realm, resulting in increased size and new black impurities which will then increase their reserve of Mystic Energy by clearing the black impurities.

Athan then turned to the next page only to see that there was no information about the next stage but only spells.