Shane was thankful that the old Elementals Emperor was so considerate towards him.
He knew that Shane was giving his best to become stronger, and instead of discouraging him, he tried to boost his confidence.
It was obvious that the path to attain a perfect foundation was extremely difficult, but Shane wouldn't listen to anyone who would try to deter him from achieving his goals.
As such, Old Emperor Kalur's words struck a chord with him.
He had gone out of the way to support Shane without expecting anything in return, a stark difference from how Emperor Kidar and Empress Idral acted.
Granted that they had allowed him to step a foot on their origin planet Masua and also allowed to enter the Starlight-river dimension once he finished his preparations, but their intentions hadn't been selfless. He had only gained these privileges due to the Empress's foresight ability and him helping the whole race to realize that the simple combat style adopted by them would lead to their downfall in a one-on-one battle.
Shane was unsure whether they were scheming against him in order to use his strength for their own gain or if they were sincere towards him and it was extremely difficult to decipher.
He couldn't even decipher their facial expression perfectly because they had a stoic, expressionless face in their humanoid form.
As such, Shane was barely able to tell what they felt by perceiving their body's fluctuations and released aura!
In the end, only the Old Emperor and maybe even Princess Ilya seemed to be their usual selves around him because he sensed that they weren't uncomfortable in saying whatever they wanted to.
Princess Ilya didn't even mind offending her people by telling them that they were extremely weak while the Old Emperor's aura was calm and joyous the whole time he answered Shane's questions.
Furthermore, he had answered without thinking about holding back any information which showed Shane that he was a genuinely curious and kind Elemental.
As if that was not enough, he was allowed to read everything in the library which was only possible after the Old Emperor gave him special permission.
Shane knew that the Old Emperor wanted the Elus-race to build a proper relationship with the human race which probably stemmed from the Empress's foresight ability. Other than that, there was no other reason for Kalur to act so courteously.
Kalur was welcoming and made Shane feel comfortable as he imparted his knowledge and wisdom to this promising youth, like an ancient scholar who would teach his faithful disciple.
After their question and answer session was over, Kalur excused himself, leaving Shane alone.
However, Shane didn't even notice that because he was already standing in front of a large shelf, reading the first book about the Starlight-river shelter.
'8 days...let's work hard in the next 8 days!!'
It was not like Shane had a specific task while he was in the Elementals empire, but after sparring with the Greater Elementals he noticed that his control over the mana that the world seed transferred him was extremely bad while the Slaughterer's Path technique also required a lot of refining.
Additionally, after exhausting every single resource to its fullest potential, Shane would transform into a strong, ferocious beast, however, that would merely last a few seconds.
As such, Shane wanted to find out a new combat style with which he could use everything to a certain extent to unleash his highest combat prowess without burdening his body too much!
In the end, he wanted to use the next eight days he would stay on Masua to fight against all kinds of Elementals to tweak and adjust to his own body, gauge the amount of mana he could extract from the world seed without burdening his body, refine his Slaughterer's Path technique and at the same time if he could, help the Elementals improve their combat style!
Other than that, he wanted to learn more about the Elus-race, what made them special, where they came from, how long ago they had entered the Primordial Dimensions, and so on.
While fighting against other Elementals, he would evidently form a stronger relationship with the whole race because he would be seen as someone who helped their race without demanding anything in return, which was somehow the case.
Shane was not asked to help anymore after two sparrings.
Furthermore, he heard from the Old Emperor that both Emperor Kidar and Empress Idral were not in Masua anymore which was interesting to know.
However, all of that could only be done after he acquired enough information about the Lesser Starlet Foxes, their habitat, and how the surrounding areas looked like!
In the beginning, Shane had only considered his visit to Masua as a short vacation and, at most, try to establish a firm relationship with the Elus-race, but this had changed somehow and he was working again.
This caused him to chuckle lightly before he focused on the thick book in front of him again.
Thus, eight days that were jam packed with work as well as some joy passed in a blur before Shane realized it.
The information he had received was insightful and Shane felt like he was ready to depart to the Starlight-river dimension immediately.
Unfortunately, he had to wait for the world seed to bloom and there were still many preparations to take care of before leaving.
Other than gathering information, Shane found it extremely interesting to fight against other Elementals because he noticed that the sparring where he held back had been the most interesting.
While he restricted his strength by a small margin to focus on his perception and tactics, his opponents were trying their best to defeat him, which was hardly possible due to their simple and predictable tactics.
The younger Greater Elementals began to change their combat style slowly but it was a hard and arduous path. Shane helped them passively, while he increased his own martial art proficiency.
Today, on the day of his departure, Shane was astonished to see a humanoid water elemental waiting outside his front door to guide him back to the Dimension Portal.
Following the water elemental, he got to know that his name was Firug Grila, which felt oddly familiar to Shane.
"Aren't you my assigned Merchant??" He exclaimed and Firug Grila nodded his head.
"Yes Sir, I'm the merchant you have a contract with, and I was assigned to you. Unfortunately, I couldn't meet Sir before but I always wanted to thank Sir for the contract we made several months ago. After Sir sent the large bulk of elemental crystals, I was promoted from a Rank-1 Merchant to a Rank-2 merchant.
Additionally, I received land and the title of a Knight from the Emperor after the Empress used her foresight ability to figure out whether you are good or bad for our race.
Thank you!!"
This came as an unexpected surprise to Shane who could only nod his head as he said
"I received a lot from our contract too! Thanks!"
Firug was equally surprised by his response and he quieted down after he noticed that Shane's words had attracted the attention of a few Elementals in their surrounding.
He was the last one who wanted to attract the attention of others of his race and his speed accelerated.
They didn't speak to each other anymore but Shane didn't find it uncomfortable to have some time for himself alone.
His world seed's demand for mana increased higher than he expected which he relayed onto everyone else who could only frown upon this information.
Nevertheless, during the last few days, his world seed's mana absorption had increased as well, which allowed him to store much more mana than the world seed demanded.
As such, he was confident that everything would be fine as long as his family wouldn't slack off in acquiring enough [Soul] grade mana stones!
Thus, his world seed's mana absorption wouldn't be a hindrance and he trusted his family enough.
If they were to slack off, what kind of role model would they be after they demanded him to work hard from a young age?
Smiling lightly, Shane couldn't help but be expectant for everything that would happen in the future as he mumbled
"Let's go home!"
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