"Why spirits have to be so complicated?"
"You are just too simplistic, Leon," Sylph said.
"I'm not complicated," Celsius protested.
Now Leon couldn't even talk alone inside his head without hearing some sharp remarks... Regardless, as expected, Leon found an intermediate Efreet's fragment. But in order to receive his power and cooperation, Efreet demanded a duel.
Congratulations! The skill Ice Armor has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! The skill Ice Armor has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! The skill Ice Armor has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
...
Leon looked back and saw Efreet flying fifty meters away from him, even from that distance, he could feel the heat of his flames. Fortunately, despite being at a low level, Ice Armor was making things more refreshing for Leon. Still, Leon was running out of mana and didn't know how to defeat the fire spirit since he didn't have any ice offensive spell at a high level aside from Ice Beam. Leon could use that to cool Efreet down, but he would have to get a bit closer.
"Why are you running away, human?" Efreet asked while he was smiling viciously. "Come and face me! This won't be fun if you keep running forever."
Although facing Efreet directly would be a problem, at least Leon knew that he would be more cooperative than Celsius regarding training and battles. Things would get even noisier inside his head, but then again... everything has a price.
"In the end, he won't agree to work with me unless I face him directly and without using any cheap tricks or spells like Mana-Eater..."
Efreet fired a massive Fire Spear as if his presence alone wasn't enough to put everything on fire. Although they had the same speed while Leon was using Haste alone, the spear quickly approached Leon. Without much choice, Leon used Transfer and appeared behind Efreet.
"It is time to end this..." Leon said and then shot Thunder Ray and Ice Beam.
Efreet got hit by both attacks and started to tremble. Leon barely could keep his eyes open due to the heat, but at least he could see that the ice he was creating was quickly melting around Efreet's body, but at least the water was increasing the power of Thunder Ray before it could become steam.
Efreet was resisting, as expected, it was a bit too much face an intermediate spirit without using external sources to recover his mana. However, much to Leon's surprise, his ice was starting to surpass Efreet's heat... after thirty seconds, his body was covered in a thick layer of ice.
"Seriously?" Leon asked in shock.
Leon stopped and jumped back, imagining that probably wasn't the case... he got stronger. Still, Leon couldn't believe that he got strong to the point where he could defeat an intermediate spirit so fast and without relying on externals sources to recover his mana. Fortunately, the ice was melting little by little, and that was a sign that Efreet was alive.
"Now that I think about... recently, I put all my points into intelligence in order to learn teleport as soon as I can. Maybe that explains my sudden power up."
Since he didn't fight all that much in a while, Leon didn't notice that. However, since he put more than one thousand points in intelligence, his magic offensive powers got a little more than two times stronger. Suddenly, the chunk of ice where Efreet was locked exploded.
"Hahaha! You almost killed me, human!" Efreet laughed maniacally. "You defeated me. My power is yours. However, once I become strong again, we will fight again! Hahaha!"
Efreet turned into a sphere of light and then entered Leon's body. That was one hell of a weird spirit since he laughed like a demon king, but despite that, he wasn't evil per se... burning half of a forest was something pretty bad. However, Leon wouldn't complain since he just received his powers.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Fire Armor.
Cost: 50 mana per second.
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Summon Efreet's Fragment.
Cost: 30 mana per second.
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! The skill Fire Resistance has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! The skill Pyromancy Resistance has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! The skill Fire Blessing has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
...
Leon sighed in relief and then smiled satisfied when he saw Fire Resistance leveling up to the level four hundred, Pyromancy leveled up until the level two hundred, and the same thing happened to Fire Blessing. Leon's status points increased by two hundred... pretty nice progress for a single day of work.
"Oh? Sylph and Celsius are already here?" Leon imagined Efreet frowning while he said that. "Did you guys got beaten by him two? I bet I was the one which lasted for longer."
"Heya, Efreet," Sylph said.
"Only someone stupid would waste time fighting and destroy half of a forest just to have fun," Celsius said.
"I lasted longer, right?" Efreet asked. "No need to feel embarrassed, you two can admit."
"We didn't fight," Sylph said.
"... Just shut up already," Celsius said after a long sigh.
Leon also sighed... because things got a lot noisier than he had expected. Although Leon wanted to extinguish the fire Efreet caused, the flames disappeared the very moment Efreet became Leon's partner. A massive part of the forest had been burned... but in the end, Leon couldn't do anything for that place. He already had his own problems to worry about, after all.