The secret realm.
Grey didn't know how much time had passed, nor how many times he had tried to wipe out an army or hundreds of thousands. He had tried, failed, tried, failed, and tried again, and failed again so many times that he was almost starting to go numb about it. He couldn't leave, he had tried to leave after trying so many times without success, but he couldn't.
There was no door in the room, and none of his attacks did anything to it.
He once again appeared in the scene, his body covered in dragon scales, his eyes giving off a bluish glow, he charged into the army, with a sword in his hand, he was a farmer harvesting his crops. With one slice, he cut through thousands of soldiers. Explosions were going off in different locations in the army of hundreds of thousands.
His inscriptions, fusion orbs, elemental attacks, physical attacks, mental attacks, everything, everything he had access to was used. He fought like a madman without a care for his life, he didn't try to defend. He figured that his dragon scales coupled with his frightening physical prowess means that even if he's hit by a few attacks from these guys, it's not going to be able to scratch him.
At least his higher cultivation stage means that he's immune to getting hurt in this fight.
Boom! Bam! Bang!
Grey's destructive prowess could almost be termed as magical at the moment. Most people wouldn't be able to achieve what he's doing at the moment, yet there he is, one man, against hundreds of thousands of people, and he was causing mayhem.
A minister went by, and during the last second, Grey killed off the last eighty people. His eyes could almost be termed as psychotic at the moment, there was nothing that could stop him.
He collapsed to the ground the moment he was done with the battle, breathing heavily.
'Congratulations.'
This was what Grey saw in his head, his body was teleported back to the same room he has always been taken to, and when he appeared there, he was instinctively afraid, thinking he had failed the task once again. He didn't know how long he has been trying, it felt like years, months, weeks, days, hours, and at the same time, minutes.
He didn't understand why he didn't get the right concept of time while he was there, but he didn't mind. All he wanted was for it to stop.
He looked around, and then a figure appeared before him.
"Congratu..."
The figure which appeared before Grey looked just like one of the statues, and he paused when he saw that there was only Grey.
"Where are the others?" The figure asked Grey.
"Others?" Grey was confused, not understanding the question.
"You completed it yourself?" The figure asked Grey skeptically.
"Can you increase above the black grade?" Grey asked.
The figure stumbled when he heard Grey's question, he was still trying to process how Grey had eight elements, yet Grey was asking him if he could increase an elemental grade above black, even he didn't have the black grade when he was still alive!
The man coughed and looked at Grey, "Are all your elements that high?"
"No, but I have no problems with getting them there." Grey's reply made the figure glitch.
The figure was more like a spiritual entity, so hearing Grey's shocking words, it almost went back to the spirit world and let the living deal with their problems alone.
'I want to help you kid, why are you trying to kill me again?'
This was the thought in the head of the figure. Anyone would have been exhilarated if they heard that their elemental grades could be increased, but Grey didn't seem fazed by this, it wasn't anything new to him which could clearly be seen on his facial expression.
"What do you want?" The man asked.
"Can you give me what you want to use to increase my elemental grade then? I have a few people I'd like to use it on." Grey asked when he saw the defeated expression of the figure. Since there was such a reward, he didn't mind taking it and passing it to Cori or someone else close to him.
He didn't care about Klaus and the others, their elemental grades were increasing just like his own, so there was no point in giving it to them.
The figure thought about it and then nodded, "Yes, I can pass it on to you. It's a technique, but it can only be used once. Also, you can't pass this on to others. It's not that I don't want you to, but you can't. The requirements are dire, and the only reason you can use it is due to the sacrifice already being paid."
"What's the price?" Grey was curious.
"Half of your life essence, and it's unfixable. Once it's sacrificed, you'll live the rest of your short life knowing you'll die soon." The man replied.
"Oh, since I completed the task alone, how many do I get?" Grey asked when shining eyes.
"The only reason you're getting it is because you achieved this alone. It's the ultimate reward. Normally those who pass through the trial are rewarded with elemental techniques." The man saw that Grey was expecting more than he should, so he had to explain to him so he wouldn't misunderstand.
'How many people do you think are willing to sacrifice half their life essence just to reward someone?'
The man almost wanted to smack Grey back to reality from the dream world he was seemingly living in.
Grey sighed and stretched out his hand begrudgingly, "Alright, give it to me."
The man felt defeated by Grey's character, who would react in such a manner after being told that someone sacrificed half of their life essence for him to have such a life changing reward.
One of the reasons this particular one is superior to those treasures that increase elemental grades is that, most of those ones can not guarantee that they can increase the elemental grade to the black grade from the previous grade, but this one is certain.