Beneath the Citadel, my training and mining sessions with Ava carry on.
I begin using the same instinctual ether summoning I did to block her attacks, but this time, I cover my fists in the warm white glow.
My footwork and movements are slow, and I can't land a single attack on the hobgoblin's body. However, she lets me practice my punches, slowing her movement speed to block with her hammer instead of going fully on offense during our sparring sessions.
After three hours pass, and 30 more ether stones are collected from two other mining pits, it's clear I've improved a lot.
I'm able to block all of her attacks, summoning ether extremely quickly to cover the areas on my body where she makes contact.
Before, I was lucky to stop one out of ten attacks, but now I can block every single one.
I'm even able to imbue my footsteps with warm streams of ether to dodge and counter; however, Ava is able to do the same with much greater efficiency.
Using this lower ether setting, our attack power is identical, but every time I have a breakthrough with my speed, she manages to outmaneuver me.
She speaks up, breathing heavily after we finish our latest session. "Not bad... Looks like you're getting used to your Ether Commands. Your natural fighting instincts are extremely sharp, maybe even sharper than mine. It's just that Premium Avatar of yours. Your level threshold when you ascended must not have been very high. Your speed and strength are similar to the non-ranked-up goblins."
I think to myself that this is only because I'm being held back by my weight and the constraints of the purple exo-suit I'm wearing.
"Yeah... hopefully, I can overcome this soon..."
We climb out of the mining pit we're in, as all the surface stones have been taken out, and head further into the green divine fog in the direction of the Citadel.
After about a kilometer of walking, stopping sporadically to dig out ether stones from the surface, we pick up nine more in no time. However, as we continue walking forward, I feel an extremely warm sensation pulling at my consciousness, urging me further in the direction we're already heading.
It's far hotter than any of the stones we've found so far, but Ava calls out from my side before I even get the time to point it out.
"We're approaching the outer limit of our mining territory. My exile contract won't let me pass this point. We'll have to turn back and check out some of the other old pits. There are quite a few left."
I raise an eyebrow and point in the direction we're heading.
"Let me check this out first. I can sense a few stones just up ahead, no more than 100 meters."
Ava stops in place, looking down at the ground in front of her, then up at me while I keep walking forward. Her eyes widen.
"You can pass through the borders...? But how? Your avatar should have automatically created an exile contract the moment you entered our zone..."
Her confusion mirrors my own, as I have no idea what border she speaks of or what these exile contracts really are. The burning sensation in my mind only gets hotter the more steps I take, so I reply while continuing forward.
"Right, I don't know. I'll be back in a minute."
I run off toward the ether stones, leaving Ava behind to disappear into the green mist.
As I move forward, fewer mounds of black rocks pile up around me, and the surface becomes completely flat.
It's as if no stones have been moved here by living hands. Everything looks like it has naturally settled, and the bright white glows all around hit my senses.
Within 20 meters, I feel over a dozen identical stones to the ones that previously required kilometers of area to sense.
However, I don't stop to grab any of them. The burning hot sensation is still ahead, growing stronger.
I walk past the dimly glowing white stones littering the area and approach a single, extremely bright glowing white rock.
When I bend down to grab it, it feels almost hot. Just from the physical contact, I feel more ether pouring into my body in seconds than I've ever managed in thirty minutes of concentrating on draining the dimmer stones.
My head turns slightly to the right as another burning hot sensation floods into my mind. I run toward it without a second thought.
"So, if I can go outside the border and find enough of these stones, your exile contract will be voided, right? And we could make it back to the Citadel?"
Her eyes widen again.
"It's... well... I don't know... Theoretically, it's possible, but—"
I cut her off. "Then that's the new plan."
I sit down with the white stone in my hand and begin absorbing as much Ether as I can from it while murmuring a new offer.
"We split these and spar again, this time at a higher setting than that minimum you've been holding back with. I need to get stronger, and you want to be free. What do you say? We split what I find until you meet your final quota's needs."
She reaches down to grab another 4th Class Ether stone, scanning it and then staring down at me in awe for a few seconds before activating the automatic ether drain and replying.
"There is no reason to say no... Deal."
–
Over the next hour, I work on draining pure ether from four of the stones, bringing them down to about two-thirds of the way drained before it gets harder to pull the remaining amount out.
With such an abundant supply of stones within my reach, I feel the most time-efficient approach is to let Ava drain the rest for herself.
With a far larger amount of Ether being absorbed each time, I can visualize and feel the energy flowing into the stores within my consciousness.
An odd filtering sensation washes over me, as though the raw Ether being drained from these stones is being altered the instant it falls into my stores. I get the instinctual feeling this isn't normal, and my mind flashes back to a white leaf I touched within the Demon's Throne. Ember called it a low-quality Ether cleansing herb.
I have no direct evidence of this, but the Ether entering my system feels as though it's being filtered or cleansed in some way before making its way into my mind.
When I stand to my feet again, taking a deep breath in and out, I try to summon more energy from my Ether stores to cover my fists. It still feels as though I have an endless pool to draw from, but the speed at which my mind gains access to the Ether is slightly faster.
I look over to Ava, who drained the last remains of my fourth stone. She speaks up.
"Even your Ether draining technique is weird... Is that a Premium Avatar trait too?"
I shrug.
"Something like that... It's slower, but I believe it's a superior technique."
Then I smirk and put my fists up.
"Come on, let's spar. You have more than enough excess Ether now to use the power level in our battle when you were trying to kill me, right?"
She raises her hammer and chuckles.
"Fine, I'll stop prying. And yeah, one of these stones is more than enough."
Then, I watch her hammer glow ten times brighter than before, just as it did in our first battle. I concentrate and try to layer the Ether like I did before in order to block.
However, I'm nowhere near fast enough yet.
Even with the small increase in reaction and summoning speed I believed I had, before I can even register what's happened, I'm helplessly sent flying backward tens of meters before hitting a pile of black rocks, tingling all over.
Ava flies my way, grinning, and Ether-stepping with every stride. She's begun planning another attack before I can even heal the tingling in my chest from her first hit.
"You want to get stronger, right? Now that I don't have to limit my Ether usage, I'll go all out!"