Right now, neither of them had reached 30,000 power, even though they were close. And that was because their abilities had restrictions that didn't explicitly say so but were evident when they were in those predicaments.
After passing 25,000 power, neither of them could get power from people with less than 10,000 power.
In Alice, it was fine, as she could still get the additional percentage after killing people with 10,000 power. However, in Matt, there was a possibility that, in the near future, the ability would stop working on people with 10,000 power, which was frustrating.
Although, in part, it made sense. Even if they are growth-type abilities, at the end of the day, they must be coupled with the world's laws. The world will not allow gaps between the balance of races and growth-type abilities, in part, to break that balance. That is why the world must put restrictions on it.
'It's unfortunate, but there's nothing I can do.' He thought and sighed...
Alice noticed that he was complaining. "It's still good, Matt. The road to finding strength isn't easy. We've been able to get close to 30,000 power in such a short time and it's because of these abilities, but we can't always depend on them, can we?"
Matt nodded at him. "You're right. To find real strength, we must strengthen our bodies to the limit. Honestly, excessive power enhancement does us no good because we would be losing the path we chose to walk.
It seems like it's time we stop strengthening ourselves and focus on understanding the Path of Control more deeply; that way, we won't explode in the future." He finally laughed a little, causing Alice to relax.
They then looked at the horizon in front of them.
An extensive mountain range was laid out there, still a little ways away from them.
The Northern Mountains, better known as the Nevod Mountains, are where the Grand Sorcerers are based and are also known as the mightiest Mountains in the world.
'We'll still have a journey of a couple more months before we get there.' Matt thought, staring at the mountains intently.
That was how they managed to get into the grounds of the Nevod Mountains, and right now, they were walking in the direction of one of the Main Cities of this mountain range.
The Spiritual City. It is known for having the Spiritual Academy there.
What is the Spiritual Academy? Matt and Alice were curious about this, as it was the first time they had heard of it.
It is an Academy based on soul and spirit studies. Its mission is to create a new alignment capable of rivaling the Three Alignments of the Empire, and it does so by invoking spiritual beings from a recently discovered world: the Spirit World.
It is said that the Director and Founder of the Academy was an ordinary person until 100 years ago, before founding the Academy. At that time, he was fortunate enough to stumble upon an entrance to this world, which caused him to form a contract with a mighty Spirit, resulting in his power skyrocketing in every way, and he is now a respected man throughout the Empire.
That person founded the Academy and has been imparting the teachings of spirit summoning. Right now, the Spirit Academy has over 10,000 students around the Empire. The director is open-minded, and the Academy accepts all races. The only races it doesn't accept are Vampires and Devourers.
But they even have dragons and such at this Academy, which are powerful.
Matt and Alice were interested in this and wondered if they could enter the said Academy to discover what they were up to. Matt was more interested in finding out how to summon.
But both lost almost all interest when they learned that it is done by Spirit Summoning Magic. Already Vampires don't seem to be good with magic; Spirit Summoning Magic is as opposite to them as Divine Magic is to Divine Knights, so they were less likely to accomplish anything.
That was the thought they had until Matt discovered something.
It was something related to the hexagonal items they had gotten earlier, and because of that, they were now heading to that City.
They want to become students.