From morning till midday, Raze had been practicing the 10 Descending Steps. Although he had only reached the fourth step, he noticed that the other steps were getting a bit more complicated for him to learn.
He was covered in sweat, and even his back was drenched; his Qi was starting to run out, so he felt like it was best to put a stop to learning the steps for now.
'I can perform three of the steps in one motion together, and I can perform four of the steps on their own,' Raze thought as he looked at the scene around him.
There were several footprints all over the area, imprinted in the stone. The area was even sunken in more as Raze had destroyed a few layers of rock already. The whole area was perhaps five inches lower down than it was before.
'I thought I might get to learn all ten steps, but at the rate this is going, it might take me a week or even longer,' Raze thought.
While resting, he felt like he needed a way to gather back his Qi. He could have taken one of the pills, but that was part of his promise to give to Dame, and he didn't want to go back on his word.
Looking up at the position of the sun, he could see it was about midday, so he still had a few more hours before he needed to meet with Dame. Sitting down with his legs crossed on top of a rock, he thought out.
'Should I try the cultivation of life and death again?'
Immediately, the hairs on the back of Raze's neck as well as on his arms stood up strong. It was a reaction from his body at just the thought of going back there.
'I thought I had seen everything, nothing that I could be afraid of. I even faced countless high-level beasts and have been on the brink of death many times, so why does that hand, that voice scare me? It sounded like a woman's.'
Shaking his head, Raze decided it was best not to try that again. Even though he was away from the city. Although he had managed to attack it, or maybe he didn't even, it didn't seem hurt either.
'I guess until I learn how to defeat a ghost, I shouldn't try to cultivate, at least not in the Demonic Faction.'
Instead, Raze decided to use the Dark Essence Technique, which increased his magic core rather than his Dantian. It was better than doing nothing. After resting for about an hour, he was now able to at least do something.
Standing up, rather than going through the ten steps again, Raze had switched books, and this time, he wanted to go through the sword formations. But he realized he had made one fatal mistake.
"I don't have a sword," Raze said to himself. "I guess step one in learning sword techniques should be to have a sword."
Raze tapped his index finger on the bottom of his chin until eventually, another image came to him—it was of the battle mages.
Getting in a stance, Raze held both his hands out and imagined that there was a sword in his hand. He held it at the bottom of the hilt, then his magic started to swirl around his hand.
As he lifted both hands above his head and swung it down, a slash of wind came out, but it had done nothing, apart from blowing some of the leaves in the area.
'I guess I don't have enough wind attribute or mana to fully condense a sword out of wind magic. Still, it does make me wonder. If I had a sword and learned the techniques, couldn't I add wind magic to my attacks? Would that make it even more powerful compared to before.'
Thinking about combining his magic along with the Pagna martial arts reminded Raze of the Dark Faction's founder. He wondered if he had ever done such a thing, which was why he rose to the position he was, or was Raze a first for it all.
Either way, since Raze had no sword, he would have to practice properly another day.
After heading back, it wasn't long until Raze had met Dame again and had passed on all the pills in a bottle. Dame looked at it in admiration, holding it up.
"Thank you for this; I'm confident that I'll win this battle no matter what," Dame said.
"When do you head out?" Raze asked.
"Tomorrow," Dame replied in a serious tone as he threw the bottle over to Fixteen. "I meet those that will be going with me tonight. The Light Faction being who they are, claiming to be honorable people, have politely set a date for our little battle."
Hearing this reminded Raze of his first meeting with Beatrix, who had called out her name before they fought. The Light Faction members certainly did seem to have an odd righteous culture about them.
"With all the help you have provided us, though, I'm sure we might not fail, maybe," Dame's confidence was wavering, and he had every right to be, since it was Beatrix Highborn they were talking about. An uneasy feeling was felt in his stomach.
"Pagna battles don't last long, so you'll hear back from us in a couple of days," Dame said, waving away.
"Yeah, and if you don't, we'll be dead," Fixteen commented, to which received a hard slap on the back of his head.
Seeing the two of them head off, a thought did occur to Raze. 'Should I follow them and head to the fight tomorrow? I could stay a far distance and support him if needed. It would also be good to see a fight between two high-level Pagna warriors?'
The risks, though, were still incredibly high, so before he would be able to even make his decision, Raze pulled out the warrior statue and the metal mask he had obtained, along with the level 2 power stones.
"It's time I make some strong items for myself," Raze smiled.