Raze had been relatively busy in the Demonic Faction, and he hadn't left the cave where he had originally teleported. He wasn't sitting idly by twiddling his thumbs, as he had a purpose for staying in the cave. Because of this, it had taken a bit longer than he initially realized before he left.
Thankfully, being a Stage 2 Pagna warrior, he needed less sleep than he usually would have. So he could still function somewhat properly after he left.
There were no issues in terms of a portal break, so he decided to head back through the teleporter to the Pagna Academy. Stepping through, he had returned.
'This fog is quite annoying,' Raze thought as soon as he arrived, he activated part of his wind magic around his body. With the wind, he was constantly pushing out, creating what was somewhat of a barrier.
The fog around him moved, and now he could see at least two meters ahead.
'It makes me wonder, just how thick this fog is. I haven't even explored the entire area because I don't know where it goes. Humans tend to walk in circles when they don't know where they're going. Even if they think they are heading in a straight line.
'It's quite possible that there might be other things down here as well. I guess when my wind affinity increases, then I'll be able to clear most of the fog in this area and explore a bit more.'
Raze wasn't expecting to find anything, but then again, he originally wasn't expecting to find anything when he had found the cave.
'Now, I have to figure out how to scale this thing without the others. I assume Dame just carried everyone up. He was able to use the smallest surface area to just boost himself and only from kicking. I guess I could try and give it a go.'
At the time when Raze had been carried up by Dame, he was watching him very carefully. Although he didn't have as much Qi as Dame, he was thinking that he could replace the Qi with something else, and that something else being Mana.
Taking a deep breath, Raze ran up and jumped in the air. His foot was ready to kick off one of the rocks. When his foot made contact, he exploded it with Qi, just like he would when performing the descending steps. At the same time, he added additional strength with his wind magic surrounding his leg.
It wasn't much of a boost, although he had a lot of Mana compared to before, now being a 3-star mage. With his wind affinity at 24 points, it would be similar to a 1-star mage who specialized in wind magic.
When kicking off, Raze had quite the boost but then realized that he had nowhere to place his foot to scale up.
With the added wind, he had at least made it ten meters in height, and falling back down would hurt somewhat.
Thinking fast, Raze started to form a chilly mist in his hand.
"The formation of ice."
It was the only Ice spell Raze would know, and usually, he would think the skill was useless. The Ice magic had solidified into a stubby, pointed spike in his hand. Holding it firmly, he used his Qi to shove it right into the wall of rock in front of him.
When the ice hit, shards of it were breaking off, but reinforcing it with more of his mana, he was keeping its solid form, finally lodging it in. Now, still holding onto the ice, Raze was hanging on the cliffside with one arm stretched out.
When looking down below, all he could see was the thick fog, unable to guess where the bottom was, and when looking up, it was the same. He couldn't see the peak of the cliff.
'I guess I have a long way to go still. This is going to be a bit more difficult than I thought, but it's not like I haven't gotten out of tougher situations.'
By the time Raze had arrived at the blue headband living quarters, the sun had fully risen, and before he took further steps in, he stopped. The sun was shining, hitting on a single woman who was sitting there waiting at the bottom of the steps. Her head was tilted partly on her shoulder and her eyes were closed.
'Did she stay here all night waiting for me?' Raze thought.
Memories filled Raze's head. When he would reach his apartment door, opening it up, back then, there was a person who would wait for him as well, with a smile on her face.
A lump could be felt filling up in his throat, one that he had chosen to swallow down.
'How long has it been… how long since someone waited for me ? I can't believe, with all my anger, I almost forgot about us.'
"What are you doing?" Raze said as he walked closer toward Safa.
The voice startled her awake, and when she looked up, she could see the scruffy white hair.
"If you stay out here all night, then you'll get sick. Then, I'm going to have to make another pill, and I'm already tired," Raze commented.
A short while after his return, the others had come out of their rooms, and now everyone was in the main centre hall where students would usually gather. Since they were still the only students present, the whole place was empty.
It made sense for the no-names and Dame, who wasn't really a student, but not for Liam, and Simyon was still curious why he hadn't gone back to his family or clan like the others, but it just felt a bit awkward to ask.
Especially since whenever they would talk, Liam tended to say something a bit on the pervy side or mention something about his balls, which just made Simyon want to punch him in the face more.
"I am here to fulfill my promise to you all," Raze said as he stood up from his seat, and in front of each one of them, he placed down a yellow-colored pill. Immediately, as Raze pulled his hand away, everyone's eyes were glued to the pills.
This was because there was some type of radiant energy glowing from the pill itself. They could feel Qi power coming from what was right in front of them. Immediately, Liam went to pick it up to check, and as he held it up, he could see the small marking of DM written on it.
"What is this? This looks like the Qi pills that we get from the academy, but it seems to have so much energy inside it!" Liam said in amazement.
Looking at them, they all felt the same way.
"Wait, wait, before I get excited, I need to remind myself, what you took was a level 4 power stone. Do you think a simple Qi pill is the equivalent of that?" Liam asked.
"A simple Qi pill," Dame chuckled, who hadn't said anything until now. "That isn't a simple Qi pill. Although it might not be at the same strength as a level 4 power stone, what you have in front of you is equivalent to a level 3 power stone, that is, a 30-year Qi pill."
Liam's single eye almost popped out of its socket when he heard those words. Qi pills tended to go up in 10-year equivalents.
A 10-year Qi pill, the same as if a person used a simple cultivation technique for ten years and gathered the energy, a 20-year pill, and now they had a 30-year pill in their hands.
"I think it's fair to say since he has given each of you a 30-year pill, that is fair since it would be impossible to split a level 4 power stone," Dame wanted to say more than this because a 30-year pill shouldn't have even been possible.
Dame was there with Raze every step of the way. They had only gone against level 2 Beasts, so the most that Raze should have been able to produce was a 20-year Qi pill. He imagined that this was only possible because it was the Dark Magus's doing.
Dame was right as well.
Now that Raze was a 3-star mage, he could use the magic circle on the level 2 power stones to create a level 3 power stone. The process would take three level 2 power stones all together and wouldn't guarantee to work, but Raze had 50 stones to play with.
After repeating the process a few times and a couple of failures with all three of them, Raze still had over 30 stones left and had in turn, created three 30-year Qi pills.
"There's one more thing for all of you that you don't realize either," Dame continued. "With how the three of you currently are, if you take and absorb those pills now, you will have a breakthrough. All of you will become second-stage warriors, the same level as the other Red Headband users."