Noel and Anna continued for another ten minutes.
Anna managed to slow down the rate of her Spiritual Energy leaving her body. If she could maintain this rate for a period of time, she could begin the second phase which was to create an outer layer that would contain the Spiritual Energy.
Meanwhile, Noel was still struggling to decrease the rate of his Spiritual Energy. But compared to what it was ten minutes ago, the current rate was only a fourth of its original rate.
Noel also noticed one problem that might actually help him in this challenge. "Can I ask a question?"
"Sure." Old Ru nodded with a serious expression while watching their progress.
"What is Spiritual Energy? Are they like gas coming out of our bodies? Or is it like water? Or maybe it's something that I don't know about?"
"!!!" Old Ru was quite surprised by the question, yet Anna actually answered that question first.
"Spiritual Energy doesn't have any form. In fact, its form follows anything that it's attached to. For example, if you're trying to circulate your Spiritual Energy inside your body, it will have a liquid form, which is like blood flowing in your body. Once it's outside, it will use air as a medium, which is like gas."
"I see…" Noel nodded and began to change his approach once he knew about it. If the Spiritual Energy inside his body was like blood, then the process of letting it out and turning it into gas should be evaporation.
Just like how the water turned into vapor when boiling, he imagined the blood evaporated, releasing Spiritual Energy. His hand would be acting as the bowl used to boil it.
Noel had just made a connection that he thought was the correct one for him. If his power was the one that acted like fire, boiling all that Spiritual Energy, he should focus on his control to find the right flame for this to work.
The flame couldn't be too big, but it couldn't be too small either.
All of a sudden, Noel's rate of releasing Spiritual Energy began to decrease. In just another five minutes, he managed to bring the output to only ten percent.
On the other hand, Anna had begun to work with the outer layer.
Their pace might be different, but they were improving at a rate Old Ru never saw before.
'Are they serious? I can understand Anna, but Noel… How does he progress so quickly? It's not that I don't believe him, it's just that his talent is beyond my imagination. Is he using a drug or something?' Old Ru frowned. In the end, he thought it was Noel's talent, not realizing his medal and other things also contributed greatly to his growth.
'I haven't even explained the easiest way to control Spiritual Energy, but it seems that Anna has the same knowledge about it. I guess I don't have to do anything for the time being.'
Just like that, another ten minutes passed.
Anna had formed an outer layer and tried to contain the Spiritual Energy inside before shrinking it. However, the longer she did this, the harder it was to maintain that level of Spiritual Energy.
Meanwhile, Noel had reached the desired amount of Spiritual Energy. Then, he began creating the outer layer.
'What kind of outer layer do I want?' Noel asked himself. Since he was using boiling water as a reference, he continued with it. 'In that case, the outer layer is like a lid. By putting the lid on, I can contain the vapor inside.'
Noel tried to form a layer a few centimeters above his skin, making it look big. However, he gradually shrank it.
"Kh." Noel gritted his teeth, having trouble controlling the outer layer.
Meanwhile, Anna managed to reach her minimum goal. The outer layer might not be as thin as Old Ru, but it could be considered as another layer of clothes covering her hand.
However, this was her current limit. If she tried to push it, the Spiritual Energy would go berserk.
Anna's extensive knowledge and experience deemed the spot where she had to stop. Unfortunately, Noel didn't have that.
As a result, he continued shrinking the outer layer to the best of his ability. The Spiritual Energy started to fill up the space inside the outer layer and expand to the point where they were pushing back his control.
"…" Noel's expression gradually became distorted as he had a hard time controlling it.
"Keep shrinking." Noel gritted his teeth, doing his best. But when the outer layer was only three centimeters away from the skin, his control couldn't contain the Spiritual Energy from exploding.
Just like water vapor, the Spiritual Energy kept increasing inside. With no way out, the pressure from the Spiritual Energy began to increase. Once Noel failed to control it, it popped like a balloon, releasing a shock wave.
The shock wave was strong enough to knock Noel down to the ground.
"Kh." Noel gritted his teeth. "It hurts."
Anna was startled and immediately retracted the Spiritual Energy, not wanting it to explode. After that, she checked on Noel before grinning, "You failed?"
"No way! I'm just a late bloomer." Noel snorted. He could see that her progress was beyond him, but he immediately got up and challenged it for the second time.
Old Ru could only shake his head, realizing that these two were not geniuses but monsters.
"Your talents are not so bad." Old Ru nodded in approval. As much as he wanted to acknowledge their talents, it wouldn't be too good if they became too complacent. "You manage to reach that level within thirty minutes… I can say that I'm quite surprised. However, you have to reach the skin level within a day. It's fine if it can last only for one second. But you should do it!"
Noel and Anna nodded with serious expressions. Little did they know, Old Ru was adding inwardly, 'Even though it was supposed to be a task for a week… Maybe I was too harsh?'