Chapter 329 Training Begins  

'So I need to create at least two original skills on a close scale, if not on par with what Erebus created to achieve the Fourth Rank promotion,' Alex thought as he regained control over his body.

Alex never considered himself as good as Erebus, even though he had better results with the evolution fruit and believed he had better elemental talent.

It was because Erebus was born a titan, a race born with the gift to rule over elements, as even their lineage-descended, with the strongest of them being Giants, were on par with the Royal Dragons.

'The skills utilized by Erebus appear to be a combination of my current arsenal of class skills like, for instance, the Reaper Leeches skill likely fuses the properties of Reaper's Grasp and Mana Siphon skills,'

'Similarly, Abyssal Lightning Storm seems to combine Abyssal Lightning and Abyssal Maelstrom skills.' Alex thought, after analyzing the skills a bit, seeing the similarities.

Alex knew that the basis of Erebus's skills could be something else entirely, but he did not doubt that they were original skills.

Erebus didn't just create those two skills by combining two or more third Ranks skills that he already had mastery over instead, he created them from scratch and learned to execute them instantly.

'I still have a few hours, so let's put them to good use,' Alex thought as he looked at the time.

"Lady Luculia, I want to exit," Alex said, and without any delay, his vision turned dark, and the next moment, he was standing in the main chamber. "Elder, I am ready to train," Alex said after finding only his two guardians standing in the chamber with Varon nowhere to be seen.

Alex turned around, pressed the entry badge against the door, and in an instant, he found himself back on the grassy field, with both of his guardians appearing by his side moments later.

"Margaret, Darrien, It has been some time since I last saw you," Lady Luculia said with a warm smile, her eyes reflecting genuine affection.

"Lady Luculia, it is a pleasure to see you again," Lady Margaret said, her smile accompanied by a respectful bow of her head, while Elder Darrien, as stoic as ever, simply nodded in acknowledgment.

"Domain Ruler, You should know that you need to create two or more skills of the highest grade possible with your gifts to advance your Rank, but I don't think you want to train with a singular goal of Rank advancement," Lady Margaret remarked, shifting her attention to Alex.

"I want to stand against my perfect self, at least to a point where I can consider it be a good fight and not a one-sided massacre," Alex said, knowing that the two months he had set for himself would not be enough to back his words, still he would try his very best till the moment he advances to fourth Rank.

"Let's work toward achieving that goal," Lady Margaret said with a bright smile.

"Domain Ruler, we will divide your time into three stages. Forty percent of it will be dedicated to fighting against your base version of yourself, using no skills other than your two elemental manipulations."

"This means relying solely on your sword, your senses, and your control over chaos and darkness to keep yourself alive in your battles,"

"Thirty percent of your time will be focused on learning and studying magic circles, combining them to create new spells."

"Twenty percent of your time you can spend between experiencing memories or reliving historical events, while the last 10% will be for meditating in the rich mana environment to refine your control over it,"

"I believe we have seventeen hours before you take your leave, so let's make them count," Lady Margaret said as she pointed toward the distance where his clone was standing, ready with his sword drawn. 'He may have the same stats, but he is backed by the experience of the data bank, and he is more of a threat than any opponent I can face,' Alex thought as he summoned his sword and expanded his mana sense.

Alex moved using phantom walk, and in the blink of an eye, his sword cleaved and sliced through his clone's neck, which was just a mirage as the clone was already behind him, ready to pierce his blade through his heart.

Alex didn't even try to move, already having sensed that one of his feet was going inside a hole of darkness that appeared just as he touched the ground, so with little time to defend, he swiftly bent down, avoiding the sword thrust and swung his sword in a complete circle.

Alex placed his hand on the ground and instantly created a dome of darkness around him to defend against the barrage of magic spears raining down from every direction and then quickly pulled his feet from the dark hole.

Alex made the dome collapse and instantly disappeared, and what welcomed him were ten darkness clones zooming toward him.

Alex avoided the darkness clones, knowing they were just a diversion and walking bombs, and instead expanded his mana sense to locate his target.

It took just a moment to find his clone standing in the sky with tens of dark spears suspended around him, and as their gaze met, instantly, the ten darkness clones started to explode one by one while the spears rained down in the chaos.

Alex kept eyes on the clone, but sentencing him to prepare a condensed Ebon Lance made him feel that something was amiss, so he instantly used his eyes of the ancient to look at the clone, and what he saw was a much weaker aura than it should have been, making him realize he was looking at a Doppelganger.

But Alex was a tad bit too late in his realization as he felt a sword slicing through his face, followed by darkness cloaking his eyes that lasted just an instant before he was looking back at the field of grass.

'He must have used the Doppelganger skill before we even started the clash, and as he didn't use any area-wide cloaking skill to hide its presence, I didn't suspect a thing.'

'He kept my attention on himself and forced me into a dome and rained down weak spears that only acted to disrupt my mana sense, and in that small window, he created nine clones and hid among them as the tenth,'

'Lastly, he used the darkness manipulation to mask his presence and take my head off in the chaos,'

'A simple plan that only worked because I was too focused on what I knew he could do and not enough on what I didn't know he could do,' Alex thought, feeling irritated that he hadn't landed a single hit and had died.

"You are focussing on the wrong thing,"

"Your goal for going into this battle was not winning, but to learn, refining your senses and learning to wield your elemental manipulation in battle, refining your control over them," Elder Darrien said as if he were reading Alex's thoughts.

"Lady Luculia, please keep reviving me mid-battle and only end a session after every ten minutes," Alex said and then turned toward his clone, who stood ready in the distance.