After having had my debut in the arena I decided to fight at least two to three times a week, most of my time should be devoted to my training after the conversation I had with Captain Raven most of my doubts disappeared, and now I know what kind of processes my elementary seed must go through.
Before my mistress shows up, I hope my elemental seed has started to change, but during the months after my fight I wasn't the only one focusing on training. Both Hilda and Ingredi did not return to the institute to train when classes were restarting, both went into seclusion.
Hilda is focusing on completing the stage of her arts and starting production her spear, it looks like all the materials are ready and the frozen heart master is in the Menfis family mansion waiting for the moment that Hilda is ready to start the process of making the spear.
According to her presence and vital for the spear to be forged, her aura, elemental energy and blood will be added to the spear sticks several times by different stages of crafting. It sounds like a pretty complicated and expensive process, but that also means it's relatively safe because if it hadn't been for Ingredi I would have complained, it seems I'm not the only one worried about the path Hilda chose to take.
Ingredi has also gone into seclusion to prepare for the approvals she may face during her team's missions. The 'path' a mage has is quite different from fighters and there are also several options for her to choose from, but I didn't even have a class on it as this type of course can only be attended by mages at the institute.
From what Ingredi told me her path is pretty orthodox just like mine, she is focused on increasing her ability and affinity with her mana rather than her element. I was quite surprised by this, but from what she told me that focusing on mana is the best path for battle mages who have to develop their combat capability in a more comprehensive way.
Mages who focus on their elemental affinity to increase their combat power are mages who focus on developing their massive destructive power, but end up not developing adaptive defenses. This type of style is for stationary mages who are usually protected by warriors and mages or fortifications, the destructive power of these mages is incredible, but their death rate when they are attacked directly is pretty big too.
Ingredi is focusing her training on not only being more skilled at casting her magic in a short period of time and on the move when she is being attacked, but she is also strengthening her body and close-range fighting skills with her magic. It looks like she has a list of a dozen close combat spells, I was surprised by this I didn't think the close combat spells are that different from the spells Ingredi has mastered.
Mainly the body strengthening spell, it is not popular because it spends a lot of mana for a not-so-great effect. Mages weren't meant to have strong physical bodies, but from what Ingredi told me there are ways to circumvent that weakness. Ingredi's family who have already investigated a large amount of funds in Hilda have not invested much in her either.
Ingredi has both a set of runes tattooed on his body and a set of body gear to help protect, strengthen his body and his affinity for mana and elemental energy. All items are quite expensive, but when you add that they are able to resonate with her staff and each other to increase their properties, the cost of making them should double or even triple.
The Menfis family is really sparing no expense on both, even though both may be the matriarchs of the family it is uncommon for noble families to do so. Noble families like theirs may have great money-making capabilities, but their expenses are also usually very large and when you combine the conflicts that the nobles were having added to the expenses of preparations for the upcoming war, I doubt the finances of the Menfis family are very good to invest so much money in both.
I'm really curious to see how Ingredi will change after several months of training this way, Hilda was quite surprised by the choice of Ingredi she always thought her sister would be a more erudite mage than a combat mage. Ingredi didn't tell us what prompted this change, but it likely has to do with what she experienced during the last phase of the mortal test.
She didn't tell us much about this test period no matter how much Hilda asked her.
The rest of my friends have also been focusing on isolation training, except for Sten and Erik, both of whom went back to classes normally when they started. Both have been focusing a lot on improving their body strength during their free time as they are so close to moving towards the gray core.
It took me a full month from the day I fought in the arena the first time for my elemental seed to start transforming, it was a very painful process when my seed started to change. No one warned me of this part where my seed felt like it was being ripped and burned at the same time, it was a full hour of torture before my seed normalized.
The good part after that was that the pain I felt when tempering my compose with the elemental energy of the complete form was greatly reduced, so I was right in deducing that when my evolution began my body would develop an affinity with this new form of elemental energy.
But it took me a few days to get used to having a different part of my elemental seed, and it's really hard to continue that evolution. I even tried using my elemental energy to stimulate this area of my elemental seed to try to speed up the evolution of my elemental seed, but that didn't work.
I just felt a pain in my core, I tried several ways to try to speed up my elemental seed change, but the most effective is to try to force change my elemental seed. Although the forced change is not permanent every time my elemental seed returns to normal form, I feel it is easier to change it again.
In this tiresome cycle my elemental seed started to transform faster, I don't know how that compares to the speed it should be normal, but tuning in between this method and training with elemental sources I feel like before the war started, I have a good chance of having completed my elemental seed transformation.
During the second month after the fight my mistress finally returned to the institute with good news. It didn't take long for me to be startled by her invading the training room.
"Did I miss you?"
I don't know how to answer this question.
"Without heart, you don't know how hard it was to sell that elemental fairy."
"I'm sorry about that, but what happened mistress?"
"I was persecuted for a long time after I tried to trade your elemental fairy with some acquaintances in the temple of wealth. Your elemental fairy kind of already had an owner in the capital, but I can't understand why she was transported downtown by low-level smugglers."
"How stupid does someone have to be to think this is a good idea? It took me a while to realize that there was a mark on the elemental fairy. I had to spend a large amount of money for a priest of the temple of wealth to destroy the mark the fairy had, so I could only trade her in the neighboring kingdom which made my trip much longer than I imagined."
"Was the elemental fairy tagged?"
"Yes, there was a mark of divine power on her. If it was a mark of aura or mana we would have noticed and destroyed it more easily, but to destroy a mark of divine power and necessary divine power. Whenever you need help from a user of divine power, the priests of the temple of wealth are your best choice, they can charge a lot, but they keep it secret and ask no questions, Ulric."
What a professional ethic, as expected of a priest of a completely neutral and extremely strong god.
"But did you manage to sell the elemental fairy?"
"No, you idiot, I traded her for an elemental fairy of the lightning element compatible with my element. Don't look at me like that you'll get paid and your friends too, I wouldn't steal my own student. How was your training? So many months trapped in this dark room must have been boring."
I knew she would.
"Relax, I started the evolution of my elemental seed and had a good practice in using my elemental energy to beat up believers of evil gods. I was also offered an invitation by Captain Raven to be part of her unit during the war."
It's really rare to see the mistress surprised.
" Oh really? Do you want to hunt down necromancers and sign enemy army officers and traitors? I thought you'd want to stay out of harm's way and not hunt him down."
"Is there a safe place during a war? Even within the fort and city I feel that I will only be safe as long as none of the elites of the neighboring kingdom decide to step in and destroy the city. At least in Captain Raven's unit I will be on the attacker's side, if something bad happens I run away as she promised me to have a position more at the rear of the group."
"It's not a bad job, I was looking forward to sticking with the security unit in a fortification far from the conflict area when the war starts in earnest. A good tracker like you would be important to keep a lookout in that area to prevent clothes from a different enemy kingdom from attacking us that way."
"But if you prefer to go hunting with Raven you can go, you must earn enough merit to exchange for resources or secret arts of the realm. I got a lot of important resources from the wind, electricity, fire, water and some earth elements for your team members, obviously the wind element was the one I got the most. The various materials like fruits that can be used for body refinement and rare materials for equipment, all the materials I sinned are uncommon or rare so it's not difficult to separate them among your team members and if someone doesn't like them it's easy to exchange them. your part."
"I feel that it was not difficult at all for you to get these resources."
The mistress didn't even have to answer me, her irritating happy smile says it all. She must have bought these resources in the last week she was gone.