43 Commoner Rank Middle Phase

For the next two weeks, Kael spent all of his time in the private suite in the tavern ingesting the cold energy exuded by the Ice Artifice into his aurasea.

In the initial stage of ingesting, every time he attempted to ingest the cold energy in the aurasea, it would bring about excruciating pain in his spirit, causing him to suffer endlessly. However, as his aurasea transformed into having more and more of the cold energy's properties, the ingesting became easier and smoother.

He no longer needed to 'swallow' the cold energy using the tyranny of his spiritual energy. Instead, he just let the two different energies come into contact with each other. They would then adhere to each other for some time, before merging together to allow the aurasea to exhibit signs of chill and coldness.

After two weeks, Kael had finally managed to successfully transform his aurasea and his body has a basic ice constitution now. There is no ranking for body constitutions in the Hundred Realms, because there are just too many different types of constitutions of varying degrees to be categorized properly. Furthermore, humanoids and humans and sentient demonic beasts possessed different constitutions. Hence, Kael could only surmise that his body had changed into a simple constitution based on the power of the Ice Artifice, which is only a Common Rank item.

Still, that was good news for Kael. He was now finally able to use Ice attribute Spirit Arts! Kael couldn't wait to try that out on real opponents. For now, he had to familiarize himself with the control of this chilly spiritual energy before he could utilize the Spirit Arts effectively. However, that wasn't a problem at all since Kael as the Invoker had once assimilated elements that were much more tyrannical than the cold energy belonging to the Ice Artifice.

There was another piece of good news, and that was when he was infusing the cold energy into his aurasea, it was akin to cultivation, allowing his aurasea to contain even more spiritual energy. When it had reached the limit, the aurasea expanded twice-fold, allowing Kael to breakthrough to the Commoner Rank Middle Phase!

This double addition of goods news allowed Kael's combat powers to increase many fold. In the past, he had to rely on powerful Spirit Arrays to curb demonic beasts that were of a higher level than him. Now, he could use more powerful Spirit Arts to complement the usage of Spirit Arrays to deal with thorny opponents. Naturally, any cultivator in the same cultivation level as him barely had any chance to win against him.

Satisfied with his progress, Kael finally left the tavern and exited his closed-door seclusion.

When Kael walked out of the tavern doors, he immediately saw Patten Eagle standing at one side looking at him. Patten Eagle's face contained a trace of joy when he saw Kael. He brisk-walked to Kael, seemingly having news to tell him.

"You.. you broke through?" Patten Eagle was able to identify the stronger aura surrounding Kael at one glance.

"Yup, thanks to this closed-door cultivation. What is up? Any news from the City Lord?"

"There is. I have been waiting for three days here. If you aren't coming out after one more day, I would've opened the door to look for you. It's regarding the demonic beast horde."

"Mm. Take me to see the City Lord."

In the City Lord residence. There were two figures standing some distance from the door; Richard Duran and Wallie Dawson. The City Lord was standing behind Wallie Dawson respectfully, waiting for the Vice-Principal to speak first.

"Hi Kael, we meet again."

"Greetings, Vice-Principal and the City Lord. Pardon my late coming, I was in closed-door cultivation."

"Mm. It's good that you have broken through. It makes the next task that we have for you to be easier."

"Task? May I know what is Vice-Principal talking about…?" Kael was slightly confused for a moment.

"Since our last meeting, I went back to the Institute and discussed with the Principal. He is agreeable to the proposal regarding the hybrid core, and the Institute's management, together with the City Lord faction, should contribute towards making of the hybrid cores."

"That's good news I suppose, but how am I supposed to come into the picture?"

"The Principal also agrees that we have to show Fledgling City's strength towards foreign invasion before coming to an agreement with the sentient demonic beasts. However, he wants you to take the lead to repel the invaders. As such, he has decided to deploy 100 students at the Commoner Rank Lower Phase to Middle Phase to assist in the fight which will happen in two days time."

Wallie Dawson saw the perplexed look on Kael's face and continued. "This is meant to test your leadership skills in times of a crisis before assessing how much benefits you can be given when you are admitted into the Institute. Just treat it as a last trial before you begin your student life."

"I guess I should feel honored for being granted this 'opportunity'. Heh… don't tell me I'm supposed to repel 1000 demonic beasts with just 100 people? The 700 strong City Lord army should be deployed as well right?"

"Definitely. However they won't be under your command, but under mine to act as a defensive measure." Richard Duran chipped in.

"According to the math, I only have to deal with 300-400 demonic beasts in reality. That shouldn't be a problem, if all things go well. However, what about the sentient demonic beasts that are leading the horde? It will be thorny dealing with them."

"Don't worry about it, during the past invasions, they have always kept themselves behind the lines. That's because they know that the Principal and I are watching as well. If they make a move, we will go forward to counter-balance the situation."

"Alright then. I guess I have to meet my future school mates in advance before the beast horde strikes us?"

Wallie Dawson grinned. "They are already here in the City Lord residence."