Changes

Obviously, their sleep wasn't a qualitative one, still, they got to rest a little.

When one was strong enough – at the Paladin level – not sleeping for a few days wasn't that big of a deal. Both the body and the spirit could tolerate it. But that holds only if they were in a difficult situation.

Otherwise, no one would want to miss a night. Nobody would only want to survive, and missing a night would mean their concentration would fall. Sometimes it wouldn't even be 5 % of their total amount. Still, this could decide a life or death situation. More than that, they need all of their energy to makes innovation and progress in their way.

That's why nobody would forget to sleep – if not madmen.

As for breakthroughs? Everyone knew that you weren't ready enough if you couldn't make it in a day. That wasn't just a mere thing; it only became simple after countless hours of works, and even after that, you needed to be at your maximum concentration. To breakthrough means to become something entirely new after all, and if you couldn't be rapid enough, your body would feel all of that pressure for way too long and collapse. You needed to watch for every possible mistake and make up for them. And you needed to do that fast.

Of course, the body would help you of its best capacities and would temporarily suppress a part of the pain – why would he bite the hand that fed him? But even then, it was quite difficult if one didn't have sufficient mastery of his energy.

As for Eloise… her breakthrough meant to strengthen her body permanently, something she succeeds with ease. There wasn't any need for her to rest so that her body could produce new cells as her energy basically feed them while making them addict so that they would follow their form and not regress.

Of course, all breakthroughs didn't change the same thing :

The foundation creates the link between one's body and his energy.

The fortification was what Eloise was doing.

The reinforcement was basically the same thing: reinforcing one's body, but also reinforcing the link between the body and the spirit. It all serves to prepare for the next stage.

The energy-creation realm was quite special and was directly focused on one's energy.

And the next realms were basically a mixt of the precedent realm, in a slightly different way.

''Let's go'' Jean commanded.

Beginning to march towards the door, they lift the enormous metal plate that was preventing their enemy to open it. The noise echoed in the room as they began to adventure themselves in the labyrinth.

''Be sure to be ready'' Jean warned them looking stoic.

Cleppe's soldiers began to enclose the other in a formation as if they wanted to defend them. The truth, however, was that they couldn't allow it to be broken.

Unlike the beginning, the labyrinth was lighted out by some blue torches.

…

Even after walking for a few hours, the squadron didn't found any door or particular thing yet.

''Let's take a break'' François said, as Jean delegate him the role of leader. At his words, the soldiers suddenly all break the formation in a hurry, a strange sign one wouldn't normally see from Cleppe's soldiers. This made Jean swallow his question. Still, François guessed the question and answered it.

''Yeah, I'm sure of it. Look at them. I don't know why, but their morale is low, not at an all-time low, but still something worrying. We shouldn't act recklessly in this strange of a place.''

For some reason, even Eloise was slightly affected by this zone. She knew her morale had dropped when she felt some enthusiasm to rest.

'Why is this so ?'Looking around searching for an answer, she noticed that only Jean and Fraçois seems unaffected, but François was likely feigning it, which means...

This was probably related to their strength. With this in her head, she suddenly noticed that the weakest ones seem more exhausted than the others, mentally speaking. There wasn't anyone gasping for air or showing fatigue's signs.

***

Meanwhile, Nirl.

Inside his house, Louis was still experimenting with his skill [energy zoning], a skill that allowed him to change the role and management of space as long as it was under Nirl's influence. It has nearly been 1 month since Nirl's army left, and he had almost studied all possibilities of his skill – those who came to his mind.

[Energy zoning] wasn't a magical skill. It couldn't automatically work but required all of his attention. Basically, it helped him modify and give a property to a zone. He could active it almost instinctively and it'd raised his understanding, but he could all the same try to modify a space without it.

He still hasn't made that big of a progress as he could only slightly see some of the larger energy paths in a zone with his skill off, and that was already because he wasn't a complete stranger to energy.

The Energy center was a cheat as it allowed everyone to easily gather and reject energy. Then, as its influence was quite big, it allowed one to manipulate energy even outside of its body. But that was only because it serves as a link. If some energy or body was blocking this link… then you'd only be able to fire starting from your body – which was slightly faster.

Even so, the influence of the energy center didn't really help one to understand more about energy, it was more natural than anything. It did help someone feel and manipulate his own energy to transform it into a barrier or any other thing, but directly modifying the entire space without using one's own energy was something only a genius could do. More so if you need something solid that could resist years.

As if the world knew humans lacked this capacity, the energy-creation realm existed. And that was why sacred energy was so great. Its main goal was to control other types of energy and their fluctuation, which allowed one's little energy to control an enormous power.

''Louis ?'' Someone called him, from behind his door.

''Hmm ?''

''They've arrived.''

''Alright. I'm coming.''

- - -

You might have noticed it, but I love making fun of you. Like, at the start, I was stressed out about not updating at the time a chapter, but now, I laugh at it. That's something great.

And so, following this thought, and knowing that Evolving Village is basically a test and a hobby, I decided to add probabilities.

All fights but also events will have a definite amount of probabilities to happens in each chapter, a chance that will differ by other events. So, let's enjoy it.