Chapter 25: Personal pocket dimension.

It's been four days, since Levi and his partner, Grim reconciled.

After the incident, Levi was treated of his injuries while Raja explained the entire situation to Aina. 

She could not understand what the wolf said, but Levi translated for her. She was quite shocked at the fact that her brother had made a blood contact with Mana beast no less, even more so at the existence of the Elixir pond.

At first, Aina tried to convince Levi to come back to estate because she was genuinely worried about him, but the latter adamantly refused. There was still so much that he wanted to learn from Raja, and now that his partner was back, he would need a trusty training partner as Aina came later on, so she didn't see Levi use aether, Levi also didn't want to reveal his secret. Not yet at least.

"Hey, you sure you don't want to follow us back to the mansion?" Aina asked as she herself prepared to leave.

"No. I got the blood contract thing to uphold, remember?" Levi responded. It was not a lie, only half the truth.

"I see...."

"...!!"

"Levi." Aina called.

"Hmm?"

"I am proud of you." Aina said to her brother, soliciting a confused glance.

"What does that mean?" Levi asked.

"It means exactly what it says. I don't know what you did or how you did it, but you are no longer like the helpless and magically impaired little brother i once had." Aina explained.

"Even though you were destined to never use magic, ever. You still managed to carve out a path for yourself. So much that even that wolf places so much trust in your capabilities. I won't force you to tell me what it is until you are ready, but I will say this."

"Good luck on your path." Aina concluded her speech.

Levi was silent and dumbstruck for a while before he said:

"Thanks." A genuine smile making its way to his face.

At this, Aina just stared at her brother with perplexity. She was looking at him as if she had just seen a ghost.

"What the..." Aina blurted out. Even with all of her knowledge, she could not comprehend the phenomenon that was taking place right before her eyes. Levi was smiling.

At the look on Aina's face, Levi reverted back to his usual frown and spoke.

"What?" He asked. A slight irritation in his voice.

His words snapped Aina out of her reverie.

"Oh? Um...it's nothing." Aina said with a cough.

'how can someone like him, have such an amazing smile?' she thought.

Aina agreed to keep the entire thing a secret from her family and return to the mansion, for a good amount of Elixir water of course. And as a contingency, she left John behind with Levi and made him promise to comeback within ten days or else she would come drag him home herself.

She was really a loving big sister.

Levi made a lot of progress in the last few days. He had successfully mastered most of Aether flow. Aether skin and Aether cloak though were still work in progress. Levi learned that one could enhance certain parts of their bodies with Aether.

For instance, he could enhance his vision by using aether skin, but concentrating on his eyes. It was a very handy technique.

Aether skin allowed him to increase his physical abilities by almost three fold, the only exception being stamina. Levi could not fully master it though. He could only imbue 2.5%, instead of his current limit of 5%. It did not matter how much he practiced, he never improved

Levi's training with Raja had also been fruitful as his fighting technique was getting more and more refined. Although Raja could still defeat him easily, Levi was evenly matched against three E-rank wolves, and with aether skin he could even fight a D-rank wolf.

His daily routine started from his usual morning aether rotation, to breakfast, to training with the wolves to lunch, then personal aether training with Grim for the rest of the day and he does aether rotation a few times more he goes to bed every night.

Levi was growing stronger at an astounding rate, but there was still one more surprise.

——–

'oi. Levi. Got something to tell ya.' Grim called.

'hmm. What is it? Better be important, I'm busy right now.' Levi responded.

'oh it is. Wanna hear it?' 

'hmm...why not.' Levi eventually succumbed.

'ok then. You see, the shadow grimoire has been enchanted to provide a reward for you each time you complete a chapter's objectives.' Grim explained.

'hmm. Rewards? You mean like one of those system things in fantasy novels?' 

'well, not exactly, but similar. The shadow grimoire possesses a subspace containing various different items and other valuables which is connected to me. But the subspace has been enchanted to only release items after certain conditions have been met.' Grim said.

'i see. So that means that I have a reward right...for completing the first chapter.' Levi determined.

'bingo. You do.' Grim said.

'oh, then what are you waiting for? Gimme it.' 

'ok.' Grim said and stopped talking.

A black energy suddenly rushed out of the shadow grimoire, which lay lifeless in front of him.

The energy wrapped around him for some time before disappearing into thin air.

'what? Is that it?!'

'look at your right arm.' Grim responded. Levi adhered and glanced at his right arm, the sight that awaited him though was very unexpected.

There was a black rune like tattoo, with a very cool looking design that ran from the center of his arm, below the elbow, down to his wrist in a spiraling fashion.

'woah, the tattoo looks really cool, but I hope this is not the actual reward. It is not, right?'

'if course not.' Grim said.

'ok. Well, I'm all ears.' 

'good. The book actually granted you a personal pocket dimension. It is a really small dimension which you have access to, it can store all material things. The tattoo is just it's physical form and to allow for convenience. You can access the storage dimension with your mind by passing aether into the rune. It is active anywhere and anytime.' Grim explained.

'seriously! That's awesome!' Levi mind exclaimed. He was excited about the pocket dimension as it would make things a lot more convenient.

'yeah, it is. It has one downside though.'

'eh? What is it?' Levi asked.

'it's size. The pocket dimension is really small. About the size of small storage room...'

'che... I should have known. With my luck, ain't no way something too good will ever happen to me.' Levi sulked.

'hey look on the bright side. It may be small, but it is actually at the level of a medium sized storage talisman.'

'...yeah...you're right. It's not completely useless, and there are still the other rewards to look forward to.'

'yeah. That's the spirit, always be positive.'

'so.....you said I can access it with my mind...right?' Levi asked

'yes you can. It's also possible to expand it, but that can only be done with an aether crystal. It's like a Mana crystal, only aether oriented and about 20 times rarer.' Grim explained and Levi nodded in understanding.

——–

Currently, Levi had decided to up his game and face off against two out of the three D-rank wolves in the pack.

The two he was facing off against were Ara and Tio. They were the only ones, aside from Raja and the last wolf, that had a name and could talk.

"Rargh..." Ara growled as he used a spell to propel himself forward at Levi, fangs fully bared.

*Slice*

He slashed at him, but all that the wolves' claw met was air as Levi quickly and skillfully sidestepped the attack. At the exact same moment, Tio used his claws to swipe down at Levi's legs, but the latter caught sight of his movements from the corner of his eyes and aptly countered with a jump followed by a kick to the jaw.

With a few jumps in the backward direction, Levi created some distance between himself and the two D-rank wolves.

"Hmm~. I still feel like you guys are holding back on me." Levi said with a smirk. He wasn't conscious of it, but Levi had a tendency to smile during fights or any other heart racing activity.

"Che...that's rich coming from the likes of you." Ara said with a scoff.

"Yeah. You aren't even using Mana yet." Tio supported his partner.

Levi had yet to tell anyone about his aether abilities. The wolves seemed to have come to a conclusion themselves, and he had no intentions of correcting them as the situation was ideal for him.

"Alright, alright. Let's both get serious." Levi said. He immediately started passing aether through his core and out of his body. The key was to pass the exact amount of aether out so that one could focus on contracting it, instead of sucking it back. That in and of itself required a good amount of control, and Levi could now do it relatively easily.

It took him a few seconds, but after that the technique was activated. A blue aura rose up from Levi's body, escaping his skin and settling around it. He felt his skin grow tougher and his muscles become stronger. 

Even though it was merely 2.5% if his current aether pool, his power had just risen to massive extents.

Tio, a wolf with the signature green eyes and black fur had black spots around his abdomen, sensed that Levi had finally gotten serious and said, "Ha! Now that's more like it!" 

. He then turned to his partner, "I think it's time we also got serious." 

Ara nodded in response. Ara himself had a black stripes that ran from the corner of his right eye down to his shoulder.

"Come at me." Levi said while assuming a fighting stance.

""Gladly."" They said simultaneously. The two wolves didn't waste any time and charged straight at their opponent while activating the wind magic spell.

"Wind claw." It was a spell that was mostly used by beasts due to it's nature. Wind Mana gathered and covered Ara's claws, making them sharper and more powerful. While Tio used a movement spell to quickly cover the distance.

*Fwoosh*

Tio glided straight to Levi's face and attempted to claw at this chest. But Levi sidestepped and spun his torso. Using the momentum, he landed an elbow straight to Tio's ribs and sent him flying. Of course, that was only possible due to his enhanced physicals.

  "Tsk.. idiot." Unlike Tio, Ara was a more cautious sort. He carefully covered the distance and appeared right in front of his opponent.

Levi made the first move this time, throwing a punch. As the attack descended towards Ara's face. But then the wolf suddenly disappeared from sight, leaving in only a blurry afterimage.

'huh? Where... Grim.'

'got it.' Grim replied.

Ara reappeared at Levi's blind spot, at the left and attacked with his Mana enhanced claws.

'left.' Grim said. Levi didn't even bother checking if the statement was true and just turned his entire body to face the wolf.

'what?' the sudden response threw Ara off, resulting in a moments hesitation. The split second was enough for Levi to counter attack. 

In a chain of swift motion, he positioned himself and delivered a strong kick to Ara's face.

'the second one is hiding behind the bushes to your right. He doesn't seem to be making any movements though.' Grim reported.

'got it. I'll focus on this one then.' Levi said.

Over the past few days, Levi and Grim had also strengthened their team work. Grim couldn't yet affect the real world, but he could still monitor it and his view was much wider. He was the perfect teacher and partner as he covered Levi's blind spots. There was also one more thing he could do, though it currently was not important.

Levi ignored the hiding wolf and charged straight at Ara, who had already stood back up. 

"Wind barrier." A transparent, light green dome-like barrier appeared and covered the wolf.

Even with the obvious barrier protecting Ara, Levi didn't stop his momentum and continued charging forward. He pulled his fist back and using the momentum from the charge, he landed a powerful blow on the green barrier. But then, something happened.

"Urgh." Levi groaned as his knuckles bled. The wind barrier seemed to be imbued with special properties that Levi's knuckles felt like they had crashed against several sharp blades. 

"What the the heck?" Levi muttered as Ara grinned mischievously and mouthed a few words.

"You damn-." Levi couldn't even finish his sentence before he was disrupted by the wind barriers sudden explosion.

*BOOM!*

The transparent barrier exploded into a combination of light and several micro wind blades that tore into Levi's enhanced skin. The micro wind blades did not amount to much individually, but the sheer number and speed was enough to deal a significant amount of accumulated damage to Levi.

When some of the dust settled and the light settled, Levi's figure came into view. Did he succumb to the powerful explosion? Or did something else happen during the sudden moment?

The results became apparent.

A/N:

Second chap of the day, let's see if I can give you guys two more.