Chapter 269: Unfairness. (1/2)

”Until then, you will be training with Magical Beasts.”

After hearing those words, Raven and Blaze only hoped that they wouldn't be put against even more Rank-9 Beasts.

Fortunately for them, Ozul didn't want them half-dead every day. He led them to places that were abundant in Beasts around Rank-8.

Though he only made them fight those Beasts in the upper levels of Rank-8. Anything less than that would be too easy for them.

They moved from places to places fighting peak Rank-8 Beasts. Their progress was slow, but they were improving at a steady rate.

What both of them needed now was power but experience, and they could only gain it slowly. There was no shortcut to gaining experience.

The more they fought, the more their bodies got used to fighting. Slowly, they had started to make instinctual movements during the battles as well.

Ozul would only lead them to a city when he wanted to have a proper sleep. Otherwise, they spent their days in the wilderness fighting beasts and killing beasts.

Though Rank-8 Beasts weren't so common either. So the duo wasn't able to fight the Beasts all day long every day. On the days when Ozul didn't find any Beast, he would oversee continuous duels between them.

While Blaze had the natural talent for Ice Element, so he wouldn't have any difficulties regarding that most of the time. As for Raven, she wouldn't find any better person to answer her questions about Darkness Element than Ozul himself.

Although Ozul tried to stay near the Neutral Lands, it didn't go as planned since they couldn't find any Rank-8 Beasts in groups. Although the duels between them were also fruitful, Ozul wasn't satisfied with them.

Even when he would tell both of them to go at each other with the intent to kill, they would probably stop at the last minute. And deep down, they also knew that.

So they wouldn't feel as much pressure as when they were fighting the Beasts who wouldn't miss a single opportunity to take their life.

Just like that, the only time when Raven and Blaze were allowed to rest was the time when Ozul wanted to sleep as well.

Time started to pass with Ozul spending most of his time watching over the duo.

—————

Four years passed in the blink of an eye.

In the start, Ozul only made them fight Magical Beasts. But cultivation couldn't be left alone either, so he also made them cultivate after the fight.

Although it was difficult to cultivate after they were exhausted from the battle, it had shown results as well.

Blaze's advancement to the End Stage of Rank-8 was the proof of that!

It didn't come as a surprise to Ozul when Blaze achieved a breakthrough. Since he would constantly examine their bodies, he knew that he was quickly reaching the bottleneck.

What surprised him was the fact that the usual bottleneck which took most of the Mages years to overcome didn't even hinder Blaze.

His natural talent was finally starting to fully show its might when Raven only reached the bottleneck a year later!

As of now, it had almost been a month after she had reached the bottleneck. Ozul speculated that it wouldn't take long for her before she also becomes an End Stage Rank-8 Mage, but it was difficult to measure just how long.

Raven finally had to face the reality that hard work alone couldn't beat natural talent.

A hardworking person can certainly beat a genius, but it was a different matter if that genius also begins to work hard.

”Only the weak who gave up complain about fairness,” Ozul had told Raven when she once said how the heavens were unfair.

After that, although she still felt bad that her talent wasn't as good as Blaze's, Raven didn't give up. So what if Blaze had left her behind? She would ultimately stand at the same Rank sooner or later.

What mattered was that she could help Ozul, even if a little.

Moreover, there was still one thing that Blaze didn't have and that was her brain. No matter how much talent that ice demon had, he would never be as smart as her.

Only when Ozul had mentioned this did Raven's mood finally improve.

”Let's go. It's time to return,” Ozul said, making Raven and Blaze perk up their ears.