The secret realm. Grey didn't know how much time had passed, nor how many times he had tried to wipe out an army or hundreds of thousands. He had tried, failed, tried, failed, and tried again, and failed again so many times that he was almost starting to go numb about it. He couldn't leave, he had tried to leave after trying so many times without success, but he couldn't. There was no door in the room, and none of his attacks did anything to it. He once again appeared in the scene, his body covered in dragon scales, his eyes giving off a bluish glow, he charged into the army, with a sword in his hand, he was a farmer harvesting his crops. With one slice, he cut through thousands of soldiers. Explosions were going off in different locations in the army of hundreds of thousands. His inscriptions, fusion orbs, elemental attacks, physical attacks, mental attacks, everything, everything he had access to was used. He fought like a madman without a care for his life, he didn't try to defend. He figured that his dragon scales coupled with his frightening physical prowess means that even if he's hit by a few attacks from these guys, it's not going to be able to scratch him. At least his higher cultivation stage means that he's immune to getting hurt in this fight. Boom! Bam! Bang! Grey's destructive prowess could almost be termed as magical at the moment. Most people wouldn't be able to achieve what he's doing at the moment, yet there he is, one man, against hundreds of thousands of people, and he was causing mayhem. A minister went by, and during the last second, Grey killed off the last eighty people. His eyes could almost be termed as psychotic at the moment, there was nothing that could stop him. He collapsed to the ground the moment he was done with the battle, breathing heavily. 'Congratulations.' This was what Grey saw in his head, his body was teleported back to the same room he has always been taken to, and when he appeared there, he was instinctively afraid, thinking he had failed the task once again. He didn't know how long he has been trying, it felt like years, months, weeks, days, hours, and at the same time, minutes. He didn't understand why he didn't get the right concept of time while he was there, but he didn't mind. All he wanted was for it to stop. He looked around, and then a figure appeared before him. "Congratu…" The figure which appeared before Grey looked just like one of the statues, and he paused when he saw that there was only Grey. "Where are the others?" The figure asked Grey. "Others?" Grey was confused, not understanding the question. "You completed it yourself?" The figure asked Grey skeptically. Grey looked at the figure, then around him and nodded, "Yes, I completed it alone." "That's impossible, no one can achieve that alone." The figure didn't believe a word coming out of Grey's mouth. "Do you see anyone else here with me?" Grey asked the figure, tired of trying to explain to him. The figure froze, "Well… no." "What does that tell you?" "It says nothing. Did you kill them to be rewarded alone?" 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂 "I just want to get out of this place man. I don't know how many times I've attempted this shitty test. I'd like a reward, but at this moment, I'd rather leave this place than have to focus on just getting a reward." Grey was genuinely frustrated, he felt like he was on the verge of going insane. He needed to leave this place and speak with Void and the bunny leader so he could figure out how long he has been away. Sometimes he felt like it had been hours, while other times he felt like it had been years. He can tell that this wasn't normal. The figure looked at Grey, stunned. From what he could see, he could tell that Grey's frustrated, and genuinely, that's a reaction one who has been trying a single thing over and over again for hours would do. "Wait." He walked close to Grey and placed his hand on Grey's head. Grey didn't have the time to react before the figure placed his hand on his head. "That's…" The figure was stunned when he saw how Grey completed the mission, he almost couldn't believe it, luckily, he was seeing it. Grey was taken aback and instantly entered a defensive position, prepared to attack. He didn't expect that this man would have a way to look through his memory. "Relax, I only took a peek at your memory with the task, nothing else." The figure could see Grey's worry and chuckled. It's normal for everyone to react in this manner when their privacy is being invaded. Everyone has secrets, especially Elementalists, and they would all like it to remain secrets forever. So someone forcibly going through their memories will naturally put them in such a position. "Interesting… kid, since you completed it yourself, I guess I'll have to give you the reward alone." The figure chuckled and asked Grey proudly, "What's your elemental grade? I can increase any of them by one." When Grey heard the reward, he almost collapsed. 'I went through that hell just to be asked if I wanted mt elemental grades to be increased?' Grey almost collapsed, if he knew that this was a mission to increase just elemental grades, he wouldn't have even come into this place. What did this man mean he could increase his elemental grade by one? "Can you increase above the black grade?" Grey asked. The figure stumbled when he heard Grey's question, he was still trying to process how Grey had eight elements, yet Grey was asking him if he could increase an elemental grade above black, even he didn't have the black grade when he was still alive! The man coughed and looked at Grey, "Are all your elements that high?" "No, but I have no problems with getting them there." Grey's reply made the figure glitch. The figure was more like a spiritual entity, so hearing Grey's shocking words, it almost went back to the spirit world and let the living deal with their problems alone. 'I want to help you kid, why are you trying to kill me again?' This was the thought in the head of the figure. Anyone would have been exhilarated if they heard that their elemental grades could be increased, but Grey didn't seem fazed by this, it wasn't anything new to him which could clearly be seen on his facial expression. "What do you want?" The man asked. "Can you give me what you want to use to increase my elemental grade then? I have a few people I'd like to use it on." Grey asked when he saw the defeated expression of the figure. Since there was such a reward, he didn't mind taking it and passing it to Cori or someone else close to him. He didn't care about Klaus and the others, their elemental grades were increasing just like his own, so there was no point in giving it to them. The figure thought about it and then nodded, "Yes, I can pass it on to you. It's a technique, but it can only be used once. Also, you can't pass this on to others. It's not that I don't want you to, but you can't. The requirements are dire, and the only reason you can use it is due to the sacrifice already being paid." "What's the price?" Grey was curious. "Half of your life essence, and it's unfixable. Once it's sacrificed, you'll live the rest of your short life knowing you'll die soon." The man replied. "Oh, since I completed the task alone, how many do I get?" Grey asked when shining eyes. "The only reason you're getting it is because you achieved this alone. It's the ultimate reward. Normally those who pass through the trial are rewarded with elemental techniques." The man saw that Grey was expecting more than he should, so he had to explain to him so he wouldn't misunderstand. 'How many people do you think are willing to sacrifice half their life essence just to reward someone?' The man almost wanted to smack Grey back to reality from the dream world he was seemingly living in. Grey sighed and stretched out his hand begrudgingly, "Alright, give it to me." The man felt defeated by Grey's character, who would react in such a manner after being told that someone sacrificed half of their life essence for him to have such a life changing reward. One of the reasons this particular one is superior to those treasures that increase elemental grades is that, most of those ones can not guarantee that they can increase the elemental grade to the black grade from the previous grade, but this one is certain.