Chapter 2102 - 25% Buzz! As I had finished adding the last essence, the pool lit up gently for a minute before turning normal. Now that I have added the essences, my job is done; now everything is up to the essence tree on how quickly it could consume the essences and transform them to the essence fruits. The details in the books are quite confusing, but it is said the cycle of a tree is ten years longer on average; it could be less or more. It all depends on the level of the tree and the materials I am using for the tree. While the books are a little confusing about the cycle, I was able to glean some info from it, and there is good news. The tree may not look much, but it is a limit of the world, the powerful as it could be in the world, and the essences I am using fall into the same category. If I am right, then the cycle would a five to seven years long, and since the time is three times faster in the core, it would still take twenty months to thirty months for fruits to mature on the tree. Which is not much time considering the value of the treasure, seeing people would wait hundreds of years for it. Still, seeing the current conditions, I hope it will be faster, but I am seeing no option for that. So, unless I find a treasure that could expedite the process, I will have to wait for at least twenty months to harvest the fruits. It is still five-time less than the timeline that Grand Commander had hoped. In her letter, she said she would expect the essence fruits by eight to ten years, which is a lot of time and no pressure on me to harvest these fruits quickly. I watched the fruit for a minute before I walked out; there was not going to be any big change for days or even months; I should just leave the tree alone in its place. Now that the tree is dealt with, it is time to practice my art. Tomorrow, we are going to take our forces to the Grimm fort, and the battle will be intense. There is a 90% chance we Masters will have to participate in the battle, and I would be especially targeted by Master and Grandmaster, so it is imperative that I advance my strength to increase my survivability. Burn! Taking a breath, I gathered a humongous amount of resources and threw them all into the forge. Just as I did, the flame erupted in the furnace, and all the runes began to light up across the forge. TING Ting ting The runes had lighted up the forge, as they did, the humanoids began to move toward the weapon rack and picked up the weapon before coming at the gigantic phantom and started hammering it in a rhythm. The immense pain had hit me, and I closed my eyes to bear as purple forge formed around me and grey smoke of impurities began to come out my body. The gigantic phantom of mine is still a grey color, but after a 20% refinement of the first stage, it had become quite lighter. If I am not wrong, then by the time refinement of 1st stage reaches 100%, the phantom will be completely transparent. I am very excited to reach that stage; it is not only due to an advancement point of view but also a medical point of view. This phantom is a complete replica of mine; I could see each vein and artery in such detail that is impossible outside. Once everything has become transparent, I will be see everything; it will help me understand my body clearly and will also help me in becoming a better healer. TING Ting ting The hammers strike across my body and soul in a rhythm and release waves of energy which would clash against tens of waves inside and outside of the body and create a resonance of the purification that would reinforce my strength into my body but would also remove the impurities that are present. The level of impurities my body contains is really shocking; I used to consider my body pure since I regularly used various methods and resources to cleanse my body, but it seemed like I was not very thorough at it. Now, the art is not removing the impurities off my body but also reinforcing my strength which gave me an immense boost in every aspect and internal energy. I had got barely any chance to do detailed research on it, but what I have observed so far, the internal energy is beyond amazing. There are many things it could, though it is not all versatile; it is moldable enough to help in numerous things. TING Ting ting Finally, the hammering began to slow down and with it the pain, and a couple of seconds later, the hammering stopped as the humanoids placed the weapons back on the rack and runes on them dimmed till they had disappeared. "25%," I said with a sigh; I have progressed 5% more in the 1st stage. I had more than enough resources to practice for another 5% progress, but I did not. Tomorrow is a big battle, and I need to be fully under the control of my strength. Last time, I was lucky enough that my enemies were not skillful enough or powerful enough to take advantage of my weakness, but this time they would not make the same mistake. So, I, too, have to be intelligent and not give in to the temptation of greater strength, which could not be controlled by me properly. I opened my eyes and took a deep breath, and carefully felt my strength of mine. Unlike the normal advancement, there is no rush of power or feeling of invisibility; there is not even a feeling of advancement of strength if one looks normally. To sense it, I have to go deeper inside me or just move my hand, and I will immediately sense the huge increase in strength I just received.