Behind Ernst Magic Institute.
Linley sat cross-legged before a huge boulder, holding a flat blade used for carving.
"Grandpa Doehring, don't you need a lot of tools for carving?" Linley asked curiously. "Why did you only have me buy a flat blade?"
"That's what makes my school of carving different." Doehring appeared beside Linley. "Linley, what advantage do Earth Element mages have over others when it comes to stone carving?"
Instead of answering directly, Doehring asked Linley a question in return.
"An advantage?" Linley paused, then his eyes lit up. "Our understanding of Earth Elemental. I can sense a lot of Earth Elemental within this boulder."
"Exactly." Doehring nodded, looking pleased. "We Earth Element mages can sense the details inside a stone, so we don't need so many carving tools. A single flat blade is enough."
Linley nodded in agreement when Doehring finished speaking.
More than half a month had passed since Patterson disappeared.
In all of Fenlai City, people had searched for him for only the first few days.
After that, it was as if everyone had forgotten Patterson.
Even the king of Fenlai Kingdom, Patterson's older brother Clayde, had stopped paying attention to the matter. Everyone else cared even less.
And so, a duke of the kingdom vanished without a trace.
Yale and the others had heard about Patterson's disappearance later, but none of them had ever asked Linley about it.
Linley couldn't help feeling that with brothers like these, he had all he could ever need in life.
In the days that followed, Linley resumed his rigorous cultivation behind the hills.
This time, though, Doehring had specifically told him to buy a flat blade for carving, saying he wanted to teach Linley a method of training his spiritual force.
After all, Linley's strength hadn't improved much since