This meant that pawns of the demons had already discovered the fact that the demon base was destroyed and somehow managed to cover up their locations using means that aren't easily detectable…

With the 'Eradication' list finally done, it meant that I might have to start looking for the gates myself, since I didn't just plan to lay down and wait for them to explode like cancer cells did and destroy the whole domain.

But before that, I planned to finish my own list, which had three simple tasks in it.

First, to max out 'Lightning Steps'!

Considering that I already reached [ lv.9 (99%) ] I planned to max this footwork skill in preparation for the long journey that I may have to take in search for the Two-floor gates around the Light domain, mastering 'Lightning Steps' would surely be helpful in that case!

Second, I needed coins!

Thanks to my exhaustive schedule my food consumption had already eaten all the gold coins I had even when adding the 10 gold coins per month I received for being a Special unit member, so it was about time that I handed in the list and evidence of my 2 months of grinding and receive the reward.

This was of course, in preparation for the long journey as well, considering my recent food consumption it would waste a lot of time if I went hunting for my own food and I didn't have that much time to begin with…

Third, Assign my stats.

As the list was finally done, and after two months of intense grinding and training, imposing limits on my own stats would no longer be helpful, but in fact may cause a loss of efficiency, after all, I didn't plan to use a similar plot once I find another Two-floor gate…

The dangers of my recently used method were very apparent, not to mention that they might have obtained information about the possibility of my infiltration considering how fast they reacted to hide the Two-floor gates…

As such, I could only exterminate with up front strength, and the best possible way to ensure that was to increase my own stats, that could also be said to be in preparation for the potential Two-floor gates that I might encounter…

So, and according to the list, the first task to start with was purely training 'Lightning Steps'.

Taking advantage of the long distance between this recently deceased gate and the Lightning Capital, I planned to train it on the way back…

`~~`~~`~~`

1 day later…

[ 'Lightning Steps' has leveled up! ]

[ 'Lightning Steps' has reached lv.10! ]

[ Due to an unknown reaction from 'Swift Steps' & 'Lightning Steps', 'Omni-Mastery' has been automatically activated… ]

[ 'Swift Steps' & 'Lightning Steps' are combined and fused… ]

[ You have obtained the Epic skill 'Hurricane Steps'! ]

[ Due to the limited mastery of 'Swift Steps', The grade of 'Hurricane Steps' degraded to Unique… ]

'Wait… what?'

To think that such a combination would happen on its own...

The fact that I didn't truly master 'Swift Steps' due to not yet having the wind element and mastering the wind element application using it similar to the lightning Element application of 'Lightning Steps' wasn't that hard to guess, but the fact that both 'Steps' were combined while considering that fact wasn't expected at all… moreover…

While it may have seemed that I only obtained 'Hurricane steps' from mastering 'Lightning Steps' when only looking at the system notifications, that wasn't true.

I had actually received another mental package!

'So, that was actually the true purpose of the 'Steps' book…?'

Considering how the quality of this footwork book always seemed a bit unsuitable to be left in that small training hall to me, I finally found something more unbelievable about it…

It was actually another dual 'Elemental art' in disguise!

A dual 'Elemental Art' that concentrated on the speed attribute of both wind and lightning elements which were already known for their speed, that easily suited the fact that it was disguised as the 'Steps' footwork book...

This happening not too far from the time I received the 'Icy Fire Formula' didn't make sense to me, after all, the 'Icy Fire Formula' was supposed to be a powerhourse's legacy, but this 'Steps' book was supposed to be a footwork skill that already seemed to outclass most of the books in that library, yet it turned out to be another 'Elemental art' disguised as a footwork skill?

The only thing that seemed to be explained was how this footwork book contained two different elementally based footwork.

After all, according to this 'Hurricane' elemental art, having only one element of the two (Lightning & Wind) could enable one to use their close relation to stimulate the other as they were both weather related elements, which could be considered very similar to the 'Elemental Art' of the Thunder lions in this aspect…

However...

'To think this old book was the starting point I was searching for…'

This 'Elemental Art' was undoubtedly something that I was too thankful for receiving at this point.

It was the key to opening the door on my 'Elemental Expansion' plan!

`~~`~~`~~`

One hour later…

Back at the headquarters of the Lightning Knight Brigade, I only went to take a quick shower before heading to the Head's room immediately, it was finally time to receive act on the second task of mine and receive my rewards!

Knock. Knock.

"Enter, the door is open."

"Long time no see…"

"Oh, Zero, it's you, long time no see indeed…"

"But what could be your reason for visiting me now, you weren't exactly the friendly kind who would visit because a long time has passed, and I also mentioned that you wouldn't need to report to me, so… you couldn't have actually run into trouble, right? Or… did you actually manage to find another special gate?!"

Taking out the bag full of shards that contained a sample from every gate I cleared, I dropped it on the table.

Thump!

I also put the fully marked scroll beside it.

"You didn't…"