Kyon put his hand on Juno’s soft cheek. She hadn’t come to her senses yet. How naive it was of him to count on seducing her. He had completely forgotten who the slaves were and how the masters treated them. Now he happened to have enslaved her with his formation. The outcome and expectations can be so far from one another.

{Rich noble people can do anything they want, the world is their oyster. All roads are open for them: to the best schools, tournaments, and competitions with good prizes, to the elite libraries, to the battle halls when they can find techniques and superior grades of elements. Juno is an ideal means to achieve my goal. I will become a high-ranking Stone.}

His thoughts flashed in a split second. He had set his major goal, now all he needed was to divide it into segments.

Juno angrily pushed his hand away. «DON’T!» - She rose to her feet and said with hatred in her voice. - «Why don't you just leave?! You’ve taken all my money. That’s enough for several lifetimes! What else do you want from me?!»

Kyon remembered 10,000 spheres that he had taken from her and laughed. «Stupid girl! Do you want me to just walk away? It would be a crime not to take advantage of your position for my personal gain. You are the missing patriarch’s daughter and granddaughter of the present one. Your possibilities in the family are really endless and, above all, you belong to me. Isn't it wonderful?»

His words made Juno shiver - she belonged to him. A rotten crazy guy, with no past and no future thinks of her as his toy. – {Damned worm! Just wait, I will find a way to get you.} - Juno turned away with a wry smile. She didn’t see fit to give him an answer. She hadn’t been dishonored, and that’s what mattered most. There still was a hope that everything would end soon and get back to normal. She would forget everything, plunge headlong into intensive training and clean her body and mind in the hot spring under the full moon.

«Tell me about the party that Yegorka mentioned once.» - All of a sudden, Kyon interrupted Juno’s thoughts.

From her words, Kyon found out more about the party.

How nice of Grandpa Bai to organize the best party in the world for his beloved granddaughter where she would have to find her love. He invited the younger generation and expected the richest, most honorable and distinguished guests to arrive and show off in front of the girl, win her favor, get her to dance and...

Juno frowned and added against her will that her grandfather was greatly mistaken in the number and quality of the guests. After her father disappeared, the family began to lose their power, influence, and authority in the kingdom. The younger generation began to deteriorate. Everyone was worthless. Yegorka was the most promising among them and kept pleasing the elders. At the next family tournament where strength equals high rank, her family was predicted the 5-10th place, which means they were going to lose the 1st rank to the Browns. Almost everyone was pretty sure of it. The reign of the Stones was verging to its close. To crown it all, certain rumors had been flying about Timothy. He appeared to have switched his interest from runaway Elsa to Juno.

All things considered, the importance of the party was compromised. However, Bai was completely unaware of it or refused to face the harsh reality. Anyone in the know about the future event must have heard something along the lines: «Patriarch Bai wants to give his worthless granddaughter to someone of high status before his family has lost their title! Who will ever fall for this scheme? That’s unfortunate! He should be ashamed of himself.» … «This is madness! I don’t want problems with Timothy Brown. I have enough on my plate. No, I am not going to the party... ”

Kyon could see that Juno was telling him the truth. He shouldn’t expect talented young people at the party, they wouldn’t descend to that level. Besides, many of them were afraid of Timothy Brown. However, the best young people from the Stone family were surely coming. They had no choice as the patriarch had ordered them to come. Her brother XiaoBai was coming, too.

Kyon found out even more details: there were no good parties without battles in this world. Usually, the winner would become the king/queen of the party and get a reward.

Juno did not have a clue what prize it would be this time. But a tournament without a reward is no tournament at all. Her grandfather must have prepared something valuable.

{I see... It would be a nice way to prove myself in front of the Stones. I don’t want to not miss this opportunity. I must take advantage of it. I need to take the first important step on the path of becoming an elite Stone. I have to get stronger in about two-plus weeks...}

«What do you care about what’s going on in my family?» - Juno interrupted Kyon, completely immersed in his thoughts.

He slowly turned his eyes to her coming back to reality. «I want to get higher up in your family.» He answered indifferently.

Juno stared at him for a few seconds, then she burst out laughing. She looked so charming with her little hand covering her mouth. «He wants to get a high position in my family! I mean, seriously?! No way! You are not strong enough to beat even me in the battle! Don’t be ridiculous! It’s easier to go to the moon than to carry out your plans!»

«And that’s coming from the girl who took so much effort to overpower me.» - Kyon reminded her spitefully.

Juno pursed her lips and turned away. «Anyway, I am very talented, and I am better than you in the speed of development, you miserable fraud... Sooner or later, I will be number one in my family. More than that, I will gain the power my sister has never dreamed of. And you will achieve nothing because you are just a slave…» - She saw Kyon change in the face and added, frightened - «Ex-slave…»

«You're... a complete dupe, aren’t you? I connected with my spirit a month ago. Now I’m at the 4th stage of the base phase. And you think I don’t have a talent?»

His words cast a shadow of a grin across Juno’s face. {A month ago?! I don’t buy it! He’s a lying bastard!} - But she said nothing.

Kyon was amused by her silence. He grinned and took another chance to belittle her:

«Pretty soon, after your crushing defeat, I will make you collect all the tears you wept from sorrow and grief and drink them up. And now you're free to go. Get lost!» - He waved her off like an annoying fly.

Juno was steaming with outrage, but she swallowed the insult and hurried out. She couldn’t stand to be around this mad boy as if he was a rotting corpse. She had to figure out how to escape.

«How should you say goodbye to your master?» - Kyon asked coldly in her back.

Juno could feel goosebumps rise on her skin. She turned around, frowned.

The silence seemed to last forever.

Kyon stretched his hand graciously and made a reasonable remark:

«Well, if you want to practice with me, I’ll gladly teach you... It’s not difficult at all. I know lots of positions.»

Juno jumped out of her skin. The angry expression on her face turned into utter despair. She looked confused trying to come up with an answer. She couldn’t degrade herself without an order to the formation. It was like stabbing herself with a knife, but... She had no choice. Her lips quivered and half-opened. She smiled insincerely and answered in a sweet, trembling voice:

«Goodbye, dear m-m-master... Have a good time…»

Kyon broke into a tender, approving smile and let her go with a satisfied nod. {Right... I will rehabilitate you.}

He had his doubts if he could ever forget how he had been starving, how she ordered him to knock his teeth out, that he had no shelter for the night, that she tried to kill him so many times. Juno’s long suffering was not coming to an end any time soon.

Outside the gate, Juno blushed like a ripe red apple. All she wanted was to scream from the humiliation and hatred for the arrogant slave that devoured her. {Only one of us will remain in this world! I swear to heaven. And may goddess Danna be the witness of my oath!}

Left alone, Kyon sighed and looked into the cloudy sky. A little more than two weeks remained before the party. He needed to improve the quality of his energy as soon as possible, as well as master the basic grade all the elements, choose a unique body, invent the ideal movement technique, and also learn a couple of combat techniques. He shouldn’t put off memorizing the books, either. He still knew too little about the world around him.

Above all, he had to be careful with the maids. He had already taken over Juno, so everything should work like a charm. The trick is, when someone sees him with the “lady,” he should not cause suspicion and play the role of a servant.

Kyon went to the center of the arena. He had to choose which element to master next. Then he remembered the power of the lightning cast by Juno. He had almost lost to her a couple of punches later. He made his choice at once. His second element would be the ether.

Jean once gave him the basic grade of each element. When he swallowed the cloudy stones, the information formed in his mind in the form of neural connections that he planned to study with the help of Synergy.

He couldn’t care less about any restrictions on the number of elements the local practitioners had. Four elements were for a genius. Only a heavenly genius could master five. Kyon was going to bend them all, with no exception. They could call him a god after that.

When Synergy analyzed neural connections, it excluded accidents or coincidences. Kyon could forget about enlightenment.

It took him a week to master the basic grade of the simplest element, the pure force energy (also, the inner energy). He thought that such a complex element as the ether would take him longer to master, but it didn’t... He already had a guideline. All he had to do was to apply it to the ether.

After two hours of vain attempts, Kyon frowned. The ether refused to respond. It was complicated and unpredictable. The neural connections were incomprehensible. The energy was erratic and complicated the analysis. He couldn’t find a single lead to the neural connections.

Hour after hour, the time was passing by. It was getting dark. He took short breaks to grab a bite, answer the call of nature, and take a nap.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up with a spark of awareness. He had found the first lead! It’s all downhill from here. He had to put the whole thing together and he would have the basic grade of the ether.

The sky was overcast with dark gray clouds, there was a clap of thunder, a bolt of lightning. A strong hurricane wind rose. Small but fast raindrops crashed against his face, the wind tousled his hair. He was one step away from bending the element.

*pop*

The moment he mastered the essence of the element, he brought home to his mind all the information he had. It connected with his soul and became one with it. Kyon heard an unusual and funny sound. It meant that he had mastered the basic grade of the ether once and for all as if he had known it from his birth.

*BOOM*

The menacing bright lightning broke at the barrier and disappeared without a trace.

Kyon stretched out his arms like Moses and laughed. {Even heaven supports me! There’s a blessing! Ha-ha-ha!}

It was his second step on the path of becoming a powerful practitioner. He had mastered the basic grade of his second element. It was intoxicating to realize that he could bend the ether so naturally and easily.

Usually, it took the most avid adepts from six months to ten years to master the ether. Thanks to her talent, Juno mastered it in a month. If someone found out that it took Kyon only eight hours, they would seethe with envy.

The weather calmed down after the thunderclouds swept away. The drizzle and wind disappeared. The clouds were melting in the twilight.

Kyon wiped sweat from his forehead and sat on the bench. He stretched out his hand with his fingers in a circle as if he was holding a sphere. Dangerous bright purple lightning fired from his fingers. It was focused in the center making loud and cracking sounds.

{My guess was right. The element of ether creates and controls charged particles!}

Kyon began to test the new element right away. He noticed that his ether attacks were more powerful than Juno’s. Not much, though, by about one stage.

In the battle before the last one, he found out that his pure keys made him stronger than any enemy by five stages. It didn’t add up now. If Juno were five stages higher than him (at the 9th), she would have topped him in power. The question is why?

He found the answer pretty soon. Juno had the advanced grade of the ether, and he had the basic grade (1). The power of their ether defied the rule of five stages. The difference in the three stages would make them equal in power.

{So, the difference in power of the basic grade and the advanced grade equals two stages?} He came up with an interesting notion. If Kyon was fighting with an equal in development with an advanced (2) grade of the ether while his enemy had at the basic grade, the difference in the power of their electricity would be seven stages! An enormous advantage, indeed.