Cypher had returned to his home in Seven City a day after Alvin left to put Elise to rest. The whole ordeal with the ruin had shaken him and reminded him of just how far he had to go before he could hold his own in this world of monsters.

Cypher didn't have much to worry about in terms of obtaining power. He needed only to train his centers of power and the rest would come easily enough. That, however, would require time. He wasn't sure how long it might take him to reach the peak of the Heroic ranks, but he was slightly discouraged since it had taken him five whole years to reach the peak of the first.

Even if he broke through to the second rank and kept up his current pace of training, it would take at least another five years. "How the hell did you do it?" Cypher asked, his eyes locked on his father's saber. Of course, the weapon gave no response and Cypher sighed.

Somehow his father had reached the fourth rank before he was even 25 and Cypher was already seventeen. If he wanted to catch up, it would require some serious effort on his part. But was that even possible? Surely it had to be, after all, how could his father have made it that far so soon if it wasn't?

It was possible that perhaps Fenix had achieved such results because he was an unmatched genius. Nobody ever made it past the third rank before they were at least in their forties or fifties, to do so would have made that Conductor a prodigy. Compared to that, Fenix was some kind of godly being capable of breaking the rules of the world.

There had to be some kind of secret though, and Cypher was determined to find out what that was. He moved to the library and began to rifle through countless books and scrolls. If there were an answer, it would likely be here. His father and mother had left behind all of their knowledge after all. Something in here had to mention how to surpass the ranks faster than normal.

Hours passed, and then a whole day, yet Cypher found nothing that could aid him in answering this question. He had of course been training his Orrium the entire time and he was seeing some impressive gains.

For those in the liquid stage, one would have to cause waves within the Orrium using mental energy, in order to expand the shoreline and increase the amount of Zight one could absorb and ultimately store.

Once the waves could no longer expand that shoreline, the Conductor would have to compress their Orrium using their mental energy and purify it into a solid form. Cypher had trained in this method with Alvin long ago.

However, given that he had skipped the liquid stage upon advancing to the first rank, he didn't have to undergo that process. When he had advanced to the first rank of the Orrium, it had been as simple as crossing a border. The feeling of all his Zight suddenly solidifying into a crystalline mass as he reached the first rank was jarring, but he handled it well enough.

Now, in his Orrium, his ethereal body hovered above the lake of solid pieces of Zight. He hovered right at its center and could see everything with perfect clarity. Looking at it would have been akin to seeing an entire lake filled with thousands of gemstones and Cypher wondered how it would look in its next form.

Bursts of his mental energy would rocket out, causing a great crater of open space to expand outward, sending many Zight-gems flying into the air. The many thousands of gemstones, all of various sizes and shapes, clinked against each other as they rolled outwards and collected against the shoreline. They would then roll back towards the center of the lake and be blasted out once again.

Like this, he was expanding his Orrium and it was nearing its breakthrough. The expansion was slow but steady, and he was very close to a breakthrough. This would be the tricky part though. Condensing a liquid was simple, but condensing a solid? Well, that would require some serious mental waves on his part.

If his power was insufficient, he would fail in the compression and have to try again after a refractory period of two months. The Orrium was a delicate organ despite containing such immense power, failure to advance could leave it sore and injured.

Cypher wanted to avoid this if possible, and so while he was in fact close to his breakthrough, his mind would need to become stronger first. It was steadily hovering around the middle tier of the first rank. When he observed the Architect's Draft, the diagram was still missing several layers around its outer edge but was mostly complete.

He would soon be able to move on to the second volume of the rank-two set. Where the first set had been emerald green in color, this second set was ruby red and naturally, its diagrams were more complex. That said, he was making good time.

At the moment, however, he couldn't dedicate himself to staring at the Architect's Draft, he needed answers to his predicament, and to his frustration, none were appearing. He leaned back in annoyance, as well as to stretch his back.

He wished that he could just talk to his father and ask him how he managed to grow so quickly as a Conductor, but he quickly abandoned that, as wishful thinking was pointless in such situations. However, all this thinking had managed to bring him to a solution that might just work in his favor.

Elaine, his father's former subordinate could have some answers. After all, she had trained and fought alongside him for years according to Alvin. The chances that she knew something were pretty high, but Cypher still didn't have a lead on her whereabouts.

Alvin might know something, but he was busy with his sister's burial and Cypher wasn't about to intervene in that. He was also still a little upset with Alvin after that big reveal back in the ruin. Still, he had to do something, so Cypher chose to wait until Alvin was finished with his business.

He would wait a week, train his centers of power, and then return to the Academy. Beyond that, he could also visit with Alex and Melodi, who were both at their homes. As he thought about it, visiting them might be exactly what he needed right now.

He had missed Alex, and he owed Melodi for ditching her like that. Perhaps spending some time with other human beings would do him some good. Besides, it felt good to reconnect with them. After that night around the fire, there had been less tension between them.

Cypher stood up and stretched again. It was late, and he would go visit them tomorrow. For now, he just wanted to cuddle up with Spark, relax, and enjoy a good home-cooked meal.

"Hey, Spark! Are you hungry buddy?" He shouted, and his companion bounded into the library and tackled him.