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The brilliance of the blue light hurt Vaan\'s eyes, forcing him to look away.

However, Topaz\'s brilliance didn\'t last very long. After shining for a few breaths, the blue light was retracted back into her body, returning everything to normal as if nothing had ever happened.

Ding!

<Your contracted earth spirit has reached the upper limits for mid-rank earth spirits>

<You have acquired new contracted magic from your contracted earth spirit>

=====

«Contracted Spirit/s»

First Spirit: Topaz (Named Spirit) (Earth Spirit)

Spirit Rank: Early-Mid rank → Peak-Mid rank (Low-level Rank 3 → Peak-level Rank 3 equivalent)

Contracted Magic 1: [Telepathy (Only between you and your contracted earth spirit)]

Contracted Magic 2: [Earth Manipulation (Power Limit: Low-level Rank 2 → Peak-level Rank 2 (One rank lower than contracted spirit))]

Contracted Magic 3: [Earth Transmutation (Transmutation Limit: Peak-level Rank 2 materials (One rank lower than contracted spirit))]

Mana Capacity: 500/500

=====

\'Kyuu!\'

Shortly after advancing to the peak of Mid-rank Earth Spirit, Topaz was filled with energy.

She started flapping her wings and flying around the pocket space hyperactively.

At the same time, Vaan read through the changes and couldn\'t help but feel pleasantly surprised.

Seeing how energetically Topaz had become after assimilating the Realm Fragment, he was also relieved that nothing terrible happened to his contracted earth spirit.

"Earth Transmutation…" Vaan muttered thoughtfully.

Shortly after, he picked up an ordinary piece of rock and tested his new magical ability.

Earth Transmutation!

Mana quickly gathered into the rock, increasing its weight and density as it transformed into a piece of iron.

"Without any specific metal in mind, it transforms into iron, huh?" Vaan noted.

Afterward, he ran a few more tests with different pieces of rock. When he thought of steel, he created impure steel. When he thought of titanium, he got impure titanium.

The transmutation didn\'t give him pure steel or pure titanium. They were both mixed with random amounts of other metals.

Seeing those results, Vaan ran a different test, keeping the specific ratios of earthen elements in mind, before he finally produced pure steel through Earth Transmutation.

Following that, he also created pure titanium.

After completing his experiments, Vaan understood the gist of Earth Transmutation. Without a clear understanding of what he wanted to create, he would only produce a flawed version.

For example, steel was mainly made of iron and carbon. But without knowing the ratio, he will not get the right steel product.

Furthermore, he had to be specific about the amount. Otherwise, even a pure earth element like titanium would become impure when he doesn\'t completely transmute the object.

He couldn\'t transmute objects into something he didn\'t understand either.

As long as he had some partial knowledge about the element he wanted to transmute, he would have some success. But if he knew nothing at all, the Earth Transmutation would fail.

After understanding the conditions, Vaan shifted his focus on the limitation of Earth Transmutation.

\'I will have to observe these transmuted products for some time to confirm whether these transmutations are permanent or temporary,\' Vaan thought.

Nevertheless, he was more inclined to believe that the Earth Transmutation was only temporary. Even so, the acquisition of Earth Transmutation solved his biggest problem of getting gunpowder.

\'The duration of Earth Transmutation won\'t matter too much for gunpowder as I can expedite its usage upon creation. But it would be a problem for other uses,\' Vaan mused.

It could be a difference between life and death if he used an entirely Earth Transmutation-created weapon—only for it to suddenly revert to soil and stones mid-battle.

\'Earth Transmutation, Kinetic Energy Manipulation, Earth Acceleration, and Earth Manipulation… It\'s hard to imagine the extent of bullet speed I can raise with these abilities…\' Vaan wondered.

No doubt, the bullet would reach an unfathomable level of speed. But no matter how fast it could be, it would still be useless if it couldn\'t penetrate its target.

\'Bullet strength is the problem now. I need to create bullets with stronger materials if I want their attack power to reach their full potential.\'

Nevertheless, Vaan quickly settled aside his thoughts and moved to the next pocket space with his transmuted metals in hand after harvesting the Gehenna plants.

But after scouring the next pocket space, he failed to find another Realm Fragment.

Although there were new patches of Gehenna plants like the previous two pocket spaces, he found cracks all over the third one.

\'Seems like someone or something else got hold of the Realm Fragment in this one,\' Vaan concluded with furrowed brows.

It was already amazing that he managed to find two Realm Fragments. He shouldn\'t be greedy for more.

That said, he wouldn\'t ignore the chances either.

After rounding up the Gehenna plants, he moved to the fourth, fifth, and sixth pocket spaces. But like the third pocket space, the potential Realm Fragment was missing, seemingly already taken.

Even so, Vaan didn\'t give up hope and went to search every pocket space he could discover with Topaz.

On the fourteenth pocket space, his transmuted metals crumbled into earthen dust.

\'About fifteen minutes, huh? A bit disappointing, but beggars can\'t be choosers. Fifteen minutes is still plenty of time to do things.\'

Vaan figured out the effect duration of Earth Transmutation.

Shortly after, Vaan continued to search the remaining pocket spaces while collecting the Gehenna plants found inside them.

He had accumulated enough Gehenna plants to form a garden in the Heaven-Swallowing Space.

…

After searching for some time, he finally found another peanut-sized Realm Fragment in his twenty-seventh pocket space.

Unfortunately, it was also the last pocket space he could detect in the underground region.

Several hundred feet further below from his present location, Vaan could sense an incomparably enormous open space.

Nevertheless, when Vaan found the third peanut-sized Realm Fragment, Topaz stared at it intently.