Elemental Cats

After Joshua, the main source of activity on the island, awakened his inclination and began training rigorously, the entire island became calmer. The cats who lost their reason to play around spent more time training. However, it had mostly been Lucy who fooled around since the other cats were already trying to either catch up to Lucy or maintain their lead.

Seeing Lucy settle down and focus on training, the other cats grew slightly nervous. They had trouble matching Lucy when he didn't dedicate himself to training. What would happen now that he was training as much as them? Lucy's hardworking attitude fanned the flames of motivation for the other cats. Toz also got more motivated to work harder after seeing the cats' motivation. However, since he was at last place in their nonsensical race, Toz was already training his mana most of the time.

Nonetheless, despite Toz's hard work and dedication, he was still bound to be left in the dust by the cats, which only had to focus on a single attribute. Even if Toz's inclination gathered and amplified his and the cats' talent and affinity for mana, with Toz as the centerpiece, Toz still couldn't catch up to the cats since their talents also received a boost.

Nil, Mindle, and Scrael, on the other hand, were showing great signs of progress. Ever since Mindle joined their group and caught up to Toz, Nil, and Lucy like a sandstorm, Nil especially had put in some effort in order to not fall behind the others since he could tell his innate talent was lacking compared to theirs.

And it seemed like Nil's effort wouldn't be for nothing since he was the first cat to follow in Lucy's footsteps and break through to the fifth level. Thanks to Nil's delicate control over his mana, and since it didn't cross any divisions, he completed the breakthrough without a stir.

Although Nil was proud he beat Mindle and Scrael, he was still slow compared to Lucy, so he didn't bask in the glory for too long. But he didn't go right back to training as he instead went to bolster the island's defenses with his newly improved strength. It was only a single level, but it was still enough for Nil to be able to make some improvements and increase the island's stability. And since the overall combat strength of the island was steadily increasing, there weren't any severe worries that they would attract any beasts that could destroy them without giving them a fighting chance.

Next up was Scrael. It usually took more training to reach a higher level, and if Scrael had reached the fifth level shortly before joining Toz and the other cats, she would still have quite a bit left before breaking through to the sixth level. However, Scrael had already progressed in her training while at the fifth level, so she wasn't too far from the sixth level. And after all the training she did while on the island, Scrael finally reached the sixth level.

Unlike Nil and Lucy, Scrael didn't focus on delicate control of her magic. She focused on output and maximizing efficiency. Scrael didn't need to practice fine control over her magic since her primary use of magic was to supercharge her physical abilities and especially her speed.

Scrael was satisfied that she could keep her lead over the others. And since Stitches was a healer, she was also the highest level combat force on the island. Scrael felt good knowing that the others would rely on her and her power. After her slightly flashy breakthrough, she checked in on the lightning fruits, and after confirming none of them were ripe, Scrael went back to training.

It seemed like Scrael's breakthrough was the last push of motivation Mindle needed as she broke through just after Scrael did.

Although Mindle also had excellent control of her mana and could easily suppress the effects of her breakthrough as Nil and Lucy had done, she intentionally let some sparks fly to show her frustration at coming in last.

Toz wasn't bothered that he wasn't even considered part of the competition. Not at all. And the fact that he didn't talk to the others and focused on training was simply because he also wanted to break through and improve as quickly as possible.

Although it was for different reasons, Mindle also focused on her training after trying to comfort Toz and make sure he didn't feel left out. However, since Toz reacted the way he did, he effectively prevented Mindle from feeling anything other than frustration at breaking through after the others.

Mindle's history of being slightly anxious regarding her lacking strength wasn't really a secret among Toz and the other cats, even if it wasn't something they talked about. And there wasn't any need to talk about it after she had gotten over it and especially after she caught up to everyone else's level and also learned a spell. Mindle was far from being the weakest of the group, but if she fell behind again, it wouldn't be weird if she started feeling anxious regarding her position in the group again.

But after Mindle talked to Toz, she didn't worry about anything and focused on her training.

The atmosphere of the island wasn't as tense with competitive spirit and got even more tranquil. Aside from Joan and Nil going about their business, Hods and Stitches were also taking it easy. Hods had found some books in the boats he was reading, and Stitches was trying to figure out more ways to control life force so he could train and progress his mana.

Stitches didn't train his mana quite as easily as Toz and the others. He couldn't simply convert and absorb the surrounding mana. Stitches could only train his mana by manipulating life force, and the way most efficient for him was to use life force to heal other people. However, compared to the war between the human and demon realm, there was a significant lack of patients on the island of void trees.

In order to make it easier for his future progress, Stitches was trying to figure out a way to train his mana so that he didn't have to heal someone since, in his current situation, he would first have to cause the injuries before healing them.

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