Elemental Cats

Lucy told Toz about Tasha's return, but after acknowledging it, Toz didn't do more. He knew Joshua and his family would be busy with their reunion, and Toz was busy with the sword technique he got from Stris.

After kidnapping Stris and taking his things, Toz had only had enough time to glance over them since the state of Pirate Haven and his intention to become Pirate King didn't allow him any free time. He only had enough time to train his mana now and then, so his void mana was steadily approaching the sixth level, but he didn't have any spare time to begin learning the techniques he saw in Stris' spatial items.

However, now that Toz had become the Pirate King and things in Pirate Haven were in control, no one could fault Toz for grabbing some time to train and grow stronger.

During the weeks following the Starsling Kingdom's navy's defeat, Toz had spared enough time to go through the things he found in Stris' storage items. To some surprise, Stris was more affluent than his brother, and he had a lot of things that Wulf wanted to store in the treasury.

Toz was only interested in the sword techniques he found. Stris had practically empty manuals for the three techniques he displayed against the three other pirate leaders, Crust Breaker, Rubble Smash, Armor Slice, and two more.

The first of the two manuals Stris hadn't shown was a technique called Pommel Strike, which, based on the manual's use, Stris had only recently learned. Unlike the Crust Breaker technique that was on the verge of filling back up since Stris had mastered it and was infusing his mastery back into the manual, the manual for Pommel Strike was half-empty due to use.

Stris probably wasn't confident enough to use the technique in a fight against the three pirate leaders.

The second martial manual, not from Stris' three main techniques, was starkly different from the other four.

The first four were simple soft-cover books with a supple leather cover with a title of the technique the papers contained. The martial manuals Toz found in Dristel's possession were the same. The only difference was the Dragon's Tail Sweep manual which was noticeably thicker than the others.

All the manuals were made with the same kind of materials and in a similar way, just like most grimoires.

However, Stris' fifth martial manual was different. The bundle of aged, yellow paper didn't have a cover, and it looked like someone had torn them out of the original book before trying to glue them together. The pages also looked like they were from a different material than the ones in the other manuals, but Toz couldn't be sure since they seemed to be a lot older and might just be age.

Toz was naturally interested in the bundle of pages. However, the first half contained regular text, not a martial energy manipulation method or a technique. The letters seemed vaguely similar to the alphabet currently used as the standard universal language, but Toz couldn't quite figure out what the text said.

Fortunately, the second half contained a technique. And from what Toz could tell, it was an incredibly advanced and intricate way of using either mana or martial energy, so it wasn't weird for Stris to hang on the nearly useless scraps of paper.

Toz could tell it was a way for sword users to utilize mana and martial energy of different attributes, but he wasn't sure he should spend time on it when he couldn't read the text or be sure that the bundle contained the entire technique. From what he could sense, Stris hadn't either begun learning the technique, probably out of similar concerns.

But Toz also wasn't willing to give up on the technique, so he investigated and looked through the pages several times, and the only thing that stood out was the symbol of a rainbow swirl in the corner of some of the pages.

Toz figured he could ask Retsy for help, but that would have to wait since that technique wasn't the only one he had gotten hold of in the wake of the battle.

The earth attribute techniques didn't hold much of Toz's interest, but Armor Slice did. There was also the grimoire he got from the Representative, Dissolution.

Toz hadn't seen it for himself since he restrained his perception while hiding in the ground during the battle between Stris and the three pirate leaders. And he had been preoccupied when the Representative forcibly dissipated Nester's chains. But he had heard from the others about how the Representative basically turned things into nothing with only a touch.

The title of the grimoire and a quick glance at its contents was enough to tell Toz that it was the Representative's trademark spell. Toz was surprised that the Representative so willingly handed it over. But at the same time, it was probably the only one the Representative could reliably reproduce if he was as adept with the spell as the others described.

The spell piqued Toz's interest, and he decided to learn it first. His other option would be Armor Slice, but that wouldn't give Toz as much of a boost in combat strength as Dissolution when he could already cut through almost everything with his sword and some kind of combination magic.

Toz stored away every other grimoire and manual and the other items he had taken out to look at to see if Stris had anything else with the rainbow swirl marking on it. Since he hadn't found a clue about the technique he wanted to learn, Toz decided to focus on what he could learn without worry.

Toz flipped open the first page of Dissolution and sank his consciousness into the book.

Since he had safely hidden away on Taienra's back, he didn't have to worry about interruptions. And after letting the cats know about how he was going to concentrate on training for some time, no one would come and disturb him.