Elemental Cats

With mana vision supporting his mana sense, Toz quickly spread the remaining dregs of his mana through the air and captured the mana all around him. Thanks to getting rid of the Fortress' walls and ceilings, nothing obstructed Toz's view, and he could almost freely control all the mana in the Fortress' vicinity. The demonic energy was a little more stubborn and didn't follow Toz's command as obediently as the mana.

But with Toz using his mind and mana vision to control the demonic energy, it eventually submitted and fell in line with the mana.

With the initial preparations ready, Toz took a deep breath and began.

He was going to train his mana by absorbing all the mana around him in one go like he had done in the tent when he and Scrael shared the grimoire.

Back then, Toz combined what he learned through his passive training with his manual training and managed to absorb an overwhelming amount of mana at once. Doing that almost ruptured his body, shattered his mana pool, and tore apart his mind, despite Scrael interrupting him before it could get really bad.

Toz thought that he had learned his lesson since it was incredibly painful and forced him to sleep and rest for several days. But since he was planning to do it again, and with even more mana this time, he had obviously not learned a thing. Not to mention how Scrael wasn't even there to stop him and help him snap out of the trance that the surging rush of mana would put him in.

There were other options available for Toz if he merely wanted to survive, but that wasn't the only thing he wanted since he felt a desire to bring the Fountain of Death with him. Toz didn't think he could escape with the Fountain of Death in his current state, at least not as long as he couldn't store away the Fountain.

So, if Toz wanted to survive while keeping the Fountain of Death, he had to get rid of whatever tried to kill him. But after using all of his mana to get rid of the small fries, he wouldn't be able to put up any kind of fight against the remaining enemies.

He might not be able to come out victorious while keeping the Fountain of Death in his possession, even if his mana pool was full again.

Thankfully, things had aligned for Toz, and he saw a way through which he could succeed with what he wanted.

After refining all of his elements, Toz had started passively training his fire attribute so that it had started approaching the seventh level. Toz had wanted to make some kind of progress with his fire element ever since the prison break. And although he also wanted to train his lightning element due to the spell, Toz realized that the fire element was a better option.

Training lightning instead of fire might help him learn a single spell a little quicker. But training his fire element to the seventh level could very likely lead to him awakening the true nature of fire without the aid of a spell, which would undoubtedly increase his strength more than learning a single spell would.

Well, now he had awakened the true nature of fire without the help of a spell before he reached the seventh level. But he couldn't rule out the fact that the training he had done so far helped.

And with his success on top of his training, Toz's mana had reached the last stretch before he could break through to the seventh level, which gave him even more confidence about breaking through using the recklessly stupid method he had concocted.

Being close to the threshold of the seventh level and the experience of awakening fire magic itself fresh in his mind was an opportunity Toz might not get again. So, although he had planned to use this method from the beginning, he felt like he would actually have more than a grain of sand in the desert's chance of survival.

Another thing that gave Toz confidence was the fact that a lot of the mana in the air was of the fire attribute. Due to Toz emptying out all of his mana pool to create the inferno that wracked the Fortress, the demonic energy and mana in the air also gradually started to shift and convert into fire mana.

And then, when he awakened the fire, the mana in the air trembled. Demonic energy and mana in the surroundings started to change into fire mana, and fire mana from further away rushed closer to the flames.

The conditions were almost optimal for Toz to break through to the seventh level with his fire attribute. And since his mana pool was empty, to begin with, he would have more space to fit in all the mana he was pulling toward himself.

Toz couldn't help but feel a little fear as the mounting pressure of the incoming tsunami of mana started building. But the remaining embers of awakened fire comforted him and inspired him.

He calmed himself down, but he still held on to just a tiny piece of anxiety, just like before.

Toz was almost confident that he would succeed in breaking through to the seventh level using the all-devouring method. But that wouldn't necessarily make his body stop absorbing the mana in his surroundings.

In a perfect world, he had chosen the exact amount of mana he needed to reach a perfect breakthrough, where he pushed his mana and mana pool to their limits.

But he didn't live in a perfect world, and doing something like that was impossible.

But breaking through perfectly was another thing Toz didn't want to give up on, even in his current circumstances. So, instead of absorbing a moderate amount that would let him break through without making him explode, Toz decided to absorb a lot more mana than he actually needed to break through to the seventh level.