"That… was a far more comprehensive answer than I initially thought." Committing every word Noel had spoken to him regarding the reason why he could not stay in the Shadow Plane after sunset as of yet, Valyr was silent for a minute or so before finally being able to respond, feeling a hint of guilt after recalling the expressions the old man had made during his explanation.
"I… also apologize for bringing up some bad memories, Elder Noel," said Valyr soon after, turning to look at the ground as he let out a faint sigh.
"Why are you apologizing for something you don't have control over?" Letting out a sigh of his own in response, Noel told the young man to look back at him, leaving the young man no choice but to do so. "It was my mind that decided to bring up some memories I thought I'd already forgotten out of nowhere. You don't have apologize for it."
"If anything, direct that apology to yourself." As Noel said these words to him, Valyr looked back at the former with confusion written all over his face. Fortunately, the old man's statement was more than enough to clear that confusion up. "Because of that question of yours, you now have far less time to improve your Shadow Energy's quality in the Shadow Plane."
"Is there something wrong with improving one's Shadow Energy outside the Shadow Plane, Elder Noel?" Noticing how the old man had focused in on him improving his Shadow Energy while they were still within its origin, Valyr wondered to himself if there was some complex reason to it as well, thinking that there might be restrictions to refining the energy outside the Shadow Plane just like how he could not stay in the Shadow Plane after sunset.
However, what he got instead was…
"Not really." Noel faintly shook his head with his expression that of slight confusion. "You could go ahead and improve your Shadow Energy quality just fine outside the Shadow Plane. It's just that it's tens to hundreds of times slower since your level of sensitivity towards the energy is decreased."
"Oh." Not wanting the other side to realize that he had just seemingly complicated the answer to the question in his mind, Valyr decided to just nod in response before proceeding to close his eyes, cutting off his five external senses one by one as he focused his attention on the small black mass near his heart.
"I guess he thought he would get a similar answer out of me." On the other hand, taking note as to how Valyr's behavior had swiftly changed after obtaining the answer to his question from Noel, the latter did not pursue the matter any further, instead letting out a bit of laughter before proceeding to sit near the young man.
"Let's see if you could improve your Shadow Energy quality by two grades before we have to leave the Shadow Plane." Casting a barrier of Abyssal Energy around the two to make sure none of the Shadow Tigers in the area would disturb the two of them, Noel took a brief glance at Valyr before deciding to close his eyes, attuning himself to his surroundings before soon focusing all of his attention towards his internals as well.
…
"Wow." At the very instant Valyr had cut off all of his external senses, with only his mental power being the only thing taking a look at what was inside the small black mass, the young man was swiftly greeted by the sight of what looked like a field of dark particles, faintly glistening every once in a while as if they were stars in space.
"So, I'm guessing the dark particles is a manifestation of the Shadow Energy I've collected from the creatures so far." Continuing to admire the sight before him for a bit longer, Valyr eventually recalled the main reason why he had focused all of his attention inwards, soon utilizing the connection he had with his Shadow Energy to begin manipulating the dark particles within the space before him.
Whoosh!
"Surprisingly malleable." As his eyes briefly widened in surprise at how easy it was to move the dark particles around with his thoughts, Valyr went ahead and manipulated all of the dark particles to congregate into one spot, choosing the center of the space as the dark particles were already more concentrated there.
Swoosh!
Within minutes, almost all of the dark particles within the space Valyr was viewing had already moved themselves to the inner half, only leaving a few large particles behind that were far darker than the dark particles themselves. Trying to move these large particles closer, it did not take long for the young man to realize that these large particles were the impurities he was trying to remove from the Shadow Energy, prompting him to manipulate these large particles in a way that would make them head in the opposite direction.
"I see…" Seeing that the impurities would eventually disappear after he had moved them away up to a certain point, Valyr went ahead and focused more of his mental power towards condensing all of the dark particles at the center, prompting black particles to eventually appear amidst the dark particles squeezing into the center.
Already equipped with the knowledge of what he had to do, he then moved these black particles away from the dark particles, moving one step closer to achieving an improvement in his Shadow Energy quality.
"It's getting more and more difficult…" Of course, after compressing the dark particles and removing the black particles multiple times in a row, the amount of mental power Valyr had consumed to get to where he was currently had enough of an effect on his efficiency to remove the impurities, finding it more and more tedious as more time passed.
Thankfully, seeing as the amount of impurities he had to remove with every cycle continued to decrease, he did not hesitate to psych himself up, telling himself that he would only have to do it a few more times before his Shadow Energy would improve.
With that, by the time he had more or less squeezed his mental power to its utmost limits, Valyr had removed the few last specks of black particles that had been lingering around the dark particles, only for the dark particles to start vibrating in unison not long after.
…
…
…
Ding!
[You have removed all of the impurities in your Shadow Energy.]
[All Shadow Energy you shall control from now on is bereft of any impurities whatsoever, improving its efficacy and power.]
[The grade of your Shadow Energy Mark has improved to Pure.]
