The days became uncountable as Damien enacted his newly formed training plan for Astoria.
He completely disregarded all fundamental skills related to destruction and purely taught Astoria the method to interfere with space in a supportive manner.
In this sense, Astoria's talent truly bloomed. No matter what Damien taught her, she was able to absorb it without a single issue.
For instance, Dimensional Magic.
Dimensional Magic was something Damien only acquired upon becoming a Celestial, but Astoria was able to use it from the beginning.
Dimensional Cage, Phase Shift, Material Shift, and even Vector Control became skills that Astoria excelled in.
And through Vector Control, she was able to create an attack method without truly having any destructive power of her own.
Time passed.
Astoria's talent for Vector Control began to bloom in full.
As she was already a 4th class being, she wasn't able to receive the benefits of ranking up with space as her main pathway, but with Damien in her corner assisting her, she was able to gain something far better.
After all, Damien was the possessor of the Void Physique.
With the Breath of All Things, Damien could alter the physical conditions of the world to whatever could suit Astoria's needs best.
With the Breath of Nothingness, he could pass his own memories of endless practice to Astoria so she could digest her gains faster and have a guideline to follow if she ever struggled with those fundamentals that she didn't personally learn.
Astoria was easily able to surpass Damien's 2 months' progress as she'd claimed, and after those two months ended, Astoria's attitude towards the hell training she was undergoing started to experience a subtle shift.
She was enjoying it.
Once she came back from that particularly cruel punishment, the way her master approached her training took a complete 180.
The curriculum she began to study from that point on was extremely joyful, and everything she learned was internalized almost instantly.
She felt that instinctual connection she had with space strengthening over time, and she felt that as long as she was interfering in a gentle manner like her current abilities provoked, she had the potential to grow endlessly.
"At some point, the instruction I can provide you will be limited. Unlike the other elements, space is largely neglected in the universe and the infinite paths within the Laws are still hidden from us practitioners," Damien lectured.
"When it comes to supportive abilities, I've already taught you everything I know, after all, I am a destructive practitioner. From this point on, your training will become far more independent. I will watch over you and accompany you so as to ensure your safety, but I will not intervene in your training unless it's truly necessary."
Astoria's eyes widened. "Master, does that mean…"
Damien nodded. "It's likely as you've guessed. Today, we are leaving the Sanctuary."
Damien had been training Astoria in the Sanctuary for a year and a half now. It was only with this much time that Astoria was able to master Vector Control and Dimensional Magic to her current level.
It should've been around a month in the outside world since their training started, which meant that in another two months, the grand tournament would begin.
With this much time…
'It should be fine. I can still create localized time pockets when necessary, even though the effect in the Real Plane won't be nearly as exaggerated as it is in here. Besides…'
Damien's pupils swirled as he activated the All-Seeing Eyes.
[Status]
[Astoria Golden]
Golden Dragon
Female - Age 19
Level 274 - [Royal Golden Dragon]
Experience value: 124,779/411,000
Title(s): [Void Disciple]
Affinities: Fate, Space
Physique: Imperial Golden Dragon Body
Magic Power: 250000
STR: 1100
AGI: 1000
DEF: 1300
INT: 1000
DEX: 1350
Skills: [Dimensional Magic Level 4], [Vector Control Level 7]…
Damien smiled. With these skills, he didn't think Astoria would have a problem surviving in the wilderness.
'This Void Disciple title is extremely convenient.'
It had been a very long time since Damien saw the birth of a new title, but it seemed this one was influenced by his own titles and physique.
The Void Disciple title seemingly appeared when Damien and Astoria first made their contract, but Damien didn't notice it until he tried to read Astoria's status around half a year into their training.
Damien didn't know what effects the title had on Astoria herself, but it provided him some benefits as well.
For instance, he could see a majority of Astoria's status.
Most of her skills and her traits were hidden, but essentially anything Damien had influenced and could influence was shown to him, allowing him to better plan Astoria's training.
Now that she's reached her current level, what she needed more than anything else was practical experience.
'I wanted to take her to the Wild Continent, but I haven't properly integrated it into the Sanctuary yet. Before I can find a World Core for the chunk of land, it'll be difficult for it to become a functioning part of this universe.'
The Wild Continent was essentially stuffed in its own corner of the Sanctuary at the moment. Damien was forced to create a separate space for it since the existing world laws couldn't support its existence.
Nevertheless, for now, the Wild Continent was still a useless piece of land.
'I can use this expedition to find a World Core for the Wild Continent too.'
"Prepare yourself. We'll be leaving in two days." He said out loud.
Astoria nodded her head excitedly. The past year and a half of harsh training had smoothed out her personality a great deal, but that mischievousness in her soul never left.
Now that she was getting the opportunity to leave this place and explore the universe, how could she not be excited?
Astoria immediately stood up to return to Theavel where her temporary residence was.
"Then, Master, I'll see you in two days!"
"Ah, go see your aunt and them while you're there. They've prepared gifts for you."
Astoria's already alit face suddenly burned as brightly as a flame in joy.
"Yes!"
She immediately set off, rushing back to Theavel at her fastest speed.
'Sheesh, Elvira and them are spoiling her too much. Is it that strange for me to accept a disciple?'
When he originally told the five leaders of the Sanctuary about Astoria, their reactions weren't small at all.
In simple terms, they said:
"Your broody self actually made a meaningful connection to someone else willingly?"
"Hahahahaha! This kid is actually taking care of a kid now! Hahahaha! Him of all people!"
"This is truly unexpected."
And so on.
Needless to say, it was quite embarrassing for Damien, as the subject of their teasing.
However, those five truly treated Astoria as their Young Miss, a status that completely enabled her gremlin behavior.
A behavior that was even starting to affect Xue'er.
'Haa, raising kids is hard.'
Damien sighed to himself and smiled wryly.
It was his first time accepting a disciple, and while teaching was far more fun than he expected, raising his disciple into a decent human being was a far more difficult task than he expected.
But…wasn't the challenge riveting in its own way?
Seeing Astoria grow not only in power but as a person brought Damien endless satisfaction that he couldn't quite put into words.
All he knew was that he had extremely high hopes for her potential and wanted to see her grow even more than ever before.
And for that…
'Haha, how will she feel when she finds out we aren't going to be training in the Beast Domain at all…?'
Warp was a great skill.
A great skill that his good disciple would soon get to experience for the first time.
Truly, he couldn't wait to see the look on her face.
