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The seven pillars reached their full height. They shook, then snapped together. Just like the Clad skills, they combined into one. The single pillar grew up, up, up, pushing his core taller. As it grew taller, his core grew wider in equal measure. The walls of his core trembled, as delicate as a soap bubble. He sucked in mana. Pure mana poured into his core. The mana shored up the delicate walls and poured into his passages. The tsunami of mana burst open his passages, widening them as it passed. Mana seeped into his body. It enriched his muscles and bones. Filled every tendon and every ligament. Every inch of his body strengthened from the intense mana flow.

The more full his core became, the further it stretched. The soap bubble-like walls were delicate, easy to break, but they stretched easily, too. Ike kept a close eye on them as they grew. When they grew so thin that the bubble threatened to pop, he pushed on his core from outside, keeping it from stretching any larger. The core he\'d stopped firmed up. It grew no larger. Instead, mana filled up the larger space.

All around him, the mana fog thinned. There was still plenty of room in his core for mana. No—his eyes widened. The soap-bubble parts of his core started to collapse, falling in on his core. Instantly, he realized that if he didn\'t fill his core completely, it would become misshapen. He wouldn\'t be able to fully progress to Rank 2, let alone Rank 3 or higher. He needed more mana.

Ike pulled out the spider\'s fang and whirled around. He carved open the puppet behind him, dragging it toward the line of fire. More mana rushed into the fog. His core began to fill again. The soap bubble inflated once more. Its somewhat drooped shape rounded out.

There still wasn\'t enough mana. His core remained mostly empty. He grabbed another puppet and tapped it, then another, then another. The mana flowed out and poured onto the fire. Thick mana clouded around him. His core filled slowly. As it filled, the walls solidified. A smooth, round orb encapsulated the pillar he\'d grown in the heart of his core.

More mana. More. He desperately tapped the puppets, barely absorbing enough mana to keep the soap bubble from falling. More and more. He shored up the walls of his core as it filled, stabilizing it at the same fullness as the first small amount had stabilized at. Ten percent full. Twenty. Thirty. Mana steadily climbed the walls of his core, pooling in the bottom.

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"Ike!"

He looked up.

Wisp stood in the trees above the valley, leaning out over the army. "They\'re close. On their way. Be ready."

"Thanks, Wisp. I\'m almost done," Ike said, smiling.

"Oh—oh! Ranking up, huh? You\'re just casually talking in the middle of it? Bold of you," Wisp commented.

"I\'ve already done the hard part," Ike commented.

"Huh. Well. Good luck." She glanced over her shoulder, then vanished, darting into the trees.

Ike breathed deep. He sucked in mana faster than before. As rapidly as he could, he filled up his core and stabilized his walls. If the others came here while he was still actively Ranking up, he wouldn\'t be able to fight. Even the thought of pushing mana out of his delicate core made him wince. Right now, he was in the middle of the most important part of hitting the next Rank. If anything went wrong, he\'d not only miss out on Rank 2, but he\'d miss out on every Rank beyond 2 as well. Having a poorly formed core, or even one that didn\'t grow large enough now, meant he\'d never hit the next Rank. If push came to shove, he\'d have no option but to run. The sooner he finished his Rank up, the safer he\'d be.

Through the woods, he heard footsteps and voices. Ike drew another deep breath, sucking down all the mana he could. He stood up straight and crossed his arms. He desperately absorbed mana, but externally, he relaxed, as if nothing was wrong at all. Turning to face the voices, he smiled confidently.

"Look! Right over here, like I said—" Backing toward the valley, Tana came into view. She gestured behind her, then turned. Her jaw dropped.

Ike beamed up. He gave her a jaunty wave. "Hello, Tana."

She gaped. "What are you doing here?"

His core continued to fill. Forty percent. Forty-five. "Not much. Just inspecting the puppets." He patted the nearest puppet familiarly.

Tana flinched back. "Get out of there! It\'s dangerous!"

Ike looked around. He shrugged. "It\'s not so bad, honestly. They aren\'t great conversationalists, but they don\'t move much, either."

"Is this what all the fearmongering was about?" An old man drew up to the edge of the valley and looked down with a scoff. "To hear you talk, we were on the verge of getting soulwiped by forces we couldn\'t possibly stop. But these are no terrifying troops, here to snatch our souls. They\'re oversized puppets."

Ike glanced at the puppet next to him. His core filled to fifty percent. Fifty-five. Sixty. "They can be pretty nasty when they start moving. Trust me, you don\'t want to be here when that happens."

The man looked down at Ike. "And who are you?"

Ike looked around him. "I\'d call myself the expert on these puppets, but I don\'t think that\'s quite right. Still, I know more about them than you do."

Seventy percent. He breathed deeply, eyeing the group around Tana. It was mostly older men and women. Not all of them exuded the pressure of a mage, and the ones who did were generally around Rank 1. Tana herself was a little over Rank 1, and she was easily the strongest of all of them. If he wasn\'t absorbing the mana right now, he\'d be able to demolish the mages.

I just have to finish Ranking up. Seventy-five percent. He edged closer to the fog, absorbing as much as he could with every breath.

"The expert? Are you the one who created these things?" one of the women shrilled.

"Look at him. He\'s clearly aligned with them," another man muttered, glaring down at Ike.

Ike pressed his lips together. All of them. A bunch of paranoid old fools. Were they mages, once, on the surface? It seems losing their power has made them become mad with the fear of what others might do to them with the power they once had.

This is going to be annoying.