"No," Samuel said while looking at Stephen. He narrowed his eyes and said, "You should focus on reaching rank 5 and after Sophia had reached sufficient strength, go with her and the army to explore the crack. What you can find is yours and I'll give you the map so that you can go to the most suitable place for practice."

Stephen's eyes widened when he heard Samuel's words before he smirked. "Thanks."

Rather than giving resources directly, Samuel was basically training them to become elites on their own. Because at the end of the day, it was impossible for Samuel to protect them all the time.

They needed strength to stand up on their own.

If it was Amelia, then Samuel would not hesitate to pile up resources for her.

But he's not Samuel's brother and only good friend.

He also had his pride and wanted to get stronger on his own so that he could protect his sister and stand against his greedy relatives.

"Hmm." Samuel nodded.

He heard muffled groans from inside the room and his eyes narrowed slightly. Even though he knew that Riya did say the process will be painful, it was still not very pleasant to hear it from outside like this.

Stephen didn't say anything else and waited beside Sophia.

Inside the room, Ruben was sitting with Riya behind him. Her hand was placed on the back as she continued to draw the runes.

To be honest, this kind of runes were usually drawn by the rune master for themselves. Because only in this way could they guarantee their own absolute safety and the fact that no one else will know about the existence of the runes.

But Riya didn't tell Ruben.

The main reason was because Riya knew that for Ruben to be able to make such runes would take a few more years at the very least. Since he didn't follow the path of a rune master to the extreme, there was no need for him to use this kind of runes.

Swish!

"Ugh…." Ruben felt that his heart hurt so much.

He didn't know what kind of runes that Riya used, but he felt as if his heart was swallowed and squeezed hard. It was really hard for him not to scream when he felt the tremendous pain.

Yet at the same time, Ruben could feel that the mana around him was slowly following the runes and entered his heart.

Is his mana going to increase in this way?

Ruben couldn't help but think about it that way.

Riya didn't say anything and continued to proceed with drawing the runes. She was calm and composed as she finished drawing the runes and then retracted her hand.

The moment the runes were finished, Ruben felt the pain disappeared as if it has never been there and then he felt that the amount of mana in his heart had increased at least four times than before.

Ruben opened his eyes and turned around. "How is this possible?"

"Do you feel it?" Riya arched her eyebrows. It seemed that Ruben's mana sensitivity was good or it might be because he will reach rank 5 soon. "The runes expanded your mana capacity on the principle of your own dark element. The dark element will keep on absorbing mana to keep the runes operating, so you don't have to worry about your mana capacity going back to the way it was before."

After hearing Riya's words, Ruben's eyes widened in astonishment.

"Space related runes?"

"Yes."

Only space related runes could possibly create such an effect like this. Moreover, Ruben himself might be able to make the first rank space storage scroll, but if he was asked to make rank 2 and above, he couldn't do it at all.

The requirement for mana control and even the runes control was extremely high.

So high that Ruben didn't have the confidence that he would be able to do it anytime soon.

No, even if he was given a long time, Ruben didn't have that confidence.

"Thank you, Master."

Riya nodded and then moved away. "By the way, if other people ask you to do this, you should refuse. Exposing your mana heart to other rune masters can be fatal."

Ruben was stunned for a moment and then grinned. "I know, Master."

He only did this because he knew that Riya will not hurt him. If she wanted to hurt him, there were countless more easier methods for her to do so and he was basically in passive situation when facing her.

Besides, having known Riya for some time, Ruben knew her temperament more or less.

Those whom she treated as her friends would never be hurt by her.

"Good."

Riya opened the door and saw Samuel was still standing there. She arched her eyebrows and said, "It's done. Thanks."

"No problem." Samuel glanced at Ruben and saw that he was fine. But the abundance of mana from Ruben still made him arch his eyebrows.

Ruben's mana amount might even be comparable with him, who was almost two full ranks higher than him. After Ruben reaching rank 5, it was estimated that his mana amount would surpass him.

Riya is really generous.

"You're not suitable for that rune even if you want to," Riya interrupted when she saw Samuel looking at Ruben.

"No, I don't need that much mana." Samuel shook his head. "Many of my magic spells are accompanied by physical skills, so the mana requirement is not very high but the requirement for physical strength and skills are high."

Riya nodded blankly.

After her advancement to rank 7, her physical strength was only comparable to rank 4 magic warriors. The runes she carved for herself will allow her to strengthen her physical strength through mana conversion.

But it would still need a long time.

She was no longer in a hurry, though.

In her own estimation, it would take her a few years for her to advance to rank 8 unless she could get a lot of special resources.