"The result was better than I expected," Daniel said as he looked at his fallen summons scattered on the floor.

Last time he fought Azrak, he had to use all his power, even the vitality and combined strength of the rest of his fallen ones, just to defeat him.

But now? He could easily defeat Azrak and the others at the same time.

"Zargorth, it's your turn now." He turned his attention to Zargorth and said.

Zargorth nodded and stepped forward, standing in front of him.

Without hesitation, Daniel lunged at Zargorth, throwing punches at him—but Zargorth deflected all of them using his tail.

After blocking the attacks, he struck with the same tail and sent Daniel flying back several steps.

"I couldn't even move him an inch?" Daniel didn't know whether to laugh or cry after seeing the result.

Without wasting time, he activated [Light of Annihilation] and attacked Zargorth with it.

However, nothing changed. Zargorth's skin suddenly turned golden, and the annihilation beams vanished the moment they touched him.

Daniel frowned. That was Zargorth's [Golden Skin] skill. He just didn't expect it to be that effective.

After that, Daniel attacked with all sorts of skills. The outcome was worse than he had imagined.

Unless he used [Eternal Judgment], he couldn't even scratch him.

More importantly, the gap in power was so great that no strategy could overcome it. He fought Zargorth for nearly a full hour.

In the end, he managed to force him to take a few steps back, but that was it. He couldn't even land a scratch or make him get serious.

"Alright, that's enough." Daniel collapsed on the ground, panting.

"If I had a rank A weapon, I should be able to fight evenly with him using [Eternal Judgment] and [Slash of Destruction]." The fight hadn't been completely pointless.

Besides wanting to experience the power of a rank B, he also wanted to see if there was a way to overcome the power gap.

And the answer was yes. With a rank A weapon and his strongest skills, he could fight a rank B on equal ground for a while.

"Though getting a rank A weapon is basically impossible," Daniel groaned and gave up on the idea.

After resting for a bit, he dismissed his summons and left the training room, heading back to August's room.

"So you're going back to the Celestial Domain, huh?" August looked at Daniel and asked. Naturally, he didn't expect to see the boy again so soon.

Daniel nodded. He had decided to return to the Celestial Domain and reach rank C as soon as possible. After that, he could challenge the second floor and reach rank B.

"Can I ask where you are right now?" The head of the Awakened Association asked after hearing his goal.

"The Central Plains, Free Zone of Aryn."

"That place, huh?" August closed his eyes and stroked his beard.

"If you're looking to gain some EXP, I recommend the Endless Spirit Mountain. But be careful. That place isn't safe—you should do some research first."

"Thank you very much," Daniel said, then left the place.

After getting in his car, he called Joe. After all, he was about to enter the Celestial Domain and might not see his friend for a while.

"Hey Joe, where are you?"

"Out doing a few things. What's up?" Joe answered on the other side of the call.

"I'm heading back to the Celestial Domain tomorrow. Just wanted to check if you needed anything."

"Damn, already? We didn't even get a chance to really talk."

"We'll have plenty of time in the future, especially since I'm planning to move to the capital permanently," Daniel said with a laugh.

"Well, if you put it that way, take care of yourself. And—how's Alice doing?" Joe asked, a bit worried.

To him, Alice was like a sister too. Even though he was curious about Daniel's power and the secrets behind it, he chose not to ask—waiting for Daniel to talk about it on his own.

"She's better, but she hasn't said a word all morning. I'm planning to dedicate today to her." Daniel sighed. He couldn't let his sister fall into depression.

"Hope she gets better soon. If you need anything, just call me."

Daniel thanked him and hung up the call, then started driving toward home.

It didn't take long for him to arrive. After parking the car in the garage, he went up to their apartment and stepped inside.

"I'm home!" he called out loudly so his mom wouldn't think it was a burglar.

He walked toward the living room and found his mom in the kitchen, sitting on a chair and looking at her phone.

"Welcome home, son," Liana said without even glancing at him.

"What are you doing?" Daniel approached her to see what she was doing with her phone, and to his surprise, she was watching a drama series.

"Where's Alice?" Daniel frowned and walked to the fridge to check for something to eat.

"She hasn't come out of her room since this morning. Did something happen?" Liana put her phone aside and looked at her son seriously.

She wasn't dumb. She could tell something was wrong with Alice.

"Something happened yesterday at the academy. Their training went wrong, and she's probably upset because of that." Daniel shrugged and replied.

Technically, he wasn't lying—just not telling the full truth.

"Really?" Liana gave him a sharp look and asked. For some reason, she felt like her son was lying.

Her gaze turned a bit dangerous—why did it seem like her son had been lying to her more often lately? Was this one of the effects of growing up? She was slowly starting to think that maybe she needed to find a way to get rid of this lying habit of his.

Daniel nodded with innocent eyes. Liana sighed.

"Go cheer her up a bit."

"Yes, ma'am." Daniel gave a mock salute and after putting some of his sister's favorite biscuits on a plate, he walked toward her room.

Knock knock!

"Can I come in?"