After his failure at searching for a way to increase his level, Lacius slumped on the floor for a long time before slowly standing up.

  As if losing his soul, he slowly exited the laboratory and walked randomly around the palace.

  Along the way, many guards and servants greeted him. But, Lacius ignored all of them and continued to walk around as if that would help him to calm down.

  Without realizing it, Lacius stood in front of the door to Hars’s room and entered it.

  Inside, Hars is currently awake while being healed by granny Maude’s disciple, Rinya.

  Hars looked at Lacius who seemed to be in a despondent mood and asked Rinya to leave the room.

  With only the two of them inside, they fell into silence before Hars asked, “What’s wrong, Your Majesty?”

  “I failed! I failed! There is no longer hope! We are already out of time. There isn’t enough time for more material to be ready before both of us run out of lifespan!” Lacius began to cry like a little child.

  Seeing such a scene, Hars forced himself to wake up and patted Lacius on the back. “There is no need to cry.”

  He smiled and said, “You still have one last chance.”

  Lacius looked at Hars in confusion before he realized what Hars meant and opened his eyes wide.

  “Use me, let me become a stepping stone for your goal,” Hars said with a determined tone.

  Lacius wanted to decline and quickly shook his head, but Hars clasped his hand. “I don’t have much time. I know it, and you know it.”

  “But the training method is still incomplete!” Lacius said in a half cracked voice. “The chance of failure is too big!”

  “Your Majesty, if you succeed, both of us will survive. I am willing to take that bet.”

  Lacius gritted his teeth, “You’re my only relative in this world.”

  “You’re wrong.” Hars weakly laughed, “You still have your children and wives.”

  Lacius went silent.

  “Is that the true reason why you asked me to give birth to children?” He looked at Hars upon the realization.

  It took a long time for Lacius to think. But at last, he can only close his eyes before reopening them with a sad look. “Then, I’ll start the experiment.”

  Hars smiled as Lacius began to teach him a training method he had calculated.

  After teaching Hars more than 90% of the content, Lacius paused as a screen appeared in front of him.

  [Sorry to cut into your intimate moment. But, I’ve seen all of your hard work and I felt your pure heart to pursue knowledge is worthy of a reward.]

  [I shall reward you with 2 knowledge, please prepare papers and write down everything you saw. You only have a short time to copy it.]

  “Ah?” Lacius paused and stared blankly.

  Hars saw the surprised look on Lacius’s face and asked," What happened, Your Majesty?"

  “The creator just sent a revelation to me and said they wished to grant me a reward,” Lacius said.

  “Wait a moment, I need to bring some pens and papers.” Lacius wasn’t sure what’s going on, but he still follows Cedric’s command and brings several papers and pens stored in Hars’s room.

  He felt the creator god’s reward might be able to flip his current situation.

  ***

  In the Divine Space, Cedric has been listening to Lacius teaching Hars the training method he has created.

  While listening, Cedric used his advanced calculation power to simulate the result of that training method. After several simulations, he found out it would result in another failure. So he decided to intervene and give Lacius the training method.

  From the calculation, Cedric knew if Hars indeed used that training method, his old body wouldn’t be able to survive the backlash and he’d instantly die.

  The moment he decides to intervene in Lacius’s attempt at increasing his lifespan, Cedric can feel the instinct that something good will happen begins to decrease until it almost disappears. “Sigh… It seems I still have a sense of conscience and pitied him. Or perhaps I simply disliked bad endings from happening.”

  Cedric rubbed his chin, “This sensation of preventing a bad ending from happening is also pretty good.”

  [What about those people Lacius used for his experiment? Don’t you pity them?]

  “Well, I indeed pity them. But they’re just cannon fodder NPC after all. If it’s a movie, they’re basically a character without any name and only called ‘experiment material 1’ on the end credits.” Cedric shrugged while preparing the continuation for the earth element and water element training method.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  After he had gathered the image he wanted to send, Cedric grabbed the [Divine Intervention: Images] from a nearby shelf and checked Lacius’s situation. Once he saw Lacius had already finished preparing the pen and paper, Cedric sent the image he had prepared for him.

  Just like when he shared the continuation of the training method with Alan, Cedric added some explanation that he created with [Divine Intervention: Word] into the image consisting of complicated energy circulation.

  Thanks to the divine language that allows all creatures to comprehend it. Although initially, Lacius was a bit confused about how to read the diagram that Cedric has sent, he slowly understands it and becomes shocked.

  “This is.. this is it! This is the method that’ll allow me to reach a higher level!” Lacius madly copied the images into paper while double checking to make sure he didn’t copy it wrong.

  After scribbling on several papers, Lacius finally finished copying everything Cedric had sent and happily tested the reward he just got.

  Meanwhile, after Cedric checked that Lacius had copied what he sent correctly. He felt a heart wrenching pain from the amount of GP he wasted to give Lacius the Level 2 continuation for the earth and water element training method.

  To send both training methods, Cedric wasted 150 GP to purchase 1 [Divine Intervention: Word] and 2 [Divine Intervention: Image] after they ran out of energy midway.

  Cedric felt this was such a massive loss and felt some regret after recalling something. “Damn it, I should’ve bought a [Basic System Screen] for Lacius to decrease the consumption of Divine Intervention items. But it’ll be a waste to do so right now, especially when he is already at the end of his lifespan, and I don’t have much to say to him in the near future.”

  “Wait a moment!” Cedric paused midway because he realized something. He knows that leveling from Level 1 to Level 2 can increase someone’s lifespan. But, he didn’t know the specific amount of lifespan that can be gained.

  When he wanted to ask the System, it already pried his privacy and replied.

  [As your world’s power system is based on basic mana, the amount of lifespan that will be granted upon reaching Level 2 is 20 years.]

  “That doesn’t seem to be too long?” Cedric said without realizing that his sense of time has been screwed beyond repair.

  After knowing Lacius can only live for around 20 more years, Cedric decides to push aside the plan to give Lacius a [Basic System Screen] for when he has a lot of things to say to Lacius. Otherwise, giving Lacius the system screen and not using it will be a waste.

  Then, he continued to watch the situation in the Crystal Cube world and found Lacius was busy learning the training method together with Hars.

  Once they finished, Lacius prepared to start circulating his energy when Cedric interrupted.

  [Prepare to heal yourself in case of an accident.]

  When Lacius saw the message, he picked several healing potions and told Rinya to wait outside of Hars’s room so she could immediately enter and heal him when something went south.

  With everything ready, he followed the training method Cedric gave him and circulated the energy inside his body.

  Luckily, there was no accident and Lacius successfully circulated his energy following the method.

  Seeing that the training method can indeed be used, Lacius quickly helped Hars and brought him into the river where many water elements blessed are currently training.

  He also brought along Rinya and the two low leveled people blessed with healing power.

  Upon arriving, Lacius urged Hars to start training while he guarded Hars together with Rinya and the two healers.

  While Hars sat near the water, Lacius stood at attention and focused on Hars to prepare for the accident.

  This lasted for a whole week before Lacius suddenly received another message from Cedric.

  [Take this. In his current state, your subordinate’s vitality isn’t enough to reach the next level.]

  Lacius then felt something falling and hit his head. He quickly grabbed it and looked at the peach like fruit in his hand.

  When he recalled what the fruit was, Lacius’s expression turned into one of surprise and he observed Hars’s situation.

  When Hars finished circulating the energy in his body once, Lacius brought the fruit he just received from Cedric, “Eat this fruit and continue to circulate your energy.”

  Hars has heard of the fruit from Lacius before and knows it’s a divine item granted by the creator and has the power to increase a person’s lifespan.

  He didn’t decline and quickly ate the fruit before continuing to circulate his energy to increase his life level.

  After he ate the fruit, it took Hars another three weeks of consecutive training before he finally reached the next level.

  Once he reached Level 2, Hars’s body slowly turned younger.

  Although the effect isn’t immediate, it can be seen that the amount of wrinkles on Hars’s body has decreased and his pale skin turned healthier.

  Lacius looked at Hars who continuously turned younger until he looked like someone at fifty years old.

  The surrounding people who saw that miraculous scene gasped in awe.

  They knew the training method Hars used should be the same as the one Lacius had given them. But they never knew it could also make them regain their youth.

  Lacius ignored everyone’s looks and rode his horse together with Hars, Rinya, and the two healers.

  This time, they rode the horse into the magic ore vein he had dug up.

  During the journey, Lacius’s expression seems to be more relaxed than usual. Even Rinya and the two healers can feel he is quite happy.

  Once Lacius arrived at the magic ore vein, he immediately started training while Hars guarded him together with the healers.

  Meanwhile, in the Divine Space, Cedric looked at Lacius and asked the System, “Do I need to give Lacius a [Lifespan Fruit] too?”

  [There’s no need. Lacius still has a lot more lifespan than Hars. Furthermore, a lot of Lacius’s vitality was still retained in his body after drinking many potions that can nourish the body. At most, he’ll take much longer to reach Level 2 from Peak Level 1 compared to someone younger.]

  Cedric nodded and watched Lacius’s situation with full attention.

  If something is wrong with Lacius’s energy circulation, he’ll immediately notify Hars, Rinya, and the two healers to help Lacius. He doesn’t want the case with Alan to repeat itself.

  Cedric feels Alan’s sudden death has become a mental scar for him.

  Luckily, there is nothing wrong with Lacius and he successfully reached Lower Level 2 after slightly more than three weeks.

  When he saw Lacius had turned younger and stopped training, Cedric slumped in his chair and created some cakes to celebrate.

  “With this, the path to Level 2 has officially opened for the creatures in the Crystal Cube world. Although it can only be used by water and earth elements blessed for now. But, with Lacius’s ability, it shouldn’t be hard for him to create the training method for other elements if he wished to.”

  While happily eating his chocolate cake, Cedric muttered, “With the help I just gave him, it shouldn’t be too hard to ask Lacius to continue working for me to create the training method for other elements. Once he finishes cleaning the aftermath of his messes, I’ll ask him to start researching other element’s training methods.”

  From now on, the update speed will be 3ch/week~