Upoing the house, Draco stepped out into the crisp m air.

  The sun had just begun to peek over the horizon, casting a warm glow across the still present m dew drops and the gentle breeze rustled the tree leaves, casting a seremosphere over the se.

  As he closed the door behind him and stepped onto the porch, he was met with an ued sight - Michalis sitting beside the entrance, gazing up at him.

  "M, Draii," Michalis greeted, a warm smile spreading across his face.

  Draco paused for a moment, a touch of surprise registering in his expression.

  "M," Draco replied, his tone measured as he approached the younger boy.

  "What are you doing here so early, and why are you sitting on the floor?" Drabsp;curiously inquired, his brow furrowing slightly.

  He couldn't help but find Michalis behaviour to be the unusual.

  Michalis wasn’t oo get up early, especially on a day off.

  Michalis' expression shifted, a slight hint of sheepishness creeping in.

  "Oh, I wao see if Cir was alright, but when I tried opening the door, it was locked," he expined, gesturing towards the entrance.

  "There's also the ing duties from the punishment you've assigned me, I wao get a head start on that." Michalis added.

  Draco couldn't help but let out a soft sigh, a faint smile tugging at the ers of his lips.

  ‘This boy,’ he thought, shaking his head slightly.

  Remembering the other member on ing duty.

  "What about Vasiliki? Aren't you both on ing duty?" Draco asked.

  Michalis looked up at Draco, his face sg slightly as he visibly struggled to hold back a sarcastic or foolish response.

  It was clear that the question had caught him off guard, and he was making a scious effort to restrain his natural ination towards impulsive reas.

  Draco, pig up on Michalis' dilemma, quickly recalled the reason for Vasiliki's absenbsp;

  "Oh never mind, that was a stupid question. I pletely fot that she was sick," he said, the Michalis an uanding nod.

  “Good boy” Drauttered, lightly ruffling Michalis bed hair.

  "Anyway," Draco tiaking his hand bad adjusting the straps of the bag he carried.

  "The door is unlocked now, so go in. I'm heading to the dungeon and should be back by noon, so you all should be ready" Draco said.

  ‘Ready for what?’ Michalis wondered, but didn’t voice his thoughts.

  "Oh, please e back safely this time," Michalis replied, his voice tinged with .

  Draco couldn't help but roll his eyes at the ent.

  ‘Ugh, do you all think that I didn't learn anything from st time?’ he thought.

  "I will," Draco replied, his tone firm but reassuring.

  Just as he was about to leave, Draembered something.

  "Oh, yeah, Michalis," he said, "will you rey the instrus from a note I left o table?" he requested.

  Michalis nodded in aowledgment, then got up from the floor and his hand reag for the door to the house.

  However, just as Michalis was about to step inside, Draco called out to him once more.

  "One more thing," Draco said.

  Michalis paused, his hand on the doorknob, and turned his gaze back to Draco.

  "Don't do anything strange in Cir’s room when cheg up on her," Draco teased, a pyful smile tugging at the ers of his lips.

  Michalis' face flushed instantly, his eyes widening in a mixture of shod embarrassment.

  "W-what do you mean by strange?" he stuttered, the words tumbling out in a flustered rush.

  Draco couldn't resist prodding further.

  "You know what I mean," he said, his tone ced with amusement.

  Michalis' expression grew more flustered as he tried to defend himself.

  "I'm not going to do anything like that! I don't wao hate me." he replied.

  Draco feigned a puzzled expression, tilting his head slightly.

  "Hate you? Why would she hate you for just looking around her room?" he asked, his voice dripping with false innoce.

  Michalis' eyes widened as he realized the implication behind Draco's words.

  He had misinterpreted Draco’s initial ent and jumped to clusions , his mind juring up all sorts of dirty minded sarios.

  pletely flustered, Michalis hurriedly ran into the house, smming the door behind him.

  Draco stood outside, watg the younger boy's rea with a grin of amusement on his lips.

  'Aw, how cute, he's still so young. Well not like I am much better' he thought.

  With a chuckle, Draco resumed his walk towards the dungeon, his mind refocused on his tasks.

  It didn't take long for Draco to reach the familiar entrao the dungeon.

  He wasn't pnning on anything too strenuous today; his goal was simply to farm monsters oh and 16th floors until noon, hoping to gain enough excelia to fill out the remaining gaps in his stats.

  Over the past few months, Draco had e to a deeper uanding of how the various energies within his body ied and flowed.

  It had taken some trial and error, but he had mao observe even more funs of his own body and special abilities.

  One of the most notable discoveries was the simirity between the process of his fast growth and his equilibrium skill.

  Both seemed to operate on a simir principle, using something to fill something else.

  It was akin to a process of pressure equalization, where power would naturally move from areas of high pressure to those of lower pressure.

  As he farmed and absorbed excelia from the monsters in the dungeon, a portion of the energy would not simply remain in one pool, but would instead be distributed and verted into his other two primary energy sources - elemental and draiergy.

  This delicate bance was crucial, as the growth of his elemental and draic powers were ily limited by the strength of his physical vessel, which could only advahrough distinct growth phases.

  In trast, the accumution of excelia was more directly tied to his overall potential.

  The slower his adva in growth phases, the less of this potential could be readily accessed and expressed.

  This was because the progression from one growth phase to the represented not just physical maturation, but a fual shift in his underlying capabilities – much closer to an evolution rather than mere physical expansion.

  His equilibrium skill was another fasating aspect of Draco's internal ws.

  When one of his stats reached its current possible maximum value, the excess excelia meant to fuel that stat would be evenly distributed among the other stats that had not yet reached their peak.

  The more stats that were at their maximum, the more excelia would be transferred to the remaining ones, creating a plex and ever-shifting flow of power within his body.

  Draco reasohat all of these factors weren’t pletely ued but had bio create an intricate flow of power within his body - a delicate, almost symbiotic retionship between his various sources of strength.

  Theoretically, this process could work in reverse, but he had yet to observe such a phenomenon.

  Draco's primary now was how this carefully calibrated system might be disrupted wheransitioned from a hatg dragon-kin to a juvenile.

  Bahamut had alluded to this potential upheaval, and it weighed heavily on his mind sihen.

  ‘Sigh, I should worry about that when it actually happens,’ Draco thought, pushing the ing thoughts to the back of his mind.

  ‘Who knows, the transition might occur at level 4 instead of 3, so what’s the point w’ he reasoned, deg to focus on his current task in the dungeon.

  The trek to the 16th floor was not a long one, and Draediately began sending out pulses of energy to locate the Minotaurs, his pnned primary targets within this level.

  He had observed that they gave out the most excelia within the upper middle floors.

  Four hours passed, and Draco began to feel the familiar pain that sighe saturation of his three energy tainers.

  The excess power within him was now seeking an outlet, and Draew he had a choiake.

  A part of him was once agaied to tinue pushing, to see what might happen if he allowed that pressure to build further.

  Perhaps there was some untapped potential waiting to be unlocked.

  But Draco was ner to pain, and he knew better than to simply indulge such impulses while uanding the potential sequences.

  The st thing he wanted was for his careful equilibrium to be disrupted in a harmful way.

  No, it was best to py it safe aurn to the surface before any more weird thoughts creeped into his head.

  With a resigned sigh, Draco begarek back, his mind already turning to the preparations he would o make for the rest of the day.