Chapter 17

“Water that submerges all, Water geyser!” I summoned a smaller torrent of water than what Lord Ling cast before, and it vaporized the flame.

The garden was scorched and beautiful bushes were damaged.

God, I will get scolded for this…

“That is of no importance now, Basara… buckle up.” He said

‘Huh? Why?’ then I understood a moment later.

Veins on my body began to pulsate, my fingers turned rigid, my movements dulled and I was unable to move. For but a moment, I dropped to my knees in pain.

I was barely able to breathe as a wave of fatigue hit me.

‘W-What is happening…’ I groaned the words.

‘Qi insufficiency, your body used more Qi than it can handle at the moment, it is true that your veins were opened, but your body has yet to be accustomed to the natural energy. The pain will subside in a moment, but tell me, Basara, how did you feel using real magic for the first time?’ said Nocturne while laughing.

‘Heh… how can I say it… I felt like if I was a god.’

‘Indeed, that power over nature makes one believes themselves to be above the laws of the world, however, like you have just witnessed, that power is fading, and so you must never become arrogant enough to believe yourself on equal footing with the beings of above.’

‘I will make sure to remember that,’ I said as I stood up. The pain was gone but the fatigue still hanging .

‘It seems that my limit is two spells with incantations, seeing how long it takes to just use a single spell, this will be needing massive amounts of practice and preparation to properly use.’

‘And for that, I exist, I needed that Lord to show you the path, and I will be the one to guide you through it. Now lad, to properly use magic you will need to be able to circulate Qi within your body and explore all of your unsealed potentials.’

‘How is that?’ I asked

‘Simple, it is no different than to continuously assimilate, I will be doing a practice session with you inside your sea of consciousness. Now get your matters settled and go back to your room, it is time for your first enclosed training session.’

He is probably speaking of the garden catching fire, I need to get it settled before I go and see what nocturne truly wants from me.

Melinda was the first I met after I went to the servant’s room. After explaining what happened, I got scolded but she still praised my ability to learn magic, I really felt joy for being praised even while I was scolded.

Once she said that she will take care of it, I went back to my room and began meditating.

I instantly dove into my consciousness and saw Nocturne hovering around the floating dark orb.

The white void that encompassed everything had but four things within it.

An enormous floating orb of fire that represented my sea of consciousness.

Nocturne that was hovering around it.

His throne and me.

He went back to his throne and sat as he said.

‘Welcome Basara. You should know that this training will be taking a toll on you, so be prepared.’

‘How long will this take?’ I asked ‘ I might be called outside, so I need to help if they task me with anything’ I was speaking about my duties as a butler, but Nocturne seems to have understood.

‘Time flows differently here Basara, you can will it to flow slower or faster than real time.’

‘I can?’ I asked questioningly

‘Yes, it is simple you can spend days here and only moments would pass in the real world. However I don’t recommend you to do it continuously, your mind and fatigue might not cope with it, and you may lose your mind after awakening.’

‘Then I will do it in moderation, how about a ratio of 4/1?’

When I said that the floating swirling orb slowed down considerably.

‘what happened?’ I asked

‘What do you mean, didn’t I tell you, you just need to will time to slow and it would, now every four hours spent here is one hour spent outside. Don’t overdo it or you will go mad.’

‘I will not. This, it is really surprising, I thought that I will need a lot of practice to do this but heh. It was as simple as this.’

‘Indeed, now’ he said as he stood up bringing up his scythe.

‘Survive’ he said as he disappeared from view.

It only took a moment for my view to turn upside down as I saw my body standing… without a head.

‘What the fuck?’ I said while my body dropped down and fell.

Nocturne was behind my body and got down, his scythe was bloodied… this was mind shuddering.

“You are far too slow Master.” He said as he grabbed my head with his bony hand.

“How the hell is this possible?!” I said shouting my lungs out… hang on, my lungs are still inside my body how am I able to even speak?

“This is your sea of consciousness, it is like a dream world, whatever happens here cannot affect you physically, mentally. However, that is a different story.’

‘Did you just kill me Nocturne????!” I cried out

“Kekekeke, Didn’t you hear what I said, you can’t die here, but can still feel pain. So will your body to reconstruct.’

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The moment he said that my body was back together.

I began tapping on my neck fanatically as I looked around and saw nocturne with an amused face laughing.

My brows furrowed as I looked at him.

‘That was uncool! Yet cool at the same time damn… “

“You find yourself being decapitated to be cool, then I guess we will have a lot of fun here. Ready up!’ he said as I saw him disappear once again

My vision then split in two as I was split in half by his scythe.

“Hand the fuck on DAMN IT!’

I said as I willed myself to reconstruct once again.

“How the hell is this training where I don’t know what I should be doing?!” I said

“I already told you before, survive!’ he said as he disappeared from view again.”

I have no idea how this is going to help me god damn it!! I then dove forward rolling on the ground and saw Nocturne’s scythe carve the ground from the strength of the impact.

“Very good, you managed to dodge, but can you do that again?” he said as he laughed eerily and disappeared

How the hell does he manage to do that while I am looking at him?!

I dodged randomly again, but my face met the curved blade of his weapon.

I reconstructed my body once again and stood up. I need a method to repel him. This is not going to work.

This place workes on will. Can I will him to stop moving?

“That won’t work,” said Nocturne as he appeared in front of me while swinging upwards splitting my body in half.

“My will is far stronger than yours, Though this is your own mind, I still am much stronger mentally than you, you cannot control me here.’ He said as I stood once gain reconstructing my body.

“Then I can only control my own self isn’t it.’ I said

“Indeed, but you cannot surpass your physical limit, you can become strong here, but you will never be able to overcome your mind’s limited. Your mind knows your body and will not generate more power than it could handle, so make due with what you have, use your head.”

He said as he appeared before me. I dodged to the left, then he swung his scythe again.

Somehow I didn’t feel fear here, I was secure and knew no matter how much he tries I will still survive, but it still ticks me that I am unable to retaliate.

The second swing of his scythe was much wider and would split my body in half if it lands.

I then made an exaggerated dodging attempt and bent my body backward, the scythe passed harmlessly above me while I continued my motion to make a backflip and landed on my feet.

“Very well.” Said Nocturne you seem to be able to manage frontal attacks to a certain degree. Now dodge these” he said as his hands blurred.

It took but a second before he turned me to minced meat.

“Goddamn, it man! You are way too overpowered! How the hell am I supposed to dodge those?!” I said as I reconstructed my body for the god knows how many time…

“Indeed, I seem to have been a bit excited. I will tone down on the offensive.” Said nocturne as he appeared before me, movements slower than before but not less deadly, I began to dodge and barely was able to do anything…

God damn it I need a way to defend myself.

Hang on.

I can use magic!

“Fire that…”

Before I could finish my right hand was ripped, and my head flew.

Shit… this is absurd, he won’t let me use any magic to this extent, I don’t even know if it would work…

“Excellent, you started to properly use your head, retaliate and struggle so that you may become stronger.” He said as he came forward.

I never saw him use his legs he was always hovering above ground while he black robe would sway like if there was an invisible wind moving it.

His eyes were focused, and he only wanted one thing. To eliminate me.

There was not a single hint of killing intent coming from him. He did not want to kill me, he truly wanted just to help.

This is my world he said. So anything I wanted should happen here. However, there is a flaw here, if I were for example to use magic spells that I normally can’t with my own body then no matter how godlike I become here, it is pointless once on the outside world.

So I must use only the thing I already know, and the skills I already have.

Then.

I brought my hand forward half hoping that what I have in mind would work.

Nocturne stopped in his tracks to wait for me to finish. It seems that he understood what I wanted to do.

And the book appeared!

Yes!

I willed the book to open a certain text, and it showed it to me.

I pressed my hands forward and brought the same scythe that Nocturne was using.

One must fight a blade with a blade.

“Interesting. You began to understand the reason behind our session then. Let's start!” said Nocturne as he moved even faster than before.

I activated monochrome vision. Simple eyes will not be able to track this person no matter how powerful one is.

I saw him this time, he was the shape of a shadow that moved only his eyes were showing, and his scythe was apparent in the white void.

He moved his scythe at an absurd speed to rip my head off, but I blocked his blade using the shaft of the weapon. However, something unexpected happened. Though I blocked the scythe, that damned thing was a vicious weapon.

The blade was not easily blocked, so I tried to stop it. But that was a mistake.

When two swords cross, they prevent the attacker from reaching his target, and the defender from being pushed to a worse position. However, in the case of the scythe, the blade is curved, so it is impossible to block it normally, so one needs to stop the shaft that is holding the curved blade. Yet in doing so, one will unwillingly let the length of the blade go past his defense, and that situation is what happened.

The curved blade managed to penetrate my right shoulder as I groaned from overwhelming pain.

Nocturne unceremoniously ripped the blade from my shoulder, and massive amounts of blood gushed out.

“Good God! That fucking hurts!” I said as I reconstructed my body.

“That is one hell of an annoying weapon to deal with…” I said as I stood a bit behind Nocturne.

“It is indeed that, but that means that mastering it is not simple. This weapon is meant to harvest souls and not cross blades, again!” said Nocturne as he moved forward.

“Shit!”

I held my weapon forward and tried to defend myself.

Crossing blades with him will be idiotic, I will not be able to beat him I have no experience wielding this weapon, even the lotus arts that Master Shen had shown me are useless, they need a sword, and even if they were to be applied to this weapon I need more than just the first stance.

I will have to improvise and adapt if I want to survive.

His blade then came down, and I decided to not cross mine with his, I will have to dodge.

I know for a fact that Nocturne is going easy on me. But even this is too much, to become stronger I need to be able to bring more of his restrained strength, and to do so I must struggle

This… this is fun. I thought to my self as my lips rose in an unintentional smirk.

This is really fun!

And I dashed forward, pain? Death? To hell with that, all that matters is now, and now I am sparing against a grim reaper, how can this not be fun?

The smirk on my face must have amused Nocturne as he smiled too and slashed fiercer and with more fervor.

I moved back from the onslaught. There is an incantation that I can use it might help.

“Wind that moves all, Haste!” it was quick and instant, unlike when I needed to conjure fire to attack, summoning magic to empower my body felt much easier and quicker.

My body felt lighter, and I was able to dodge more effectively, Nocturne saw that, and he increased his attack speed just enough for me to barely dodge.

He is bringing me to my limit.

I need more, more than just thins.

I then began to hone my blade. And it came to me, simpler and easier than when I tried it on the outside world, probably because I am closer to the source of Qi here than when I am conscious.

I reinforced my joints to make my movements much accurate and not overextend.

In a moment where I lost concentration, I saw Nocturne’s blade to be about to rip the hand that was holding the scythe.

Once his swing came to be, I instinctively rotated my hand and crossed the top of my scythe which had spikes on it to his curved blade.

Yes! You can block that blade when you cross it like that. However, I miscalculated the strength behind his strick and was flung several meters in the air and was sent rolling down the white void.

Good, this is good. This is how it is supposed to be. This is how one becomes stronger. One must fight for their life on the line and learn using his mind and instinct. This is how to become stronger, through arduous trials and the looming threat of death.

Though I don’t die here, it is still painful, and it is a great drive for the mind to move forward.

If the mind becomes strong, the body will soon follow.

“Again!” said Nocturne as he moved in a fiercer manner. It seems that the more I understand about myself and the closer I get to my limit, Nocturne forces me to surpass them and to reach newer heights.

And so just like that we kept on sparring. The time dilation meant that I can remain here for long periods of time without worrying about the outside world.

And without my knowing, the spherical orb that floated was slowly gathering Qi particles. I was growing stronger, just like that. And so it should be, and so it will.