The large, bipedal creature with huge horns-a minotaur- fell as spatial tears tore it apart. All around Mark lay corpses of orcs, goblins, and other unnamed creatures, but the minotaur was the last one.
The beast had been tough and quite intelligent, actually using tactics and feints rather than blind rage. This fight had pushed his Concepts to new heights, but he didn’t come out of it unscathed.
Lacerations covered his body, and the minotaur’s horns had pierced into his side when it broke through his barrier, but he had won.
Mark downed a healing potion as he checked his gains.
[You have passed the third Trial.]
[Calculating rewards.]
[Cultivation Method Completed.]
[Atryx Chakram.]
[Body Strengthening Method.]
He was transported back to the square, which had undergone tremendous changes over the last three months, as had those who remained.
It took around two weeks for people to adjust properly, and even then, many died afterward.
Mark suspected that only around a third had survived so far.
Mark had taken his time to familiarize himself with his Concepts but found he still lacked in defense. He had, eventually, chosen to integrate another Concept into his Truth. It was called Phase for some reason, but it was apt.
Phase was made through the Insights of Isolation, and Shift, which allowed him to create a barrier that phased him out of reality or something like that.
If he timed it correctly, he could make attacks pass straight through him, but the cost was prohibitive.
He had learned that he could mix the Insights from all Concepts together, though, which allowed him to use Isolation and Weave to form solid shields, along with plenty of other combinations.
Mark had yet to level up to ten, but he felt he’d reached his limits. If he wanted to continue, he had to push further.
He was the last one who hadn’t, and he was getting frustrated by the leers and jeers. The others had started to think he was unable to continue, and that notion was only strengthened as people increased their level advantage.
He had remained patient, but the last fight had been far too close.
Every month, the System provided a Trial, which would grant significantly higher rewards, and he had just beaten his third. Still, he had no confidence in beating the next one, even with the weapon, a chakram, and the Body Strengthening Method he had just gained. Based on the hints he’d gained from the guides, the next one would represent a massive leap in difficulty.
He hadn’t gained any new skills, but the last two trials had given him some decent equipment. One was a ring with a pocked dimension inside, which allowed him to store a lot of stuff and retrieve them at will. The other was a coat, looking a bit like an Inverness Cape. It was black, with purple symbols and trimming.
The biggest boon from this one was the completion of his Cultivation Method and the Body Strengthening Method.
He had heard about those, and it should help him improve his physical body, increasing his ability to channel energies while giving him some direct stat boosts. It all depended on how good it was, and as he had always taken the most difficult trial and mission, he had high hopes.
The chakram could also prove invaluable, but he hadn’t used any weapon yet, so he couldn’t say until he tried it.
The objects appeared in his ring, but he didn’t take them out yet, as he was the center of attention when he reappeared.
He looked around and noticed a couple of missing faces. The Trial had claimed a few new victims, it would seem. Those who had lost friends looked upset, but most used him as a mental punching bag and boosted their own egos with his lack of, apparent, progress.
Mark ignored them and looked around the square, taking in the changes.
Stalls littered the outskirts, where entrepreneurial individuals had started their own merchant businesses. Many were also crafters or partnered with one to sell equipment, potions, or anything else that could be useful.
They also purchased anything the fighters brought back, but Mark hadn’t bothered with that yet, preferring to focus on his Truth.
However, now was the time to progress, and he made a beeline to his house.
***
The Cultivation Area had also been improved, like a sort of invisible boon for his progress, which was a significant aid in staying his course.
The fact that the System kept granting him boons meant he was earning them. That had to mean he was doing the right thing in not rushing ahead, but finally, the wait was almost over. He just had a couple more things to do.
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He would start the Body Strengthening Method first, though, as it could only benefit him, as far as he knew, so he settled on his mat, brought out his new book, and started reading.
Unlike his Cultivation Method, this one was complete from the start, but he immediately knew he wouldn’t make any significant improvements in the short term.
These methods were apparently far slower than Cultivation Methods. He still started it and circulated the Method for five hours before he rested up.
He wanted to be at his strongest for the breakthrough, even though it shouldn’t be difficult. They would get harder and harder as he progressed, but the first was free.
The Strengthening Method didn’t work, not properly. Something was missing, but he had no idea what. He looked through the manual again but couldn’t glean any new information from the Karphan Stellar Body Method.
After he’d recovered his resources, he took out the Chakram.
It was made from a pitch-black metal with glittering lights spread in it, almost looking like the night sky filled with stars. It was a large ring with an internal radius of 1.5 meters. The metal band was around 10 centimeters wide, with a razor-sharp outer edge.
The metal was around 1 centimeter thick at the inner edge and narrowed toward the edge. It had no handle, as the entire circumference was sharpened, but he had an idea of how to use it, but first, he had to attune to it.
The attunement process took around an hour, involving a few drops of blood and a constant stream of space-infused mana.
The moment the process was done, he felt like he’d gained another limb, and the chakram lifted into the air like it weighed nothing.
Mark could make it spin and move it around at will, but it did cost a decent amount of mana.
Advancing to level ten and beyond should alleviate that concern, though.
After another session of recuperation, and he was finally ready.
It was finally time to level up again.
The process for the first advancement was easy. The first thing Mark had to do, was draw energy and suffuse his body with it until it was fully saturated. Next, he should focus the energies around specific spots and compress them, but he had another idea.
He had long started on his journey of learning rune crafting and enchanting. His bookshelves were filled with books on all kinds of professions, as he couldn’t imagine himself purely focusing on combat for the rest of his life, which could be incredibly long as he advanced through the grades. So, he had looked for a hobby or profession but had eventually returned to the first idea; Runes.
He had grasped the runes in his second mission, and he hadn’t been able to shake them since, and he could use them to enchant items or create passive arrays and barriers. What truly cinched the deal was that they were also useful in combat.
He would never be the greatest enchanter, but that wasn’t his goal. He would be happy if he could consider himself decent at it.
This brings us back to the grade advancement, which was required to level from nine to ten.
Rather than immediately compress the energies, he wanted to purify and concentrate them.
The cultivation area he sat in was filled with spatial energy, but other attunements did make their way to him, as the enchantments and array weren’t perfect.
So, he had been working on a solution.
He had bought a bunch of materials that were useful for enchanting, energy transfer, and purification. These materials had been made into what the System called Flags and enchanted to purify the energies he channeled through them. Another set of Flags had been made to concentrate the purified energies.
These materials had cost most of his credits, but he hoped it would be worth it as he started the process.
He channeled the energies back out of his body, ensuring he held onto them firmly, and drew a path through the air, first purifying and then concentrating. This was repeated several times until he had to start drawing in more energy.
Unfortunately, Mark hadn’t found a way to purify and concentrate the energy before entering his body, as he had no authority over it.
So, the process was repeated until his body was filled to the brim with concentrated, pure spatial mana.
It had taken hours, but he had lost count after a while, entirely focused on the process, but he was ready.
Two streams condensed inside his palms, one behind and below his navel, two in the soles of his feet, and one between his eyebrows.
These were all supposedly spots that, once opened, would significantly improve his ability to draw and channel energy, which was an essential step toward future power.
It took a significant effort to compress the energy into the spots, and a sheen of sweat covered Mark’s body when he was done.
He still hadn’t finished the process, though, but he could afford a slight pause before he continued.
The next step involved Mark manipulating the energy to form a spiral, or a drill, over the area where the nodes should be. If he missed the locations, it would hamper his progress, and he suspected that most of the other people in this Tutorial had rushed it. Their auras felt off, like the flow of energy was hampered, and he would not make the same mistake.
He concentrated intensely, digging through his memories of the Method, ensuring that he had the right spots before he started spinning the energies. It took a tremendous force of will to make all the condensed mana spin fast enough, but as the minutes ticked by, six drills eventually carved out the nodes, and the moment they were done, Mark felt an immense rush of power flow through him, and messages streamed into his mind.
[Initial Nodes formed.]
[Level up! 5 stat points awarded.]
[Your race has advanced to F-grade.]
[Spatial Attunement has reached 100%]
[Nascent Bloodline Seed Gained.]
[Bloodline: Heir of Karphan.]
[Race Evolution commencing.]
[Race Human has evolved into Karphan Human.]
Karphan Human: A human offshoot containing deep Insights into Spatial energy.
[Class gained: Child of Cosmos.]
Child of Cosmos: Beings favored by the Cosmos are imbued with a fragment of its greatness. Able to draw on its vast Insights to empower their path, there are few limits to their potential.
Mark struggled to remain conscious, feeling his mind be inundated with information, along with a burning sensation spreading through his body, originating from the searing pain in his chest.
The pain in his chest was the bloodline seed, and the searing heat spreading throughout his body was the pathways for his class.
Following this was the rush of immense amounts of energy as his body greedily drew in everything it could from his surroundings.
The pain eventually faded, and Mark slumped to the ground, breathing heavily. There were still a couple more messages to check, but he couldn’t summon the focus to do so as his vision turned black, and he passed out.