As they neared the city, the hubbub of the settlement began to become audible to Jonathan’s sensitive ears, and he sighed in relief. It didn’t seem like anything had happened to the citizens in their absence. Still, the amount of space to be had in the outer reaches of this world was immense, simply because of the way that the area of a circle was calculated, and one could search for weeks without finding any trace of their presence. Of course, that was only even possible because of the existence of the System. A normal human on foot would take years to circle this world.
However, the patrols that Granath would send after them would certainly not be made up of normal humans. Eventually, this would come to war, and their city would need to be ready. The most important thing that they could do was increase their strength as much as possible. In any case, it also served their interests.
They circled around the walls toward the gate, and Jonathan sent up a Void Rocket to draw the attention of the gate guards. Upon recognizing them, the guards opened the gates slowly, letting them in. The city had not changed much since they had left, and the rapid development had started to slow down. There were enough accommodations for everyone to live in comfort, and the wall was high enough and wide enough to protect them from monsters. Besides, the presence of Jonathan and Edgar would keep them safe.
A few of the guards bowed low to Jonathan, but the rest did not, only saluting. Jonathan saluted back, concerned about the ones who had bowed. He had no intention of being the object of some cult. Then again, he was technically a god, and at some point he would eventually end up amassing a following if he survived for long enough. Perhaps it was best to give in now.
He recognized that part of him as the one being manipulated by his Divinity, and he suppressed it. Such things would only get in the way of his quest. He would only be a god as long as it was convenient to him.
As he made his way up towards the cave, ready to do some more training and check out the effects of his most recent level up, Edgar split off, eager to test out his new abilities on the rock face that he had been excavating over the past few days, in order to build the wall. Jonathan bid him farewell, and entered the cave, before sitting down in a cross legged position, retreating to his inner core, intrigued by the possibilities that his new mastery over his stamina had brought. First however, there was a skill notification to read.
You have gained a new skill!
Stamina Redirection:Legendary
Most beings discover the secrets of mana before long, but stamina is a far more obtuse subject. Stamina, simply put, is the vital energy of the body that is generated by a being’s physical strength. Unlike mana, it is not easily conducive to manipulation, but with enough willpower, one can make it bend to their will on a minor scale. This skill allows you to briefly empower your physical techniques with strength beyond your limits.
It was a simple, but powerful skill that Jonathan knew would be essential to remaining ahead of the game in terms of strength. If he could master it to the point where he could redirect thousands of points of stamina to his extremities, he would be able to strike with the force of a falling meteor. Perhaps this was what he needed to narrow the gap between him and Granath. It would certainly increase his destructive capabilities, as had been shown earlier by his battle with the Drake.
However, in its current state, it was mostly useless on its own, at least in terms of damage. He would need to learn how to draw more power out of the skill if he was to hope to use it to its fullest potential. Firstly however, he wanted to get a good baseline of his abilities from having reacher Tier 2, and to test out all of his various skills.He was interested in seeing just how powerful he was in terms of raw physical might, in a way that did not diminish his impact on account of the tough skins of the monsters that he fought.
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Jonathan looked around the cave and realized that it was far too small for what he was planning. He sighed, and left, heading down the slope of the mountain towards the rockface that Edgar was busy testing out his own skills on. It was about half a mile away from the center of the city, and was secluded enough that whatever Jonathan did, the effects would not reach the general populace.
Nodding at Edgar as he passed by, Jonathan headed towards the far end of the rock face, next to the wall, and started to limber up for testing. His various injuries were almost healed over by now, but he still had to be mindful of not overexerting himself before he healed fully.
He cocked back his fist and then swung, not using any of his enhancement abilities to augment the swing. Hs fist cracked into the rock, splitting it for a few feet in every direction. Pulling back his hand, he watched as a large section of the rock crumbled away, falling down the steep slope behind him. With a nod, he punched again, this time using more of his strength. He was using about three quarters of his total capability with his strike, and he was only holding back the last bit because he did not want to overtax his damaged body.
When his strike hit home this time, the reaction was a bit more impressive. The ground exploded away from him for a dozen feet in every direction, sending shards of stone flying into the air. The area that he was sitting on sank a bit, and he nearly stumbled. However, he was more than strong enough to right himself. It seemed that his raw physical strength was quite considerable, but it was not that impressive compared to the amounts of devastation that Edgar could put out with his elemental abilities.
Next, Jonathan started to run through his skills, seeing how they augmented his abilities. First up was Impact, his lowest level martial skill, and when he triggered it, he was able to see the cracks in the rock face that would lead to the most devastating results if he targeted them. Sizing one of them up, he pulled his fist back and then punched the crack, sending a tremor through the rockface. Because of his previous strikes, the rock was already weakened, and his attack was a lot more effective than it normally would be. A large slab of rock simply fell off the side of the mountain, and nearly took him with it.
Jonathan pushed it to the side as it fell, but it had almost dragged him down with it. Then again, he probably would have taken little to no damage from it.
Dismissing Impact, Jonathan summoned the power of the Void to his hands, wanting to try out simple elemental enhancement before he tested out his more refined Void Drill technique. Purple light blossomed on his fist, and he swung, the power of the Void causing the attack to deal more damage than before. When it struck, shards of purple light splintered off of his fist and dug into the rock, creating a matrix of glowing lines that then exploded, blasting apart a crater into the rockface.
Jonathan watched as the shrapnel pinged off of his armor as a good portion of the mountainside simply flew into the air around him, falling like rain far below. His Void abilities were seriously impressive.
Next up was his Mana Saber skill, which summoned a purple tinged blade of light to his hands. This skill was quite weak in comparison to his other ones, but it still was useful in its own way. He slashed at the wall, and his sword cut through the rock like butter, leaving a glowing scar in the stone as it passed. Banishing the skill, Jonathan moved on. He was looking forward to testing out his more powerful skills. Some might say that this was a waste of time, but he wanted to be able to judge his own prowess more effectively. In addition, he was starting to grow restless from not having the opportunity to fight against Granath and his legions, and this served as a great distraction. In any case, there was something deeply satisfying about defying the laws of physics as a day to day occurrence.