He kept on walking, finding that the tunnel narrowed the further he went. There was no cavern waiting at the end of it, only a blank stone wall, with a few markings on it. They were the same glyphs that he had seen all throughout the complex, and he was beginning to wonder what exactly they meant. They were clearly something to do with a skill, and seemed to be hearkening after the power of his runes, but on a far less grand scale. If the runic language was like calculus, this was like a series of pictograms on some caveman’s wall. He was the only person to have ever discovered the runes, but it was inevitable that someone somewhere else would have found a system of power similar to them.
Jonathan moved over to the glyphs, and peered at them, trying to figure out what their purpose was. He could see minor similarities between them and the runes that he knew, but the differences were minuscule, and barely there at all. Besides, he already had access to the magic of the runes, and he did not need to find some sort of inferior system in order to progress further.
Jonathan turned around, ready to leave, only to face a small army of undead. In the time that he had spent admiring the wall, about fifty of the humanoid undead had snuck up on him, presumably from the coffins. Jonathan had no idea where they had come from, seeing as the coffins had been empty, but he looked up, and noticed that there was a large hole on the ceiling of the tunnel, which led off into blackness. That was where they had come from. Jonathan clenched his fists, and prepared for a slaughter.
He pushed off, bringing his right fist to his side in preparation for a punch. Purple light flared around his fist as he moved, and he sent the red power of his Divinity enhanced Rune of Hatred in to join it. He crossed the twenty odd feet in a fraction of a second, leaving a violent gust of wind in his wake. He was approaching sonic speeds now, which was quite impressive in his book.
Jonathan transferred all of his momentum into his fist, stopping himself just before the barreled into the undead. It landed with a mighty thump on the torso of the closest undead, causing it to explode in a shower of desiccated flesh. The shockwave traveled into the nearby undead, so tightly packed were their numbers, and they were blasted apart as well, leaving Jonathan with a few less of the undead to deal with. The others chased and filed forwards, trying to get to him. However, without the leader that Jonathan had fought in the cathedral, their efforts were completely useless.
Jonathan leaped backwards, avoiding their grasping hands, and began to weave together an ultra condensed ball of mana in his hands. Propelling it to the top of his fist with his will, Jonathan drove his fist straight through a row of the undead, his hand breaking through the abdomens of three of the monstrosities. They fell backwards when he withdrew his hand, and lay on the ground, inert. These undead seemed to be weaker than the ones that he had faced before, and he would have put their level at around level fifty, or lower. Without the buffs and bonuses from the undead leader, these monsters were like chaff before Jonathan, who was probably on par with a non enhanced level 80 or so now.
He still had almost an eternity to go, and he reminded himself of the power of Granath before the hubris set in. He had been told that the monster was able to destroy a city in a matter of minutes, which, while he did not know the veracity of that statement, gave a ballpark estimate of what he was going to be up against. By the time that he was fighting Granath, he would have to be able to take out an entire village in a single attack, which seemed almost unfathomable to him. However, if he was able to develop his mana and void abilities further, then he might have a chance.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Jonathan kept this guiding star in mind as he ripped through the encroaching undead, barely getting any usable essence from them. The creatures were mostly mindless, and they kept pressing themselves forwards, trying to get to Jonathan. He could have jumped over their heads from the very beginning, but this was a good exercise for his martial abilities. As he fought, he began to slowly lower the amount of strength that he was using, feeling the System enhancements withdrawing from his body. He was unsure of how exactly he was doing this, but he suspected that because of the fact that his strength came from an outside force, he would modulate it a bit better than his natural strength. In addition, it was perfectly possible to limit one’s strength, even back on Earth. This was simply on a larger scale.
Jonathan eventually dropped down to about half of his effective strength and speed, allowing him to fight on a more equal level with these monsters. His martial abilities only ranked up when he was using them to their fullest potential, which meant limiting his strength. It seemed to be counterintuitive, but one day, when he was facing off against a much stronger opponent, he would be thanking himself for doing this.
Jonathan practiced his forms, running through the movements of Flowing Hurricane in his mind. It was a flashy name for a martial skill set, but it was very accurate. His body was the eye of the storm, and his fists and legs were the winds that surrounded it, tearing apart anything that they touched. As he began to visualize the path that he was following, he had a sudden vision of a man in pitch black armor, splitting worlds with a single punch, solely through the perfection of his skill. There was no strength used there, only the sheer power of the man’s connection to his martial path. The vision disappeared within milliseconds, but the image was still seared into Jonathan’s mind. As the image had disappeared, he had caught a glimpse of the man’s face. It had been him. If he could one day use that level of power, then he would be so far beyond anything that he could even comprehend that he would barely be able to remember his humble origins. A planetary level of destruction was something that Jonathan had never witnessed before, seeing as such events were extremely rare back in his own universe. The only times that could ever happen were in events like supernovas, or with black holes. For a single man to be able to do something like that was mind boggling.
The vision felt as if it had come from his martial technique specifically, as if it was trying to communicate with him. Jonathan shook his head to clear his mind, and continued to tear through the undead, whittling down their numbers with his martial techniques. He was able to use his Redirection and Impact skills to their fullest now that his strikes did not just instantly destroy his enemies, and he was enjoying how they worked in sync to make his attacks transform from brutal to downright devastating. Jonathan tore limbs off and cratered skulls with his punches, and used his attacks to transition into more. His fighting style was good at both prolonged melee fighting and with duels, and he was exploring its depths to their fullest here and now.
Eventually, the last undead was reduced to a pile of rotting meat, and Jonathan took a deep breath, panting slightly from the exertion. He hadn’t taken a single hit from the undead, which was quite surprising, given that he had been limiting his speed. His skills were increasing in leaps and bounds. A notification waited for him, and he eagerly opened it.
You have reached Student Rank 3 with Flowing Hurricane!
It was a welcome notification, and it meant that he was improving quite rapidly now. Unfortunately, there was no increase to his overarching martial arts skill, but it was to be expected, given that it was of a higher tier to his Flowing Hurricane skill. Something that would lead to an increase in the lesser of the skills would not be enough to lead to an increase in the higher of the two. Jonathan wiped off his hands, and continued on his way, exiting the tunnel a few minutes later.