It was very awkward to return to school in the digital world knowing what happened with the war. Everyone was already hard at work training but there was a clear thinning between all the classes throughout the heroic course.
The students were naturally informed and if they weren’t they still figured out what happened through word of mouth.
Robin’s return also brought his rivals knocking but he felt awkward when the two were up in his face.
“I don't want to fight, leave me alone for a bit. A lot’s happened.” Robin said.
“Oh great, you’re in another one of your melodramatic identity crisis phases.” Marcus said, shaking his head.
Robin frowned at him, “Do you know what I went through when the event happened?” He asked.
“Yes, your sister said and you’ve boosted up to the 5k stats even if just the effect reaches that. You’re still in the 3k of actual stats so it doesn’t matter!” Marcus said.
Robin shook his head at him and was very uninterested until he paused a moment and looked at Marcus.
“What? Want to fight at last?!” He asked.
“How have you been training your Ki?” he asked.
“How? Like everyone, channeling it and making it increase in quantity.” He said.
Robin thought if he should say what he had learned because it would effectively change his rival. Then he looked at Silk but he still had not unlocked knowledge of true qi growth.
Ki was simple, it was shocking how many powers were actually based on animated series. The jokes about Marcus looking like a character from the ancient series, Dragon ball, was a major hint to how to advance.
The system was exactly the same in fact. Mortals grow by increasing their Ki. After their physical limits have been reached they use the massively energetic life force infused chi to break their physical limits continuously. There is a limit to this because no matter how powerful someone is, it will eventually hit a plateau. It is no different from the current heroes, who have their power but their powers can’t advance without breaking limits or biological evolution.
There is only so much that a person can do until their potential is used up without refining the ‘fuel’.
“Let me ask, have you figured out a way to keep your Ki from exploding out of your body while you work out and fight?” Robin asked.
This time Marcus looked at him in shock and knew something weird was going on with Robin.
“No, the general census is to increase the quantity. We don’t have even half of what any of the heroes have storied and developed. Trying to increase purity or quality will result in the same thing you suffered with and need energy burn immunity even.” He said.
Robin naturally saw any warning but none of them had a limit for power because the result of this would evolve the transformation itself. The thing about transformation abilities is that their body is the main focus of evolution much like Chasm Might.
The thing about Marcus soon finished piecing, it was very simple but required years to develop.
“Can I suggest a training style?” he asked.
They looked confused but he heard him out.
Robin used a bit of divine force and showed him through visual movement of the energy on how to flow his Ki.
Marcus tried it out and once he got it he looked confused, “It barely changes anything besides keeping it inside.” He said.
“That’s the entire point, you’re trying to tame the unrelenting Ki. Like a wild horse currently running wild, this isn’t something for two or three days and it evolves. I suggested this because it would be something that would take years to show results but would get the best outcome for you.” Robin said.
“Where did you learn this?” Silk asked.
“I don’t know… after the time incident I’ve had a lot of weird things pop up in my head. I think it might be influenced by the divine spark.” He said.
He dropped it then went to the field and set the settings to extreme, fixed his own weight and gravity to start training.
That said, he still wasn’t in the headspace to think about training but he forced himself because he needed to be stronger.
Only PE classes were active since the other teachers were all super busy with hero work to get things running. Normal classes would start back up next week.
When he got home, Robin was in deep thought. After a day, meeting many people, he realized something about this constant infusion of knowledge and memories. It was random tidbits until he focused on someone or something. It would then form a small bit of vital knowledge pertaining to them but he was clear that it was slow.
When he got back he decided to test this theory.
He focused on himself, he focused on his life force, psychic energy and divine force. He placed great desire in learning to take the next step. Whatever was adding the information reacted, stopping everything else and began to focus on the knowledge of the world core.
When it finally stopped and went back to random knowledge, Robin learned about what world cores were.
World cores were the trigger to divinity but not the only source. The primary focus of world cores is actually the stabilization of their own realm or dimension, what did that mean? Well you can look at the digital world for instance. The living islands are fragmented world cores, a type of world core created by dozens or hundreds. Only when enough of them are added to the same compatible realm will they stabilize the realm and form its own dimension.
Every mortal energy had the capacity to be compatible with a world core but not every person had the compatibility with the cores. Even without it, people could condense energy to such a degree that it forms a world core out of biological energy.
How does that apply to Robin? He learned how to start processing the raw stone in his lower dantian into a higher density core.
Mr Atlas had condensed the 1024 balls through 10 level, Robin then did it 10 more levels for it to become a core in his body. Now he needed to process the rock with divine force. This would cause it to transform and grow in size and mass until it collapsed in on itself 10 more times.
After the 10th time, it would have so much energy and mass that it would be comparable to the mass of a star’s nucleus. When that happens he would have to make it explode. The process will result in his body evolving and creating its own internal dimension. Even creating a living breathing world where he is the only god and would draw power from it.
That said, he also realized he couldn’t focus only on the world core.
It would cause him to be limited in growth if he did. Transforming and evolving his psychic energy and Life essence was very vital but most of all, how to correctly train them. He didn’t know yet but among the knowledge he had obtained, it showed him how to condense the cores. Only it was unique to himself.
It isn’t strange because he was possessed by his future self so he would know what he needed the most.
Of course, although the technique for training it wasn’t revealed, the explained process was and it was brutal. The thing he had seen to break the chains of the parasite victims, that was only a partial version of it. For himself, it would shatter his entire mental space and mind down to the deepest reaches of his mind and rebuild it. The process consumes divine force.
Again, this was specific to Robin. It does mention that people with Qi would have to do the same thing and sacrifice Qi to break and rebuild their mind. This would evolve their brains and mind, expanding the quantity and quality of whatever mental forces they had.
For Life essence growth, it has its own troubles but it also consumes divine force. The process is to channel it into life essence to retain the quantity while actively using life essence to destroy his body and evolve it by energizing it.
It took the most brutal aspects of Chinese novels and made it a reality.
That said, everything depended on his Divine force to prepare his body. It was a slow grind because it had taken his future self decades even because he was already old and was affected by injuries from many events. Without the gamer space he couldn’t heal those wounds as easily as the heroes did now.
Furthermore, developing the world core into the divine core would start to enhance his divine spark and speed up the amount of memories it released. There was a constant warning saying to do it once only and then focus on his body to condense the cores of life force and mental energies before he continued. Once he triggers the explosion, all three cores will erupt and merge into a singular core.
It would also triple the amount of divine power he produced.
Without the major injuries his future self had, and with the continued existence of the gamer space, the decades of time would definitely decrease to a few short years. Robin now could still buy other traits from the shops and continue developing his genetic background.
Robin started the Divine force he had gathered in his sleep and after awakening, began to mobilize and stopped flowing like Chasm Might’s technique, as did the life essence and psychic energy. They shifted to the technique that was over a century more developed and adapted to Robin himself.
The divine spark reacted to it and began to burn brighter and spread with the divine force through his body and began to leave tiny flames in each and every acupoint as the technique dictated. Once it was done, the divine force returning was slightly changed and came down on the core spinning like a tornado and began to circle the stone.
It was carved and infused into the core, drawing power and evolving. The raw stone and internal material began to change as divine force infused into.
The mineral, no different from the immense abundance in the living islands, began to evolve and soon minerals evolved into crystalized metal.
The raw stone was consumed by the mineral and the rock cover started to vanish in the place of crystal, metal and raw gemstone. Soon more waves came and hit deeper.
This process went on until dinner and when it was done, the stone core had been completely transformed into a very messy crystal ball. This was the true form it should have been. Any development beyond this will cause this to increase and grow while rearranging its internal structure and melding everything into a single whole alloy.
When it was done and he stopped, it began to radiate a lot more divine force. This divine force spread through his body and into the countless tiny sparks which then infused it into each acupoint.
If he had a way to see the network of his body as represented by space, he would definitely see a galaxy within his body.
When it was done he smiled because when it all calmed down, over 2000 small sparks formed from his divine spark began to release tiny bits of information just like the main source. As a result, he sped up significantly the time it would take to pass along the information.
He was happier after he succeeded this as it would help everyone once it all got processed.
***
A few days after Robin woke up, Heatwave also joined.
Unlike Robin, he needed to be sent to the Sahara desert where he would not cause environmental damage as he recovered while also receiving the greatest amount of sunlight.
Similar to Robin, he found that his Solar Fire Crystal was giving off tidbits of information but nowhere near as fast as Robin.
It was clear that Heatwave lacked a divine spark but upon seeing him Robin instantly learned something amazing.
Heatwave was almost condensing the full core to produce divine force out of solar energy. Once the solar fire crystal collapsed a total of 9 times it would implode to form a Source Crystal. The process of developing it would be no different from Robin but much faster because Robin felt like he would have information on how to do it by then.
Instead of taking several decades, Robin was sure that he would soon be able to help him learn how to condense energy. Over the last year he had collapsed it for the 8th time but he had not taken the time to break down his current energy body for the new energy.
What came of this is Robin giving him a huge incentive to get the perfected triple system. He then showed him a style of channeling his energy into every acupoint that would absorb energy from his body and deposit new energy, like forming a bridge between them.
It would save him month's or even years. That said, this was viable only for trading off energy and not actually training beyond. He hadn’t formed the part required to directly affect the solid crystals yet.
Honestly, Robin was finding a lot of similar tricks for everyone of all kinds. Besides Marcus, who’s development depended on his capacity to develop and pacify his Ki at the same time, most others had small tricks and tips which was training the style properly.
Previously, most people just used Chasm Might’s techniques he taught for all three energies but Robin soon discovered they weren’t exactly the most compatible. It worked, for sure, but it wasn’t the ideal.
It didn’t help Heatwave to produce the memories but it would speed up his growth by years.
After he was up, being among the last still unconscious people from the incident, classes finally returned but there was a clear difference considering where they were.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Among other things, there were major announcements given out. Vincent retired from hero work outside of the Land of Death. Being as old as he was, his physical condition could not keep up with the current fighting intensity. His rank was demoted to braveman but he announced he would become more active in academy teaching to raise the next generation of necromancers to manage the land of death and hopefully develop the way of the necromancers.
It was a massive event because besides hero death, this was the first time any hero actively retired and was a foreboding sign.
This was all kept within the school however to not spark panic. It was a warning to the children that they were the next generation that needed to grow and replace the old.
After the first day of normal classes, the clubs finally returned to normal activities. Robin was with all the others and he was unable to not go through all his friends.
Yuri was there and he was focused on her at this moment.
“Yes… just like that but speed up the rotation a bit more… right there!” Robin said as he monitored the flowing blood power through her body and he finally got it how he saw was best.
The system he had shown started to spread from the first acupoint through the others until the energy returned. In doing so, Yuri was covered in a strong scarlet aura that flowed along her body from her heart and back.
When it calmed down she breathed and started to flow the True Qi in it’s particular style, the Blood power in the new way and Soul power in it’s own flow pattern.
The three auras that should form began to appear and blended into one. It almost pulsed out from her chest to her extremities and the feeling it gave was a lot more threatening. That said, to the heroic course students, it wasn’t that threatening because they were significantly stronger.
Lilian was already sitting alongside other life force and life essence users. Her body radiated the aura of her life force in its own style different from blood power.
When Yuri stabilized she actually opened her eyes and moved but it was pulsing through her body. She already had secondary flow flowing so she could move around while all this channeled through her body.
“Wow… the pressure of parallel channeling is not as hard despite each one being different.” She said.
“That is the point.” Robin smiled and she was happy that he had helped someone like her. Her healing power might have been weak but her fighting style was developing since she arrived here and was able to learn how to use Chi.
After that he looked at Milo who was waiting his turn and Robin had to think hard.
“Did you ever unlock Life force?” Robin asked.
“No… why would I?” He asked.
“It’s not exactly super important but it would definitely help to have something to safeguard your life force. You did get the triple flow system right?” Robin asked.
He nodded because he wouldn’t have been able to develop his spiritual energy so thoroughly if he had not. Also death energy was stored in his lower dantian much like chi would be for wizards.
“Can you still control raw death energy and spiritual energy?” He asked.
“Sure.” Milo said.
“Perfect, we will start with them and then will add the death mana at the end, this should build a stable system in your body.” Robin said.
Robin had him start in his most natural force and draw raw spiritual energy from his mind and built a flow in every acupoint of his body before it returned, then with death energy.
When it was all done, the two energies were naturally in the same acupoint but following different flows.
“Now just channel death mana into the center of the opposing flows of power.” Robin said.
Milo did that without any different flows or spin and a small bit was stuck in the middle and formed a clump that began to gather and process death mana from the raw energies.
It went out and returned and when it did, all the acupoints began to gather and produce bits of death mana passively and returned everything back to his upper dantian with higher quality and density.
“Woah!” he said.
“Right, now you can channel it like you did it before and you will automatically trade out the death mana for the highest quality you have. It will take a few days for there to be a significant quality change but the best part is that it should improve your ability to generate mana.” Robin said.
Milo smiled “That was the hardest part.” He said and Robin naturally knew.
Lola was next and was very excited. Robin forced a smile and scratched his head and she noticed, “Can you not help?” She asked.
“Um… I’ve focused on everyone but for you I never learn anything. The only thing I know is that you will definitely learn what you need as soon as you can summon Lily to our world and merge with her.” Robin said.
She looked defeated but he couldn’t do anything.
He then looked at Shoji who was watching everything.
The psychics also had their own way to train and it was what Robin himself did and he instructed his friend.
“Woah… the psychic energy feels… heavy.” He said after he used it for a bit.
“I know what you mean. It should enhance your psychic control and strength. I’ve been trying these things but I don’t really focus on fighting with psychic energy, only psychic enhancement.” Robin said.
“Makes sense considering you fight like you do.” Shoji said.
At that time Chasm Might walked in, huffing from exhaustion and slumped on his set.
“Is something wrong sir?” Robin asked.
“Just tired, there is so much work going into preparations for what we need for next year. Techno is having to literally design a blueprint for the expanded academy so that we can bring every academy down so we don’t have other incidents. There aren’t enough teachers, training teachers, looking through them to make sure they aren’t spies, urg.” he said and let himself loose.
“Aren’t you used to this kind of work?” Lola asked.
“If I was used to it, do you think I would be this tired? Don’t forget that the Beauro of Execution is a nomadic group because we cause too much damage when we fight.” Chasm Might groaned, “We are used to being called and executing people under a detailed plan, we aren’t used to hatching the plans and setting everything up.” He said.
The door opened right after as Mr Atlas entered, Robin could see his hair was wet, clearly from getting out of a shower after intensive training.
He saw Chasm Might sprawling on the chair, “Sir, do you need help with anything, you seem quite tired.” he said.
“No… just need to relax.” Chasm Might said.
I looked at Yuri and thought of an interesting thing, “Yuri, don't your powers work like acupuncture therapy alongside massaging?” Robin asked.
“Yeah, there are healing based massages and since I have healing based on it I was made to learn so I could be a field medic.” She said and realized what Robin was suggesting.
She stood up and went over to the teacher and asked if she could.
Yuri had him lean over the table and just stretch his arms out. She took a moment before she started rubbing along the hands and wrist.
Chasm Might actually flinched at the pain as she slowly went up. Soon she did the same for the other arm and then started on the neck and shoulders. She went roughly half an hour like a chiropractor until she stopped.
“How is that?” she asked.
“That was painful but it feels like weights came off, thank you.” He said with a more relaxed expression. He only had the feeling of exhaustion now while his body was more relaxed.
“That is a good money making ability if you think about it. Has it changed at all after you unlocked all the energies?” One of the 9th grade members said.
“Not that I noticed, though the natural healing power did get more potent after I achieved Qi. Nothing bloomed like the others.” She said.
“It’s hard for healing abilities to bloom because their abilities tend to work differently to self enhancement or transformation powers.” Chasm Might said.
“Mr Might, are we really going to take down all braveman academies?” Another 9th grader asked.
“Yes.” He said, serious. “We’ve already determined all the academies who are genuine about training the next generation and have them starting to prepare all their archives and such. Next year there will be an all out move. We will also be developing a middle school division. After we’ve worked out the kinks to such a massive organization, we will move to the problem of the traitors or heroes who were also victims of brainwashing. We will have to determine which category they are. Brainwashed braveman can still be recovered but I think they might still kill themselves as a result.”
“Not to mention that Robin still needs to help destroy Disaster.” Milo said.
It caused everyone to frown but none of the heroes or braveman with long range attacks were available.
“That will happen next week, everything is starting to work out. The way we will infiltrate will depend on the Gamer Space. By ‘planning’ a month to go through all 50 regions and through all the heroics academies, we will be able to get close to their deans, heads and more. When we do, we will take down all their leadership. From there we will use the system and enhance student wisdom, causing them to faint and move them into the digital world.” he said.
“How will we keep them asleep?” Robin asked.
“Techno is preparing drones with tranquilizers. After they faint, we will attack and tranquilize the students and teachers to move them.” He said.
They were all serious because it was another massive movement against the underworld.
“Sir… do the other continents know?” Robin asked.
“They have been informed.” He said.
“And?” Robin asked.
“We’ve got plans… It involves the supercomputers in each continent.” He said.
“You’re helping other unions to make their own hero academies.” Robin said.
“Yes. With all the computers connected, everyone will be in the same ‘space’ here in the digital world. This means they will all have access to the gamer space. This also means students that might be enemy agents won’t have the means to warn them because exiting now requires orders or jobs.” He said.
They were all aware of the restrictions meant for their safety.
It will not be a good time once they start to clean up and the intense hardships it will take to adapt to all the hundreds of academies.
The most tragic will likely be all the people who are brainwashed.
“There is another headache.” Chasm Might said and rubbed his head, “All heroes have submitted the request to restructure the hero ranks. Effective immediately, beginning at the start of the new school year, trainee, vigilant and strongman will cease to exist. Any and all such ranked people will be required to join law enforcement or military. Only people who are braveman or Hero rank will be allowed autonomy and only heroes are allowed extreme free autonomy.”
“You mean braveman will be underwatch.” Shoji asked.
“Exactly, because so many braveman are part of this system, they will now be under watch. Production of special material, that can be regarded as military grade material, will only go public based on technological development and nothing more. Civilian quality will be limited to vigilante grade and below, all the rest is exclusively military quality material. We will dry up the underworld market of higher quality material.” He said.
“How are we going to watch out for this?” Robin asked.
Chasm Might looked towards Kevin, who forced a smile, “Uh… Level 4 clearance is estimated to have an effective range covering the entirety of north america down to the panama canal.” Kevin said.
Everyone’s jaw dropped as soon as they heard what he said.
“A-are you far in its development?” Lilian asked.
“Uh… not really since we’ve only just upgraded to level 3 during the first internship. We have made the power plugs and are extending the connections now but it's still the first part.” Kevin said.
“Exactly, it's a long term goal. If the change takes place and the system comes online afterwards to discover all of this, it will mean a second cleaning.” Chasm Might said.
They all frowned at the thought, with the super villains loose in the American Union, it would be especially dangerous to do a clearing when they were down an official hero.
“It’s such a dangerous time.” Yuri muttered.
“Yeah… Robin, you were telling the others how to train right?” He asked.
“Yes sir, I’ve only had small parts, nothing like true development techniques. Just the proper way to channel unique to each type.” He said.
“Alright… do you know what happens if Psychic energy or Life essence is stored in different storage spaces? Esper does this but he didn’t see a massive change like I did.” Chasm Might said.
Robin focused and surprisingly his mind shot up the timeline tree almost 70 years in every branch and within that timezone there were a few points that lit up and gathered information nodes until it formed.
“Yes… Psychic energy stored in the heart gives birth to Life Power, it's a psychic based energy similar to Aura but the effect is different. The bits I know about it allows psychics to project an astral projection or manifest solid weapons infused with life force which attack with higher power. It's like all the psychic based enhancement abilities were combined and used at once while life force creates a solid material bond. Psychic energy in the lower dantian creates Psi power. This is a power similar to lower mana but with a much more intense emphasis on short range control over the world. More powerful barriers, more intense manipulation of the immediate surroundings.” He said and looked at Shoji who was just listening. “It would make your psychic slash infinitely more powerful attacking directly.” He said.
“And Life force?” Chasm Might asked.
The timeline tree reacted again, “Life force in the upper dantian becomes Spirit power. A type of life force which can be used to gather natural elemental spirits and use them as a medium to control the surroundings based on the type you create. For lower dantian, this force becomes Bio Force, it isn’t like Ki, it’s as if you gathered up excessive biological energy and condensed it into a power source. It is like commanding the energy of life itself more than life force which is like the blood in your veins. Channeling it in certain ways enhances healing factor, in other ways it can do like mana and control surrounding elementals like generating fire, controlling air and more. This power is one of the most branched out because the effect it gives is the most affected by a person’s ability. A person who has ‘adapt’, a power to gain physical traits to adapt to the environment, could outright bloom and upgrade to literal evolution. If strong enough, that person might even survive in torrents of Time energy or outright enter the time stream and evolve to survive inside and control it.” Robin said.
“You say it like someone did it before?” Milo said.
“Because it did happen, in the future.” Chasm Might said.
“Yeah, this system is discovered 25 years from now and the ‘Adapt’ ability user is born 40 years from now, appearing as a vigilante and recruited by me to train and 60 years from now I get in a fight with this person nearby, already having Bio energy, and Time Tempest sends him into the time stream. He comes out and steals control of the time stream from Tempest and we finally kill him at last.” Robin said.
“60 years!” Chasm Might exclaimed.
“Yes sir… from the small records of time…” Robin focused and a pulse ran through the treeline until it stopped. “Within the next 60 years, in any single timeline that has appeared there are as few as 5 major time incidents he causes. In the worse ones, he appeared as many as 20 times. 60 years from now is 100% a fixed point in time that will always happen and he will be defeated, one way or another.” Robin said.
“Do you think it will be faster without the time incident?” Milo asked.
“Yes.” Robin said, “The first difference…” Robin said as his expression darkened, “Is because Sir Vincent, Chasm Might and Miss America did not die during the Time incident.”
There was an instant gasp because the strongest hero had actually been affected. Chasm Might felt his brow twitch because Miss America had actually said that despite trying to resist, the effect of time was extremely erratic around her. He was sure that if it had not been contained as fast as it had, she would have died. It was clear as day that something in her power dynamic did not go well with time energy.
“So two extra heroes, no death of the entire academy, the time rift isn’t a problem for the next 10 years, the gamer space exists still. Did I miss anything?” Chasm Might asked.
Robin focused and then scowled as the timeline of the first 10 years was analyzed for its major events. “The collapse of the American Union, the further death of Mephesto who hunted him down 5 years from now. Out of the people in this room that reach the 10 year mark, only me, Lola and Milo still live to see the time rift closed. You two only see it after it closes because you both had to hide in the demon realm to survive.” Robin said.
That means Robin was nearly all alone for 10 years. All of his family, most of his friends and his entire school were destroyed. Considering he reached the state to be called a god, it was clear to see that his perseverance was immense to survive.
“It’s a totally different timeline guys, everyone is here and alive and I’m sure we will have many events happen fast forward. Strengthening and restructuring the Union to remove the influence of our enemies will ultimately make the entire union more than just a union of countries.” Robin said.
Chasm Might smiled at his disciple trying to get his friends to feel better. “Robin and Atlas are both the first demigods but that isn’t going to be the case from now on. Heatwave is on the way to becoming a Demigod of the Sun, if Robin figures it out then even we all would be able to condense cores which could do the same for all the energy user heroes.” Chasm Might thought.
The possibility to condense his energy would likely trigger an evolution in his powers like the first time. He also wasn’t running deranged with uncontrolled power, his Soul power has given him the capacity to achieve control he never had before.
“Robin, people like heatwave, moonlight and the others who don’t have Chi, how do they activate their mental energy? After all, it is a literal genetic blockade keeping us from controlling that power.” He said.
Robin thought about it but shook his head, “I don’t know. I think Heatwave would know it but I don’t have anything and nothing is reacting like your other questions.” Robin said.
“Then we will have to wait for Heatwave to explain it himself. We can only keep stepping up our capacity through your visions, no one else can directly see a century into the future after all.” Chasm Might said.
Robin nodded, he wasn’t planning on holding this knowledge in. He was still waiting and focused daily on his own method and how to get normal people to train psychic energy. He really hoped he could get it soon so Ruth wouldn’t have any regrets that she caused stress and problems to such a degree that she might give up heroics because of this.