John walked into the gym which looked less like a gym and more like an arcade. There was magical equipment everywhere.
He saw people in line testing what seemed to be a punching machine. There were three of them and they were currently being used.
John wondered what he would score.
This could put his strength into numbers!
Obviously he didn't plan to open his seals. He wished to see his base level of strength. He watched as a guy that looked like a body builder hit the machine.
The score was: 3578.
John watched as someone much weaker punched it.
The score was: 1278.
Another guy went up and punched: 2580.
Soon it was John's turn.
He didn't use any Qi. He did however not hold back, using 100% of his muscles.
His score: 9856.
The guy that looked like a body builder was surprised.
Soon, someone scoffed.
"Trying to show off using your life force as a grand knight? Eh, let me give it a go!"
The person that spoke hit the machine.
His score: 9998!
John was surprised as this person didn't seem to have a strong looking physique.
He had actually beaten John.
John was tempted to open up the first seal and see how much he could punch. But he wasn't one to show off.
"That was a good punch."
"Thanks, your punch wasn't too bad either. Wanna compete with me on the other machines?"
"Sure."
John was curious to see what his bodies natural limits were with his strength sealed.
He had an hour to kill either way.
The next machine they went to tested reaction speed.
John scored 10 ms.
While the grand knight named Luke scored 120 ms.
John had won!
The next machine they had tested how much one could lift.
The grand knight started to struggle at around 1000 kg.
John without using his immortality was able to lift 1800 kg. He still felt like he could lift more.
When he was in the afterlife. He had lifted 9000 kg! But this was with a normal body. It was due to his use of devil transformation that he was able to do this.
This is all at his base state. If he were to unlock the first seal. He could lift 90,000 kg! Just to give some perspective into how powerful cultivators are.
"You are surprisingly strong!"
"It's nothing. What's next?"
"Let's test running speed."
The grand knight brought him to what looked a treadmill mixed with a videogame.
"Let us see who can run a kilometer fastest."
The ground was adjusting based on their speeds.
It took John exactly two minutes to run a kilometer.
The grand knight performed much worse. It took them five minutes.
When he finished, John was already sitting down watching him run.
"What was your time?"
"Exactly two minutes."
"...Insane! Let's move on to the next test."
John was brought into a special room.
"This is a gravity machine. Wanna go until one of us collapses?"
John laughed.
"Sure."
"There are safeguards in place, since people have died in the past from overdoing it. It is voice activated. You simply say 'set' and the gravity you want. After a minute of no inputs, it'll shut down."
"Alright. Set two times gravity!"
John barely felt any different.
"Set three times!"
John felt slightly heavier. But it was no issue.
"Set four times!"
John felt the blood was becoming heavy in his body. It was starting to have trouble flowing to his head.
But he was legendary class in blood refinement. He had reached the stage of being able to control his blood or reverse it. Not that he required blood flow to his head to remain conscious.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
He easily brought it back up to his brain.
"Set five times!"
The grand knight dropped down to one knee.
"You're still standing!?"
"Can I try it?"
"Sure."
John then said:
"Set ten times!"
The grand knight fell on his face as he was pushed to the ground.
He couldn't even speak.
John felt like the tendons in his knees were tearing. He felt pressure all over his body. He fell down to on knee. His heart was struggling to pump blood at all.
But in the end he managed to get up off his knee and stand.
He then did something ridiculous.
He balanced on a finger and started to do push-ups using his entire body.
"Good. My body in its base state can handle ten times gravity!"
After a minute, gravity became normal. The grand knight had passed out.
"I win!"
Later when that grand knight woke up. He couldn't help but think:
"His body is quite strong!"
The grand knight originally wanted to humble him, but it was instead him who got humbled. He was praised as talented growing up, so he didn't think he would find a worthy opponent. Now he had a goal to surpass. He wasn't conscious to see John doing pushups on a single finger in ten times gravity. He had assumed John could barely stand in it.
"I must break my limits!"
If he knew that John had only used 0.01% of his power. He might have gone insane!
With the seals closed... John wasn't as superhuman as you would expect. In his second world, he had mastered skin refinement, blood refinement, skeletal refinement, organ tempering, and energy drawing.
So even without his cultivation. He was at the peak of the world!
Well, peak for a mortal anyways. He doubted many could match his physique.
An hour had passed and now it was time for John to take his first class.
John walked into a somewhat empty class. It seemed not many decided to take this basic class. There were only around 10 others.
John saw the teacher walk in and he used his spiritual sense to estimate his strength. But it seemed that a forcefield was covering the teacher.
"I see. Official wizards have a barrier that is active at all times."
But John could see energy getting pushed out of his body. Just like how cultivators leaked Qi. This mage was leaking some form of energy.
"This energy is volatile. It is similar to radiation. A normal person definitely will have accidents if they are around a wizard for too long. Qi leaked from a cultivator is not dangerous to mortals. I suppose there is a huge difference between a cultivator and a wizard."
John figured a normal person would develop cancer or die from sickness due to this unknown energy.
The teacher didn't even introduce himself as he began to talk.
"You all have chosen to learn the basics of magic. So let me start by asking you all, what is magic?"
The teacher pointed at John.
"You!"
"Magic is using the laws of reality to turn the supernatural into something tangible."
"Wrong!"
John was wrong?
"Magic is a gift given to us by the goddess of magic. It is she, who built the magic matrix over our universe!"
"..."
John was extremely disappointed! Why? This world's magic obviously was environment based! When John had looked through the supreme being's memories, he had purposefully picked a magic system that had nothing to do with the environment.
His system used mental energy!
But obviously, this wasn't the case for this wizard world. They accessed a magic matrix over the world.
"In order to become an acolyte. You must receive guidance from the goddess herself! This is called enchanting. You must find a magic medium, this can be a bracelet, a pendant, or a ring. It is what you will use to build your spell models."
"If you wish to be able to enchant an item. You will need the guidance of god. Those with a talent of 3 will take roughly a year to tap into the matrix. Those with a talent of 4, should take around half a year. If you have a talent of 5. It should only take you a month. You won't actually meet god when you tap into the matrix, that is merely a myth. Your item will however be blessed with permission to use her matrix."
The teacher then passed out a flyer with a magic circle drawn on it. It wasn't too complex. Underneath the magic circle was a mantra as well. The mantra said:
'Esteemed creator Mer. Mother of the Matrix. Birther of Magic. Wielder of the keys of Infinity. I request a blessing!'
"You want to visualize this magic formation. You want to also chant the mantra."
"You can do this in your head or you can do it out loud."
"We obviously won't be spending class trying to unlock your ability to enchant. Make sure to have your item ready while you say the mantra. Hold the item in your hand, it will be the target."
"Today we will be discussing the levels of mages."
"Obviously there are 7 main stratums of being a magus. You start as an acolyte. What does this mean? It means you have access to the matrix through a medium, this is rank 0. You then have the next level, which we call an official magus. This is rank 1. Official magus have something acolytes don't. They have a magic core in their brain. This core is blessed by Mer. This means they always have a medium for casting magic and don't have to rely on a ring for example."
"There is your magic core and inside of this is an infinite space. In the middle of this space is your focus. There are layers to the focus. A rank 1 magus only has a single spell inscribed. This is called a passive spell. A rank 2 magus has two layers with two passive spells. A rank 3 magus has three layers, rank 4 has four layers. Rank 5 has five layers. Rank 6 has six layers. Not much is known about rank 7 and beyond."
"There are also differences between the ranks. I will explain those in this class to make sure there is no confusion. All mages use energy we call 'mana'. This mana is stored in their magic core. But the core is supernatural and can hold vast amounts of energy. The mana is different depending on your rank. This mana comes from the magic matrix over our reality. It is everywhere."
"Rank 1's mana is in a gas form. Once you have condensed all of your mana into a liquid, you can become rank 2. Then to become rank 3, you must condense the liquid mana into crystalized mana. In order to become rank 4. You must take this crystalized mana and create a point mass from your focus."
"But don't get your hopes up. Getting up the ranks isn't just a matter of condensing mana in your magic core. You also need a spell model and a reactive elixir. Even then, you aren't guaranteed to succeed in breaking through and failure can cut off your path forward crippling you, or leaving you dead."
"To put things in perspective. All professors in this academy are minimum rank 1. The principal is rank 3. It is extremely hard to progress. Without a backing, don't think you'll be able to walk far on this path! I only know the steps beyond rank 1 due to the information treaty passed between academies that makes hiding this information illegal."
Someone raised their hand.
"I heard mages live longer then mortals? Is this true?"
"Indeed. There are two main ways to breakthrough. This is a secret that I paid a heavy price to acquire, but I'll share it with you all. One way is by using a high grade visualization technique. This is the secret to why the principal is rank 3! He didn't need a spell model or a reactive elixir to get to his level. He simply used his visualization technique and over time broke through naturally."
"We obviously don't have access to such legendary techniques. So we must graft spell models onto our focus in the magic core. We also must use a reactive elixir that burns through our life force to become a rank 1 mage."
"This means our lifespan is only 200 years at rank 1! If you broke through with a high grade visualization technique. Your lifespan would be 500 years! Sadly, I had to use an elixir..."
"A normal rank 2 lives for 200 years. Rank 3 lives for 500 years. A rank 4 can live for a thousand years. But as far as I know. After breaking through to rank 5. Your lifespan doesn't increase. Even getting to rank 6 will not increase it further. But upon reaching rank 7, legends tell that the lifespan increases exponentially."
"Any further questions?"
John raised his hand.
"Yes?"
"How does one acquire a magic core?"
"You must take a reactive elixir and have a spell model ready. Once you are ready to breakthrough and become an official magus. You will use the elixir and burn through your life force. This potion will cause a chain of reactions in your brain. Adding a new structure, which we call the magic core. You then have to form the focus and inscribe the first layer on it. Failure in any of these steps could turn you into an idiot or a cripple!"
"But that isn't it. The magic core is just like a magic medium. Except, you need the blessing of Mer. Just like how your magic medium as an acolyte requires the blessing of Mer."
"You can acquire the blessing of Mer the same way you did as an acolyte."
"I see...are there tiers of spells?"
"Yes. You can only cast spells that match the amount of layers you have to your focus. So if you are an acolyte. You can only cast rank 0 spells. An official magus can cast rank 1 spells, and so on."
"If that is all, class is dismissed!"
John decided to check out the library.