“Let’s talk somewhere else”
“...”
They were out of Auntie Pai’s sight but Chief Pai kept walking toward the Western Wall. Acma stopped him.
“Uncle Pai, we’re far enough. May I know what do you want to talk about?”
Chief Pai turned his body around and look at Acma for a brief second.
“It’s about what I asked you inside the mine”
“...”
Acma didn’t react. He wanted to know what exactly Chief Pai wanted to say.
Chief Pai hesitated a bit but he continued, “I want to apologize for what I asked you. I shouldn’t suspect your sincerity in helping this village”
“Apology accepted”, Acma grinned.
“Eh?”, Chief Pai was stunned. He felt it was too easy for Acma to accept his apology.
“It’s ok Uncle Pai. Please be assure that it never cross my mind to claim this village as my territory. And thank you for the apology. If not, it will very awkward for me to stay at this village”. Acma wanted to explain why he easily accepted the apology, but he was afraid that it would create more misunderstandings.
Chief Pai’s face immediately change from gloomy to relieved. But before he could open his mouth,
“Uncle, I have something to do. I got to go”, Acma hastily turned his body around and walked away, leaving the dumbfounded Chief Pai behind. It’s not that didn’t want to speak further, but he really had something to do. So he had to go although he felt pity toward Chief Pai.
In front of the house, he greeted Auntie Pai. After exchanging several complimentary words, he proceed to his room.
“Blueeerhhh”, little Mei Mei stucked-out her tongue once he saw Acma.
Acma startled and halted his steps. He never had a little sister so he didn’t know he should react. But he seriously thought, that face was overly cute. He grinned.
“Here’s the medicine”. He extended his hands and pinched that chubby face.
“Aaaaaaaaaa”
“Haha... Take care little Mei Mei”, he patted her head and then disappeared into his room.
Once he locked the room, he began the sequence to teleport to Realm of Void. The reason why he picked Realm of Void to train because in there, he could train as long as he wanted without worrying about the passing time.
‘TELEPORT’
You’ve entered Realm of Void
This realm was still the same as he left before. A boundless darkness with a piece of land covered by grasses. Acma took a deep breath before he began stretching his body.
“First thing first. Open: Status”
Acma Heart Level 368 Race Human Class Emissary of Void HP 18850/18850 MP 163400/163475 Strength 1034 Agility 1099 Intelligence 1201 Luck 310 Unallocated point(s) 1700 Title Lord of The Heavenly Villa, The Benevolent, The Grand Summoner, The Puppeteer
“Allocate 1000 points to INT, 500 to STR and 200 to AGI. Now I have 2201 points INT. That should be enough. Next, Open: Skill”
Survival Survival Cooking: Intermediate, Crafting: Intermediate, Climbing: Advance, Tracking: Advance, First Aid: Advance, Sneaking: Master, Swimming: Advance, Language Comprehension: Master, Identify: Grandmaster Weapon Passive
Hand Gun, Rifle, Knives, Sword, Spear, Archery Active
Dimension Splitter: Grandmaster Magic Passive
Body Strengthening, Mana Manipulation, Skin of Python King Active
Blackhole: Grandmaster, Wind Blade: Beginner, Earth Splinter: Beginner, Earth Spike: Beginner, Earth Shield: Beginner Movement Passive
-None- Active
Phantom Step: Grandmaster, Blink: Grandmaster, Teleport: Grandmaster
“I have 4 beginner level skill to train. Wind Blade, Earth Splinter, Earth Spike and Earth Shield. Should I train them one by one or altogether?”, he asked himself.
“... Let familiarize myself with the skill first”.
He immediately use 10000 mana to create a legend rank training doll to be his target. He wasn’t stingy at using his mana in this training because he felt it worth it.
‘WIND BLADE’ ‘EARTH SPLINTER’ ‘WIND BLADE’ ‘EARTH SHIELD’ ‘EARTH SPIKE’
“...”
The time it took to cast the skill was differed between the three. Wind Blade only took half a second to cast. Same goes with the Earth Shield and Earth Spike while Earth Splinter took a second and half. To cast Wind Blade, he need to swing his sword and a thrust for Earth Splinter. When he casted Earth Shield, a small shield with the size of Sawa’s single scale was formed on his left hand.
After several hours repeating this three skill one after another, Acma was familiar enough with them but it only against a stationary target. Within these hours, he managed to grasp the ‘timing’ between incantation and the skill released by the swing of his sword. However, in battle no enemy would stay still.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Beside grasping the timing, Acma also find out that the effect of Wind Blade and Earth Splinter was different by different range. Most effective range was 100 metres. Minimum range was 3 metres while maximum was 500 metres. He found these fact after moving the training doll to a different range, hit it and scrutinized the sound of impact. It was quiet in the Realm of Void, so it’s easy to differentiate them. Earth Spike’s range was less than that. It could only reach 50 metres.
“It’s time to apply it in battle”, murmured Acma
He took out all 325 of his guardians and made them encircled him. All the stone guardians were put at the distance between 100 metres to 500 metres. They would be moving with different patterns set by Alice. So, if he wanted to hit them, he can’t predict their movement but react to it. As for the supreme guardians, 20 of them were put sporadically within 100 metres and they also moving with different patterns.
“Alice, here is the training setting. You’ll be attacking me with 5 Supreme Guardians aand from time to time, switch the attacker with the other guardians. The target will be those Stone Guardians. Please select them for me by switching on the light on their forehead and change the target for every 5 seconds. I must hit it within 5 seconds”
“Yes, Master.
He choose this setting because Wind Blade and Earth Splinter were range skill and the primary objective for this training was to help him familiarize with the skills in a battle simulation.
“Alice, coordinate with my movement. Don’t go too fast or too slow. One more, please start with beginner level”
“Yes Master”
“Begin”
“BANG”
“...”
Before he could move, he was hit by all 5 guardians.
“Alice, start attacking with one guardian first”
“Yes, Master”
“Begin”
1 HOUR
It was a mess. Acma couldn’t hit any target. Before he could cast Wind Blade or Earth Splinter, he already have to cast Earth Shield to meet with Alice’s attack.
5 HOURS
He was calmer and could pay more attention to the movement of the guardians. With that, his success rate of hitting the target also increased. But fighting a prolonged battle was taxing especially his mana. He felt relieved that only 5 supreme guardians were controlled directly by Alice. If she controlled more, his mana consumption would be doubled or tripled.
Acma was tired but he persevered. He knew that if he wanted to achieve success, he needed to keep fighting and soldier on.
7 HOURS and 38 MINUTES
Your mana have been depleted
“Finally, I can rest for a while”, Acma forced a smile and slowly rest his back on the floor.
He was exhausted to death and it even hard to move his limbs. All the guardians also stopped moving and stood motionlessly.
That sudden notification made him thinking and a wild assumption pop out that his stamina was related to his mana reservoir. It should be like that because as soon the notification appeared, he also cannot move anymore. It’s just a wild assumption without any concrete evidence.
However, no matter how exhausted he was, he still could smile because all four skills had reached Advanced level mastery.
He took out his Cosmic Dew Tea Set and drink a cup of it to replenish his mana. Then he rose up on his feet and look at the surrounding with a big grin. It’s time to continue. He have decided that he won’t return until he reached grandmaster level.
“Alice, second round”
“Yes, Master”
13 HOURS and 12 MINUTES
Your Earth Shield mastery have reached Master level
Of course it would be. He took more beatings than he beat those guardians. That’s why Earth Shield skill level up first because he had to defend himself more than he could attack.
32 HOURS and 8 MINUTES
This was the 4th times his mana was depleted. Each round would take approximately 8 hours. His mana consumption rate was about the same for each round because he only casted the same four skills. With repeated practices, the quality of those skills have become better. His Wind Blade for example. At beginner level, Alice could split it apart easily. But after it reached Master level, the forces it carried could blasted the guardian several steps backward. Like the saying, practices make perfect.
48 HOURS
He was proficient enough to insta-cast the skills. This is important because he didn't have to yell the spell's name everytime he want to cast it. It also prevent the enemies from anticipating his moves and keep them in the dark. He could even used Wind Blade or Earth Splinter simultaneously with both Earth Shield and Earth Spike. That were the results he got from casting the skills for more than 10000 times. However, his mastery level still haven’t reach grandmaster level.
“What am I lacking?”, he asked that question repeatedly but still couldn’t find the answer.
He raised his head and look at his surrounding. The guardians has stopped moving, not because of mana depletion but he ordered so. He knew that he couldn’t find the answer in this session, so he stopped the training.
He retrieved all his guardians and prepared to teleport back to his room.
“Alice, lets go”
“Okay”
‘TELEPORT’
After a while, Acma reappeared inside his room.
He saw an intense orange light seeping through the gap of the wall, hinting that the day was nearing the end. Looking at that beautiful light, Acma was puzzled.
“I thought the time inside Realm of Void is frozen”, he thought.
“Alice, how much time has passed since I went to Realm of Void?”
“2 hours and 13 minutes”
“That’s mean 1 hour in this world is equivalent to 24 hours in that realm. Thanks Alice”
“You’re welcome”
Acma unlocked the door and walked out of the room. The house was empty.