I tried negotiating the time down with the blacksmith, but it didn't work.

I went home to do nothing.

I just waited, with nothing to do. This idiotic level 150 world gave me nothing to do. I, just to pass the time, went into my inner world, and dilated time so it would be time for my next lesson in a second. After a second, I changed the dilation back.

I was out of there just as quickly as I had gotten in.

I teleported to the lesson.

"I didn't ask last time, but why is a level 79 chosen of mine wearing a level 68 standard-issue armor?"

"I'm getting a new one made."

"I guess I can't have you fight enemies with high speed and damage, as your armor is pretty much rags."

"Today, I will be working with you on harnessing the properties of Pureite."

A level 146 monster spawned.

The king shot a beam of mana at it, killing it.

"You know how to use the standard beem. Today, I want to teach you two abilities: The splash, clearing a large area of land, and purify.

"So, basically, when the plane of power, the first plane, was created, two forces were born:

"The Corruption and the Light.

"Each of the forces was linked to a single entity. I am the entity of light, whereas my brother is the entity of dark.

"We each anchored one of the next two planes, the light plane and the dark plane.

"War raged on between the Corruption and the Light. However, the Corruption started creating parasites.

"When any entity was bit by the Corruption, it would turn corrupted.

"The only way to cleanse Corruption is using purify."

The king started teaching.

Splash was easy enough. I just had to consense mana into solid mana, like what was speculated to happen around level 275. I was supposed to turn it into a ball, with a few runes etched into it. That was the tricky part.

From there, the ball would expand into a shockwave, knocking everyone within a radius (there were many factors to determine how much it was, and I would determine the formula later) back.

Purify was trickier. I had gotten the shockwave down within thirty minutes, though it would probably need 15-20 hours of practice before it would be of much use in combat.

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For purify, I had to focus on essence. I had to put the mana through my hammer on the essence plane. I had to use (where the Corrupted I was using it against's level was x), (2.1x+8)/1.5 of that level's compression factor.

For a level 20, I'd have to use a compression factor of 32 2/3. For a level 40, I'd have to use a compression factor of 64. For a level 60, I'd have to use a compression factor of 89 1/3. Hell, for a level 10, I'd have to use a factor of 19 1/3, which would dry up my mana insanely fast.

After I had reach a degree of proficiency where my casting of both spells was good, I was dismissed. I had 5 minutes until it was time to pick up my armor, so I tried the seed of eternal truth. It went slightly better, but it wasn't able to start growing.

I teleported into the workshop. The blacksmith was just pouring a few thousand final mana into the armor, which was quickly done.

"Here's your armor, sir."

I took it and put it on. "Good."

I felt a nagging in my mind.

I somehow managed to summon the blue box, just as dynamic as it normally was.

None of the normal stuff was irregular. I had gotten a new skill, light magic, at level 3/37. It didn't do much, though.

I had found a new screen, though.

Armor Stats

Mana: 10e+512/10e/512

Battery: 10e+6/10e+6

Endurance: 9,223,372,036,854,775,808/9,223,372,036,854,775,808

Saturation: 0/9,223,372,036,854,775,808

Runes: All Active

Inventory: Empty

Planes: All

Level: 155

Useless. Just some random garble no one understood.

What the hell was 10e+6? What the hell was saturation?

What the hell were planes?

It didn't matter. It just mattered that this worked.

I went to a training ground. Level 145 monsters were spawning constantly, but their attacks barely left cracks on my armor.

I had no business there. I went home.

I sensed something odd.

I felt darkness, imprisoning me. A sickly darkness. It subsided, and I stood in front of a monster. It was an absolute horror. It just seemed... wrong. I didn't know what the actual hell was happening. I summoned the king.

The king shot a beam at it.

"We need to improve your training."

The king teleported me back.

"Okay, I guess it's time I lay out the full history of the war.

"So, before anything existed, there only existed an altar and a person.

"The person only had one purpose. He sat on the altar, and pulled the sacrificial knife out. He chopped off his own head.

"From his head, a plant was born. That plant bore one seed:

"The seed that would create everything.

"The seed contained all the essence that exists, and plus two other substances: The Corruption, and the Light.

"The seed had growing quantities inside itself.

"One day, it burst open. Everything came into being.

"The Light and the Corruption existed within everything, made up of essence. For a while, a healthy balance existed. However, that balance was not to last.

"Me, and my brother were born, and that would destroy everything.