Trying not to think about the ominous proclamation, Sam accepted the notification that came in a moment later, and a dome of energy shot up around them. Feeling came back to his body, and he suddenly felt a greater connection to his weapon and body. Closing his eyes, Sam tugged at the mana waiting within him, and funneled it down his hand. There was an invisible barrier between it and his weapon, one that he had not been able to breach before. However, he was ready now.
He forced the energy into Mjolnir, causing it to glow with a blue light. With a roar, he brought the weapon down. There was a massive crack, as if a bolt of lightning had been summoned by his attack, and his vision was briefly blued out. When he regained his sight, he saw Pelar standing there with a thoughtful expression.
“That was very powerful indeed. You should use that attack more often,” the man said. “Now, I have things to do, and you have been here long enough. Do you surrender?”
“Yes,” Sam said, and he was whisked out of the Interweb.
Appearing back in the cave, he saw Gordanus sitting in a corner, meditating. The empty bottle next to him told a different tale however. The man cracked open one eye as Sam approached, and he smiled.
“Did it work?” Gordanus asked.
“As far as I can tell, yes. However, I would like to test it out in the real world. Are you available for a spar?” Sam asked, casting a loaded glance at the bottle next to Gordanus.
“I saw that,” the man said.
If he was in any way inebriated however, Sam could not tell. Perhaps higher rankers processed alcohol in different ways than mere mortals. Gordanus got to his feet with a groan, clearly put on for Sam, as a being of that power would not have any stiffness from simply sitting down. He shook out his clothes and started walking towards Sam with a grin on his face. Clenching one fist, Gordanus threw himself into the air, preparing to strike.
Sam hurriedly gathered his mana into his hands, trying to focus on using his power effectively. However, it was a bit harder to do in the real world, and he lacked the time to properly distribute the power. The energy therefore stopped before he could send it into his weapon, causing his hand to glow with a pale blue light. He swung his hammer, trying to use the power of his mana to accentuate the strike. His hand accelerated as he burned off the energy and his hammer accelerated rapidly, streaking towards Gordanus’ head. The other man batted aside the strike with one hand, laughing out loud.
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“You’re going to have to do better than that to hurt me,” Gordanus exclaimed as he came crashing down, driving a hammerfist into Sam’s sternum.
Sam was sent crashing to the ground, groaning in pain. Gordanus had withheld enough of his power to avoid seriously injuring Sam, but it still hurt a lot. Sam groaned and started to funnel the pain and burgeoning anger into his Dao, letting the power infuse his body. Trying to draw on his mana while his body was suffused with Dao energy was an uphill battle, but he managed to pump the mana into his hammer just in time, as Gordanus seemed to slow down, no doubt to give him the space to work with.
His hammer lit up with a blue light and began to hum with power as he swung it. Gordanus met it with a punch that traveled deceptively fast, imbued with weapon mysteries beyond anything that Sam had ever comprehended. The man was using his hand like the end of a sword, somehow imbuing it with the sharpness of a blade, but maintaining its blunt force as well. Sam had no idea how he was able to tell all of that from a glance. He just was.
The two attacks met one another a moment later, and his hammer trembled as it loosed the full might of his purified mana onto Gordanus. There was a blinding explosion of blue light, and Sam was tossed off his feet, and hammered into the wall of the cave. Groaning, he peeled himself off to see Gordanus peering at his right hand. It was bleeding. The man gave him an inscrutable look and then seemed to find himself once more.
“That was passable. However, you have much to learn.”
And Sam did indeed have much to learn. Over the next five days, he was worked to the bone by Gordanus, who forced him to manipulate his mana for the better part of each day, even when training his other skills. Trying to teleport while maintaining a steady charge of purified mana was almost a death sentence, and he could feel his skin burning away as he carried the mana through the rent in space and time that his skill created, but his healing ability allowed him to make such mistakes and learn from them.
The training methods that he was using were enough to propel him forwards in terms of mastery at a ridiculous rate, far faster than most, but that was because of the danger. The System loved to reward danger with power, and this was only another example of that at work. If one set their whole body, mind and soul to a task under the auspices of the System, they would be rewarded. If they only did a half hearted job however, it would be a lot harder.
By the time that the five days were up, Sam’s destructive potential had gone up exponentially. He was still unable to blend his pure mana with his Dao energy, as that would reduce all of his achievements to nothing, but he had managed to layer it into his Justice is Best Served Cold skill, using it every other strike. That allowed him to both build up the power of the skill that was naturally there, as well as deal a greater amount of damage than he normally would have. His mana was still nothing like the mana that Gordanus possessed, and although he could truthfully say that it was “pure”, he was still far away from true purity. No matter what he did, it would always be tainted by a small amount of outside energy. Only when he grew to a level of power that allowed him to bend reality around him would he be able to overcome this effect.