Right now I was in deep contemplation. My brows were knitted, as I stood with my arms crossed near the wall on the further left side. I kept on nodding my head in a repeative manner, as I frowned.

My eyes peered at the scar which I had so greatly made on the wall of the training room. But if I had be honest, the tear in the wall was pretty accurate. Like a straight line, with only a few small fissures tracing near the tear. Quite the display of accuracy, I have to say.

But, the burst of mana which I had released in performing only half of the movement had done this much damage to the wall, think about how detrimental the damage would have been if I had perfectly released the first movement of the Crescent Moon Style. If I had to take a guess, the wall would have most certainly collapsed.

“How should I hide this thing now?” I said as I pursed my lips, with my hand covering my chin.

Well either way, even if Jiyoung doesn’t kills me, she would still be pretty mad. Well she did tell me not to wreck her room, and that’s what I tried to do, but... stuff tend to happen when you least expect them to happen.

Well the worst she could do is beat the crap out of me. But a tangible shiver ran down my spine, as I imagined what kind of expression would Jiyoung have over her face, or even if she would. Most of the time her face was expressionless. Unreadable. And her chilling glare which I still vividly remembered.

“Oh well, as the saying goes: you can’t cry over spilled milk.”

I deeply sighed as I turned around and walked up to the door of the training room. But something caught my eye, as I was about to exit the room. There was a panel on the side, which had different coloured buttons displayed on the screen.

Each buttons had a specific number written over them. There was a blue button which had <5×> written over it. Beside it were three more buttons. Green, red and violet, each displaying a different number—<7×>, <10×> and <15×>.

I keenly observed the panel, as a moment later I tried pressing the green button on the panel curiously. Just as my finger touched the hard screen of the panel, the atmosphere inside the room shifted.

My knees buckled, as my breathing hardened for a moment. My body was pushed downwards, as I stumbled to one knee. I fought against the oppressive increase in gravity around me, but to my avail, I wasn’t able to move a lot. My body collapsed to both knees. Struggling to keep my body from being pinned to the floor, I slowly reached for the panel.

My mana surged, as I circulated it to reinforce my body, and to form a thin barrier around myself. A thin bright light began to emanate around me, as I lifted my hand under the increased effects of gravity inside the room. I thrust my finger forward toward the panel. With a hard gasp, my finger pressed against the hard screen of the panel and I was finally able to take a deep breath, as the increased gravity returned to normal.

I plummeted on the floor and cleared the sweat accumulated over my forehead. I leaned against the wall and planted my hand over my knee.

“So this room also has a gravity increasing feature,” I said, observant. “Seriously, the top ten are given too much privilege,” I voiced, as I pushed up to my feet and continued. “I am now really considering reaching the top ten.”

The privileges which were given to the top ten were just too good. I shrugged as I spun over my heel and looked back at the panel. I again observed the panel with different buttons.

“So this panel can increase the amount of gravitational pull inside this specific room,” I formed an answer. “And it can increase up to <15×> times the Earth's original gravity.

That’s really convenient.

Since I am used to fighting in Earth’s natural gravitational pulling force, I couldn’t move as much as I wanted to under the increase of gravity. But this could also be a chance for me to increase my training. One, because without mana I couldn’t move as much as I wanted to inside increased gravity, because my body is still weak. Two, increased gravity can help me increase my training a few-folds.

Earth’s gravitational pull was 9.8(m/s²), and if I trained in increased gravity, I might be able to train in a more efficient and faster way. Right now building the aptitude of my body was my first priority. And doing my training in increased gravitational pull can be helpful.

Because the increased gravity would keep on pushing my body downward, abstracting my movements. So getting a better muscle control and maneuvrability was a must for me right now. Because, I had not trained my body as much as I should have since regressing back in time. The limitations which my new body put over me was a serious problem during battle, which needed to be taken care of. Because, if my body couldn’t hold out under the manipulation of mana, and the stress over my muscles when performing the Crescent Moon Style, then that would be a big problem. Same for my skills.

But that's why I am here.

I pressed the blue button on the panel this time and the gravity increased <5×> times its original pulling force. It was still somewhat bearable, as I could move my body and walk, not rolling on my knees this time.

I activated Mind’s Eye, and saw that there were six mana cores embedded inside the room. One core embedded inside the walls on each side, one inside the ceiling and one inside the floor. The cores were connected and wrapped inside a small dome like ball which were connected with thick and sturdy wires, which fluxed the mana and stimulated the yellow motes of Earth mana in the atmosphere.

The most prominent motes which were visible to my eyes were the motes of yellow—Earth—, but the other three particles were still present, so was demonic energy, they were distant from the yellow particles but still close, allowing the motes of yellow to make change according to their dominion of control .They burned beautifully in the atmosphere as the gravity kept on increasing, and a moment later stopped. The gravity inside the room had increased <5×> times it original gravitational pull.

“Interesting...” I said, curiously observing the motes and their particular individual movements. They moved in a constant fluid motion, without blocking each others path. Creating harmony. They moved in a random motion, but I felt so otherwise. I searched through them, allowing myself to feel the mana which was tied to each of the particles.

But a thought struck me. This thought had always been at the back on my mind, but I had never seriously considered it. How would the mana react under the effects of my skill, "Acausality".

I searched for my skill, which I had bought from the system inside the dungeon.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Acausality...” I muttered, as my perspective shifted and I felt the world around me change. A veil of grey descended over the world, as all of the colours around me dissolved and disappeared making everything around me colourless. I took a step forward in this world of static void.

But the thing which caught my interest the most was that, I could no longer see the ambient elements of mana in the atmosphere, neither the particles of demonic energy. This place resembled a motionless void.

No rather they were still present, but they had lost their spark, their charm, their power. Like a veil covered them, hindering them useless, unmovable. I could still see the—now colourless—particles, and I felt for their presence, their essence, but I felt nothing. As if what I searched for was dormant, not existing in this frozen world. The power was bounded by some force which caused it to not be used in this static void. Time itself was frozen.

I took another step forward, but a burning pain enveloped my spine which quickly ran throughout my body. But I continued my march without halt. I quickened my pace, and performed a set of jabs, with a few spinning hooks.

But the pain increased with every step, with every movement I performed. My breathing hardened, as a frown crept up my face. But I persisted, not deactivating the skill, staying inside this static world, for as long as I could.

I felt a warm sensation run down my nose. But wiping my nose, I kept on moving as much as I could. Forcing my body to move. But the pain increased to the point that it became unbearable. My eyes blurred under the stress my body was going through. But I kept pushing.

But my knees buckled as my body plummeted on the hard floor and I coughed up blood, which dyed the colourless floor red. With another burst of the sizzling pain which made a painful shiver to run down my spine, I tried to move a single step, but my body didn’t listen under the unbearable effects of the pain.

I groaned, as I grounded my teeth, my body fidgeted, as a squeak of agony escaped my mouth. My eyes shut closed into sharp lines, as I moved my arms to push my body up.

But my arms gave out, as I finally released my grasp over my skill. I pushed my body and laid over my back to the floor. My breath came in hard gasps, as my body ached with an unimaginable pain. My eyes felt like lead, so was the case with my body. I felt a wave of nausea hit me as the top of my stomach fell. My mind began to spilt for as long as I had stayed inside that static world.

The veil of grey lifted and slowly but steadily the colours returned to the world. The particles sparked back to life magically, as I again observed their movements with my blurred and squinted eyes.

But the pain lessened as time passed, and I laid on the cold floor to catch my breath. I placed my arm over my eyes and rested for a bit. Recovering from the pain.

“Twenty three... seconds,” I said with a gasp.

My current limit inside that static world was just a bit above twenty seconds. My mana reserves have grown quite a bit since the last time I used Acausality inside the dungeon, but the problem was with the pain. I can’t seem to handle the pain. I didn’t feel as much pain as I did back when I had used Acausality inside the dungeon. Its seems like my body undergoes some kind of extreme stress when the gears of time stop. Making everything motionless.

Oh well, even twenty seconds are a big advantage in the frozen world. I fisted my hand and extended it upwards.

But I felt like I could do more inside that static world. As if it was my own inability which hindered me from understanding this new power which I have acquired and wielded. I felt as if Acausality had something more to give, something more that I have yet to understand of this skill. As if there is a deeper meaning. Some insight which I still lacked.

But, I am only able to use Acausality every two weeks. Damn cool down. Now I have to wait another two weeks until I can again use Acausality.

***

I groaned, as my grip over my sword loosened, and I pushed a step backward.

Two and a half hours have passed since I began training. I walked back toward the panel and pressed on the red button, deactivating the effects of the increased gravity. I was now somewhat able to train in <10×> times gravity with relative ease. But it was still pretty hard to train in <10×> times increased gravity. But why would I miss a chance like this to grow stronger.

The Old Man always said to me: train until your bones shatter and your mind is exhausted past its limits.

A salty smell entered my nostrils, as I noticed that I was covered with my own sweat from head to toe. I smelled like shit.

Now... let’s test out my last skill.

I took a deep breath, and focused my mind. With a push of mana, I activated my skill “Leap”.

Just like last time when I was about to escape from the detonation of the bomb, hundreds of spiralling tendrils of black lightning moved in the atmosphere, in which hundreds and thousands of dim motes about the size of my palm floated inside. They burned with information, with power. With some understanding. Connecting to a specific location. Interlocking two locations to create a portal like connection for me to bypass through.

I empowered an image inside my mind and waited for a moment, not even a second had passed, and a black mote sparked with a blinding light, as I reached out to it. Just like last time, I felt for its existence, it felt like it tangibly existed, but not perceivable by touch.

My mind connected to that mote, and the scene in front of me melted, colours running and darkening like wax. I had to close my eyes momentarily, under the vertigo of the sudden shift. With a flash of black tendrils, information coursed through my mind as I teleported, which was nothing less than extreme. But by now I was used to it. I disappeared from inside the training room and reappeared inside Jiyoung’s room. Black lightning lifted my hair slightly, and coiled through my body, as a moment later the tendrils of lightning disappeared, as if they never existed in the first place.

All of this happened in the fraction of a second. When I had activated my skill and the time it took for me to teleport.

But the door of the room had opened and Jiyoung entered the room. She had seen me teleport out of nowhere inside her room.

She didn’t look that relatively surprised, as she shut the door behind her and entered inside her room.

“You’re back,” I asked.

She turned over her heel and sat down on her bed. “Yeah.”

He crossed her legs, and looked at me for a moment before asking. “How is your training go?”

“Its going well,” I answered. But the tear which I had made in the wall kept on bugging me as I spoke. Well, all I can do is come clean at this point and sincerely apologise. “Jiyoung, I need to tell you something,” I said in an a low apologetic tone.

A complicated expression covered her face as she looked at me.

"What?” Her eyes observing my every movement.

I took a step back and grabbed the doorknob and pushed the door of the training room open. I gestured for her to come inside with me. She got off of her bed and stepped inside the training room after me.

Without even having to point out the tear, her eyes focused on the further left side of the room. The tear in the wall was big enough for anyone to see.

My gaze shifted between the scar on the wall and Jiyoung, as I took a couple of steps back, maintaining some distance from her. Waiting for her to respond, to do something.

She kept on looking at the scar for a long moment. I saw her sigh tiredly, as he shook her head once. Then she turned her head toward me and I felt a shiver run down my spine, as she opened her mouth to speak. “Well, it’s alright either way. I already knew something like this was going to happen, so its fine.” But her voice was cold.

My ears perked up as I heard her. “I am really sorry Jiyoung.” I apologised to her.

“Its fine,” she said. I caught her gaze, and I saw her cold eyes which bore into mine. But the expression over her face said otherwise. Her face was as expressionless as ever.

I lifted both hand up defensively, and spoke. “I am really sorry Jiyoung. Is there anything I can do to pay you back, or maybe make up for what I did?”

Well, I couldn’t give her a skill, an expensive potion, a herb or an expensive artifact as compensation, because she already had access to all of those things. She was the daughter of the man who was the Guild Master of Korea’s strongest guild. Park Yujin. Who was ranked in the top ten of the World Union's ranking. So there was nothing which she didn't lack.

Jiyoung thought for a moment, before her eyes softened and her expressionless face became a little expressive. She looked me directly in my eyes and opened her mouth to speak. “Then...you can help me train. And have a formal duel with me."

I sighed in relief as I heard Jiyoung. Then snapping my head in her direction, I asked. “Is that really all you want?”

She nodded her head once and spoke. “Yes, but...its gotten late, so why don’t we train tomorrow together?”

I nodded my head in response, as I reached for the door of the room. “Yeah, that will be good.”