Valhalla's Colosseum's floors one through nine were bestowed the same challenge but on increasing increments of difficult. Today's challenge was a battle against Vikings. Picking out the highest level difficulty, Floor 9, Dasha went through the portal to arrive at a flat realm with a thin layer of snow. Indeed, it was as the challenge said: defeat five Vikings. Nothing more, nothing less.

Each of them were Level 22. Alone, they would have given Paul a challenge and together they were a force to be reckoned with. If his estimates were correct, they were intended were mid-level class two players.

"Forward, forward!" They let out a classic Viking cry, their axes prepping for a mighty swing.

Except they didn't.

"Clumsy."

One step. One step and Dasha was able to intercept and backhand one Viking and elbow the second. He had slipped past the remaining three, who heard the commotion and were unable to react. By the time they turned, he was already gone.

"Slow."

His remark led to a shaky swing to their side. All missed. All did not understand what was happening. A second swing at the spot behind them. Fear eroded them as their simultaneous axes were calmly stopped by his black gauntlets.

"Weak."

His opponents might have been Vikings but they weren't all that. They were thralls, the lowest members of Viking city. Dissecting their fighting styles was useless. He thought learning from Vikings would be a learning experience.

"I suppose not from you people," Dasha mused. His Qi rumbled and activated like a car engine and darkness seeped from his very being. The Vikings didn't bother fighting. Their expression fell to despair, eyes and lips quivering, and they dropped their axes to flee.

"Wise," Dasha commented, before bursting forward and taking away two heads in a single swing of his arm. Before the heads fell into the snow, he pivoted and thrust his arms to the side, blasting the area with his energy.

The iron gauntlets of Thor, Járngreipr, were said to be a way for him to fully channel Mjolnir's power. The element in Thor's case. But for Dasha?

The Vikings were consumed by a swamp of darkness.

Death arrived. Life ceased.

[ Receive:

4,500 XP ]

[ Congratulations! You finished the Floor 5 challenge! ]

[ Do you wish to return to the White Abyss? Yes or no? ]

He ignored the floor accomplishments in favour of his growing might.

'There it is…!'

[ Qi Condensation (Middle Stage) upgraded into Qi Condensation (Late Stage) ]

[ Qi Condensation (Middle Stage) upgraded into Qi Condensation (Peak Stage) ]

[ New skilled learned : Basic Qinggong ]

[ Qi Condensation (Middle Stage) upgraded into Foundation Establishment (Early Stage) ]

The Foundation Establishment, the level above Qi Condensation when a player's Qi reached a certain quality and quantity. In this stage, Qi would physically materialize, eventually accumulating into a Qi Blade at the Late stage. To achieve the Early Stage of the Foundation Establishment meant acquiring Qinggong—the Lightness Skill.

Five hours of work. Five hours of flexing and testing his Qi and finally he achieved that which would take the ordinary months.

'Open status.'

[ Status: Dasha Pang

Class: Amateur Martial Artist

Level: 27

HP: 265

HP/Minute: 76.5

MP: 5908

MP/Minute: 351.5

Attack: 611

Defence: 623

Attributes

Strength: 57

Resilience: 53

Agility: 864

Deftness: 380

Vitality: 153

Magical Might: 1151

Magical Mending: 51

Distributive Points: 30 ]

He clicked on the classes section and a second window opened.

[ Available Classes

Wizard: Wizard's Tool, Super Magic Barrier, Super Elemental Manipulation,

Sorcerer: Sorcerer's Whims, Ultra Magic Barrier, Ultra Elemental Manipulation

Dark Sorcerer: Ultra Magic Barrier, Ultra Elemental Manipulation, The Shadows, Darkened Pulse ]

So many new classes, so many possibilities, yet Dasha did not touch them. After all, there was no need for it.

'Simply FEELING this level of power has propelled me further. It's amazing what the body can do when pushed. I could strip myself of all my armour and still be monstrously powerful.'

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There were three anchors between it all. The three factors that kept his body from imploding from the excess energies: the Game System, his will power, and his skill.

Dasha was crackling with Qi. Every fibre of his being was consumed by it and his body didn't just adapt—he himself was learning. There was no need to worry about running out of mana. He could experiment and throw Qi as he pleased.

But one step at a time. 'Rather than start pouring my efforts into a class I have little information on, I should focus on what I have now. Grasp the energies I have right now.' He clenched his fist. 'That's right, the world of information is at the tip of my fingers. I should take this nice and slow. Nice and slow. Savour the power. Don't be consumed by it.'

Because power should be wielded, not consumed like some fast food. Savour it. Savour every moment of it.

A portal appeared high in the air and a white pigeon flew out. Carrying a letter, it descended and perched onto Dasha's arm.

Former players and natural-borns did not have the combat-related functions of the System, including the communication aspects such as calling. Through a contact, one could text but that wasn't quite as it seemed. Xavier wasn't using the System to message, he was using a magical ink and parchment. The ink and parchment used the contract between the two of them to establish a mental connection and the System translated that as messaging on Dasha's end.

Referred to as Soul Ink-Paper, the products were very expensive. The individuals that manufactured it had attempted to hold a monopoly and failed miserably. The people of the White Abyss had circumvented their greed through Dove Pigeons, a tamed animal invention that could cross dimensions, and a new type of magical parchment. This new parchment, colloquially called Magic Letters, were created by a rival group and were cheaper to make. Stamped with a magic circle at the corner, it linked two select parchments and was accessible with any kind of ink, unlike with Soul Ink-Paper.

Opening up the rolled-up parchment, fancy cursive writing appeared. "Something has happened to Gate 7."

"Oh?" Dasha sat down, legs crossed. Naturally, he accumulated an absurd amount of Qi and he wanted to push that. With a pen, he wrote down. "Why?"

The paper in his hands was linked to another. Whatever was written there was also written here. "It means the beings that the sponsors of the gate have pulled out," Xavier wrote.

This was new to him. Very quickly, he attempted to figure out what he was talking about. 'Would Jack even know about this in the first place?'

Sponsor implied somebody was behind a gate. That wasn't new. Dasha had always suspected that. If somebody pulled out, that meant they were removing their resources. Gate 7 was filled with Aztec mythology, from the witches to the jaguar boss.

However…

'He should. The themes, the objectives, the character, all are likely designed and supplied by a god. Furthermore, the term sponsor indicates there is an architect that makes the god's design come to fruition. As a champion, he should know.'

The White Abyss did have workers, like Saint Hildegard at the House of Wisdom and Hephaestus in Tvastar's Forge. The Heavenly Tower theoretically should not be exempt from that pattern.

"That is quite unusual," Dasha decided to write. His mind was still in the middle of figuring out what he was talking about, connecting the dots between what he had read in the many journals he had read.

"Unusual, yes, not impossible. It has happened after your time. It occurred during—"

Xavier wasn't able to finish because Dasha figured it out and began writing.

"During the war, of the Heavenly Game of 1942. The events of World War II spilled over and tensions spiked until the Templars and the Chinese guilds battled the Japanese and Joseon's. The gates and their objectives were ignored as players became soldiers and burned everything to the ground. The gods did not like to see their resources and the people they summoned to be destroyed in the manner they were, and thus they pulled out."

"You are well-informed," Xavier said.

"Of course I am. I am Jack." A pause to digest the information. So he was correct.

A woman by the name of Edith recorded her experiences during the war. Information was scarce back then and details of the war were vague. Though Edith omitted the mention of the gods removing their resources from the Heavenly Tower, she did describe the oddities. That the Heavenly Tower suddenly turned into the perfect place for combat. Zones where soldiers were ready to wage war.

There were many journals like Edith's. The fact that none mentioned the lack of sponsored gods was a little strange. The House of Wisdom was no stranger to censorship but censorship occurred for a reason. So what was the reason in this case? Was it simply not common knowledge?

On top of that—

'The events of the second Heavenly War neither started nor played out like on Earth. It wasn't a battle against Nazis, it was merely the tension between guilds boiling into an all-out battle.'

World War II, an era that shaped its individuals with a particular flare. Dasha had gone to nursery homes and seen it for himself. The flare had nagged at him for a while, belonging to a certain someone on the other end of the phone. "I presume that is the Heavenly Games you were a part of, Xavier?"

A crackle of silence. The previous writing began disappear. Slowly, two words manifested. "Perhaps, sir."

"I have heard about it. Tell me, what was it like?"

"Heroic." The word was blunt with an edge that he would never show in-person. "At least that is what we tell ourselves. I am content with that."

"Heroic? I thought you of all people were smarter than that."

"Apologies, sir." A pause barely lasting a millisecond. "Only a fool sentimentalizes the merciless reality of war, yet the price of freedom is greater than you would know. I would rather live my life as a fool than to allow myself to think maybe it was all pointless."

'A veteran? A son of a veteran?' Dasha wasn't able to tell. Usually, he could but without a face and through words alone it was near impossible to decipher the spy in the hat.

"I suppose you don't care." A tiny pause once more. "Allow me to apologize. The Allied Powers consisted of the Templars, the Imperial Sovereign Sect, the Joseon's, and the Soviets against the Axis Powers: the Holy Dynasty, the Japanese Empire, and Jambudvīpa. After the war, many sides became fractured and were never able to recover. For example, the Soviets dissolved and the Chinese Imperials had a falling out and divided into the various Sects they are known for today."

'The Justice Sect, the Orthodox Sect, the Unorthodox Sect, they must have been branches of the Imperial Sovereign Sect,' Dasha thought.

"And the Holy Dynasty?" Dasha questioned, seamlessly leveraging Jack's ignorance. "I assume they are who I think they are."

Xavier explained away. He was too eager and Dasha doubted he knew it, "Once a part of the Templars, the Holy Dynasty split away from the Templars in the Heavenly Game previous to the war. The Catholic Church and the Kingdom of Italy arrived in large numbers and disagreements between the instated Templar bureaucracy and the new Catholic members erupted. Eventually, it accumulated into the Great Schism. The previous Grandmaster of the Templar Knights was killed that day, leading the Holy Dynasty to officially declare their independence."

Pathetic. To go through all that only to become a small-time guild in the modern era.

"The Jambudvīpa were the amalgamation of the Indians, yes? I assume they participated due to the Templars' British influence."

"Precisely. At that time, India was colonized and the Indians that came over here did not like that. Frankly, if it wasn't for them, there wouldn't have been such a great war. Jambudvīpa was responsible for wiping the Nazis and waging the war in the first place. But after the war ended, they were weakened and fell apart. All that remains of them are small-time guilds and former veteran players."

Dasha, eyes closed, mediating, noted the discord in his writing. "Ah, but they are never forgotten, are they? The scars are still felt now. I can tell. Indian mythology is perhaps the most powerful yet their presence is forgotten due to the presence of the Big Three of today."

"There will never be a guild like the Jambudvīpa ever again. Their resources, the gods that supported them…they were close to unstoppable." Xavier stopped. "But their time has ended. Now, it is your time, Jack. Tell me, will you participate in Gate 9? It will involve David and Goliath."

"Gate 9 is irrelevant to me." Dasha exhaled and unfolded his legs. "I am going to speak to Daughter."

"What is your plan?" Xavier asked, a pause in his writing. "Your end goal? After all this? Why did you wish for reincarnation over all else?"

"My plan, hm?" Dasha stopped to think. What would Jack do that would benefit Dasha? "For now...to strike fear into the Templars. Their new players are dying off and I will continue to do that. To be able to become the strongest, we must topple the strongest; and to do that, we need resources, points, and death."

He was satisfied by his spiritual endeavors. Now, it was time for science.