-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Shock!!-

Boom!!

A massive shockwave generated when two fists collided with each other. These fists belonged to Kenshin and a much older man who shared some of the physical traits with him, his dad. From the moment he appeared in this dilapidated building and meet up with this replica of his father, Kenshin was fighting a never-ending battle with him. No matter what he does, the replica of his father always finds a counter to his moves and retaliate. Talking to him was also proved useless.

By now, he had already realized that this figure of his father was just a manifestation of his memories that’s here to fight him for some reason. But, despite all this, he still couldn’t bring himself to land a finishing blow to his own dad. As such, the battle between them was continuing until now.

Even so, this replica of his father rather had some sick skills. He could move so fast that Kenshin could barely dodge or counter-attack.

His father’s replica rolled in midair and charged at him again with his fists that was giving off black smog. To it, Kenshin bent backward, allowing it to pass over him. Then stamping his palm of both hands on the ground, he used it as a pivot to deliver a wicked knee strike to his father’s stomach.

He flew back like an arrow flying from the bow towards the roof of the old mansion. Flipping in midair, he planted his feet on the roof. Using it as a springboard, he came at Kenshin with force twice as much than before, creating cracks on the roof. Kenshin also discovered that he couldn't use any skills here as such he could only choose to fight with his fists. When he saw his father coming at him to destroy his head, he rolled away.

Boom!!!

A massive explosion occurred, sending dust and debris everywhere as his father’s fist, kissed the ground, destroying it completely. Taking the chance, Kenshin ran at him and grabbed his head then threw him across the room like throwing a tennis ball. At the same time, he ran at him with his fists blazing, giving him a punch to his abdomen.

Boom! Crack!

The ground cracked once again when the body of his father lodged itself inside the ground.

To the side, Kenshin sat on the ground, taking deep breaths to calm his heart and regain his much-needed stamina. Looking at his unmoving father, he started to think, ‘Just what’s the meaning of this? Why am I fighting against an image of an insanely strong father in a place I don’t know where?’

Despite thinking about this, he couldn’t come up with any conclusion. At that time, the motionless father’s image started to shine. This startled Kenshin. Although he wasn’t sure how much time passed since he was here, it felt like an eternity to him. During this time he and the replica of his father fought, Kenshin had poured out all the grievance he had in his heart for his father. He had literally laid his heart bare to his father in the form of his fists. His frustrations, his loneliness, his anger…he shaped all these emotions into his fists and rained them upon him.

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During his final set of punches, he thought of the hardships Akari going through and the things she had missed, making each of them heavier than last. And due to his last few serious punches where he didn’t hold back, the image of his father was laying on the ground motionless.

Kenshin felt light in the heart as if all his sorrows had been resolved. He always wondered what he would have been done if his parents appear suddenly after all the hardships he endured… but now he got his answer. To this whole father appearance thing, Kenshin took this rather level-headedly. He didn’t behave like a whinny kid and was able to think this through. In the end, he came with a most probable conclusion, all this was just a step for his accession. The replica of his father was created from his memories and was here to test something, although he wasn’t sure what.

The image of his father transformed gradually and turned into a closed umbrella with a sword handle. Kenshin recognized it with just one look, it was his Intent manifestation. The umbrella floated in midair, just above where the body of his father laid. Narrowing his eyes, Kenshin came closer and tried to touch it, but then suddenly a bright light came from it, forcing him to close his eyes.

A few seconds later, when he opened it, he found himself standing in a desolate area with nothing but charred remains of a once lush green grassland.

“What the hell? Where is this place?” Kenshin couldn’t recognize that he was still standing on the dungeon he was fighting in. After all, not a single semblance to the grassland that it was used to be could found here.

All he could see was a vast expanse that was charred black with thick smoke covering the sky as well as ashes covering the ground. This place was totally foreign to him. It's at this time, he suddenly heard a series of pings that was his tune for notification.

Opening his system, he found a series of activity logs. But what caught his attention was the five logs that were blinking red. Getting curious, he opened it and found a lot of warnings.

[Ding! Contract Breached…]

[The core of the dungeon you are affiliated with rebelled and is trying to break free…]

[Ding! As the guardian, you have failed to do your duty and stop the core from rebelling… a penalty has been applied to you…]

[Ding! The core has successfully left the premise of the dungeon… the dungeon no longer has any reason to exist. The destruction of Ekla’s Garden is scheduled to happen in 5…4…3…]

[Ding! Since the contract was breached from the core’s side, the penalty has been revoked. Due to Ekla’s garden’s destruction, the guardian is advised to find a new dungeon to reforge the contract. Until then, the title bonus, the exclusive dungeon skills, will be locked for the time being.]

[Warning! You have a month to reforge this contract. After the month, you will forever lose this bonus and skills.]

“What? Contract breached? And Ekla’s garden is destroyed? What the hell happened? Shit!!” Kenshin shouted loudly because the news was that serious. After that, he lost all mood to check his stats, which he was sure had been increased or at least had a qualitative change by now.

Just as he was about to take a step forward, something else caught his attention. It was a pulsating ball of flame that was laying seamlessly on his right shoulder.

“What is this?” Kenshin wondered and took it in his hands to see it closely. The small thing was beating like a heart despite as small as a marble. And the texture of the thing was very smooth. Also, it looked like a ball of flame compressed to look like a blue marble.

He used his system’s scanning to identify it but to no avail. Even the system couldn’t identify it.

“Ugh! I don’t have time for this!!” after that, he placed it in his pants pocket and ran as fast as possible to the exit of the gate. He had to make sure what he read on the notification was really the truth or not.