Scepticus sniffed the air. It smelled of mana. Very thick mana at that. Scepticus then began coughing blood. “What th-*cough cough* hell,” Scepticus said. He then remembered that if the mana in the area was too thick for somebody they could die. Scepticus began trying to find a way out of the cave but found nothing. “Shit,” Scepticus said. Scepticus then sat in a meditating pose. “Let’s try doing what the kid taught me to do,” Scepticus said as he went into a meditation pose and slowly circulated the mana within him. He circulated the mana and managed to absorb most of the mana from the cave into his body safely. This made him gain a pretty big upgrade in mana potency and reserves.
“Well that was a blessing in disgui-” Scepticus said before being interrupted by the sound of the floor breaking. He fell down quite a way before landing in some water. “What the hell is with these jumpscares today?” he said. Scepticus noticed a giant sword floating in the air in front of him. The sword was a teal colour with pearls studded on the hilt. Just as the blade was about to start on the sword there was a blue orb. Scepticus observed the sword from afar as he used his aura detection to see if there were any traps nearby. Scepticus also used soul detection and noticed a lot of lingering souls in the vicinity. He then slowly approached the sword as he began to attempt to pull it out from the magic.
First, Scepticus tried to infuse mana into the blade and lift it out but it didn’t even budge. He then tried using demonic mana and it still didn’t work. He then tried using a mixture of the three along with brute strength but it still didn’t work. Suddenly Scepticus heard the sound of something falling through the hole he came from. He then noticed a tall man approach the sword. “At last. The mana in this area is finally gone. I can at least enter it now and fulfil the prophecy of my lineage,” he said as he pulled out the sword. Scepticus materialised a sword in his hand, whilst chanting under his breath, ‘Sword Style: Breath of the Wind’ before he disappeared with the wind and appeared behind the man and stabbed him in the gut. The man turned around to look at Scepticus as he threw a fist at him.
Scepticus was quick to dodge and then jumped into the air before somersaulting forwards and kicking the man on his head. Just before contact however, Scepticus' feet erupted into Hell’s Pyre. As soon as the man was hit, he started burning but just got up. “Did you think that I would be that weak?” he said before swinging his newly obtained sword completely nullifying Scepticus’ flame. “WHAT? Well this was bound to happen sooner rather than later,” he said. As he materialised a sword in his hand and began coating it in normal flames. He then used ‘Breath of the Wind’ again to appear behind the man to try slicing off his neck. “The same trick won’t work on me twice,” the man said before punching Scepticus just as he appeared, sending him flying into the cave walls.
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The man then pulled out the sword from his stomach, as Scepticus coughed up blood. Scepticus then began shooting fireballs everywhere. “This might be a dumb plan. But it’ll be the most efficient,”. Scepticus then used “10 fold strike” but was caught by the man halfway whilst using it. The man was now holding Scepticus by his neck. “I worked too long and too hard to get this. You aren’t taking it from me” he said before stabbing Scepticus in the stomach. Scepticus then began to play dead. The man then threw Scepticus’ body approximately 100 metres away. Scepticus then used his most recently obtained skill ‘Blitz’. “He’ll be just in range for that new skill I got as a demon,” Scepticus thought to himself. He immediately teleported behind the man before casting ‘Soul Rip’ on him.
The man just grabbed him by the neck before saying, “I expected you to do that. That’s why I pretended to let my guard down,”. “But were you expecting this?”. As soon as Scepticus had said that, the man let go of Scepticus and began grabbing his neck gasping for air. “How dumb of you. Did you really think I would randomly throw weaker fire at you? It was weaker because I made it produce more smoke. And now you’re suffocating. Piece of advice for you. Always layer your plans” said Scepticus. Scepticus then waited for the man to completely suffocate before taking the sword from his hand. As soon as Scepticus touched the sword blue chains surrounded his hands and then disappeared. He then jumped out of the hole which he had come from.
“Shitty bastard. Trying to steal my loot which I had earned,” Scepticus said. Scepticus then looked at his surroundings. “How convenient,” he said before looking at the familiar yellow snake-like eyes and olive hair. “Hey you came,” Serbius said. “What? You thought I wouldn’t come when you were teaching?” Scepticus replied. “That’s the kind of discipline I like to see,” Serbius said. “Nice sword you got there, where’d you get it from?” Serbius asked. Scepticus points towards the cave behind him. “There’s no other sword though,”. “Damn. I always wanted a cool looking sword,” Serbius stated. “I’ll let you borrow mine for the time being,” Scepticus said. “Really? Thanks”. Serbius then grabs the sword only for it to repulse from him. Whenever he tried to approach the sword it would moved away from him.
“WHAT. YOU’RE PLAYING WITH ME RIGHT SCEPTICUS?” Serbius asked. “Nope I’m not. I think it’s bound to me, meaning that the only person who can hold it is me. But I can try to make a sword,” he said, “Although it’ll just be a normal sword,”. As soon as Scepticus attempted to materialise a sword nothing appeared in his hand and when he dropped his sword and tried it again it still didn’t work. “Damn, this skill doesn’t work?” he said. Serbius looked at Scepticus with a disappointed look on his face. “Oh well. Let’s just get started on training”.