Sen chuckled. ~Welcome to the family, brother.~

Wrinkled brow. ~Common on! I got them through the first one, they did pretty good... Didn’t they?~

Sen took on the serene expression of the Buddha. ~From what I remember, perhaps it was more like Sophie managed the process, and you were very useful in handing her the item of power from your bag... but only after she reminded you it was there... twice. But you are right. They did very well.~

Muttering to himself. ~...The whole world’s lost it... Every last one of you...~

But regardless of whether Josh was going to get his due or live in non-acknowledgment forever, he and Sen needed to get to work.

Sen emptied a stretch of floor space by deactivating several of the chairs and the table energy fields. Then began dual shadow blading. Josh also got started...well, really just messing around with the wisps of Spacetime surrounding his mind's center.

After about thirty minutes, Josh could absorb the Spacetime Aura between molecules and atoms in the air, but compared to Earth Aura, which was gathered in thick strands, and Mind Aura, which was claimed from sapients’ thoughts in expansive clouds, Spacetime Aura seemed… thin. It was like trying to drink orange juice with full pulp through a coffee straw.

Josh looked down and considered the hand he was absorbing it from. He remembered how he had had to limit the aura absorption to just the soles of his feet as it was three times faster and more efficient than trying to absorb it with the parts of his body not in contact with earth...

...Well, my whole body is surrounded by space... Isn’t it?

He opened all the Meridians around his skin and got his first taste of the torrential flow of Spacetime. Massive amounts of Aura were taken in.

With this much I could fuel ridiculous feats! Josh thought it wouldn’t be impossible to power an earthen shield to fly through a sun... at least a small one!

Having already experienced multiple nuclear explosions, and, if only virtually—complete submersion in a giant lake of lava, he didn’t think he was that far off.

Josh also found he could get Spacetime Aura from the places between any matter by putting his hand on it. He tried the dark wood table in front of him and got smaller amounts from the space between the molecules. The greater density significantly decreased the absorption.

Bummer!

So much for flying through the heart of a star... A solar core would be hundreds of times denser than the table. Earth’s sun has a density of 150 g/cm3. Ten times the density of gold. Josh’s science mind absently volunteered. Ya not going to happen any time soon... But the observation was important. Where there was more space between things, there was more Spacetime Aura... That really should have been a given from the start, shouldn’t it?

Next, he worked on the phasing skill he had seen the Brigantine's old commander, Ritoru Dezain, perform. While Josh couldn't deny the potential battle utility of making weapons pass harmlessly through him... It would be cool to walk through walls.

As with all of Josh’s Cultivation, because of his ties to physical matter iterations, Attunement skills were intuitive. If he wanted to propagate ‘phase’, Josh's gut told him that he needed to increase the space between the particles of matter in his body, which was scary as hell! Things could go horribly wrong. Especially increasing the gaps between the neural clefts and blood vessels of my major organs and brain. But, in the final analysis, even if those things did happen, they probably wouldn't be the worst things that had happened to him, even just today. So, Josh was ready to try.

He focused on the Spacetime Essence in his Meridians and... Pushed throughout his whole body.

Everything started to vibrate. He couldn't even see clearly as the space between his retinal cells and fibers was vacillating. An aching pain like he had just run a marathon fell over him.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

He pushed harder... and his brain felt like it was starting to dehisce and leak out of his ears... A pounding in his head joined all of his body aching.

Harder one last time! Blood began oozing from all his pores in rivulets as his cellular membranes moved apart from one another...

Josh waited a second as thick drops ran down his clothing and his chest pulled rapid breaths, Nope...No phasing going on here...

That was where he stopped pushing. The gaps between his particles instantly snapped back together as he cycled Essence and healed himself, his wobbly legs straightening to keep him up.

A quick check of his status showed Josh that he had been burning through a large amount of his health and Free Essence in the attempt.

Physical Health Status:

45000 → 31,563 → 45,000

Spherical Cultivation Units

Free Essence:

123500 → 97,455

Spherical Cultivation Units

I’m barking up the wrong tree... Josh was certain of this. If for no other reason than the low-yield loser Dezain would never have been willing to go through all of this… and he could phase at the drop of a hat.

I know I’m on the right track... it just has to be less somehow...

Then it struck him. And he had his usual response to realizing he was an idiot: he told himself so.

Josh, you’re a moron!

Essence was not purely physical. Perhaps not physical at all. Essence in a physical matter iteration is just a representation of higher order connections of Karma and Reality in the only way physical iterations can express them. Along these lines, Josh only needed to spread out the physical manifestation of his Spacetime Attunement in his Meridian system. Specifically, the link between his mind and spirit where he had found the Spacetime Essence in the first place!

So, Josh Intended for the space between the cells of the center of his brain, his mind/Cultivation interface to increase...

A look of manic glee plastered to his face as his whole body faded out of sight. His Interface chimed:

New Mind Attunement Skill created: Phase Disassociation: Expend 1000 Free Essence to enter a brief interval state of nonunion with any physical matter iteration by neutralizing the electromagnetic forces of your constituent atomic particles and subatomic states. Check your status for details.

Wait a second! What status? This Attunement isn't associated with my Psyche or Body tabs! Still, Josh checked. Lo and behold, there was a brand-spanking-new Spacetime Attunement submenu tab. It must have appeared after he attained his Translocation skill, and he hadn’t noticed it. But in truth, I have been a little busy...

The call of the skill reported that the space he created wasn’t by physically pushing his particles apart, which was obviously a boneheaded thing to do... But by creating the distance between particles and somehow neutralizing their physical EM fields... Which made a whole lot of sense. It was the EM fields surrounding matter that formed its physical properties by taking up most of the physical space inside of a block of matter. If an atom’s nucleus was the Sun, the EM field around it, or electron cloud, was comparable to an orbit greater than Pluto’s. Around fifty-five orders of magnitude larger.

Josh, you know that physical particles virtually never touch! Almost all activity in the physical matter universes is due to interaction and occasional collision of the charged fields surrounding these particles—. He couldn’t argue with himself, but he did tell his science mind to take a back seat. There was work to do. Smugly, his science mind folded its arms and faded into the background. It knew it was right... and Josh should have consulted with himself in the first place...

Too true, Josh agreed… But you don’t have to rub it in.

Josh moved on and mentally clicked the Spacetime tab.

Spacetime:

- Phase Disassociation: Expend 1000 Free Essence to enter a brief interval state of nonunion with any physical matter iteration by neutralizing the electromagnetic forces of your constituent atomic particles and subatomic states. Your consciousness and spirituality continue in your current iteration via the tether of your continuing Essence form to its mortal soul nexus.

- While in this state, no physical interactions occur. A nonunion state can be maintained via expending escalating amounts of Free Essence. Increase your Cultivation to increase the potency of this Spacetime Attuned Skill..

If Josh understood the description correctly, this ability was absolutely insane... and possibly very expensive—Suddenly Josh experienced the compound feeling of being stuck in wet cement, having his stomach drop out of his body as on a giant roller coaster, and having his head forcefully slammed into an I-beam.

Somewhere in the distance, his interface chimed.

Warning! Essence Expenditure Critical. Warning!

A flash flood of fatigue enveloped him, and Josh fumbled slowly to release the Phase skill. Then the ground under his feet turned into shadows, and he fell into a sea of nothingness.