Chương 57: Chapter 56: Progressing to the Pinnacle of Power

When I began, I felt nothing. Even after reading completely through Freed's instructions, I didn't feel anything in particular. It was obvious that the source of the energy was here, as the tree was simply far too strange for it not to be. The instructions Freed gave were vague, but I thought for sure I could figure it out by staying near this tree. As the days passed, I still couldn't feel anything, which dampened my motivation, but nevertheless I continued to try while continuously healing my injuries.

Selen came occasionally to check up on me since I was still injured, but soon went back to watching Trisha outside the forest. In this way, more time continued to pass with me trying my hardest. After months had passed, my injuries had completely healed and I was finally able to get out of my body cast. I could move around as I pleased and walked around the tree to observe it further. I couldn't understand why, after all this time, I couldn't feel anything from this tree despite spending so long next to it.

Freed said he started feeling the power enter his body after a day, so it made no sense that it took so long. After finding nothing, I sat back down right next to the tree. This was the first time I managed to sit down next to the tree, as I had been in the body cast all this time. Thinking I would fail again, I casually tried to sense the power that the tree contained. After a few hours of trying, suddenly I felt something. A warm energy started to enter my body that I instantly noticed.

As I continued, the energy constantly alternated between warm and cold, and my body absorbed it regardless. Soon my body was absorbing the energy faster and faster like a sponge. After a month of absorbing, I felt completely filled and woke up with a start. If I had absorbed any more, I felt like I would explode. I quickly gained some distance from the tree so as not to absorb any more. I didn't know what power had entered my body, but it was very strong, as I couldn't handle it despite being at level 9999.

I knew this was the mysterious power that Freed talked about, but I couldn't understand what changed that let me absorb it. The only conclusion that I could come up with was the fact that I was heavily injured previously. Perhaps being too injured prevented me from absorbing the power in some way, so my body had rejected it. Still, now that I could absorb it, I wasn't complaining, as I was making steady progress to get stronger after so long.

Ever since reaching level 9999, I thought it was the end of my journey, but there is always room to continue growing. So, with the new power that had overfilled my body, I went somewhere else away from the tree to try to comprehend and integrate the power for my own use. I found somewhere not too far away before sitting down to study the power inside me. When I searched inside my body, I could tell there were two repelling forces of energy that were split and refused to fuse.

On one side was burning hot energy, while the other was freezing cold. I didn't understand what I was supposed to do with this energy, but I used various ideas that I had to try and control it. I first tried to move them around, but it didn't do much other than make them flare up and cause me some slight pain. I then tried to separate them, as they kept colliding against each other, which looked very dangerous. This didn't do much either, as they soon were attracted to each other again and made a swirling pattern.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Finally, I tried something more drastic and tried to fuse them. This caused me immense pain as the forces constantly tried to push each other away. I simply didn't understand what I was supposed to do with all the strange energy inside me. Nothing I did worked, and there were just two different uncontrollable powers inside me that I couldn't use. Refusing to give up, I continued to try various means to control the power.

Freed didn't explain what to do with this energy, as he vaguely just said it managed to become controllable one day, which allowed him to be the master of the forest. Since his message didn't help, I could only experiment all by myself. I continued to brainstorm ideas and tried everything I could think of. In this way, years passed by very quickly while I busily tried to control the power inside me. During this time, Trisha continued to try and get into the forest despite so much time having passed.

The reason she didn't give up, though, was that her efforts were paying off. Selen reported to me that cracks had started to form on the edge of the forest from her repeated attacks, and she might one day break in. Since this was the case, I truly had a time limit to get stronger now. I couldn't laze around anymore, as Trisha was truly a threat I couldn't just put off at this point.

No matter what I tried, though, I still couldn't figure out what was going on with the power inside me, as nothing had changed despite so much time passing. Still, I refused to let my wasted efforts get the better of me. More years continued to pass, and fifty years after I came back into the forest, the power inside me finally started to change. It was barely noticeable at first, but it started to fuse together and become a different type of energy.

I didn't know what I had done correctly, so I recreated whatever I had been doing and finally found the method to combine the energies together. Soon, much of the energy in my body started to become converted into the new energy. With this newfound method, I continued working hard to convert all the energy in my body into this new type. Progress was now rapid, and I started to lose track of time. Ten years after that, I fully integrated the energies together and only had that new type of energy in my body.

I wondered if this would allow me to level up, but I was still at level 9999. My guess was that I didn't have enough of the new energy in my body yet, so I went back to the tree and started to absorb more of the energy it provided. Whenever that energy was absorbed into my body, I quickly converted it into the new energy. In this way, forty years went by again, and I was now almost completely filled with the new energy I had found.

It felt very comfortable, as the energy had a soothing effect on me and gave me a refreshing experience. Finally, after absorbing the last bit of energy needed to fill myself up, all the energy I had in my body began to change once again as it compressed into something. It felt gut-wrenching, but I held on, hoping it would end soon. By the time the pain ended, I felt a large change happening in my body. There was now a large, compressed ball of energy in my body that gave me the feeling that I had unlimited energy.

With this new ball of energy, I finally leveled up again as the feeling of power I felt dramatically increased. My system confirmed this by saying: Level Up: 10000 I was amazed by how the pinnacle of power felt as I swirled my new power around my body. Compared to my previous strength, it was practically a joke, as I was several times stronger than when I was at level 9999. I realized the reason why Trisha was so confident in her power before, as my current power made my previous power pale in comparison.

Even if I were to mess around when fighting my previous self, I would still win in a fight. Still, even though I leveled up, I still wasn't ready to fight Trisha, as I was still new to this power. I wanted to develop this power over a few years to become familiar with it so as to maximize my chances when fighting Trisha. This plan, though, was short-lived, as Selen came to find me with a worried look on her face. She looked like she had bad news to report, and I really didn't want to hear more bad news.

"It won't be long before Trisha breaks in," Selen reported after rushing to me.

"The cracks on the edge of the forest have become too heavy and will break soon which will allow Trisha to come inside."

"How long do we have?" I asked, now feeling a large headache.

"We have about one year at the minimum and five years at the maximum from her current rate of cracking the barrier protecting the forest."

"I see. Then continue to watch over her, and I'll try my best to prepare for what's to come. I am confident that with a little more time, I will be ready to have my final battle with her."

"I understand, and I trust you. I'll tell you if she comes close to breaking the barrier, so just prepare with peace of mind. We should still have a little more time before she breaks in."

"Alright, I'll make every second count. You can go back now, and I'll continue to get stronger." Selen nodded and quickly went back to keep an eye on Trisha. I was now completely running out of time, and I started my experiments immediately. I needed to prepare for the final battle, as this time was truly a matter of life and death.