Chương 27

An overgrown Ogre slammed its club into the tree and blew up the trunk in a single hit. Just before the impact, Ethan [Blink]ed to a branch of a different tree and sent a [Shadow Spike] with a [Fabric Tear], stabbing the beast in the shoulder. In a rage, the Ogre let out a frustrated howl, but before it even finished, another tenebrous spike appeared in its throat. The beast covered the bloody hole with its free hand and threw its club toward him.

He simply [Blink]ed again before sending another spike through a portal, this time piercing right under its eye. The Ogre dropped dead just like its other two kin.

'DING! You have leveled up.' He leaped from the tree and landed heavily, his boots making a deep imprint.

''This skill is so good, I'm afraid it'll make me lazy," he said to Beet, who was waiting nearby without any intention of joining the fight.''Three tier-3 Ogres, one of them at the late tier-3,'' he said before spreading his hands.

''And look at me, not even a scratch. Now I understand why people love playing mages in VR. Although I admit, this forest is a perfect place for [Blink]ing around. If I was on the ground, I'd have to teleport much more.'' He merrily went to collect their cores and whistled to call his new companion, Jolly. The dark-furred beast came over like a bolt and stopped near Ethan. It was taller and more muscular than the horses back on Earth, and with its devil-like horns, there was nothing jolly about it.

But Ethan loved his loyal steed regardless. At the late tier-1, the beast made it possible to arrive at the pocket world in only three weeks, whereas Ethan had initially expected the journey to take more than 40 days on foot, even with his boosted stats. He mounted his steed and slowly rode toward the pocket world as he allocated his new stats.

Tier 2 - Level 28 Health: 800/800 Mana: 322/1000 Stamina: 557/600 Vitality: 80 Strength: 72 Endurance: 60 Agility: 100 Intelligence: 100 Perception: 40 *Available stats: 0 Skills(Rank 1): [Blink], [Fabric Tear], [Void Wrap], [Mana Sense], [Mana Aura], [Shadow Spikes], [Long Jump] Tier-3 was closing in, and with the bonus stats, he wanted to reach 50 PER and 82 STR. The combination of [Fabric Tear] and [Shadow Spikes] turned out much better than he thought, and he was tempted to go for more mana at tier-3.

Not that he'd lack mana, but killing beasts without taking any risks was too satisfying. He wouldn't mind a larger mana pool. Still, he knew better than to lean too far to one side. The benefit of his Rogue/Mage build was its versatility. He heard that many powerful families had anti-mage teams that could somehow block mana access in a specific area. In a similar situation, he could still fight, albeit with less firepower. Looking at his level, Ethan frowned.

'Ani, how far are the caves of the rock worms? Considering I'm traveling with Jolly?'

'About a week away.' And the pocket world is a few hours away. Should I finish the mission and advance to the peak of tier-2, or wait until I reach tier-3? It'll take about three weeks to come back here, but at least I can advance the moment I have a rank 2 skill. The Primordial Realm is not going anywhere; let's get those last two levels first. With a sharp turn, he changed direction toward his first quest and went to kill some worms. With Ani's help, he found the cave system quickly.

It was closer to the Serene Depths, but he hadn't noticed any tier-4 beasts on his way here. The caves were beneath a barren mountain, with more than one entrance. Leaving Jolly outside, he entered a random cave and found it quite different from the one goblins used. The caves and their connections were much more extensive, and there were holes everywhere. Even after walking for hours, he found no signs of the worms or the Blue Root Grass.

When he finally sensed a late tier-2 rock worm, he smiled with joy because [Mana Sense] detected it 35 yards beneath him. No sneak attacks for you guys. The worm also sensed him and made a beeline. He [Blink]ed before the worm drilled up and used a [Shadow Spike]. His spike made a dent in its skin, and the beast didn't even react.'' Oh, come on! I killed a late tier-3 Ogre with that. Are you my bane or something?'' he complained with wide eyes before trying a few more futile attempts.

The rock worm was about 20 feet long, and even though it was practically swimming in the earth, it was still slow for Ethan but resilient as hell. The beast barely got injured even after he used the spikes inside its mouth. Thankfully, his new daggers worked, but even then, he didn't slash. Afraid that his new toys would get damaged, he only stabbed its head and pulled his dagger with care. Huh, it wasn't so hard. All right then, you giant rock spaghettis, we'll do this old-school.

He spent four days killing every tier-3 worm he saw and collected a little more than a barrel's worth of Blue Root Grass. The rock worm's only weakness was the head. Even if he cut them in half, that only reduced their movement and speed. But a full-strength stab between their eye sockets was enough to kill them. They only had sockets but no eyes. Of course, that was only true for tier-3s. A gargantuan rock worm was looking down at him with a snake-like pose.

With a cry, it manipulated the gravity around it, pouncing like an avalanche. Ethan didn't run and wanted to see his chances as it was at the same tier as Sparky, early tier-4. He [Blink]ed twice and positioned himself closer to the exit tunnel before opening a [Fabric Tear] and stabbing his dagger through it. It shallowly injured the beast's cheek. Pulling his numbed hand back, he noticed a small crack in his dagger. Without hesitation, he made a run.

''Butchers anything below tier-5 my ass, fuck you very much, Zach.'' The beast's domain was close to 100 yards, and the closer he was to it, the more Ethan felt the pulling force. He blinked to a different tunnel that was smaller for the beast.

''I–'' The cave started to collapse once the beast followed, and he ran with [Long Jump]s before blinking three more times.

''–Really–'' He found an even smaller hole going underground. Knowing there was water beneath, he jumped and slid through it.

''–Really–'' Three rock worms were building a nest-like structure, and the three of them all came after him. Using another [Long Jump] and four more blinks in succession, he dived into the water. As he swam for a minute, he didn't see any worms following, and he teleported twice to appear in a different corridor. Coughing some water out, he put his hand to his knees, bending, ''–Need a better ranged [Blink],'' he said between deep breaths while thanking Elisium for the rock worms' behavior against water.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. On his way back, he finally killed a beast and got no essence from it. He was at the absolute peak of tier-2, and it was time to focus on his skills. After successfully completing his first adventurer's quest, he arrived at the entrance of the pocket world once again. It was an ancient-looking, colossal teleportation gate. Not wasting any time, he rode Jolly right inside with a smile on his face.

This time he wouldn't leave before reaching tier-3. Inside, an apocalyptic paradise welcomed Ethan. He was standing on a mountaintop overlooking green forests, rivers, lakes, and other mountains, all interacting with each other in beautiful harmony. But there were also space tears everywhere; some big, some small, some seemingly stable, and some just disappearing suddenly. They were everywhere, and it looked like this world might dissolve into space at any moment.

In spite of that, Ethan had read that it had been like this for over a hundred years and expected it to stay that way for much longer. He dismounted and took a small rock from the ground before throwing it into the space tear above his head. The rock passed through it and disappeared from his view but soon after, a low 'thud' sound came. So there is ground as well as gravity? Shouldn't this place exist on the Azora? Why is the background of space tears just dark?

How am I supposed to understand void when I know nothing about space or these pocket worlds? Fucking bullshit cultists, was it so hard to leave a few books about your research on space? Frustrated, Ethan decided to look around for beasts, but after spending more than a day, he found nothing but more space tears. Thanks to his Void Manual, he understood some aspects of the tears.

Mostly, he could tell whether they were stable and how long they were gonna stay that way, and with his [Mana Sense], he was able to feel when a tear would appear. He knew that focusing on those would help him to understand the void more. After three days of searching, he decided to settle in a place with a nice view and lots of space tears. There were fruit trees all around, literally all around. The space tears sliced through everything they had appeared on.

Not to mention the half trees and their sliced branches, even the water of the small lake was less than half full. Apparently, once a tear appeared inside the lake, the water flowed through that dark dimension. Fortunately, in this chaotic place, there was a small untouched area where he planned to make his base. The first thing he did was to fetch his beer barrel and fill himself a cold one. With the gorgeous scenery around him, he relaxed and checked his storage ring's messy interior.

He had already burned the bodies of Sparky and his goons. Sparky had a spatial pouch filled with potions and three mana stones worth of coins. Unfortunately, the others weren't that wealthy; other than 8 gold coins, he only took a sword and a pair of comfy shoes from them. Still, just the potions were enough to make him smile. Now, he had about 15 low-grade potions of each kind along with two mid-grade health potions. He also stocked up on food along the way, enough to feed him for two months.

Although more than ninety percent of it was meat, he didn't mind. At his core, Ethan was a carnivore through and through. Making sure everything was ready, he started his cultivation session with anticipation, but it didn't take long for him to get a little dispirited. A week later, he was lying on the ground and trying to figure out what he was doing wrong. He only made some progress with [Blink] but couldn't pass the last and most crucial stage: connecting it to his domain, just like [Mana Sense].

The problem was that the mana skills that worked with his domain came from the same source as his domain, his soul. According to what he'd learned from the library, cultivators didn't have anything like a Dantian, as the game Heaven's Dao suggested. They refined and expanded their souls. Everyone's mana pool was also in the soul, whereas the domain was the manifestation of the soul, using the body as a bridge. The soul itself resided in a different dimension.

No, that was also wrong because the soul itself was a place and didn't need to reside somewhere. All those foreign concepts further confused him, but he understood that it was easy for mana skills to use his domain while it was much harder to connect [Blink] to his body or soul. For [Fabric Tear], he figured out what he was doing but didn't progress any further.

He was actually bending the space, which was also another dimension, bringing two different points on top of each other and making a tear at that point in the fabric of reality. That was what got him two parallel portals. But how he was doing that was a complete mystery to him. The [Void Wrap] was the simplest but also the most baffling. To coat himself with void aspect mana was a very direct technique, but what could he have changed to make it more than it already was?

He kept thinking about becoming the void itself and passing through the objects until he realized that was a much more advanced theory. What he needed was to reduce the damn mana consumption of the skill. In deep meditation, a distant memory came to mind as he drifted into the past. Ethan was at his friend Doug's house, and they were as high as Mount Tai.

His friend Doug was describing something from the couch while trying to lower the volume of a Canadian TV show playing in the background, something about trailer parks. Whereas he was on an epic quest to find the long-lost potato chips, given by the Lord Munchies himself.'' so, the atoms that we're made of are actually 99. 99% empty. There are electrons and protons inside them, but the space they occupy is minuscule. There is also a giant space between every atom.

Then there are cells that are also far away from each other. In conclusion, we humans are more than 99. 99% void and less than 0. 001% substance,'' Doug concluded with an awed expression. Ethan was checking every closet and even lifting some jars, looking beneath and behind them.

''That's horse shit, man. How am I able to cut my finger with a knife, then? Where is all the space you are talking about?''''You are looking at it the wrong way. I'm talking about subatomic levels," Doug said, shaking his head as he decreased the volume even more before continuing.

''Plus, even when you're cutting your finger, the atoms of your finger and your knife don't touch each other. The electromagnetic force of the knife's electrons pushes away your finger's electrons.'' Ethan switched his target to the couch and started lifting the cushions, searching the sides of the sofa.

''You mean we never even exactly touch anything?'' he asked, mildly confused.''Yep, only some atoms in the sun touch each other because of the ridiculously high speed. On a very technical level, I'm not actually sitting on this couch; I'm hovering ever so slightly above it,'' Doug said with a smug smile. He pulled his hand from the couch's corner, hearing a rustling sound. His eyes lit up.

''Oh look, a Pop-Tart!'' Lord Munchies would be very happy. Ethan's eyes snapped open. If he only coated the actual matter on his body with void aspect mana, it would be much more effective. He promptly started to cultivate, but how could he detect where the material was and where the emptiness was? I'll reverse engineer it. First, I'll find the void with Void Manual, then I'll remove the coating from the already empty spaces.

Removing the coating between the cells was easy, but the space between atoms was more complex. The same went for the space inside the atoms; because of the constantly moving electrons and protons, it was impossible for now. Not that he actually noticed that. He only guessed that was the case with the constantly changing void that was impossible to pinpoint. Still, once he was done, the [Void Wrap] felt like it had shed a significant burden. But there was another important fact. His clothes.

It was all useless if he had to coat them in a sphere as he did before. Thankfully, the same concept could be applied to any object. After his experience with his own body, it didn't take long to do the same for his clothes. Satisfied that he had done the best he could, he opened his eyes again with excitement.

'DING! [Void Wrap] has advanced to rank 2.'

'DING! You have reached Tier-3.' Jumping to his feet, he raised his fists to the air.

''Yes! Epiphany bitches!'' he screamed with joy.

''I love you, Doug!'' Ethan looked around with a grin and found Beet with a perplexed expression next to him. He was going to assure his buddy that he'd buy skills for him too, but before he could, they heard a noise, growing louder with each passing second, like something was running toward them. They turned toward the source and soon saw a girl, who came to a stop less than 300 feet away.

She was looking at him with shiny eyes and dark circles under them, donned in ragged animal hides with a huge bag covered in blood stains on her back. She held a crimson stick that was much cleaner than her sticky, dark-red hair.'' Whoa, talk about the Primordial Realm,'' Ethan said, turning to Beet.

''There are even cavewomen living in it.''