Proofread by: Daylius and Vikingstad

“Show Real Clock!!!”

Shiv shouted suddenly, frustration was evident in his voice. Anyone who was asked to work like a machine without rest would indeed feel frustrated. Shiv was no exception. Cursing his fate he looked at the time. ‘6:30 in the morning huh! Good grief! I will be able to complete my training in time for my breakfast’.

Shiv had been swinging and practicing with his sword for 4 continuous hours. Rather than swinging his sword just like one would practice swinging swords in kendo, Shiv used this time to practice the moves which was taught to him by his martial arts masters.

His continuous movement had triggered the creation of many new skills but Shiv turned all of those down. He did not want to be restricted by the laws of his previous masters. He wanted to create his own moves and he knew he was not strong enough for such a feat.

Shiv had also not bothered to check the dialogue boxes which indicated stats increase, satiety level or whatsoever the message was. He concentrated his all on mastering the sword and his body. He had stopped his practice when his mental clock thought that the time had been reached and he was correct about that.

Shiv put down his sword, panting and sweating heavily. ‘This world is too real for a game world’. Shiv was about to start his next session of bare hand training on the dummies when his eyes caught the armory at the left side of the room.

‘Let’s have a short break now.’ he was given a 2 hours rest for every hour of training. Grabbing the food and the canteen for water he was given he walked towards the armory munching on the terrible rye bread he was given. Due to his satiety being really low he gulped down on the bread as fast as he could.

By the time he was near the armory he had already finished his bread and was now gulping down the water. He suddenly stopped. The water felt strangely sweet; he could feel his body being powered up with every gulp of water. ‘Must ask master about this water the next time he visits.’ making a mental note of it Shiv walked towards the huge stack of weapons. He did not realize the stats buffs he got from the water he drank as he didn’t bother looking at the tabs which opened before him. The water had restored his stamina and increased his vitality.

‘So I am supposed to get one of these when I pass eh. Cool, I am going to choose the best weapon this armory has.’ he thought that doing so would be the least revenge he could have at Thorwin. He once again looked at the weapons and was about go back to his training when something caught his eye.

There was a mild glow being emitted from a little further from where he was. He went towards it, ‘might be some legendary weapon. Guhuhuhu!’ Again the evil smile!!!! ‘Thorwin, I am gonna make you regret pissing me off’. Shiv was now emitting a very dark aura!!!

“What is this sudden chill I am feeling?” Somewhere in his office an unaware Thorwin was having cold sweats.

Shiv approached the mild glow. He looked at the weapons in front of him and realized that the glow was not from them but was coming from behind those weapons. He then started shifting the weapons to find out the source of the glow. When he had shifted most of the weapons a silver chain came to his view.

‘All this work for just a chain!’ Shiv’s hope for revenge was crumbling. He had hoped to find something big, big enough to compensate all the miseries he was put through.

He took the chain in his hand and pulled it, ‘at least let me see what it is.”

What came out puzzled him even more. It was a pocket watch. A silver pocket watch. ‘Ah! I am so unlucky’. He was about to put it back when he noticed something written on the surface of the pocket watch. He looked at those symbols and understood that they were the same as what he has seen on the doors before.

Shiv was now curious. For some odd reason, his right hand, which had the dragon tattoo, began to glow too. He could feel the glowing pocket watch was now resonating with his right hand’s light.

Hesitantly Shiv opened the pocket watch and a much brighter light was coming out of it. A few seconds passed and the glow reduced to nothingness. He looked at the inside of the watch.

Strangely the pocket watch had two dials, each having a pair of hands. On careful examination he understood that only one of the pair was moving and the other was not. Before he could ponder over the reasons for this contradiction, he again heard the familiar sound.

“Trrrng”

Artifact found: Chains of Time

You have found a very rare artifact, Chains of time. This artifact once belonged to the God of Time, Vakt. It is believed that the god had gifted his precious watch to a human who had begged for the god’s aid. The watch was soon fought by other greedy humans and so had been considered as an item with immense bad luck. The item was then lost and its where about forgotten.

Artifact with power over time itself. Able to slow time.

Time is doubled for the owner of the artifact.

Mana consumption: 100

50 mana per hour consumed for each hour the power is active

Effect lasts till mana runs out or the caster cancels it.

‘Holy cow! Time gets doubled? That means 1 game hour becomes 2 game hours? Then 6 days becomes 12 days! That means I can become stronger than what I was meant to be in 6 days. Though the mana consumption will run me dry, it’s worth trying. I barely got the amount to support it continuously’.

“Chains of Time”, he shouted and he could feel the surroundings blur for a moment. That is all he felt. Shiv was confused.

‘Did it really work?’ he checked the watch again and was astonished. The dial and the pair of hands which had been stationary before had started moving while the pair which had been moving was now not moving.

‘So it worked. Time to work.’ with new found vigor Shiv began his training. He now had 96 hours instead of the previous 48 hours under his current master. ‘Let the race against time begin’. Shiv then started beating the dummy with all his might.

Occasionally he would log out to tend to his needs like food, bath, sanitary and other requirements. He would finish all those in a few minutes and return back to the game to continue his training.

The artifacts power was indeed a boon for Shiv, because by the time his training was reaching the end, his stats were so high that a level 10 would pale in comparison.

“Show Stats”

STATS WINDOWCharacter NameShivAlignmentNeutralLevel1ProfessionNoneTitleNoneFame30Health: 150Mana: 150Strength: 29Agility: 31Stamina: 29Vitality: 27Wisdom: 10Intelligence: 10Luck: 0Perseverance: 5Offence: 5Defense: 0Magic Resistance: None

Looking at his stats he understood that the training was meant to raise his physical stats and he saw that they had risen considerably and almost uniformly. Shiv closed the stats bar and lifted the sword in his hands.

He had now only 3 hours of training left. The 3 hours for him became 6 hours due to the artifacts power. He was going to start his last session of training. He picked up his sword and paced himself towards the dummies which were now in a terrible condition due to all the beatings they had received.

“You seem to have gotten stronger than I had thought. Impressive.”. The sudden dialogue startled shiv. He had not heard this voice for 98 hours (for Shiv it was 98 hours, but for Thorwin it was 48 hours).

“Master.”, Shiv dropped the sword and bowed at his master.

‘The boy has got his hands on the artifact. He truly is the child of Oberon.’

“Seems you are ready to be taught the basics of sword fighting. I shall be passing down to you one of the rarest and strongest techniques that I have learned. Heavenly Elements, the strongest sword technique that has ever existed. Use it well!”

“It is an honor master!”

“At your current level you will not be able to use the full potential of this technique; even I am unable to do so. Boy, tell me, how many elements exists in this world”.

“Umm 6? No 7. 7 elements.”

“What are they?”

“Eh? Ahh! Elements… elements!! Wind, fire, water, earth, lightning, dark and light elements.”

“Good. Now remember those are the number of techniques included in Heavenly Elements!”

“That means I get to use techniques which have the properties of the elements?”

“Yes and no. You will understand better when you gain more knowledge about the techniques. But let me tell you the first two are the basics, the rest will be more difficult than the first two. The last two are practically impossible. Only the person who created this technique was able to use all 7 of them. Now enough with the idle chat. Your time with me is almost up. Look closely”.

Shiv was now looking at his master attentively. His concentration was so high it surprised Thorwin a bit. But then throwing a smile. Shiv thought he heard Thorwin mutter something which sounded like, ‘Perfect!’

“Heavenly Elements Form 1- Kaze”

Suddenly Thorwin disappeared from Shiv’s vision. It was like he had vanished into thin air. When Shiv was awestruck by the things occurring in front of him he was grabbed from behind by a pair of hands.

Shiv was frightened by this sudden action that he jumped out of his skin.

“This is the first form of The Heavenly Elements- Kaze or Wind.”.

“How did you? What did you? Where did you? Was that teleportation? Is that magic?” Shiv exploded a number of questions at Thorwin.

Bang

Instead of being answered he got hit in his head by Thorwin.

“It was no magic you idiot. I just moved fast and swiftly, just like the wind. FOR THE WIND IS EVERYWHERE.”

“Move like the wind? Is that even possible? Can I do that too?” Shiv was excited. He had only seen the first form and he already understood the strength of the technique he was being taught. ‘As expected of the strongest sword technique’.

“At the moment you will not be half as fast as I was. But you will be fast enough. The more you train the faster you become. And now the second form, this will be my last lesson for you! Watch.”

“Heavenly Elements Form 2- Hono”

A yellowish orange aura now surrounded Throwin. It looked like he was on fire, literally! The glow was bright and it made the surrounding a little hot! The fiery yellow glow was truly magnificent. Then the aura disappeared. Shiv was again confused. ‘Did the skill fail?’

“Master don’t tell me the second form is just some yellow light?”

Bang

Shiv was again hit on the head a second time. This time it was much stronger. Shiv winced and then a tab opened in front of him

“Trrrng”

You have been hit: -50HP

‘50HP? Just how powerful is this monster?’

“Foolish boy, tell me what makes fire different from the other elements”

“It is yellow in color?”

Bang

Another hit on the head!

“It gives heat?”

Bang

Shiv was now crawling on the floor with pain.

“It burns you fool. Just why did I make him my disciple”.

Bang

This time he was kicked. Poor boy!

“Fire burns everything. Be it wood, clothes, or even metals, it burns. To master this form you must understand that. FOR THE FIRE CONSUMES ALL. ”

“But what does it do master?”

“Such an idiot. Suppose your enemy has an thick armor, what will you do? Run to your mommy? No, you use the fire to consume the armor. The fire will negate the armor while your strike will deal the damage you need to.”

‘It can bypass defense and armors? Cool!!!’

“With this it is time to end our training. You will be under a new master. Let me introduce him to. Altair you can come in and take this fool!”

The huge door then opened and a hooded figure walked in. From the silhouette Shiv felt that the new person had a slim figure and less muscular.

The hooded figure who Thorwin had addresses as Altair now stood near Thorwin and directly in front of Shiv.

“Hello, my name is Altair, a mana harvester and I shall be teaching you about magic.” the hooded figure said in a very feminine way and then took off her hood to show a very cute face. Unlike all the people he had met till now, this person in front of him was much fairer. She had no bluish tint to her skin like the others. But the aura she had clearly told that she was as much a Draken as Thorwin was.

“Hello master” replied Shiv with a smile.

“Thorwin is fire yellow in color?” asked Altair, trying hard to hold her laugh. But she could not control it and suddenly erupted with laughter. She was laughing so much that tears were rolling out of her eyes. Shiv felt embarrassed. He had not felt ashamed like this ever before. He then glared at Thorwin who too was trying his best not to laugh.

“What? It was your fault for spouting such foolishness” and with that Thorwin too started laughing.

Shiv was now dyed red with embarrassment, he felt like dying. ‘I wanna die, I wanna die, and I wanna dieeee’.

“That’s enough Thorwin. Don’t tease the young one anymore”, said Altair yet she was still laughing her stomach out.

After a few good minutes had passed the two masters settled down.

“Sorry Shiv. My bad. Forgive me. Let’s begin our lessons shall we?”

“Yes master” replied a dejected Shiv.

“You remember the way you came right, I want you to go and wait outside, near the fountain of elixir. I have some business with my friend here”.

“Yes master, I shall wait for you near the fountain”.

Shiv then bowed at his masters and left without looking back.

Altair made sure that Shiv had left and turned towards Thorwin, she looked different than she was just a moment ago.

“Why did you not tell him, Thor? Why did you not tell him about the 8th form? Why did you not tell him about the origin of the technique?” Altair was furious! Her body was shaking. She was mad. Mad at her friend who had not explained to his first and only disciple the perils that awaited him.

“Tell him about the 8th form? The origin? Are you out of your mind? Even if he were the child of Oberon there is no way he can grasp its power. It’s too dangerous and you know that. It’s not a power meant to be possessed by a mortal. You know the things I had to sacrifice to learn half of those techniques”.

The 8th form of Heavenly Elements- Tengoku was the strongest attack that existed in the world. Legend has it that just like the name; Tengoku which meant Heaven, the 8th form was so powerful that even the heavens would bow down before it. These techniques were created by the Dragon King Hundreds of years ago, Dragon King Orrinshire.

The Dragon King was so powerful that he had united the entire world under his rule in the span of a year. Only few remains who knew that the current name of their world, Orrinshire was a tribute to this almighty Dragon King. And even fewer, some like Thorwin and some of his close friends, knew the fact that the Dragon King Orrinshire too was a child of Oberon, the first child. And now a second one has come, Shiv, the child of Oberon.

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