Chapter 16. Rush

"I remember falling asleep, more like unconscious but why am I here. Can I now come here during my sleep too?"

I was currently above the pond in my mind palace. The last time I came here was during my last meditation session, but when I fell unconscious last time which I was falling an awful lot these last few days, I did not come here.

Probably because I had just come out? That was the only thing that came to mind but it did not change much anyway. I was already meditating every night when I was supposed to sleep. And if I was already here, the only thing to do is .....Dance. Yes, dance. The one that I have to do during my new meditation session.

For the next few weeks or probably months, I did not know how this worked but I kept climbing floors nonstop. The time I spent in this tower was confusing, some trials got over in a few hours but a few of them went on for weeks. One of those long ones was to find out traitors hidden in the camp while we were on our way to the frontlines.

There were sabotages, wildfires, and assassinations of middle-ranked officers, and the one dispatched to find and execute them was my responsibility. So I had to reach the march, from the base, before something disastrous happened. I did finish the trial but it was a hard, grueling, and long journey to the army. Their speed was slow because they were moving in a larger unit but they also had a two-week lead.

I climbed a total of nine floors, meaning seven more after falling unconscious or in a 'state of deep sleep.' Surprising right, after the whole streak? But it was true, totally true.

Anyhow, I got two levels for every floor. So I got a total of fourteen levels and just now I had completed my tenth floor.

[Cleared the Tenth floor]

[Experience gained]

[Level up]

[Level up]

[Class skill available]

[Time left before moving on to eleventh floor]

[23:59:57]

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[Status]

Name: Ray

Species: ???

Bloodline: Demon of ???

General Skills: Identify lvl 10, Mantra of ??? lvl 14, Demon's martial arts lvl 13, Axe Mastery lvl 12, Dual wielding lvl 12

Strength: 38

Agility: 38

Endurance: 38

Vitality: 38

Dexterity: 30

Intelligence: 15

Wisdom: 15

Perception: 43

Bonus point remaining : 0

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[Primary Class: Demon Fighter]

Level: 35

Skills :

Active - Bloodlust lvl 1, Sprint lvl 15

Passive - Demon's Perception lvl 10, Demon's Control lvl 8

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My skills levels were a lot higher. Now instead of passing out while improving my masteries, I could dodge end parry most of the attacks. After level ten my attacks become more tangible and now just parrying was not enough, instead, you had to kill them completely shredding them apart. 'Ghosts' is what I liked to call them now instead of just shadows.

The dance also got more complicated but it started to make some sense after my little 'experiment.' Apparently the dance helped mana circulate better, providing momentum either by the movement of my body or by the increased blood flow because I got tired real even though my stamina was not monstrous.

And finally, there were new class skills available but before that, it was time to check out the final results of the topic that I had been researching for a lot of time. Even when I was in the middle of a trial, this experiment did not stop. That was because on the second day of my experiment, my hand twisted in an unsightly manner and for the next three trials, well I had to do complete them with only one of my arms.

Bloodthirster had also shown one of its traits and it was a little obvious from its name, but still, it was nonetheless interesting.

So, the last time I used my skill there was that accident where every single drop of my stamina got used up in the [sprint] skill. Then I started to build up a theory, how did the skill steal all of my stamina? The idea came from games, most of the games have a stamina bar, a mana bar, and a health bar. So could the same thing be used here?

And after every stage, I began using my skills and started to observe my body, what was exactly happening in my body while I was using those skills. Because I was not in a tense situation, I did not pass out but for the next couple of hours moving was an impossible task.

But observing the skills did not help much, to be honest, the thing that brought the topic to light was the 'Mantra.' Every time I used that skill and moved my body according to those stances, something kept flowing in my body. The amount of that substance was equally distributed throughout my body and reduced over time, but it stayed the same in every part.

I assume that the substance is stamina because it is constantly depleting as I performed a physical activity that took some effort to be done. Now every time I used a skill, be it in a fight or just for trial purposes, the only thing that had all of my attention was the inner workings of my body.

But the skills never gave a result and now my only hope was the Mantra. After a dozen or so meditation sessions the flow started to feel more and more natural. My skills also started leveling up at a good pace.

The breakthrough happened nearly two weeks ago. I was trying to accelerate the flow of that substance while slowly going through the poses when my arm actually sped up. It tripled in speed and left a pop sound when my arm came to a stop. Almost all of my muscles were basically useless, but I made air pop by with just a swing cool right, even though I lost my arm? Probably not.

Even so, I was excited because only a small part of my stamina was used and I did it without using the skill, all on my own. Now the goal was to do it consciously without doing an act of self-harm. And for the last two weeks, after my epiphany, I was going to try it again.

I had done this so many times that doing the weird dance without entering the mind palace was wholly possible, I only needed to check the skill after it leveled up for any changes and the practice happened in the real world.

I relaxed my body and took a deep breath. Left inched forward, slowly followed by the right one. Every part of my being was focused on the energy running through my body, blending seamlessly with my blood as it circulated through every limb, organ, tissue, and whatever else was present in my body.

Every move I made started to exert some force and soft sounds of air being cut apart were being picked up by my ears. It was more like performance now instead of dance, a performance of martial arts. Every movement had weight behind it, enough to split the world apart.

I was probably drunk on this newfound power that made me hallucinate of such things but it was now I understood why people wanted to continue to get stronger even though it hurt so much and after all that struggle you could still fail. Even after so much people would not give up because it was intoxicating. Addicting.

I opened my eyes and just stared ahead with eyes that did not know show the feelings of their owner aka me clearly. My eyes had excitement, disappointment, curiosity and many other feelings flash through them.

My experiment had failed. But not exactly.

[Learned 'Mana Control']