CHAPTER 22.

I made a decision as I climbed those stairs. I would only seek the support of my implant if and only if I lacked the skills and necessary knowledge to perform a particular action.

Now that I was directly generating the effects myself, my ultrasonic cutting technique was far from perfect, compared to the one supported by my implant as I had to constantly maintain all the various aspects of the effect.

My seismic-sense no longer provided constant and detailed data about my environment and enemies. I was forced to use infrequent pulses to sustain the effect.

But to my surprise, both effects became slightly stronger and required less essence and almost no will.

How much will was required to sustain my implant. From what Avery told me, the device was powered by my body's piezoelectric output.

But that may only apply to its normal working processes. When it came to an semi-inanimate object manipulating essence, a measure of input from me might be required.

I carried my new half-orc blade in one hand and my left hand was flattened and coated in a flickering ultrasonic cutting effect.

I encountered two separate pairs of half-orcs as I ascended and I immediately rushed them without waiting for analysis or data from my implant.

Trusting the full power of my ultrasonic cutting technique, I slashed the sitting Orcs before they could get up from their game of cards. My blade met very little resistance as it split the two Urgals in two.

The second pair was a bit tougher as they were alert and already expecting me, but with my seismic-sense, I was more than ready for them.

As I entered the room, I swung my scimitar, but instead of launching myself at his chest, I bent low and swung at his legs.

Without the support of his legs, he slumped to the ground, but only grunted in response, these hrc-blooded bastards are really tough.

Stepping back, I put a bit of distance between myself and the remaining half-orc in the room.

The other half-orc was more than ready for me and despite his size and from my experience fighting others of his kind, I knew that he would be fast and agile.

Although I was technically at the same rank as my opponent, something vital became immediately obvious, especially with my new found cultivation awareness.

Even with the potential power of over two hundred and thirty peak humans invested in my core, I had access to less than a tenth of that power and couldn't even use all of the available tenth without taking strain damage.

Another problem I discovered since I started forging my own techniques was that the amount of physical and magical strength I could project was limited by my body.

At rank D of the absorption stage, I had most likely reached my limit of physical capacity. Even if I reached the peak of the absorption stage with access to seven peak human potential, I would only be able to channel the power of four before my body begins to take damage under the strain of channeling raw energy. After all, the human body was not designed for such an exercise.

A core mitigates this problem as a huge portion of strain is channeled to my core allowing me to tap into more essence and allow me to further enhance my physical attributes.

But the problem remains the same, with or without a core the human body has limits. I suspect that the core compression stage will allow my core to take more strain and allow access to more physical power.

But at some point, the body would have to be directly infused to increase its capacity and essence-conductivity. Hence the need for a body infusion stage.

But my Half-orc opponent was not burdened by my limitation, the major obvious difference between a human and a half-orc is the greater physical attributes that the latter enjoyed.

If you imagine essence as fuel, then the body can be compared to a car. Although a Ford and a Ferrari use the same fuel and may have the same tank capacity, the Ferrari would be able to optimize its fuel usage and gain more speed per fuel measurement in a way that the Ford can't match.

While we were almost at the same rank, by total essence-volume and density, I was far stronger, but from what I observed, the average half-orc was three to four times stronger than a peak human, making them a more powerful container of essence and allowing them to channel more essence to their already robust physical attributes.

Plus they had some kind of healing factor that I assumed allowed them to mitigate the major side effects of strain.

Testing my sword directly against his would be a death sentence. I had to find a way to level the playing field or at least distract him in some way.

The half-orc stood still waiting for me with an easy look on his ugly face, he felt confident that he had me where he wanted, which to be honest he did.

I knew no ranged attacks or special earth attacks like in most of my fantasy RPG games, what I did know was a fuckton of science and my single earth affinity.

I tried projecting vibrating energy to the metals on his person, his earrings, nose ring, gauntlets and even the metal in his boots, but for some reason, objects close to his body were inaccessible to my effects.

So I attacked the only thing not currently close to his body. I ran towards him in a pathetic attempt at a charge and the half-orc responded smoothly, raising his blade in an expected parry, while at the same time, quickly closing the gap between us.

As he raised his blade to cleave me in two, I attacked the tip of his giant scimitar with earth essence, channeling high vibration energy at the tip of the blade.

The channeled effect sent the vibration down from the top of the blade to the hilt in his grip.

To his credit, the half-orc did not drop the blade, even when the vibrations moved through his body affecting his balance, but the disruption of his attack allowed me to use my ultrasonic cutting technique to split him in two at the navel.

For a moment I had to stop and gather myself. On TV or in video games, battles span several minutes and involve a lot of fancy sword and foot work, but based on what little I now knew, martial duels were decided in seconds, with most of the battle taking place within the mind of the combatants.

I looked at my sword arm in wonder, still surprised at the ease with which I lifted the extremely heavy blade. I did not feel exhausted although I was casually lugging around a seven pound weapon up several flights of stairs.

Soon I reached the top floor of the tower, and rushed towards the last door with bright lights coming from under the door. I pushed the door open, prepared to charge whatever enemies lay within.

But the scene that greeted me stopped me completely in my tracks.