"Space Orichalcum!"

Taking out the dark violet stone from the storage ring, I inspected this stone as much as possible.

According to what Gramps said, Orichalcum has different qualities, unlike the other metals that have one true quality. That's one of the reasons why it is ranked the lowest.

The reason for it to be on the list though is because of the property of being an affinity metal.

As mentioned before, some metals have special properties like Vein Ore, Absorbing metal or Elemental steel. These are usually tied with an affinity or certain effect, making them specialised in a certain way.

For example, if you process [Water Vein Ore] into its steel, you will have a vein system that will move energy through it in a wave motion. Lighting veins would have moved the Will faster but not consistent for example.

But Orichalcum is such a wonderful metal as it is capable of doing every type of special metal with a certain affinity. If you have for example a Water Orichalcum ingot with you, you could make a weapon that has every Water-type metal property without making an impossible mix as mixing every property metal of the same type will make it normal steel.

The reason for that is that they would cancel each other out instead of working together. But Orichalcum is one metal that holds all such properties, making impossible variations possible.

The quality of Orichalcum depends purely on how colourful it is. If it is clear, it is a neutral metal with a partial effect on all elements. This may be good but the effects are so minimal that it becomes something to have on display instead of using it as material.

And this Orichalcum was just dark violet, having even the space around it distorted. And this meant that this Orichalcum was of the highest quality with the Space affinity. Meaning whatever weapon I’ll do with it, will have the highest possible potential.

Finally! I’ll test my theory of trying to break through by making a weapon with a [Transcendent] modifier. If what I think is true, it may not be just with the amount of weapons that I make but also with their potential.

For example, if I was going to make 10 weapons in a day with each being of [Rare] potential, I’d gain double the amount of growth than doing 10 weapons with [Common] potential.

That was just a bad exaggeration but it was true in a nutshell. I do not grow with just quantity but also quality. It wouldn’t make me work so hard on each weapon otherwise.

That's a lie. Every weapon deserves to become the best. It's just not possible for me to mass produce such weapons without putting my life on the line.

"You got this in exchange for fending off the Peltro boy? Was it that much worth it? I can't believe that Alexander would even give you any Orichalcum…"

"I believe it is an investment. He saw already how much potential I have and decided to put his money on me."

But if it wasn't for Gramps telling me about how I should try to find Space Orichalcum to forge a weapon for myself as soon as possible, I'd most likely not have these 4 kgs in front of me.

At this point, I trust the words of Gramps with no hesitation.

As long as he talks in his 'serious' tone. Otherwise, it's just a lie. No matter what.

"You are quite arrogant to believe such a thing."

"True. But I can believe this for the reason that I'm supposedly the first one to cut the pressure of a higher realm in half."

"You what?!"

Oh! I thought she knew about how I split apart the pressure of one higher realm. I wasn't sure if it was a true higher realm but the moment I heard about it from Gramps, I couldn't quite believe it. I know full well how the difference between realms feels.

Just the full pressure of a [Illustrates] realm Awakened can kill a [Mortalis] person. The reason is that the moment an awakened releases his pressure, they release their full existence, which lower realms can't physically comprehend and reject such a presence to only hurt themselves in the process.

But seeing her eyes wide open with almost the tea spilt out, I was sure that this was supposed to be the general reaction of someone hearing my feats.

But she regained her composure very fast! Impressive! Even Gramps couldn't stop laughing out loud for at least ten minutes.

I started to explain slowly what I've been through with Gramps and later on with Alyssa as well, seeing Akiko's steady face slowly crumble in front of my eyes.

Her face finally showed full shock when I told her about Alyssa's sword, Regina, and the last time we saw Gramps.

"This idiotic airhead does whatever he does! I can't believe I even responded to such an irresponsible person and not just took you two with me from the beginning. I could have spared you from all those traumatic experiences!”

“It is fine. I even believe that without those experiences, we couldn’t get such a solid foundation. And besides…”

KNACK

Knacking my knuckles after those words left my mouth, I could already guess the look in my eyes.

“...It gives me more reasons to pay him back!”

Seeing my actions, Akiko most likely thought I was long since corrupted by Gramps but this is where she would be wrong. I wasn’t fully corrupted.

I hope.

“Pfft… ahahahahaha!”

But out of nowhere, she started to laugh out loud. Was my declaration so funny? Was it so unbelievable for me to beat the strongest person in the wor-

Ahhh~! Yep! I can tell why she was laughing.

But my thoughts turned out to be wrong as the words that left her mouth next made me rethink my decisions till now.

“I can’t believe that old bastard used my theory and successfully trained not one but two children’s foundations to the limit. But then I have to ask you two…”

GULP

As the two of us swallowed whatever saliva was left in our dry mouths, we waited for her to finally ask the question we were too scared to hear.

“Do you two want to make use of all of your potential? Or do you two just want to become stronger faster?”

I can already tell where my choices will lead me.

If I choose to become stronger faster, I’ll not be subjected to torture but we will only be taught about our affinities and get advice about our abilities from someone with much more knowledge than us.

But if we choose to make use of all of our potential? I can already tell it is a road where it won’t just end with broken arms at the end of the day. She has the ability to heal even instincts. She can most likely heal everything except death. And this means she can be way more brutal than Gramps. But…

“I do want to be stronger as fast as possible but if I don’t use everything I have, then what is the use of higher strength.”

The moments my words were said, I looked back at all my time till now. I have come far so fast. But that is not what I truly wanted. I wanted to be someone not shackled by others. I wanted to be responsible for my mistakes only and no one can decide how my life will go.

No one.

“Exactly! If I can’t use everything I got, I won’t realise my goal in the end. I want to be my own hope, not the strongest but someone that won’t have to rely on others to go further.”

Alyssa followed suit after I spoke my mind. It reminded me that she also had a very difficult goal on her own. It was similar to mine yet not the same exactly. I don’t want to be bound by others and she doesn’t want to rely on others. But in the end, our goals in the truest version are very hard to realise.

“Good. Then from today on, I will train you two both myself. To do that, I will have to observe you on how you train your ability and cultivate your realm. As far as you have said, you train by making weapons. We should go into the forge now when we got the time.”

Why are we not seeing Alyssa’s training? As far as I know, as long as you have a bit of her Will, you can get into her dreams which are something else.

I may not know a lot about dreams in general but I know that dreams can be as short as a moment to as long as days. And this concept can be stretched with Alyssa’s dreams.

She trains inside her dreams by manipulating them herself. It is kind of like lucid dreaming but with the difference that she can also control the amount of time the dream will last by abusing the Time affinity she has and using her Will to extend the dream to reality time difference.

So the stronger she gets, the more time she will have to train inside her dream and the stronger she gets in less time.

No wonder she could catch up with me with less time. What a broken ability.

“Alright, my dear. Would you like to use this chance and make something with the Orichalchum?”

Hell to the fuck yes! Finally! I can start what I wanted to start with since getting this beautiful piece of metal. And I had the perfect type of weapon I could do with this. And if I succeed, I won’t only see if I was right or wrong with my theory but also have widened my arsenal and maybe even my fighting style.

Because I only did weapons that existed like spears and swords but never did I try to make a weapon that shouldn’t exist yet. Maybe they exist in fiction but not in real life as far as I know.

“Then let’s go!”

I stood up from the couch as I was planning on taking the metal with me to the forge. Everything was going smoothly.

Until I touched the metal.

VUUM

And the next thing I knew was Keyser floating next to me without the scabbard on it.

“And that must be your special blade, Keyser. But is it normal to act like that?”

“No… something is wrong.”

Keyser was floating right next to me with the aura of someone not bound by the laws of common sense. But it seemed interested in something.

It seemed very interested in the metal that I just touched. As if the moment I touched the metal, it got aware of its existence and became more curious by the second.

“Keyser never acted this differently. Laith, are you doing that somehow?”

“No. Whatever is happening is happening because I touched the Orichalcum on the table. But I can feel one emotion going through me and Keyser…”

“And that is?”

Instinctively, I held the metal up with my right hand. With the metal the size of two fists, I held it up to see it clearly with my own eyes. Unknowing to me, those eyes that were focused on the metal started to shine slightly. And then…

…it happened.

CLANG

“What!”

CLANG

“Oh no…”

CLANG

Keyser struck the metal in my hand one after another, chipping parts away more and more. Each piece that was cut away by that one blade didn’t fall down to the ground. They didn’t just vanish either.

They were eaten. Eaten by Keyser as he was devouring the piece of metal in my hand all while my eyes looked at my own hand.

My mind was blank. It felt like shackles were set on my body as it took over, knowing exactly what it was doing. My mind was just a spectator to the actions my body and blade did to the metal I got as a reward.

And soon the last piece was devoured by my strongest weapon. Simultaneously, I came back to my senses, realising what just happened.

“Did your blade… just eat… one of the most precious metals… in the whole universe?”

“Did Keyser just eat?”

“Did my blade just ate away my chance to breakthrough?”

“WHAT!?”

“WHAT!?”

Their reaction was understandable. Breaking through your own limits is what every Awakened strives for at the end of each training. You want to grow.

Yet hearing that I was already at my limit with no other way to break those limits without the Space Orichalcum must have shocked the two of them. If I can’t break through those limits without that metal, then any kind of training would be usel-

HISS

Steam rose around my body and Keyser as the confusion in my mind grew with each passing moment.

What did this situation mean?

Why did Keyser eat the metal?

Why did my body move on its own, keeping my mind locked away?

Why was Keyser and I steaming right now?

And most importantly…

Why am I growing stronger!

“You… you are breaking through, am I right?”

RUMBLE

“Yes! And I don’t think the room will stay in one piece with how much energy is getting stronger?”

The room was shaking as my advancement came with it. Furniture rumbling, decorations falling down to the ground only to be held by the Will of Akiko and the walls starting to crack open little by little.

“That’s not normal! How is this possible, Laith?”

“The boy most likely absorbed the metal which was the key to his breakthrough. But I can’t explain why he is advancing more than one level right now.”

I was advancing more than a level? But how is that possible? I need to forge weapons to…

RUMBLE

“That’s it! Forging weapons!”

“What does that have to do with more than a level?”

“The way I train myself is by forging weapons. But what if I have to consume special materials like the Orichalcum to get through special barriers. And all the accumulated training gets put on my body at o- AAARRRRRGGGHHH!!!!”

THIS SHIT HURTS!

My Will started to finally grow after preparing itself. In my hand was Keyser all of a sudden without me noticing it. I could only clench on the hilt as hard as I could with nothing else but pain running through my body, making me unable to think straight for even a moment.

“HELP!!! IT FUCKING HURTS!!!”

“Help me lay him down! This is the first time I see someone advance more than a level so we have to gamble on healing each part of you at the same time. Is that fine with you?”

“Whatever it takes, just help!!!”

Fuck, this hurts more than getting runes burned onto my very being! Why does this have to hurt so much!

CRACK

“Why is his skin cracking? What is happening?”

“What! My skin is cracking!?”

“Most likely the reaction of your weaponised body. Just calm down with deep breaths as I try to heal the damage. You try to channel your Will like you usually do.”

“Argh! Go-Argh!-t it!”

Channel your Will, Laith! Do it! You have done it for so long without even thinking about it.

SHIIING

Fuck! The runes are showing themselves! Come on, Laith! Remember your circulation clearly.

First, spin the Will inside the body around the pathways clockwise.

Next move them forward, creating a suction force of your Will.

Rinse and repeat.

Deep breath and repeat!

Just repeat!

I could tell that I was getting somewhere when the room stopped shaking and my Will slowly came back into my body.

The healing Akiko did to me all while I tried to call back my Will started to take its full effect as my cracking skin healed instantly and the pain vanished just at that moment.

My breathing became steady as I started to feel my body calming down as well. I just had to get used to my new level. That’s all…

“Are you feeling better?”

“Yes… tired but yes.”

“That’s good. But congratulations.”

“Yeah. I’m finally over level 2.”

“Yes. that’s the first time I saw someone jump from peak level 2 [Discipulus] to peak level 4 [Discipulus].”

Ah yes! Peak level 4…

Peak level 4…

I take back whatever I said about Alyssa’s speed.

I’m fast as hell.

“Was that all just accumulation of my work? I can’t believe I did so many weapons that I skipped a whole level and reached peak 4”

“That’s most likely not it. After absorbing the Space Orichalcum, I can feel slight space fluctuations in your Will. most likely the 100% affinity you got triggered your progress and shot you to another level. Not something unheard off since those with extreme high affinities tend to grow faster when put under their affinities. The same thing happened with you. All the accumulated training was just put in stronger with the help of space affinity, one of the few affinities that don’t usually have such an effect.”

That sounded more reasonable. Since Space is everywhere, it was one of the few affinities that do not have such an obvious effect. But since the Space affinity was so concentrated inside the Orichalcum, it gave a much greater boost than it should have been.

“Then I guess I was very lucky…”

“Boy, what do you mean lucky? You just ate a metal worth more than continents!”

“Wait! What will I now use to show my training!”

“That won’t be needed.”

“Eh?”

“Why?”

The surprised faces of Alyssa and I were on full display as we looked straight at the person that just changed her mind. But wasn’t it needed to see how I train?

“We will start with something else since we don’t need to train your ability with space anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is simple. Unlike this girl here, your ability does have nothing to do with Space on the surface. And because of that, you were unable to use any kind of your special Space affinity. But now after eating such expensive metal that was filled with the Space affinity, your body started to be filled with slight Space affinity. It seems you had the use of it once or twice, am I right?”

“...Yes… the time I was fighting against Walter Peltro, my spear started to have violet ripples form around the weapon and cutting through his armour was much easier than I thought.”

“So you cut space and took his arm with him. Poor boy…”

“Why poor boy?”

Why should he be the victim here? That fucker was the one that instigated this whole fight! Why should I feel sorry for him? And it wasn’t like he couldn’t grow his arm back with the help of potions or abilities. I don’t believe he will lose anything from this.

“You don’t understand. You didn’t just cut his arm but the space of that arm as well. This means that regrowing that arm will only happen with someone just as high of a Space affinity as you, which is impossible since there is only one with %100 Space affinity. And you without any Healing affinity won’t be able to regrow that arm again.”

Holy shit…

I just truly took away his arm. I thought nothing about it since I assumed that he can regrow it later on. Not like I want to help now that I know he won’t get his hand back. I truly believe that he deserves it but still knowing that I am the reason for something irreversible…

…doesn’t really make me feel great.

“But now you are more in tune with Space, making you able to control it better than before. The reason why I wanted to look into your training is to find a way to make you more in tune with your Space affinity since it seemed like only the girl can control her Space affinity, although not much. But now that you are most likely more in control of it, we can skip that and go straight to our first lesson.”

So basically, we can go straight to our lessons because I am able to use my Space affinity. Got it! But that begs one question.

“I don’t know how to use my Space affinity though…”

“You definitely won’t be able to control it, yes, but you should now be able to understand more about the concept of using your Space affinity. What’s important now is to be able to use it. You two will learn how to control it the stronger you get and the more you train with your Space affinity. So…”

With her palms together, she looked at us as an innocent person but somehow this weird chill went down my spine as I looked at her smile. This felt awfully familiar but I don’t know from where. But one thing I know.

This is not the same kind of chills I feel when confronting Gramps. He made me fear for my life.

This made me fear my life.

“Let’s start with lesson number one!”

VU-VU-VUUM