[Thabo POV]

A light in the darkness, that’s the best way to describe the image of Thabo’s training at this very moment. Inside a golden container with no source of light that was previously as dark as a room could get; one day a light began illuminating from the center. Till this light started shinning one could not even tell what this room looked like even wearing night vision goggles.

Now the golden tint the container gave of when reflecting the ever growing white light was a shade that would dazzle the eyes. The light in the center pulsated in and out as the life held within it got stronger and stronger. What was once nothing but an insignificant spark a few days ago became akin to the sun rising within this sealed container. Before Thabo could not tell because he relied on his physical senses for everything but now as he improves by leaps and bounds he could tell that a subtle flow of energy was flowing through this container. He noticed that again the amount of energy he could hold did not increase that much as his gates were still sealed and any attempts to open them had failed, but focusing on his circulation of power and increasing his souls’ efficiency had proven a great way to gain strength.

Now Thabo was producing spirit energy with 62% purity, almost double what he could achieve when he had been thrown into the container and he felt as if he could still improve it further. He had broken through the 50-59% sage ranking and entered and entered into the 60-69% legendary power ranking and with it the amount of abilities he was capable of soared. The only problem was just like fermenting alcohol as the percentage of energy purity increased so too did the burden on the soul. This was exponentially slowing down Thabo’s progress as his soul was struggling to keep up with his shocking growth. The burden was so bad that Thabo wondered if his body, once he regained it, would be able to handle such pure power.

Thabo had decided that instead of doing each part separately he would tackle the circular flow of [true heart] to [mana core] to [medium point] then back to [true heart] at the same time. This way he would simply flow energy through the natural circular flow and increase all of their power equally. Thabo felt that this method was a lot more natural then doing each piece separately. Unlike the previous points there was no psychological challenge to accessing and [meditating] on these three. It was simply a matter of focus and hard work. Moving energy through then felt like jogging and lifting weights at the same time whilst trying to fight of a lion. Thabo in the beginning could only handle it for maybe 5 minutes before he gave up and had to rest for a day. In fact, the first time he tried he never made it past 30 seconds.

He was now three months into this portion of his training and felt himself becoming more powerful as he progressed. After the first month he figured out how to use spiritual pressure separately from energy. This meant that he could gather energy faster and could even pull large amount towards himself without having to absorb them. He also began learning how to better filter mana from ki with his [medium point] in the middle of the second month. His could only assume that he was greatly improving as he had not body to test either of these. And just two weeks ago he had discovered the method for [reverse flow] which meant he could now pull energy from either his [mana circuits] or his [ki paths] back into his soul and redirect them to either mana or ki. This in theory meant that if he was mid-way into performing a spell and needed to strengthen his body with martial arts then he could cancel the spell re-absorb its mana and convert it to ki/stamina inside his soul.

However, what was by far the greatest discovery he had made was what he had achieved today.

Thabo: “Amazing, I didn’t think this was possible when I read about it. With this skill my natural affinity to either material, soul and power can be overcome to an extent. The [medium point] truly is amazing with how it can filter energies… I thought that all it could do was simply release power into your body.”

What time is it! Lecture time! It’s our vacation! What time is it! Time of our lives! Schools out in the house!! Alright lecture time, sorry but it has to be done for this amazing find. In fact, if I master this newfound skill I’ll be on the level of a [master of all magic] type of guy. Ok so remember how everyone has this natural type of mana they produce? Yeah mine was material because I produce in the ratio of 10 A-type/60 B-type/ 30 Z-type meaning I’m best in material magic, ok in spirit magic and crappy in power magic.

The issue with producing in ratio is your mana core can’t separate each energy and just gives you a mixture. So if I were to use a material type spell, my best category, which I produce 60% of, I would in that spell be wasting 40% of the energy. Yeah that’s right if I took 100 units of mana and used a material spell, 40 units which were not of material type would be wasted. And if I used a spirit spell I would waste 70% and a power spell would have a crazy 90% wastage.

Now though I can overcome that with a new skill [mana type filtering]. I still produce in 10/60/30 % ratios but now I can separate the different types of mana with my [medium point]. Meaning if I master this skill I can filter 100 units of mana into its individual 60 units material, 30 units spiritual and 10 units power. This means no wastage!! And I’ll perform spells on the same level with all the categories. No spell would be out of my reach as the [master of all magic] hahahahahaha!! This is some great news for me. Oh shit almost lost focus ok back to training.

[Simphiwe POV]

Standing within the mountain cavity Simphiwe and Mark were staring down the beast they had just encountered. Neither one of them wanted to move a muscle and provoke the beast despite it being chained to the opposite wall. If they had their magic or martial arts killing this best would be simple but right now they were both normal humans and realized just how cornered they were.

Simphiwe: “We don’t have to fight it getting through to the other side is good enough.”

Mark: “And how are we going to do that?”

Simphiwe: “I thought you had an idea, I’m basically just about to wet myself honestly.”

Mark: “You think jokes will pass this test.”

Simphiwe: “Yeah let’s do some stand-up comedy, I’m sure it’ll get distracted and let us through, and hey if not, no harm in dying and re-trying right.”

Mark: “Stop screwing around. Even in a game you shouldn’t just throw away your life, especially in one this real.”

Simphiwe: “Oh wow sorry then mom…”

Mark: “Hahaha*Sarcastic laughter*, just focus we don’t have much time left. We’re already an hour in and we still need to get down.”

Simphiwe: “No other choice then to fight it really. We could try splitting up to distract it but that would mean one of us would go one vs one with that thing which just isn’t possible. Plus, we have no weapons…”

Mark: “………Think we can take it down together?”

Simphiwe: “Nah I bet we’ll get wasted like noobs but it’s better than nothing right? Let’s see if it has some sort of attack pattern. From there we might come up with something.”

Mark: “I’ll take the right you take the left. It might not be able to see well since it looks like a species of dog. Let’s try disorientating it first. Though the floor here is…? Marble? Anyway there’s some debris from where we entered so we can collect and throw that.”

Both mark and Simphiwe reached for some rock and dirt from the entrance they then hurdled it at the beast. It did not respond to any of what they threw till the rocks hit it, meaning its eyesight really was poor. This encouraged Mark as he began to charge forward. As he approached the beasts started roaring out in rage as it lifted its right arm and swung it down to meet Mark. Just as Mark was about to enter the beasts rang he took advantage of his rubber like boots on the marble floor. He put his left foot forward, bent his knees and stopped himself right before the beast hit him. The wooden weapon it held smashed into the floor just a few inches in front of Mark’s foot, then Mark side stepped to the right so wide his right foot was now squared up with his left. He threw a right straight towards the beast in a second.

The beast responded by lashing out with its left hand. Claws extended as it tried to slash at Mark, but he had already retreated a step and escaped within a hairs breath. The beast lifted its weapon off the floor; and Mark could now see it was a type of club. The beast shot the club out in a piercing motion with great speed. The dent on the ground where its weapon hit was a testament to the beasts’ strength. This time mark could not get away in time and tried to rotate his body to the left and pivot the blow. This saved mark as he felt the club colliding with his right shoulder at an angle. The hit shook Marks’ entire body. His shoulder was in blistering pain and his suit had slightly torn where the club connected.

-The pain setting on this game is way to realistic, like I thought this will be great training! – Mark thought

The beast gave Mark no time to rest, as soon as it pulled its club back its left arm shot out in a clawing motion aimed towards Marks head. It swung its arm in an upwards motion that curved towards Marks face. Mark threw his body back as he desperately tried to jump out the way whilst leaning back out the path of those vicious claws. The beasts claw missed but the fight was not over. Mark had stumbled onto his right knee. And with practiced movements Mark held his ground; he did not move immediately. The beast once again swung its club towards Mark this time with a horizontal sweeping motion to the right. As the club approached Mark leaned forward and pressed his arms on the ground. He lowered his head and shot out using his bent legs as springs just as a sprinter would. The motion was rushed but did the trick. Mark run past the beast just under its right arm towards its right side. After covering a few more feet to gain some distance Mark turned around sharply to face the beast once again. Showing your back in combat meant death, Mark knew that well.

Simphiwe: “Here!! I found weapons!” With that a simple stick came flying towards Mark. Upon noticing which direction the voice came from Mark caught the stick with both hands and ready himself once again for combat.

-So he didn’t just check out and run, I actually got some respect for this shorty – Mark thought.

The beast now saw Simphiwe and began charging towards him. Mark to charged towards the beast ready to flank it. Similar fighting started breaking out throughout the whole mountain. The Trainers all stared at the scene whilst grinning.

“The number of people still alive and going isn’t too bad this time. Guess those disclaimer forms are actually doing their job off chasing off weaklings.”

“Haha No this batch is just a little brave that’s all. They figured out the run pretty quickly and teamed up to fight those monsters we laid out for them. Not like the test is over with just that though.”

“Ha good point but its still getting pretty interesting.”