Hello everyone!

It is my weekly checkup day! How is everyone enjoying the story so far? The school arc is always the most boring though...

Anyways, if you, the readers, have any suggestions, I am all ears.

Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 15: Walk in the dark

After eating dinner I went to the library again to read up on some random things.

I learned about various monsters with different elemental attributes and their weaknesses. Nothing useful to me right now. I hope it benefits me later in life.

I also learned that the UKC has a lot of card rankings. There might be more, but this is what I found out.

Bronze to silver to gold to crystal to platinum to diamond. I couldn’t find information on anything higher than that in the library. I guess that I don’t need to worry about if for now.

I stand up and stretch. My muscles were incredibly stiff. I look to a clock on the wall. It was midnight. I think the librarian trusts me now. He just left me here alone. I shrug my shoulders as I walk out of the library.

It was unlocked, so I guess I will just leave it like that for now.

I look into the sky. The black sky was sprinkled with dots of various colored stars.

I want to test something.

When I was younger in the other world, I was able to walk on water by manipulating the power of heaven and earth. I did it unintentionally then. Can I use the same concept to float in the sky?

I focus and gather the power of heaven and earth beneath my feet without absorbing it. I move it slightly above the ground and I step on it.

My foot passes right through. I almost stumble because I was expecting solid footing.

I try again without focusing too much. It feels like placing my foot into a decaying log. Not very pleasant to say the least.

I completely focus on just walking. I ignore the power of heaven and earth save for moving it and holding it in place.

Solid footing.

So I have to ignore it for it to solidify? That is a strange property.

I just go with it as I slowly ascend into the sky. Since doing this requires very little mental focus I can look around at the academy grounds.

Some of the dorm rooms still had their lights on. I keep walking into the sky.

I start to trust it a little more so I start to jump up in the air to quicken my ascent. I reach the height I want to be at. The air is a little bit thinner up here. I’m not that high up. What’s up with that? Maybe it is because of the way the air is artificially held near the ground it thins quicker. I should be careful when I do this from now on.

I want to do more testing… but this is pretty high up. I might get pretty injured if I mess up. Oh well! In the name of science I shall continue!

I gather some spatial energy making sure not to absorb any at all. I wonder if this will really not allow me to use my cultivation method if I absorb it.

No! I would rather be safe than sorry!

I manipulate the spatial energy and move it to under my right arm. My arm feels weightless momentarily as it passes through the spatial energy. Weightless?

It felt weightless? I wrap my arm in spatial energy being very careful not to absorb it into my arm. My arm feels weightless. The only reason it is moving is because it is attached to the rest of my body that is feeling gravity.

Zero gravity!?

I quickly encompass my entire body in spatial energy. I remove the platform of the power of heaven and earth beneath me. I float in place.

I float there unmoving. I move around slightly to see if it is actually zero gravity.

No reaction. I just float in place. Success!

Let’s start round two! I create a block of the power of heaven and earth beside me. I push off of it. I slowly move away from the block. I don’t speed up, yet I don’t slow down.

I rotate my body and condense a block to push myself towards the ground.

I am going quite fast towards the ground…

How do I stop!?

I had somehow managed to aim for a window on the female dorm. I don’t know how to stop so I will just crash through the window!

I create a barrier the best I can to hopefully prevent the glass from going over the entire room.

I curl up into a ball and release the spatial energy as I crash through the window on the room.

It was a two person room on the third floor of the female dorms.

“AAAAHHHH!!!!” a loud scream is heard from the bed.

A girl was sitting straight up and staring at me. I quickly apologize to her in my head. I jump up and cover myself in spatial energy again. I turn and use a block to push myself out of the room at an angle towards the ground.

I brace for yet another impact. My back crashes into the ground as I release the spatial energy. I bounce off the ground and then skid to a stop after a few yards.

Note to self: learn how to stop properly.

I groan as I get up from the dirt. I’m thankful I didn’t hit the concrete pathway. I feel really bad for breaking that girl’s window.

I dust myself off. I look up…

“Fancy meeting you here. I was just out for a walk and I saw something floating in the air, so I followed it. Who would have guessed that it was you?”

I see Damion standing in front of me. He has an angry look on his face.

I get on my hands and knees, “I’m sorry!”

Damion frowns, “Do you even know what you were doing? Using the power of heaven like that so openly in a fighter school, does that not seem like a bad idea to you!?”

I nod slowly, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking about it. I just wanted to test some things. It seems to have gone…” I look towards the broken window, “Slightly awry.”

Damion sighs, “Well, it really isn’t that much of an offence. I just wanted you to feel bad about breaking a window. I was probably the only one that sensed it.” Damion starts to laugh. “How about we go apologize to that girl since she is clearly frightened. You will be paying for the window of course.”

I nod, “I’m sorry.” I slowly stand up.

I should really have tested more before I tried full blown flight. This is going to be tough to get a hang of. This means that I can fly though. Be it that I am just floating through the air.

I sigh as I stand up and walk towards the female dorms with Damion in front of me. Damion leads me to the room and he knocks on the door.

The door quickly opens. A girl that looks very scared comes out of the room.

She notices it is the principal, “Principal! A person came through my window! They smashed the window and the glass is only in the one area somehow.”

The barrier worked! Go power of heaven and earth!

Damion pulls me in front of him, “Here is the culprit, he was doing something strange and somehow managed to fly through your window.”

I wave, “Yo. Sorry for the scare.”

I receive a punch to my face from the girl, “I don’t care how it happened! I want you to pay for disturbing my sleep!”

I bow, “I am very sorry. I did not mean to crash through your window. I was doing some experiments and everything went very wrong very quickly and I ended up somehow aiming for your window. I am very sorry.”

The girl tilts her head, “Experiments? What kind of experiments can you do that cause you to crash through a window on the third floor of a building?”

I look to Damion, he has a curious expression on his face. I sigh, “As you can easily tell. I am only at the first realm. I love to experiment so I was questioning what would happen if I used the power of heaven and earth… without absorbing it. I ended up high in the air and things just started going downhill from there.”

Something sparkles in her eyes, “For repayment I want to see these experiments!”

Damion laughs, “Don’t be too crazy Ryu. You should remember that you have classes later.” He lets go of me and starts to walk away, “The money for the window will be automatically deducted from your account. Try not to break anything else.” Damion disappears down the hallway of the female dorms.

I sigh. I guess I should go to sleep soon.

My shoulders are suddenly grabbed, “So when do we continue experiments!? Right now!?” The girl was panting heavily while staring into my eyes.

I push off me, “Woah there! Calm down! I don’t even know you! I also need to go sleep.”

She takes a few deep breaths.

After several minutes she calmly speaks, “I apologize for being so rude. My name is Amy. What should I call you? Boss?”

I frown, “Why on earth would you call me ‘Boss’?”

She smiles and laughs, “Because I am going to be helping with experiments, so I thought I could start as an employee and work my way up.”

I nod, “I guess that makes sense, but I’d rather you just call me Ryu. You heard my name from the Principal. Wait! Who said you were going to help me with experiments!?”

She jumps up and down slightly in excitement, “I did!” She bows slightly, “I look forward to working with you!”

I sigh. I really should have figured out how to stop before actually going forwards.

Amy bounces around happily as I walk out of the building, “I’m so happy I finally found an experiment to do! My mother was a scientist. My mother’s mother was a scientist and so was her mother! They all did experiments daily! I was so jealous! Now I can finally experiment for myself!”

This girl might be too much for me to handle…

We walk towards the training fields. I think this way I can avoid more windows…

I look at her bouncing around outside, “Can you please stop bouncing around. I need to get this working properly.” I think I will only work on the power of heaven and earth.

Is it possible with only the power of the earth?

I forcibly grab onto Amy to get her to stop moving, “Okay. Amy. This is where you come in. How good are you at copying things you see?”

She makes a complicated expression, “I don’t really know. I have never really tried to copy anything I’ve seen before.”

I sigh, “Then that’s fine. I am about to start the experiment.”

I gather the power of heaven and earth and start creating small platforms. I slowly walk up until my feet are at head level, “Here is what I have found out so far. I can gather the power of heaven and earth outside of my body and move it to a designated area. It will not disperse unless I completely lose focus of it. However, for some reason, if you focus on condensing it, it will do the opposite. You need to only move it to a designated are without absorbing it and it will condense naturally. I do not know why… but this is where you can help.”

She frowns, “Can a fighter even use heaven power like that?”

I shrug my shoulders, “I don’t know. I am not technically anything… well you should not use me as an example, so I cannot tell you if you can use heaven power like this. The only way to find out is to do it for yourself. Whatever you do. Do not try to absorb it. That is not what we are experimenting today.”

She closes her eyes without talking any further. I can sense that the power of earth is moving, and only the power of earth. Her expression changes slightly.

She keeps only slightly moving the power of earth and the power of heaven is unmoving.

She opens her eyes, “I am sorry, I am not even able to manipulate the power of heaven. Let alone move it to where I want.”

I nod, “Hmm. Interesting. Okay then. Try just using the power of earth using the method I described.”

She nods and takes a deep breath. I sense the power of earth move beneath her foot.

First try and it looks mostly solid. She goes up to where I was standing in the air, “I did it! This is incredible! It doesn’t use internal energy at all! It does feel like I am getting tired quickly though…”

Now that she mentions it, it is mentally exhausting. I guess it should be safe to ask her, “This is just a hypothetical situation, but what if an abject is unaffected by gravity and is moving forwards. How would you stop it?”

She tilts her head, “Why would you ask that?”

I shrug my shoulders, “Pure curiosity… but would you know any solutions to this?”

She scratches her head, “Well, there are a few solutions… but can we get to the ground. I am not used to standing above it…”

I nod, “Yeah. It is kind of weird.” Amy and I drop back onto the ground. She looks lightly more disoriented than I am. However, I almost stumble over like I was drunk.

Amy sits down on the ground, “The first solution to you problem is to accelerate in the opposite direction. If you accelerate in the opposite direction than the direction of travel, you will gradually stop. The second will depend on the objects speed. You can just crash it straight into a wall or the ground. The third option is to use friction and slopes.” She lays down completely on the ground, “If you have a slope that gradually flattens out, you can slide the object along that until it stops. The angle of the slope will vary depending on speed. Goodnight.” Her head hits the ground and she goes out like a light.

I poke her while crouching. Is she alive? I see that she is breathing… I guess she actually fell asleep.

I sigh as I put her onto my back. She is oddly light for her height… are all women like this? This needs to be tested.

I carry her back to her room. The door is locked… What was I expecting?

I knock on a door that has a light on in the room nearby.

After a minute someone finally opens the door. A short girl that looks very, very tired…

She sees Amy on my back, “Did she fall asleep while you were on a date?”

I just sigh at the obvious teasing, “No. I was doing an experiment with her and she fell asleep while talking. So I was going to bring her back to her room, but her door was locked and I didn’t want to search her for it while she was sleeping.”

The girl nods, “Come in, just set her on the bed. I’m her friend, Selina. Thanks for taking her back. Most people just leave her where she falls asleep. She can be too much to handle sometimes. Do you want any tea or anything?”

I shake my head, “Once she was actually doing things she was quite easy to get along with, she has a good understanding of things… and she may tell you some crazy stories about me. My name is Ryu. And sorry, but I’ll pass on tea.”

She tilts her head, “The harem guy?”

I set Amy on a bed after entering the room. I bring my hands to my face, “I don’t want to be remembered as ‘the harem guy’. How is it my fault that they had an argument about that in the open? Damion set them up to it!”

Selina frowns, “The principal?”

I nod, “He just wanted to test my strength! He could have just waited until the tournament! Whatever. I have plans for the tournament!”

Selina pats my shoulder, “It’s okay Ryu. I understand now. You want Amy, not those people!”

I bash my head on a nearby wall, “No! I had a wife in the other world! I hate having to explain this repeatedly!”

Selina frowns, “Calm down, you’ll wake the entire dormitory.”

I sigh again, “Whatever. I’m going to go to bed now. I have classes to attend tomorrow. It is already way past one in the morning, so I should get going so that I don’t collapse like Amy here.”

Selina laughs, “Of course, of course. I won’t hold you here any longer.” She opens the door for me, “I’ll see you around Ryu.”

I slowly walk back to my room. What an eventful night.

But really a slope to slow myself down. It isn’t the most practical way to end a normal flight. It will have to do. I want to do one more test with it before I go to sleep for tonight.

I walk out of the female dorms and use spatial energy to help me get high into the sky. Well. This will either work… or I will get very, very injured.

I take a deep breath to calm myself. I stop at a couple hundred yards above the ground.

I rotate my body and kick off a block made from the power of heaven and earth. I move extremely quickly towards the ground. I create a slope using the power of heaven and earth.

As I come into contact with the slope I release the spatial energy and gravity is now being applied to my body.

I make contact with the slope and start losing speed rapidly. I safely make it to the ground without any injuries.

Success! Thank you Amy for your ideas!

I happily walk back to my room in the male section of the female dorms.

Another long day… maybe I should find a way to relieve stress. I should just cultivate more seriously though.

I will probably get to the second realm at some point in time within the next couple of days.

I can’t wait for this! I really hope that everything will go smoothly until then. If I make it to the second realm and start using my method before going to the forest of a thousand trials, it should be a breeze.

I take a deep breath as I open the door to my room.

I change into sleeping clothes and lay down into my bed.

I close my eyes and start to drift off to sleep.

Instead of sleeping…

“Hello again child. It seems you found a use for spatial energy, well… me, which no one else has found yet. I just wanted to congratulate you on your find.” It was the figure condensed out of spatial energy.

I smile, “I came across an event when I was a child in the other world and I was forced to learn how to walk using the power of heaven and earth. Be it that I was walking on water at that point… Anyways, I wanted to test it with spatial energy, and what would you know, it did something.”

The figure laughs, “I see you are having a good time. So what are you going to do with this knowledge?”

I shrug my shoulders, “I think I will sell it to the UKC for a higher ranked card. Information never hurt anybody. If other people manage to be able to use spatial energy it could be used to benefit humanity. It could make moving across the universe that much easier.”

The figure scratches its head, “Well, I wasn’t expecting that. Whatever. I was just bored so I thought I would talk to you for a bit. Oh, and why haven’t you absorbed any yet?”

I frown, “Well. I am very sorry that I haven’t absorbed it yet, but I have a special cultivation method that requires me to be at a certain realm before I can use it. I just didn’t want to take any chances with it and then not be able to cultivate my method.”

It laughs again, “Very well then! I will talk to you whenever.”

I drift off completely and go into a deep sleep.