Chapter 28: Just a Simple Test

I collapse onto the ground after exercising again.

“I guess you can rest. You’ve earned it. However…” Spacey walks over to me and crouches down. “Why haven’t you gotten to the fifth realm yet? With my training and cultivation assistance, you should be at the fifth realm… are you forcefully suppressing ranking up?”

I make a complicated expression, “If I rank up too quickly won’t it be bad for my future?”

Spacey frowns, “of course it wouldn’t, not with your method and mine together. Why would you think it would be bad to be stronger faster?”

I tilt my head, “If you rank up too quickly your body won’t be used to the extreme amount of power that the body can use and you may injure yourself horribly.”

Spacey shakes his head, “I wonder where you were taught. Well, whatever, what matters is right now. You don’t realize how special your method is. Your veins will be nurtured while you cultivate. No other methods do this because of the danger involved. You also had to get to the second realm without using a single method at all. That is a feat in its own right.”

I shrug my shoulders as I sit up against a wall, “I guess it is. So I should break through to the fifth realm right now?”

Spacey nods, “It will slow today’s plan slightly, but I guess we can skip pushups.”

I cheer slightly on the inside as I start to break through to the next realm.

Breaking through to the fifth realm is exactly like breaking through to any other realm before it.

After the requirements have been met. A-rank of the fourth realm, enough confidence and skill, breaking through is as simple as willing it to happen.

The quantity of internal energy will stay the same throughout the life of the practitioner… as far as I know anyways.

However, the quality will change when you move up into a new realm, and a very slight change when going between ranks.

I close my eyes and wait for the quality of my internal energy to change. After a couple seconds, my internal energy starts to circulate my body. The energy starts to become stronger and stronger the more it circulates.

I was thinking. The quantity does increase too during these breakthroughs. It just gets added to the quantity as quality, rather than adding more. It purifies the energy that is there using more energy. If that happens, why can’t I just add more during this process?

“You’ll die if you keep that up you know.”

Spacey notices me using more energy to break through… it’s no good it seems.

I finish breaking through in a couple of minutes. Spacey smiles at me, “It looks like you are trying new things while breaking through. That’s good… but not at these low realms, your body isn’t strong enough to force realm leaps.”

I leap up in front of Spacey, “It’s possible to leap through realms!?”

Spacey raises his arms, “Calm down Ryu. No need to rush it. Should be two months until you reach the sixth realm at this rate.”

I start to shake Spacey by his right shoulder, “Come on! Tell me how it’s possible to leap across realms!”

Spacey pushes my shoulders to get me off him, “I said calm down Ryu. You don’t have to know about it, as you have no chance of doing it until a bit later. Maybe the Sky realms… maybe…”

I tilt my head, “Sky realms… Sky realms… I remember now! I have a method to enter the sky realms! This stupid crystal thing only gave me information right before I died in the other world so I nearly forgot!”

Spacey tilts his head, “Crystal thing? Let me see it!” His face suddenly gets serious.

I frown, “I would if I could. Those bastards at the UKC took everything that looked valuable off my body… I don’t even have my prosthetic anymore.”

Spacey disappears instantly and then reappears half a second later holding something, “Is this it?”

Spacey holds the crystal that is dangling from a chain, “That’s it! How’d you find it so quickly!? Wait! How did you even bring it here so quickly!?” My mind is full of questions.

Spacey smiles as he tosses me the crystal thing, “It was in the pig… I mean Hannah’s pocket. Remember Ryu. I am an entity, not a being. Your logic does not apply to me.” I caught the crystal while he was still talking and put it around my neck.

I sigh as my shoulders drop, “You really are too mysterious Spacey.”

He frowns slightly as he looks at the crystal in my hands, “That really is a memory crystal. I don’t think I’ve seen one of those since… well. It’s been a long time… or was it not too long ago?”

I laugh slightly, “How old are you Spacey?”

He smiles, “I have lived for much longer than most. Humans have been around for roughly two billion years. I have seen the rise and fall of many heroes and many demons. Most of them more powerful than myself.”

I make a shocked expression, “You are really an old man.”

He shrugs his shoulders, “Technically not a man. I could change my voice and appearance to female if you want.”

I raise my arm, “No thank you. I have enough women in my life.”

He shrugs his shoulders again, “Have it your way then.”

I nod, “So. What is so important about this crystal?”

Spacey makes a complicated expression, “You know who you got that from? He is the strongest ‘existence’ in the universe.”

I make a serious expression, “Why do I feel that this is suddenly a much more serious discussion suddenly.”

Spacey looks at me with a very serious expression, “If someone more powerful than me sees this crystal, they will stop at nothing to kill you and take it.”

I frown, “I had no idea this was that important.”

Spacey looks at me, an invisible pressure pushing me down, “Have you ever shown this to anyone!?”

I panic slightly, “N-n-no… just m-m-my w-wife from t-the other w-w-world…”

He rubs his face, “It followed you across worlds?” I nod slowly. Spacey sits down against the wall, “Ryu. This crystal will take you further than ever. I am going to teach you a technique to create another ‘space’ that only you can enter. I need you to keep that crystal in that ‘space’ and never take it out again. Ever. Can you promise me that?”

I put my hand on my heart, “I promise you that as long as I live, I will never take this crystal out of the ‘space’. Even if I die, I will make sure no one touches it.”

Spacey nods, “Good. Let’s start with this skill as soon as possible.”

[Dimensional Storage Creation!]

The spatial energy moves into a small space and condenses until it forms a hole in space and then vanishes… this is the spatial version of the skill I have that only works at the seventh realm called ‘Item Storage’.

Spacey smiles, “This skill will allow you to store items in a small area as long as the dimension stays open. It takes a massive amount of energy to create this dimension at first, but takes no energy at all to maintain. In order to close it, you have to be at the ninth realm, but it is possible to open it at the fifth realm. Now you try it, I’m sure you saw how it worked.”

I nod, “I have a similar skill that I can use called ‘Item Storage’, but I can’t use it until I get to the seventh realm.”

Spacey nods, “I see. That would make sense. Not really, but I’ll accept it. Try it already!”

My mind wanders yet again as I start to try the skill.

I was looking that old man straight in the eyes…

“Nice to meet you good sir. My name is Ryusei, we apologize for intruding so rudely.” I bow slightly towards the old man. Lizzy and Darius also do the same.

The old man laughs, “I know you are here for the treasure. You aren’t the first ones to try and do so, and maybe not the last…” the old man looks at me with a smile, “Or one of you may leave here today with a new weapon.”

I knew this was no simple old man. He looks frail and wrinkled, but when he looks at me it feels as if I am being stared down upon by an incredibly tall mountain.

Darius starts to shout, “I got this in the bag! How could walking up and grabbing a sword be so hard?”

Lizzy and I talk at the same time, “”Idiot””

The old man laughs, “It is as simple as he says. In order to collect this sword, you just need to walk up to it. And grab it. Nothing less. However, please note that this will test your strength, courage and willpower all at the same time.”

Lizzy and I nervously look at the sword while Darius shows no change in appearance. He starts to walk towards the sword.

The distance from the entrance of the room to the sword is one hundred meters.

Darius smiles back at us, “This is going to be my win!”

As soon as Darius makes it fifty meters he flies towards the entrance at amazing speeds.

Lizzy reacts as fast as she can.

{-- Soft Landing!}

Lizzy tries to chant magic but Darius crashes into the wall first.

The wall cracks like a spider web. I sigh as I make sure Darius is okay. He is just unconscious from the sudden impact. He is still breathing, luckily.

Lizzy gives me a wry smile, “I don’t use swords, but I kind of want to see how hard this truly is.”

I nod without saying anything. This seems like it is going to be more complicated than what the old man says… wait. He never said it wasn’t complicated. He said it wasn’t anything less. What clever word play old man.

The old man notices my glance and smiles at me after Lizzy starts to walk towards the sword in the center of the room, “You seem like you just figured something out Mr. Visitor.”

I laugh slightly, “Yeah, you really know how to use your words old man. My name is Ryusei. I hope you treat me well.”

He scratches his head, “Ah, I was found out.”

We both stay quiet to watch Lizzy go near the sword. I didn’t notice it, but Lizzy has several barriers cast on herself.

She easily makes it halfway to the sword, but her face is pale.

At seventy-five meters she turns back towards the entrance and runs as fast as she can back.

She has a horrified look on her face, “What was that!?”

The old man smiles, “That’s the courage section. You failed. I suggest that you do not try again as it will be harder next time.”

Lizzy sits down beside the unconscious Darius as her legs were shaking too much to stand, “Why would I want to do that again anyways!?”

I take a deep breath to calm myself. I wonder what could have scared her enough to do that. She seems like a level-headed person.

She looks at me, “Ryu. Be careful. That was the most unnerving feeling I have ever felt. I thought I would die. I was there for less than a second… but it felt like an eternity.”

I nod slowly, “Don’t worry. This old man wouldn’t make an impossible challenge… but I have reason to believe it wasn’t this old man who created it. It was someone much, much more mysterious. That sword must be very special.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the old man smiling. He must be expecting a good show.

I take a deep breath.

{Barrier}{Barrier}{Barrier}{Barrier}{Barrier}

That should be good. I hope these are strong enough to handle the pressure.

I start to walk towards the sword.

The pressure starts to push from all sides on my barrier, trying to make it collapse.

At halfway the barrier is bending in ways I never thought to be possible. I take deep breaths as I continue to walk.

I am one step away from where Lizzy sprinted back.

As I take the next step my face instantly goes pale. It is similar to the aura the figure that gave me the crystal emitted, but it is menacing rather than just being there.

I swallow my saliva as I manage to continue walking forwards.

The menacing aura continues to get stronger and more menacing. It feels like I am being killed without being touched. The aura is riddled with killing intent.

Ninety meters.

Ninety five meters

I stand in front of the sword, breathing heavily and sweating from every pore.

My hands are shaking as I reach for the sword. The aura make we want to run away screaming like a little girl, but I feel that this sword is calling to me. I slowly grab onto the sword. I hear it calling me.

I quickly circulate my internal energy and move it into the sword.

‘S……. W…….. Y……………..I………..O………..”

I hear very faint sounds, but cannot make anything out of it. My head suddenly starts to hurt as I lift the sword off the pedestal.

I immediately hit the ground with one hand and one knee.

Out of the corner of my eye I see the old man put his arm out to stop Lizzy from rushing to me.

The sword emits an intense heat, but I feel that the worst thing I can do right now is to let it go.

I hear a voice inside my head.

“I am the ‘God Killer’. I have been handled by many men and women alike. I have killed millions. My aura alone is enough to kill mortals. You have now contracted with me. I am you, just as much as you are me. Forget that not. I am unbreakable, yet fragile. I am ferocious, yet kind. I am brutal, yet gentle.”

As the voice fades my head stops hurting and the oppressive aura disappears along with the pressure that was pressing down on me.

I slowly stand up and look at the sword in my hands. ‘God Killer’. What a scary name. I am scared to use this thing. If I just give it to someone else, it should just be a normal sword… right? If I use this, I fear I may destroy more than the enemy in front of me.

I unsheathe the sword without paying attention to anything else.

The blade of the sword is blue and has gold markings on it that resemble the markings on the ground and walls.

The old man walks up to me, “Congratulations. That sword now belongs to you. What are you going to do with it?”

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Hello lovely readers!

I am posting another chapter today as I finished a lot while my proofreader went missing. This chapter marks the achievement of 88888 words!

Anime has just started to air for the year. I am excited for a couple of the new ones.

I get distracted a lot when writing and not writing, but one of my favorite distractions is a game called OSU! It is a free game... but I digress.

My friend wants me to ask: "What would you do for a Klondike bar?"

Finally, what are some of your favorite distractions?

Have a good day/night!