Second World

After finishing this batch of Living Shadows, Domon came to sit near Peniel who was watching Jackʼs unmoving figure.

”He is starting to get it,” Domon said.

Peniel nodded. ”Yes. You outworlders are amazing. I never imagine that you have a way to sense mana before becoming an elite class.”

”You over-generalized us. Not every of our kind is this talented. Well, in my case, you can say that I have not yet met an equal match in my seventy-one years of living.”

”I think he gets that boasting attitude from you,” Peniel commented.

Domon chuckled. ”In the case of his generation, I can say that I have only found two persons that have the potential to triumph over me. He was one of the two. Sadly though, he never really have the heart to learn martial arts, until now it seemed. All he is interested in is just playing games. Well, the games did give him tons of combat experience that honed his innate battle instincts, but he never brushed up on his techniques. If he can do both, he will be unstoppable.”

”There was a time when he was still a small kid where he was rather passionate about learning martial arts. It was because he had a rival who motivated him. Sadly, Her family had to move and live in another country. Once she left, Jackʼs interest in martial arts pretty much waned.”

”She? You mentioned two. Who is the other person? Is it Jackʼs rival when he was small?” Peniel asked.

Upon the question, a rare sadness appeared on Domonʼs expression. He was quiet for a while before sighing and said. ”No, she is not. The other person was sadly not amongst us anymore. He had passed away long before this. He was my most talented student. He was just about to go claim the highest stage in the world martial arts championship before he lost his life…”

Domon did not say anything more. Peniel, sensing the old manʼs grief, did not pry any further. It seemed that whoever this other person was, his position in Domonʼs heart was no less than his grandson.

Weeks continued to pass. Jackʼs utilization of the Formless Flowing Sword style had also undergone a huge improvement. His implementation of the style was no longer as rigid as when he first practiced it. The style had two versions, the flowing type and the burst type. During the flowing type, his slashes flowed very naturally and their execution interchangeable according to each situation. In burst type, he focused his twenty-four slashes into a sudden explosion of assaults which struck almost at the same time. Such burst attack though, caused him fatigue. He almost never felt tired in this game world, but executing this burst type still brought about that effect. It showed how special this martial art was.

When he had gotten used to the style, he no longer felt that he could improve any more by shadow training, so he used the next wave of Living Shadowsʼ assault to test and sharpen his mastery of the style. He still used the low-level common swords to avoid killing the monsters, he only needed them for practicing.

Training the style without opponents as opposed to training the style with ones was truly different. He was still having trouble fully utilizing the style when fighting the Living shadows, but at least he was not as flustered as when he tried it the first time. He could now at least exhibit half of the style. He tried gaining experience by applying the style in direct combat as much as possible before letting his grandfather finished off the monsters for exp points.

Jack continued with this practical training of the Formless Flowing Swords against the next wave, and the next. Waves after waves, his mastery of the style continued to improve. By the eight weeks inside the valley, he could already use the skill in real combat as naturally as he was doing a simple slash.

His mana sensing had also reached a phase where he could easily sense an attack even during combat. His mastery in this regard was of course still far from the level of his grandfather but he was already getting the hang of it.

He felt that he could still improve further if he kept on training but he thought it was time to end this secluded training period. The eight weeks here meant it was eight days outside. The general players should have reached the level where they could try the elite class already. He could not continue to let his level be stagnant any longer if he didnʼt want to fall behind the others.

”Your improvements are very fast indeed,” Domon complimented. ”Especially that chi sensing ability. I spend almost half my life achieving what you can do now, yet you did it in only eight weeks. However, I must say that the condition of this world plays a role as well. The chi in this world is very dense, the one in this valley even so, hence it is easier to develop the chi sensing ability.”

”Or maybe my talent is better than yours,” Jack said.

Domon lifted his one eyebrow, ”boy, donʼt get cocky for this little achievement. You still have many rooms in need of improvement.”

”I know, I know, Iʼm just messing with you,” Jack said with a laugh, before turning serious and said, ”that second phase of Formless Flowing Sword is so difficult. The number of slashes is twice the first phase and much more complicated, I wonʼt be able to master it anytime soon.”

”If you can master it so easily, then it wonʼt be anything special. Take it one step at a time. Martial arts, like any other thing worth practicing, required patience and diligence. You canʼt achieve success overnight. This style is one of the best in sword fighting style, you are sure to be a master swordsman once you master this style.”

As they were conversing, another wave of Living Shadows arrived.

”Weird, why are they less?” Jack said after seeing the wave. There were roughly only fifty of them.

Domon who saw them also commented, ”only level 30? I thought they were supposed to follow after my level?”

Hearing his grandfatherʼs words, Jack inspected him. ”You have increased to level 31?”

”Yeah, just happened in the last wave,” Domon answered.

”Why did you level up to 31? Peniel! Didnʼt you suppose to warn him not to go past level 30 before becoming an elite class?”

Peniel, who heard Jackʼs words which sounded with a scolding tone, scolded back, ”I already did! He said donʼt sweat the small stuff, itʼs only one level. Remember another person who likes to take things easy? You two are practically the same! The differences are you two put your interests on different things.”

”Kids, I will deal with them and leave you to your bickerings,” Domon said as he rushed at the group of Living Shadows.

Jack didnʼt want to waste another opportunity on training, he rushed forward as well still armed with low-level common swords. He used a portion of them to sharpen his Formless Flowing Sword style further while Domon decimated the rests.

After the wave was annihilated, Jack said, ”I think whatever that send this shadow monsters, they only send it for one with level 30 and below. Once one goes past level 30, the shadow monsters no longer appear. I think this wave just now only comes for me.”

”Is that so? Then didnʼt that mean my increase in level will become slower?” Domon said.

”Not only that, once I get past level 31 as well, there will be no more monster wave,” Jack said. ”Ah, too bad, I thought I can abuse this place for future leveling up. Guess this place also has its limit. No point in hanging around here if no exp to gain. Not to mention this Living shadows also give no souls nor loots. The prolonged time here also did not affect my Race Age. It stayed at two months age despite so many weeks had passed down here.”

He took out a red whistle and blew it. Pandora appeared majestically. ”Letʼs go, itʼs time to leave.”

Not long after, a streak of fire shot through into the sky from inside the valley. Painting a curved arc of fire and landed beside the gorge.

Domon was clutching at Jackʼs waist tightly as his face was pale. Jack was arguing inside his mind if he should use the one recording stone that was still residing in his bag to record this rare scene, but decided against it. Using that stone just for a joke seemed like a huge waste. It was truly tempting though, as he glanced at his grandfather with a grin.

”I… I forbid you to tell anyone about this,” Domon demanded.

”Donʼt feel too bad,” Peniel said to Domon. ”Your grandson here is even paler the first time Pandora took him out of the valley.”

As Jack was about to say something, he heard ping-ping sounds. He then remembered he could not send messages when he was inside the valley, meaning others couldnʼt send messages to him as well.

He looked and saw that they were messages from Jeanny and Bowler. First ones from three days ago, the messages increased in intensity by days. The newest one from an hour ago was demanding where he was and why he couldnʼt be contacted. They asked him to go back to the guild headquarter immediately.

Did something happen? Although he had been inside the valley for eight weeks, it should only be eight days out here. The day before he went back into the valley, John had told him that everything was fine. Only around one week had passed.

When he sent a message to Bowler and Jeanny asking what had happened. He received a reply from Bowler first, ”Bro, where the hell have you been? Emergency! Emergency! We are under attack!”

😉