Christie Pauli's idea of a "warm-up" was a vision of hell.
"Again, maggot!" he roared, his voice echoing off the canyon walls.
For the third time that hour, I hauled the massive, crudely-shaped boulder onto my shoulders. My muscles screamed, my bones groaned, and the Aiolos-body I inhabited felt like it was being torn apart. This wasn't just weightlifting; it was a trial of will. I had to not only lift the rock but also channel the faintest spark of my inner Cosmo to prevent it from crushing me outright.
My internal monologue was a frantic stream of cultivation theory colliding with brutal reality. My Sea of Qi is in turmoil. The energy channels—the meridians of this world—are blocked. I need to anchor my Cosmo, focus it into a single point of support. I tried to channel the nascent energy, but Christie's boot smashing into my ribs shattered my concentration. The boulder crashed to the ground, and I crumpled beside it, gasping for air.
"Pathetic!" Christie spat. "The great Aiolos, destined for gold! You can't even hold a rock! Get up! Run the cliffs!"
This was my life for three years.
Every day was the same relentless cycle of agony and humiliation. I ran until my lungs burned, I jumped off cliffs only to fail the landing and be healed just enough to do it again, and I got beaten to a pulp in spars I could never win. But through it all, I wasn't just enduring. I was learning. My mind, the mind of Alan from Queens, became a fortress. I treated every beating, every failure, as a data point. I used the pain to temper my will, forcing my 21st-century software to slowly, agonizingly, overwrite the heroic instincts of Aiolos with something colder, more analytical, and far more resilient.
After a year of this, during a cliff-leaping exercise, something finally clicked. As I threw myself into the abyss, instead of panicking, I focused inward. I felt the Cosmo in my cells, a tiny, sleeping galaxy. I willed it to ignite. A faint aura shimmered around me, slowing my descent just enough to allow for a controlled, bone-jarring landing instead of a fatal one.
🌟 SYSTEM UPDATE 🌟
➤ Achievement Unlocked: Cliff-Leap Mastery
➤ New Skill Acquired: Cosmo Control (Level 2)
➤ Host Body Integration Progress: 18%
➤ Bond Points with [Christie Pauli] +5
I even gained bond points with the monster for not dying. The irony was thick enough to taste.
As my external body was being forged in fire, my internal world was expanding. The constant exertion, the sheer willpower required to survive, was like spiritual fertilizer for my Mountain and Rivers Martial Soul. I could feel it growing within me. As my Soul-Vault rippled with newfound energy, I sensed new, empty chambers opening up—hazy outlines of future training halls, meditation groves, and alchemy labs, each one echoing with the memory of my sweat and pain. My suffering was literally building me a pocket dimension.
I wasn't entirely alone in my struggle. There were other trainees. One, a quiet girl with fierce, dark eyes named Lyra, often watched me from a distance. She never offered pity, only a look of shared understanding. After I finally managed to shatter a boulder with a Cosmo-infused punch—a feat that took me two and a half years—she approached and simply handed me a clean cloth and a cup of water.
[Bond Initiated: Trainee NPC – Lyra]
➤ Trust Level: 35% (Respect)
➤ Bond Growth Potential: High
It was a small moment, a flicker of humanity in purgatory, and a seed planted for a future I couldn't yet see.
The final breakthrough came at the three-year mark. We were tasked with sensing the Cosmo of others from a distance, blindfolded. It was an exercise in pure spiritual awareness. As I sat in meditation, I finally let go of trying to force it. I just… listened. And the world opened up. I could feel Aiolia's fiery, leonine spirit burning brightly nearby. I could feel the cold, sharp presence of Christie. I could feel the faint, weeping Cosmo of a wilting flower a hundred feet away. I had mastered it.
And in that instant of triumph, the world dissolved.
I blinked, and the sun-drenched Greek training ground was gone. I was standing on the grimy linoleum floor of my own bathroom in Queens. The scent of dust and stale air replaced the smell of sweat and stone. My body felt… wrong. It was my own again, lighter, weaker, yet thrumming with a powerful energy that it didn't know what to do with.
"Well, it's about time," a melodic voice drawled.
C.C. was sitting on the edge of my bathtub, looking exactly as she had when I left, not a single green hair out of place.
"Three minutes," she said, glancing at a non-existent watch. "You were gone for three minutes. And you come back empty-handed. I thought I sent a contractor, not a tourist."
My head was spinning. Three years. Three minutes. The system confirmed it with a cool, detached panel.
[Temporal Synchronization Module]
➤ World-Time Ratio (Sanctuary→Earth): 1 Year → 3.1 Minutes (approx.)
➤ Multiversal Lock Status: Stabilized.
"I mastered Cosmo!" I protested, my voice raspy. "I fulfilled the requirements! I got stronger!" But even as I said it, I could feel the disconnect. The Cosmo flowing through me felt foreign, a river overflowing its banks.
[Integration Lag Detected]
➤ Acquired Skill: Cosmo Flow (Level 3)
➤ Current Integration Progress: 53%
➤ Recommendation: Complete synchronization in a stable environment. Local Realm Training is advised.
C.C. sighed, the sound echoing her infinite boredom. "Your personal growth is irrelevant. The contract is for the Spear fragments. You found none. The system must have erred in its initial resonance scan. A wasted trip."
Her dismissal was like a slap in the face. But a quick check of my status showed that the trip wasn't a total loss.
🌌 CONTRACT STATUS 🌌
➤ Witch-Entity: C.C. (Rank: Epic)
➤ Acquired Ability: Immortality Seed (Dormant → Awakening)
➤ Contract Bond: 42% → 47%
➤ System Note: Shared experiences, even in failure, strengthen the conceptual link.
My quest log had also updated, giving me a new, immediate task.
➤ Sub-Quest Added: Accelerate Cosmo Synchronization in Earth Realm.
➤ Reward: Pure Realm Energy Infusion; Unlock [Mountain & Rivers] Training Hall.
"The Grail is your anchor," C.C. warned, her tone shifting to serious. She pointed to the golden cup, still sitting on my nightstand next to the sleeping Saber. "It is the conduit. Guard it. Especially from her. A Heroic Spirit crossing worlds without a Master's summons… her motives are an unknown variable."
Nodding, I left the bathroom, my mind a whirlwind. My first priority was Chloe. I crept to her room and peeked inside. She was asleep, curled up under her thin blanket, looking small and vulnerable. A fierce, protective instinct flared within me. This was my anchor. My real world, my sister—these were the spiritual resources I was truly fighting for. I had to make this apartment a fortress. Maybe I could rent out the other rooms, get some allies… As the thought crossed my mind, I saw it—a faint, shimmering trail of golden energy, visible only to me, weaving through the plaster of the walls. A flicker of my Mountain and Rivers realm, already beginning to overlap with reality.
I stepped quietly into her room and gently pulled the quilt up over her shoulders. She was my reason. My purpose.
As I leaned back, her eyes snapped open.
They were glowing with a faint, but unmistakable, golden light.
Before I could react, before I could even process the shock, a blaring, crimson alert flooded my vision, overriding everything.
🔔 ALERT 🔔
➤ Incoming Dimensional Signature Detected: [SABER CLASS - DUPLICATE]
➤ Rarity: Rare
➤ Analysis: Trace resonance from Longinus Shard detected on signature.
➤ Next Objective: Intercept multiversal trace. Location: Unknown.