"Fifty-nine…" Aeron was sweating all over, and his breathing was heavy.
He tried to take one more step. He still had stamina, but the exertion it took to move up was too much.
But he had to do it.
His leg lifted, and he leaned forward.
A young man who was walking up suddenly stopped and watched Aeron.
Aeron didn't know. His whole focus was on maintaining the exertion and moving forward to take one more step.
Because the 60th step was a big one, branching paths to the dojos.
If he stopped at the 59th step, he would have to go back to the 30th step to join the dojos there. But the higher the better, right?
"You can do it!"
Aeron was startled. His body trembled and shook, but he barely kept his leg high up. If he failed and the leg slammed back down, he would definitly fall and roll down the stairs.
Aeron turned his head while sweating all over and saw a young man, looking in his late teens, who was wryly smiling.
"Sorry, didn't mean to disturb you. Anyway, you are doing well. Keep it up." Waving his hand, he began ascending the stairs leisurely.
Aeron took a deep breath before exerting every ounce of his strength as his leg rose, moved forward, and slammed it on the 60th step!
'Finally.'
It took him roughly one hour to climb to this 60th step.
But it was worth it.
There were three boards on this big and wide 60th step. Each board had an arrow.
Two pointed to the left pathway, and one pointed to the right pathway.
[ Thunderfire Dojo ] —>
< — [ Cicada's Wings Dojo ]
[ Zen Ghost Dojo ] —>
Aeron blinked. 'It looks like Zen Ghost might help better with my gift.'
Naturally, he only thought that because there was 'Zen' in the dojo's name, which meant meditation basically.
And he needed Epiphany and Inspirations to acquire and upgrade cards.
Aeron began walking in the right pathway.
Going through the road surrounded by trees and illuminated by lamps, he soon saw it split up into two with a board in the middle.
Aeron moved to the left as Zen Ghost Dojo was there, according to the board.
Soon, he saw a gate and a big, round area past it where people were training. Some meditating and some sparring.
Aeron's eyes flickered with thrill as he walked past the gate.
'I guess I have to go in and register first.'
Unsure of anything, Aeron didn't ask anyone, but just continued walking since he saw some people coming out of there before starting meditation on the training ground.
There was a big pavilion-style aesthetic building two-storey tall, and it had a building on both sides, smaller, but similar style.
Black lanterns with orange lights hanging all over the edges of the buildings illuminated that area, while the whole ground was illuminated by floating wisps above it.
As soon as Aeron entered the pavilion, he was stopped by a guard standing at the side.
"Scan your ID here."
Aeron took out the scan before asking. "Where do I learn the free techniques?"
"Go there or there at the reception desks to get any help you need." The guard pointed at two desks, one on the left side and one on the right, in the hall.
"Thanks."
Aeron arrived at the reception desk. The person there just left, so his turn came up.
"How many I help you?" asked the girl who looked in her early twenties with a professional smile.
"It's my first time entering a dojo, and I wanted the free techniques to practice and train."
"Go through that door." She pointed straight ahead at the door several meters behind the other reception desk. "That's the free library. You can pick anything you want from there. Download it into your ID by scanning it on the sensor."
"Thanks."
Aeron headed there without wasting any time.
Opening the door, he entered and also saw a couple of people leaving.
Inside were shelves, but not of books. The shelves were like walls with half-open scrolls hung on them.
Looking around, he saw the two signs that separated the shelves into two different categories.
[ Combat Techniques ]
[ Tempering Techniques ]
Aeron knew he had to pick one from both. According to what Aira told him, Combat Techniques were the techniques used in the field. Attack, defense, control, and all that were in the category of Combat Techniques.
On the other hand, Tempering Techniques were the ones that must be practiced to increase their stats.
Aeron began browsing the Tempering Techniques first because he needed stats to meet requirements for Combat Techniques.
When he looked at their requirements, Aeron realized he didn't have many options.
Combat Techniques had requirements of one's Physique and Spirit stats.
But Tempering Techniques required a certain amount of Stamina and Prana to finish their circulations in one go THROUGH chakra points to invoke the technique's effect. So the number of chakra points one had unlocked was also its requirement.
The Tempering Technique scrolls had much variety.
Some only required Vigor Chakra Points, but in exchange, only increased Physique and Stamina stats.
But some required both and increased both.
'Wait a second.' As Aeron continued browsing, he came across a strange scroll and stopped.
All other scrolls had the same materials, but this one had black material with golden letters.
And a big headline on top of it.
[ Forbidden-Class ]
'Huh?' Aeron found it weird. Because its requirement was absurd.
Not in a sense that it was too high, but it was too low.
[ Tempering Technique: Battlefield of Death ]
-Tier-1
-Difficulty: Forbidden.
-Chakra Point Requirement: 2 Vigor, 2 Spirit.
-Energy Requirement: 10 Stamina, 10 Prana.
-Effect:
—> Increases all four stats by an unlimited amount, depending on your run.
—> 100% chance to open chakra points during the run.
[ IMPORTANT ]
—> Battlefield of Death induces the user into a state of death, and hurls their conciousness to the realm of the dead with an anchor point. The user must survive and follow unknown conditions through an extremely harsh and dangerous world to complete the quest to return to their body. Death there means you are dead.
—> Out of 17,132,409 people who attempted to practice this, only 2 have survived and mastered this technique within Geoxar Network.
Aeron gulped. 'So many people tried it? And what is Geoxar Network?'
His hand moved tremblingly as he put his ID card on the scanner next to the scroll.
"Oi, oi, are you serious?"
Someone grabbed Aeron's shoulder as he turned, and saw a man in his thirties with a thick black beard, military haircut and muscular frame.
"Yes?" Aeron looked at him.
BEEP!
[ Are you sure you want to download this Tempering Technique into your ID? ]
The man stared at Aeron. "Are you going to practice that?"
"Yes."
[ Download Complete. You may borrow the Top-Grade room when practicing this technique. ]
"You are courting death, man." The man let go of his hand from Aeron's shoulder and shook his head. "Don't practice it."
Aeron wryly smiled. "Thank you for worrying about me."
"I am Aeron."
Aeron stretched his hand.
The man, slightly taken aback, promptly stretched his hand for handshake.
"I am Roger Willow."
"Nice to meet you." Aeron said, his face forming a subtle, sad smile. "Let's add each other on contact if you don't mind. I am new here, and I would appreciate it if you became my first friend here."
Roger was dumbfounded. Then his brows furrowed. "Are you really going to practice that technique?"
"Yes. I am going to do that right now, so I can increase my stats and pick a better Combat Technique."
Roger's mind short-circuited as he heard that.
"I know. But I have a solid reason for this." Aeron's face turned sad.
Roger blinked. "What?"
"I have nothing to lose. And I want to die. But if I am going to die anyway, I thought I would do my best for one last thing and change my fate."
"So I am going to do this. If I survive, we'll go celebrate. Drinks on me."
Aeron's eyes showed fiery determination. 'It helps that though I am acting, I also feel this way in a sense.'
"You tried to stop me, while others walked by, so you're my first friend here. Just wish me luck and don't stop me."
Roger's eyes teared up. "Man, you're crazy."
He took out his ID card and nudged it against Aeron's ID. "Alright. I hope you succeed."
Aeron nodded and walked away.
Leaving the library, he headed straight towards reception and asked them the location of the top-grade room.
After looking at his resolute expression with a dumbfounded gaze for two seconds, the lady gave him the directions.
"See you later."
'Is he joking?' The lady's mind short-circuited at Aeron's words.
But Aeron was feeling good.
Excited even.
Sure, this was a forbidden-class technique.
The survival rate was crazy low.
But he had a Primordial-class Gift that was uber powerful!
So far, he had consumed Prana constantly whenever he recovered it and created a total of 19 x Power of Two!
[ Power of Two (5 stacked) ] x 3
And by making these three stacks, he also acquired three Thousand Impact Fists! A 3-star card!
'I will get strong!' Aeron's eyes were filled with thrill and resolve both.
He had acquired a new destiny when he got this Primordial-tier Gift.
It was the world telling him that he was given a chance to rise high! And so, he wanted to do his best and go to extreme lengths to bring out the potential of this extreme gift.
[ You have acquired 1 x Epiphany of the card: Power of Two. ]
[ You have acquired 1 x Inspiration. Choose your second card. ]
Aeron paused, startled.
But only for a moment.
He continued walking as the top-grade room was not too far. His steps were faster than before, and his eyes danced with excitement.
'I am coming, Battlefield of Death.'