Chapter 69: Chapter 69 : Hectic Training

The next day…

Ralf’s consciousness passed through the void and arrived at the outside world. He didn’t rush to get up and instead took a moment to relax, he needed it. Ralf had just come from a rather intense training session.

‘Urgh, that was the worst,’ his face scrunched up as he recalled the experience.

Update P.

The concept of pain had been introduced into the Mental Space’s Zero System. And with it, any injuries their avatars suffered now incurred a dol debt. Needless to say, it was a horrible experience for the duo.

How they did this was by using the pain recorded in the medical ward and setting it as the highest value, a hundred. They couldn’t enhance this feeling of pain, but they could reduce it, and so they did. They set different values for different regions of their avatars. It wasn’t accurate but it hurt, which was the important part.

Now, Update P wasn’t something new. The idea to introduce pain had existed for a while.

The two weren’t masochists seeking pleasure nor did they plan on fighting in the outside world with their sense of pain activated. Even if they could endure the pain perfectly, they’d still deactivate the sense as doing so would free up a bit of brainpower that could be used elsewhere. No, instead of these reasons, the two were looking to fix a ‘bad habit’ they had picked up.

The duo were too eager to achieve victory. In situations that didn’t force them to use it, they would perform self-destructive acts like sacrificing limbs or accepting devastating blows in exchange for delivering lethal blows. Most of these would be successful, but at the same time, most would leave them with heavy irreparable injuries, and some would kill them only moments later.

There were many examples of this happening.

During a ground wrestle, Ralf removed the pin of a grenade, tossed it in the air, and rolled so that Rei’s back was facing it. Ralf ended up dying to it, but with Rei dying just a moment earlier, he claimed victory.

In a lengthy sword fight, Ralf and Rei were five metres away, both armed with an Odachi. Both liking their odds, slashed with everything they had. Rei, using an Asura slash, managed to edge ahead and decapitate Ralf first, then died. This was bad, but it got way worse.

The worst case of this habit was committed by Rei, who in the preparation phase of a duel, chopped off his left arm at the elbow, hollowed it out, stuck a grenade in it, pulled out the pin, and replaced it with a Psi pin, then frankensteined his arm back in place.

Wearing his black coat, he hid this while fighting. Ralf was doing his usual blade dance. Then, when near a sturdy barricade, he allowed Ralf to ‘severe’ his left arm with a slash. All was done naturally. He then dematerialized the pin and positioned himself behind some cover, leaving Ralf to be alone riddled with shrapnel.

This, while successful was extremely idiotic to do. They couldn’t just injure their bodies willy nilly. Not every battle was a ‘final battle’ situation where such drastic measures needed to be taken. Though, in the duo’s defence, the Mental Space’s battles and challenges had conditioned this type of thinking.

Ralf and Rei couldn’t just beat each other through normal means. Each battle was hard-fought and hard-won. They couldn’t just wait for a rare inaccuracy to pop up, they had to actively gamble to create a mating sequence. The same could be said of the Dungeons and Trials, which were oftentimes more challenging than the duels.

This inclination for recklessness was one easily developed in the Mental Space. While they consciously sought to treat their avatars as precious, like they were their own bodies, there was still a disconnect. There was a feeling of touch, but that was it. This subconsciously instilled a more relaxed attitude to taking damage.

Importantly, this bad habit didn’t show itself against opponents much weaker than themselves, like the monsters, but it did against those near their level or stronger, like Morris.

During the clash, a sizeable chunk of Ralf’s mind was considering and discarding reckless moves. The result of these futile mental processes ended up disadvantaging an already barely hanging on Ralf further and further throughout the fight.

While the cause was justified, this thinking and behaviour had to be corrected.

Update P was an attempt at correcting this. And so far, it had been a resounding success.

The first duel after Update P’s implementation made for one of the strangest battles to be fought between the two. If it had to be described in one word, that word would be: cautious. Their combat prowess fell drastically. It had taken a full hour before the outcome was decided and by the end of it, the two were questioning their sanity. But after realising that it had long left their souls, the duo pushed on.

Over the next few weeks, they continued to battle under these conditions, and over time, their minds had toughened up enough to endure the pain, and their combat prowess returned to normal levels. However, the inclination of recklessness that usually accompanied it had been shaved off.

The month they spent in accelerated time wasn’t just spent torturing themselves. In fact, most of their time was dedicated to creating and fighting in highly volatile settings.

While the headaches from using Overclock had definitely affected his combat prowess, this alone couldn’t be blamed when discussing Ralf’s poor performance.

Had he not decided to use the tree’s branch for footing, and instead made a Psi footing mid-air, he could have avoided the mallet attack, regained his bearings, and fought Morris at full strength.

Ralf’s blunder was treated like all other blunders, pointed out, discarded, and replaced with a more ideal move.

The volatile virtual spaces were made to etch these improvements on their souls.

Random gusts of strong winds, buildings and trees randomly toppling down, earthquake rumbling, lightning strikes, sudden violent weather changes, etc.

They couldn’t simulate every possibility, but the duo hoped that by training under many, they’d develop good habits and a sharp mental acuity, that would let them slip through an unexpected disaster. They wanted to be strong, strong enough to weather the storm a bad roll of fate’s dice would bring.

‘Enough relaxing. We have much to do.’

Ralf pushed the white duvet off him, got up, then walked to open space.

You are reading story The Silver Path at novel35.com

Psi Mirror.

When made smooth enough, everything became a mirror. The same applied to Psi structures. Psi Mirror was the most basic kind of light technique. Ralf materialised three large full-length mirrors around him and took in his fully nude form.

‘Mmm, not even a scar, impressive,’ he commented as he took in his pristine form.

No evidence of the life and death battle he fought just yesterday could be found on his body; no scars, no wounds, not even a scratch.

Despite confirming this fact in seconds, Ralf’s observations dragged on for a minute more, half double-checking and half admiring his chiselled physique.

He became spellbound by his reflection and was on his way to meeting the same fate as Narcissus, but luckily for him, he was saved by the timely humming of one even more exquisite than himself.

‘Mom’s up early. Must be for the job she mentioned,’ Ralf’s heart jolted in desire. Clothes quickly wrapped around his being then without a moment’s delay, he rushed out.

***

The morning flew by merrily. After breakfast with his mom and Rei, Ralf moved to do the daily physical exercises. In consideration of yesterday’s happenings, he lowered the session’s intensity. Now done, he cleaned the sweat and dirt off his figure.

‘Our physical strengthening is so slow to progress. Couldn’t it happen faster, haa - no wait, maybe when Micheal comes around, we can ask him to just shift us into the White Asura’s final form. He should be able to do that instantly. In the final form, we’ll be able to defeat even powerhouses. Will he though? Mmm…’

As he was contemplating the possibility of this happening, Ralf’s eyes fell on a set of ten monster crystals. His thoughts naturally shifted to the strange materials.

Their experiments on the monster crystals had begun. Predictably, their experiments hadn’t been able to net any new discoveries. The duo were lost for unique testing ideas. Pretty much everything they came up with had been done before to death.

And with their current circumstances, they were limited to performing simplistic experiments. So for now, they just let the monster crystals soak up sunlight in the backyard; their current plan regarding them was to collect a lot and build a giant crystal sculpture in the shape of a dragon.

Ralf imagined the mythical beast. ‘We should have it be at least big enough to ride on…hmm, though how much will that cost us?’ At the question, his forehead wrinkled.

Monster crystals were very much a controlled substance. Under the strict domain of the Adventurer Association, Adventurers couldn’t keep the monster crystals they retrieved, nor trade them or sell them. Every crystal, even the lowly red crystals, had to be handed into the Adventurer Association.

If one were to be caught with unaccounted for monster crystals, or bought monster crystals from the Adventurer Association for one purpose and instead used it for another, one could face very harsh punishment.

This strict stance was thought to be in part due to the monster crystals’ utility in power generation and grendo technology manufacturing but was mostly due to the Adventurer Association’s desire to combat overhunting.

To get crystals, one would have to buy them from a branch with a suitable reason, as Ralf had. It was quite expensive; it took all of the mission’s reward money and then some to purchase these ten red monster crystals. To purchase enough for the sculpture Ralf envisioned, they’d need a lot more funds.

‘Red dragon, it’ll be a long time till we see you,’ Ralf sighed at the thought.

Switching gears, he floated the monster crystals to his front. His gaze alternated between the orc and goblin monster crystals.

The reason he could make this differentiation was due to the difference between the two crystals’ shapes.

Goblins’ monster crystals were dipyramid in shape while orcs’ monster crystal was trigonal in shape. The shape and dimensions of monster crystals differed depending on which species they belonged to. It was with this difference that monster crystals could be so accurately identified and used in the Adventurer Association set up.

Another important distinction to mention had to do with the colour of monster crystals.

Monster crystals came in three main colours: red, purple, and blue. These colours signified the level of Ki the monster possessed, with red being the weakest and blue being the strongest. Red denoted Ki users Rank 1 -3, purple Rank 4-6, and blue Rank 7 -9.

The orc and goblin monster crystal before Ralf fell in the red category, though the orc monster was significantly darker in colour. This was because the orc the crystal originated from was a Rank 1 whereas the goblin was a Rank 3. The lighter the shade of the crystal was, the stronger it was.

Monster crystals’ colour difference and design difference were very convenient for the Adventurer Association. Another great convenience was in monsters’ species-specific Ki ranges.

While humans and aresians could be anything from Rank 1 to Rank 9, monsters had specific power ranges depending on their specific species. Humanoid monsters like goblins, orcs, ogres, and kobolds, for instance, were all Rank 5 and below. It was for this reason that they were allowed to roam the beginner zones. The general rule was, the quicker the birth and growth rate of the monster, the weaker it was. If monsters were as random as humans, power-wise, humanity would have long wiped them all out. Luckily for both parties, this wasn’t the case. The high-level species had been identified and carefully monitored.

Many higher powers took advantage of this fact. They would have high-level monsters breed to bolster the power of their tamed monster unit. The gryphon, a blue crystal monster, was a popular monster for this purpose.

‘A tamed monster? I don’t know, as cool as it would look, it’s not really our style. Also, there’s so many hurdles and restrictions…it’s just not worth it,’ Ralf returned the crystals to their sunbathing spots and headed out.

After fully equipping and getting his ‘good luck’ hug from Hana, Ralf left the Orchard District in search of his next adventure.

You can find story with these keywords: The Silver Path, Read The Silver Path, The Silver Path novel, The Silver Path book, The Silver Path story, The Silver Path full, The Silver Path Latest Chapter