18 huge crystals appeared, spinning around me then started combing together to become one huge crystal, attached to my right arm. The color was somewhat purple and it emanated a monstrous power.
« Mana: 75.000/150.000 »
The two fists clashed against each other, and a huge thunderous sound resounded in more than three kilometers of area around. Even though the place was naturally enclosed, the sound still permeated, reverberating all around the mountains.
– CRACK! –
I was sent flying parallel with the stonewall for more than 10 meters, while the Infernal Gorilla was also sent flying but only for half the distance, crashing into a wall.
“Cough!”
I spat out some blood that entered my lungs then hastily got up, I looked at myself and saw my clothes halfway tattered, having no cloth on my right side of the body. My right hand was purplish-black from the burn and impact while my body was covered in small cuts.
“[Healing Palms]”
I started to heal myself. I was pleasantly surprised with how efficient the skill was. The burnt skin from my arm was almost healed while the little cuts that I was able to touch disappeared completely.
“This is fascinating! I can’t wait to research this ability in more detail later.”
“Grrr…”
I looked in front and saw the Infernal Gorilla stepping out from the huge hole inside the stonewall. He was covered in cracks and from inside them, lava was gushing out. His eyes shone brighter than before. He looked me in his eyes and opened his mouth wide. Inside it, a red and incandescent light was emanating, getting stronger and stronger.
S***! That’s one of the strongest skills he has, « Volcanic Breath ». If I get hit by that I’ll leave this world as fast as I got here!
That skill would take around five seconds to charge up, I had to choose to either retreat or fight in less than 3 seconds now. I was thinking for a strategy of how I could counter this, but then an idea came to my mind.
“[Sliding Step]!”
“Growl?”
I activated the moving skill and appeared right under the gorilla. The Infernal Gorilla never expected me to get near it when it was preparing such a destructive move. It tried to release the strong breath faster than normal, but it was already too late for him at this point.
“[Seismic Step]!“
I touched the ground with my hands and kicked upwards toward his chin. The Earth element inside my foot released a strong shockwave, which almost crushed the Gorilla’s chin.
I know this from a movie. Good thing that it actually worked.
I was sweating all over from the incandescente heat.
“Mpf!”
The Gorilla’s mouth closed up and the skill activated. I hastily ran away right before it exploded.
– BOOM! –
The mouth of the Gorilla exploded and lava gushed upwards like a fountain. Happily, I was fast enough to get away from it in time.
“Ghu! Grr gah!”
The Gorilla swayed left and right and tried to feel its non-existent chin. Lava was still flowing from his mouth while a magmatic tongue was swaying up and down.
“Even for a golem-type monster, this is disgusting…”
“GROWL!”
The Gorilla roared again and pouched towards me for the third time. He was extremely furious and the flaming eyes already turned into torches.
“Woah! Dodge!”
I dodged every fist he threw toward me. Because of my new body, I was able to move in a way I couldn’t before. What really surprised me, was how I was able to move like this only by relying on my reflexes.
Is this because of my strong connection with the subconsciousness? If so, then maybe I can strengthen it now!
Since young I had better instincts and reflexes than the others, even though I was not necessarily practicing martial arts at that time. For example, I was able to dodge or reflect a hit, punch or kick even before I started practicing, doing all of this instinctively. While I was dodging, I tried to get more used with the new body and with my reflexes.
“ROAR!”
The gorilla was furious about missing his target so many times. Magmatic rocks appeared and enveloped his fists, making them two times bigger.
“Damn it!”
I flew high in the sky after dodging one punch.
– BOOM! –
The punch obliterated the ground then it exploded, launching pebbles in the vicinity and making a little cut on my nose.
This was another skill of the Infernal Gorilla, named « Exploding Fist ». The one that faced my « Sura’s Warth » was « Incinerating Fist », a skill that strengthened the punch and enveloped it in lava, making it one of the deadliest punching skills the gorilla has in his arsenal. I dodged the first punch but right now, I was still in the air. If I won’t do something fast, the second punch would destroy me.
I have no footing here. If I throw another « Sura’s Wrath » I would be in disadvantage and get blown either way…
I started to spin the wheels inside my head as fast as possible, thinking of how I could put my skills to use in the best way possible when I suddenly thought of something.
“Let’s wish the laws of physics are with me!”
I placed both my hands in front and right before the fist could blow me up. I activated the next skill.
“[Gravitational Push]!”
A shockwave was created from my palms and it sent me flying, dodging the explosive fist just in time.
“Woah!”
To my surprise, it worked better than I thought. I sent myself flying backward for around 20 m, dodging the deadly punch of the Gorilla.
“GROAAH!”
The Gorilla roared in annoyance then started to hit the ground, again and again, stronger each time. The shockwave reverberated and made the ground shock.
“What is this beast doing?”
I looked at the Gorilla, puzzled. He seemed to be like a brat whose castle of sand has been destroyed by the waves of the Sea.
“Groah!”
– THUD! –
Suddenly, his two fists entered the ground till the wrists and then it started to shine with a red aura.
“… Oh, God…”
My face turned pale. I remembered this skill as the one the Dungeon Boss would use when he entered the enraged mode at 3% HP.
If I’m not wrong, the admins named this ability « The End ». It was mostly because it was one of the strongest abilities a boss could have inside the game and even someone with 500 DEF wouldn’t be able to survive it.
And, because this was no longer a game, the beast was free to use the skills whenever he wished, not being controlled by an AI to command him when to activate a skill. The ground started to shake and crack all around the Infernal Gorilla. He looked at me with wild eyes as if ready to give his life only to kill me.
“Ohoho~ Is this a ‘do or die’ situation? Alright! Bring it on!”
My blood was boiling and my spirit rose like crazy. The feeling of fear that I expected wasn’t even near, but a feeling of excitement, almost insanity, took over.
Is this my reaction at facing death? Hah! It must be because of those damn visions, always placing me in front of death over and over again; I can only feel excitement now.
I focused and released almost all the chi I had inside my body, making the air vibrate around me and a mini-tornado to form.
Mana: 42.000/150.000 → 5.000/150.000
A normal ability would consume not even 1000 mana, but because this was no longer a game, I was able to infuse two, five, ten and even twenty times more mana than before, evolving the skills to boss-like abilities. Right now, I wanted to use almost all my mana on [Iron Body], which normally consumes only 800 mana points.
Even so, these limits are placed with a reason.
“Pffft!” → Shen
After releasing and enveloping myself with this much chi combined with mana, I felt like being crushed and unable to breathe and because of the sudden shock, I spit out blood some blood.
Sick! And I didn’t even change the mana into metal element!
My chest was under incredible pressure and my bones felt like cracking.
“Haha! Who would’ve thought that I almost killed myself! That’s why I need to research all of these abilities, damn it!”
“ROAGH!”
– SHOWS! –
The Gorilla roared again, giving the signal that his skill was ready. Huge pillars of fire then suddenly erected from the ground. The pillars had around 5m circumference and were as tall as a normal tree in this world. They appeared spontaneously and disappeared just as fast, making one unable to simply dodge.
“Now, if such a pillar were to appear even one meter away from me, I would be thankful if I will not die on the spot.” → Shen
I will have to activate this ridiculous mana, so my defense would raise enough to resist the fires.
– CRACK –
“Hm?!” → Shen
Suddenly, half a meter away from me, a little crack appeared.
“Shi-!” → Shen
[IRON BODY]!
– FFFHOOWWSS! –
A huge pillar appeared and even engulfed me. Right before it could burn me to death, I activated the skill.
– CRACK! –
I heard my bones make loud noises. My skin transformed in iron and a white luster was enveloping me. The fire was incredibly intense, but not to the point to kill me yet. What was really painful was the pressure from all the mana that took the form of metal around me.
S***! Metal is no good against fire! If this keeps on going for more than 4 seconds, I’ll be grilled!
Sweat had no time to form before evaporating. Not even 2 seconds passed and my skin was already drying and cracking, turning into charcoal.
– VHOWM Fhush~ –
Suddenly, the fire pillar extinguished and left behind a black silhouette on top of magma. That was me, who barely passed through the doors of Hell.
“…” → Shen
HP: 60.045/350.000 remains… I can consider the experiment as a success…
Even though « Iron Body » also dealt damage, it protected me from most of it, leaving me with almost a one-fourth of the HP. I stepped outside the magma pond and looked in front. Everywhere on a 50m radius, one could see tens of such magma ponds and in the middle of it all, a huge Gorilla made of black stone sitting in a pool of lava, unmoving.
He used its last vitality to take me together with him… What a fool.
I reached my palm out and used « Energy Beam ». A think beam shot out and destroyed the gorilla’s unmoving body in pieces.
“As if I would let you get resurrected.” → Shen
After using « The End », if the body weren’t destroyed in time, the Infernal Gorilla would absorb the lava and would be able to heal himself back to half the health.
“Heck… I used up 3000 mana points only for that beam… I should heal myself now, before I pass out…” → Shen
I used up all my remaining mana to heal the more severe injuries, for example the burns all over my body. I took out Shu’s ragged clothes and putted them on. From the last attack, I remained with not even a fiber of material on me to cover myself.
After doing so, I finally entered the cave.
“There better not be another boss monster, damn it!” → Shen
I was incredibly tired with no possibility to control mana and close to zero chi inside my body.
I dragged myself inside, but after seeing the interior, I forgot completely about caution.
“Wah!”
Damn, looks much more amazing than from the outside! The elder had some work in making this place, I thank you again for letting me stay here.
I was surprised by how neat the walls, the ceiling, and the ground were. It was as if that elder scraped every little bump from inside the cave.
I was surprised by how amazing the interior was. Right at the entrance from inside, there was a huge space with a diameter of 5m in front of the exit in a semi-circle, there were 4 caves which continued inside the mountain. From right to left, one was the library. The stone shelves were full of books about cultivation, martial arts techniques, mana manipulation and even some common knowledge that I really needed. The next one was the storehouse. There were many items for crafting but what truly caught my eyes was a little mountain of Energy Stones, I felt like jumping from happiness.
The Energy Stones were the most elemental item and the most searched inside the game, making it extremely useful for any kind of profession.
The next cave was the armory, there were all kinds of armors and weapons; from swords to bows, from halberds to spears and other kind of weapons I had no idea how to use. There was even a chain with a spearhead and…
Are these ninja weapons? What in the world was the class of this elder?
After that, the armors were, again, of all kinds: from leather to heavy armor, from magical robes to infernal capes, but what stood out from all of this was a coat in the middle of the room, levitating on its own. It was the coat worn by the elder, when he showed himself to me. I got closer to the coat and only with the thought of wearing it, it came flying my way and situated itself on my shoulders.
“It seems that it was created to memorize the first mental wave coming towards as it’s master. How was something like this crafted ?” → Shen
After wearing the coat, some information about it came into my mind, together with the activation mode for the « Barrier » that activates in critical moments and « Aura Release ».
“« Aura Release »? How does that work?” → Shen
The coat activated the ability and I saw how the dust and the air were going around me as if trying to evade me; even the little stones on the ground moved aside the moment I activated it.
“Cool! Like this I won’t have to worry about the dust and dirt on me, hehe~ awesome”. → Shen
The last room was the meditation room, there was a normal bed inside it and deeper inside the room, a huge bathtub filled with water was built.
“For real?! There is such a thing? I haven’t washed myself after being summoned into this world. Hop in!” → Shen
I striped instantly then jumped in the bathtub made of stone. It was 4m cubes, a really huge basin with a magic circle under it that after activating it, it would suck the energy around to release warmth inside the bathtub. Warming the water at the perfect temperature. The water was coming from the little river and it would be poured into an underground river from the other opening.
“OUCH! I forgot, I’m still injured. And what’s with this bathtub?” → Shen
‘Isn’t it more like a basin? Why is it so huge…?’
After getting out from the bath… or basin, I entered the library and took the first book I saw, ‘The circulation of metals’ written by Saint Gabriel. I looked at more books and found out that the author of every book was this « Gabriel ».
So the elder with the look of an emperor is named Gabriel.
I started reading the introduction of the book:
“Isn’t this already known? I mean, by using this circulatory system of the metals, someone can control a sword with his own mind like the class Sword Master, right?… Or they use it in another form like telekinesis, making it subconsciously only for the sword? That’s… amazing and dumb at the same time.” → Shen
I felt a little bit dumbfounded by this discovery. Inside the game, the class Sword Master had some skills that would make the sword levitate, when controlled by its owner.
I always asked myself: why is the Sword Master only able to make the sword levitate and not some other objects? Now, to find out that nobody really thought of trying such a thing as controlling something else but the sword… I have no words.
I shook my head and just laughed.
“Or maybe I’m simply overthinking.”
I can’t be the only one who thought of this, come on. → Shen
