Rakna blurred into existence inside of the Pavilion’s Hall and walked up the stairs of the private section. He went to the closest training room but as he was about to open it, he suddenly thought of something.

He looked to the left at another door with a different placard above it. “I haven’t tried out that one yet, have I?” He asked himself rhetorically and approached it. When he pressed the button for the door to open, the interior was revealed to him.

It wasn’t a lot different from the training room. It was as empty and the floor and ceiling were the same. But the overall size was lower and the room had a round shape instead of a square one. When he stepped inside, a synthetical voice echoed.

|| Welcome to the Gravity Room. ||

Rakna hummed. “Are you the same interface as the training room?”

|| Affirmative. Trii at your service. ||

He snorted. “Nice to see you like the name.”

|| I have been sharing it with other Hosts as well. It was a mutual opinion that it made it easier to address me. Thank you. ||

“Good to hear. Now, can you tell me how the Gravity Room is different from a Training Room? You did tell me that you could do anything in the latter. Why would you need this place?”

|| While it is possible to alter gravity in the training rooms, it is not to the extent of this place. The upper limit for the gravity increase is considerably higher and optimized for such use. You can see it as a way for the management to avoid wastage of energy. ||

“I see. How far can you increase gravity then?”

|| The dimension of this room is currently set at its lowest tier. At this point, I can increase gravity to a value of 500 m/s². ||

“So, about fifty times stronger than normal, huh?”

|| Affirmative. ||

“For now, turn it up to 50.”

|| Understood. ||

At his command, the lights of the room dimmed and brightened in repetition until he suddenly felt a heavy pressure on him. His knees buckled up a bit but it was nothing he couldn’t deal with. He grunted and cracked his neck as he straightened his spine.

“Not bad. Increase it again; 100.”

In a second, the pressure increased and this time, Rakna started feeling a bit strained to remain standing straight. “Let’s go with this for now,” he said and opened a few system windows before starting any actual training.

❮ ◈ ❯

Dungeon Bane

The title gained after single-handedly destroying a Dungeon. This is an atypical feat that will go in the annals of the System. For such an achievement, the holder will be rewarded with the following effects whilst exploring Dungeons:

+5% All Attributes.

+10% Experience.

+15% Talys.

Additional Rewards:

+5 Volatile Attribute Points.

+1 Skill Point.

Note: The Dungeon Bosses will now expect you whenever you enter a Dungeon. When fighting against you, their stats and attributes will be boosted depending on how strong you are compared to them.

---

Designation: Skill/Spontaneous Skill

Name: Stone Eye

Requirements: Lv.50 | 50 INT |

Description:

The user will have one of their eyes turned into one of a Gorgon. It is a powerful ability in a fight as long as it can be used effectively. For this skill to show its full potential, a duplicate will be required.

One Eye Effects:

When an enemy crosses their eyes with yours, their body will feel sluggish. Depending on their resistance, their agility could go down as far as 50%. You also become immune to petrification through eye contact

Two Eyes Effects:

On top of the agility debuff, the victim will slowly turn into stone. The spots where the petrification starts are random and the speed at which it spreads varies based on the resistance of the other party as well as the amount of time they looked into the user’s eyes.

Once completely petrified, their resistance will be decided if they are capable of surviving or are simply temporarily trapped in a shell of stone.

---

Onera

The Cloud of Dreams is the Second Layer of Enthymio. It allows the user to see into a dimension with direct access to the dreams of living beings.

While using Onera, it is possible to perceive the ongoing dreams of people and access them on a physical level. With high proficiency, creating dreams is also feasible and will be built according to the target’s inner thoughts. The user will have no control over its formation.

Whatever the user does inside will not necessarily be known to the dreamer but if it does, it may affect them on a subconscious level. Implanting ideas in their mind is an example of such an outcome.

Note: When the user comes in contact with the target within a dream, the latter will be affected by their presence and gain full awareness as if he was awake. If the dreamer is killed within the dream, they will either die or become spiritually damaged which can either be uncurable or impairing if nothing is done to repair it.

❮ ◈ ❯

“Dungeon-exclusive buffs, huh? Volatile and skill points as well. Not bad,” Rakna commented after reading the effects of his newest title. When he passed to the next, he clicked his tongue. “I’m not sure I’ll learn this one, but it’s a bit annoying that I destroyed the Dungeon before I could get two. Let’s hope it’s available for sale,” he muttered and finished with Onera.

“Higure, what is your opinion on this layer?”

“{Hmm, it’s not viable at all in a fight, that’s for sure, but sometimes it can be useful. You could also use it as a way to kill someone without having to be equal or superior in strength. Fights that occur in dreams do not fully depend on your real capabilities. But it’s hazardous, as you cannot predict the result in any way. So, use it when you believe it’s your only chance.}”

“{Other than that, it’s quite easy to manipulate someone with it if done well. You can make them love something or someone by showing them the right things. Sometimes, memories manifested within a dream can be modified to some extent. It’s like intruding into someone’s mind. Though that will be offset if you meet the target within the dream.}”

“Interesting… it will be quite a circumstantial ability though,” Rakna commented and closed the windows. The Wrath Yaksha skill card then passed by his mind. Now that he had reached level 50, he met two of the conditions to learn it but to meet the attribute cap requirement, he would need to spend quite a lot of free points.

‘I think it will be rather compatible with Obsidian Blood but let’s save points for now,’ he thought and then focused on the volatile points he had gotten. Without much thought, he put them all into speed. He could put them somewhere else whenever he wanted so there was no point hesitating.

“Now, there are some things I want to try. Does any of you know how I should go about manifesting my Kzanaria?” He asked as he passively started doing some physical exercises under the pressure of the gravity room.

[Negative.]

“{No idea.}”

“{I do not.}”

“…thanks.”

* * *

An hour later or so, Rakna did his last push-up and took a deep breath before jumping back on his feet. He wiped the sweat on his face with his sleeve. He swallowed low tier stamina and healing potions to relieve the heat in his muscles, even if it didn’t work anymore as it did before since his level was too high.

After that, he opened his status and looked at the second decimals of his attributes and squinted when he saw that it had gone up by a bit.

“As expected, I thought it was possible when Eva mentioned attributes gained by our own effort. It makes sense if you think about it. This is not a ‘game’. It’s probably why there is even a gravity room in the first place. Though it’s most likely going to get slower and slower to increase it through pure effort like this.”

“{Is it?}” Higure remarked curiously. “{I never really trained my body. I just got stronger while growing older. Most Wilden are like that.}”

“I feel cheated.”

“{I don’t want to hear that from you.}”

Rakna snorted and stretched his arms. “Trii, can you create fight dummies in here? Ones that have basic fighting capabilities?”

|| Feasible. ||

“Then do it. Decrease the gravity back to 50 and create around five of them. At level 30 strength if possible. I also want them to be durable,” he instructed and five figures promptly appeared in front of him in flashes of light. They were white puppets with a humanoid shape and they were all in a basic stance.

Rakna breathed in and reminded himself of a certain stance he hadn’t taken or seen in a while. He put his right fist to the front and his left one close to his heart and parted his legs equally. And as if on cue, the puppets charged at him from three different directions. Two of them leaped and spun in the air to ax-kick him.

Within a second, Rakna had three attacks coming from his front, left, right, and two from above his head. He calmly waited until they were right next to him and in the blink of an eye, his right fist landed on the head of the one to his right, his left elbow hit the one to his left and he proceeded to use the same arm to punch the one in the front.

His right arm then went up to grab one of the legs falling toward him. He threw the puppet away at full strength and as he pivoted his body to do that, he dodged the last puppet and kneed it in the head, and doubled it with a kick.

When he was done, he put his leg back on the floor and the five puppets crashed in their spots at the same time. Rakna cracked his neck and casually patted his shoulder.

“{Skillful execution. What is that martial art called? It’s different from what I’ve seen you use until now,}” the lioness asked.

“It’s Bajiquan; a bit modified to my use,” he answered. “My uncle showed it to me a long time ago but I didn’t touch it in a long time. I focused more on Taekwondo and Karate.”

“{So… you just did that on instinct with a basic understanding of the martial art?}” Higure almost couldn’t believe her ears. “{You’re scary… No one can trust the levels of your proficiencies when it comes to stuff like this. However, why are you practicing it now?}”

“I have Weapon Mastery but I have yet to get CQC, which is the equivalent but with close-quarter combat. It would be nice to have my hand-to-hand skills fuse. It’s not like I will lose them. From my understanding, if I were to fuse them, it’s not like it would become the exact same as anyone who has it. It’s to each his own. It’s a sort of condensed of all that we learn. I think it’s a good thing for me to have. For Weapon Mastery, I needed related proficiencies at level 5. I don’t know how many I need, but I’ll just practice a few combat techniques to level 5 until it works.”

“{Do you really know that many martial arts at a basic level?}”

“Yes,” Rakna replied as he lowered his head under the kick of one of the puppets. He punched it in the stomach then grabbed its neck to push him to the side as he engaged another one. “My uncle valued variety a lot. The more things you can do, the better.”

“{Hm, I do agree with that mindset to some extent. The more I hear about him, the more I want to meet him; that uncle of yours,}” Higure said. “{His last name is Blade, right?}”

‘Yeah,’ Rakna responded mentally and elbowed one of the puppets as the level up of his proficiency sounded in his ears. ‘I guess I can tell you. His name is Arimane Blade. Though he prefers his close ones to call him Arima. But the eyesore should be able to tell you that.’

“{My apologies… am I the eyesore?}” Fray asked while blinking and Higure snickered.

‘Who else?’

“{That is rude… but I did use my magic to find out about that man. It was even recorded in a book inside my library. You can take a look at it whenever you want to. Though, personally, I am too afraid to even touch it.}”

“{Huh? Why? Is that man’s life too scary even for you?}”

“{Hm? Oh no. His life is an epic tale that I admire. But that’s not what I mean. The second that I finished that book, it started gaining some sort of power on its own,}” Fray said solemnly. “{I even had to make a special room for it to fend off the killing intent coming out of it. Whenever I get close to it, I feel like entering the den of a dragon. I am too afraid to open it now.}”

“{How intriguing… Can I come to take a look?}”

“{Of course.}”

Rakna rolled his eyes as they started chatting and punched two puppets at the same time. As he batted the dummies away again, he thought about what the storyteller had just told him. Why did it have such an effect? Was it because his uncle was just that terrifying?

Even now, after getting that much stronger with the System, even if he knew that he could cause incredible destruction with his magic, he still felt inferior. No matter how he imagined it, he felt as if he would lose every time that he’d face his uncle.

‘Is it simply because he was my teacher? Or perhaps is he just that good at making you feel less than what you are?’ Rakna snorted in amusement at the thought. ‘No… he is just the one in the end. He is what he trained me to turn into; the best killer that has ever lived.’