Beyond The System Chapter 18: A Lesson in Stone and Blood

The three of us headed inside to grab a training room and start another cultivation session.

“So, Elric,” I started, tilting my head toward him, “since you finished your last system quest by torturing , have you gotten anything new?”

He shook his head, that annoyingly angelic smile creeping across his face. “No, not yet. But I’m sure when I level up my abilities more, they’ll co. So let keep torturing you.”

There it is again…that smile. It’s like a puppy trying to convince you it didn’t just destroy your couch.

He continued, “You two are Late Bloors, right? Any idea when you might get your systems?”

“No clue,” I said with a shrug.

Thea chid in, “I should get mine in a couple of days, hopefully.”

At the training desk, I paid this ti, dropping my total down to 180.

Once inside, Thea turned to Elric. “How’s your cultivation progress coming along?”

“I’ve finished the first reservoir in my solar plexus, so nine to go. I think I’ll focus on my lower body next since I don’t plan on fighting anyti soon.”

Thea nodded approvingly. “As long as they stay connected from the focus point, I don’t think you need to rush into the shoulders and fists just yet. Peter and I ford ten reservoirs, and honestly, I don’t think there’s much point in going beyond that.”

She then explained the transformation Elric would undergo once he completed all ten reservoirs, the heightened senses, improved strength, and enhanced reflexes.

“You an… you’re physically transford? Better senses, speed, and strength?” Elric asked, his aquamarine eyes wide with interest.

“That’s right,” I said, stretching my shoulders slightly. “But now, we’re in uncharted territory. Since we are the reservoir, and we can completely fill our body with energy, there’s not much point in focusing on improving circulation anymore. Instead, I’ve been thinking. What if we find a way to make the energy more powerful where we need it most?”

Thea crossed her arms, her expression thoughtful. “We could try exploring ways to fuse it into our bodies to refine them, but honestly, that idea feels impossible to . The Grand Channel is… it’s like its own organ. We can use it like a muscle. It flexes, it contracts, but we can’t just rge it with our bones or our skin. It doesn’t work that way.”

I nodded slowly, the sa frustration gnawing at . The idea of permanently fusing our internal strength into our physical body felt like trying to grip smoke. No matter how hard we focused or how much energy we pushed, it just wouldn’t stick.

“It’s like…” I paused, trying to find the right words. “It’s like the Grand Channel is a dam, holding back a lake of energy. If we draw water from that lake and pour it over a patch of dry ground, like, say, our arms or legs. It’ll soak in for a mont, but eventually, it evaporates. It doesn’t stay. The energy needs the channel to remain stable. Outside of it, it disperses.”

Thea spoke next, “Well, for now, we can just focus on completing the Energy Gathering phase. We’ll think about other techniques while cultivating it.”

And so that’s what we did. Elric practiced his reservoir formation, while Thea and I focused on cultivating, gathering energy into our bodies until they were full. The sa routine repeated: spar, consolidate, cultivate again. By the end of the hour, Elric had completed another reservoir, and Thea and I had increased our personal energy in the channel to around twenty percent, filling the rest with world force as an ergency reserve.

While walking around afterward, a thought struck . “So, do you think we should get so weapons or tools? Honestly, the arena fights are starting to feel pretty unfair when everyone else has them.”

Elric didn’t stop walking as he answered. “If you join a guild, they usually provide equipnt for a monthly fee. But to buy one outright? It’s incredibly expensive. I an, a basic tal club might not cost more than a couple hundred points, but a magical tool, like a crystal ball…”

He trailed off, his voice fading slightly. The unspoken weight of those words hung between us. It wasn’t just about the price. It was about access. He wouldn’t get one, not after being kicked out of the guild. And, honestly, I couldn’t bla him for feeling bitter about it.

“Alright, we probably have enough points, but it’s best to hold onto them. We need to make sure you can drop out of fights if needed,” I said, nodding toward Elric. “Speaking of which…” I glanced at Thea cautiously. “We’re much stronger now, and we can hold more energy. I think we can stand our ground against bottom-rankers—”

Thea’s sharp glare stopped mid-sentence, freezing the words in my throat. But then she sighed, her expression softening slightly. “I think you’re right. We should be able to hold our own against fighters and tanks now.”

I grinned, silently celebrating her permission like I’d just been handed the keys to a sports car.

“But,” she continued, and my grin froze in place, “you have to be extrely careful against mages. I’ve heard they cause the most accidental deaths out of anyone.”

Elric nodded, his voice calm but serious. He was quickly becoming my go-to encyclopedia for anything related to the Hall. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had done so serious research before arriving here.

“It depends, really. I an, it’s hard to cure an icicle spear through the heart… or a bad case of ‘charred beyond recognition.’” He gave a small, dry chuckle. “So magic is more dangerous than others. But low-rank mages shouldn’t be too deadly. Painful, sure…but deadly? Less so. Then again, ‘fire hurts’ isn’t exactly surprising news, right?”

“Well, let’s get it over with then. We can train more, shop, or, most importantly, eat after the match,” I said as we reached the battle registration desk.

Thea tapped her orb against Elric’s, her points dropping to 195 while his rose to 5. The difference was a little amusing.

Elric stayed behind as Thea and I registered for our fights. He’d wait until we were done before entering his match. Or more accurately, surrendering.

We sat in silence until Thea’s na was called.

“Good luck,” I said as she stood.

“Thanks.”

And just like that, she was gone, leaving alone with Elric in the increasingly stale waiting area.

“Man, this is taking forever,” I groaned, leaning back against the cold stone wall. “I wish we could watch the fights.”

“Oh, we can!” Elric said brightly, like he’d just revealed a hidden treasure map.

“Oh, sweet! Then—”

“For a price.”

Of course.

I sighed and trudged over to the attendant desk. “How much to watch a bottom-rank fight?”

“Thirty points,” she replied curtly, not even looking up.

I turned right around and plopped back down next to Elric.

“Too expensive?” he asked, his eyes sparkling with amusent.

“No, I’m sitting down because the prices were reasonable,” I deadpanned.

He let out a light chuckle, and despite everything, I couldn’t help but smirk.

I heard my na called, and soon I was stepping onto a rocky plateau arena. Jagged spires of stone jutted out at uneven angles, the air sharp with dust and the faint scent of iron. Across from stood my opponent.

A wiry girl clutching an obsidian disk. Her expression was sharp, focused, but beneath it, there was sothing else. Fear, maybe? Uncertainty?

“Status!” We both called out.

“Confird: Mage Class. Blessing: One with Stone. Confird: Late Bloor. Begin.”

A stone mage. In an arena like this? My odds didn’t look great. I rembered the commander’s advice. Observe, wait, don’t rush in, but the ground beneath my boots felt far too unstable for patience.

The girl didn’t move. Instead, she lifted the obsidian disk. From this distance, my enhanced sight picked up faint ripple-like etchings carved into its surface. Patterns. Not random scratches…designs.

Should I approach? Would charging her give her less ti to set up whatever she was planning?

Before I could decide, glowing brown orbs of light manifested around the disk. They hovered like suspended droplets before streaming toward the etchings, racing along the patterns until they reached the center. As they traveled, they accelerated, like water rushing down narrowing grooves.

When the disk’s center flared with light, the girl slamd her free hand into the ground.

The disk went dark.

And the earth scread.

A jagged stone spire erupted inches from where I had been standing, slicing clean through the air as I dove sideways. The shockwave hit like a hamr, rattling my bones.

Patience is a luxury I don’t have here.

I roared and charged, energy coursing through like molten steel. Either she’d need ti to prepare another attack, or I’d die trying to stop her. She wasn’t prepared for speed. My tackle hit her square in the chest, and we crashed to the stone ground. The disk skittered away, landing a few feet to our left.

She scread. Raw, terrified, and her hands shot up in a pitiful attempt to shield her face. My fist was raised, ready to strike, but I froze mid-swing.

Tears streaked her dusty cheeks, her lips trembling as she let out a small, choked sob.

This wasn’t a hardened killer. This wasn’t so adrenaline-pumped warrior. She was terrified.

“Surrender,” I said firmly, my voice sharp but steady.

She shuddered violently. “I can’t. I don’t have any points left.”

I let out a long breath, feeling the anger bleed out of . Pushing myself off her, I stood and turned to the unseen sky above us.

“The match is over! She can’t fight anymore!” I shouted.

Silence.

I waited, but there was no response. Not from the chanical voice, not from the arena staff. Nothing.

“She’s done!” I barked again, frustration bubbling up like bile. “What, am I supposed to beat her bloody just so you sick freaks can get your entertainnt?”

The silence that followed felt heavy, oppressive. Then, finally, a voice. Not chanical, but resolute and cold, echoed down from sowhere unseen.

“We will determine when she is unable to fight.”

The girl’s small fra trembled as she clutched her arms to her chest, but she didn’t move.

I turned back to the sky, or whatever caras were watching from above. “She’s obviously lost! What, do you want to break her bones? Crush her spirit? Are we training soldiers or monsters here?!”

The tallic clunk of an elevator filled the silence. Its stone doors opened, and a tall man stepped out. His stride was deliberate, his expression unreadable. He approached the girl first.

“Pick up your tool,” he said flatly.

She scrambled for the obsidian disk, clutching it tight like a lifeline.

“Leave through the exit.”

She did. Without hesitation, she fled through the stone archway, leaving just and the man alone in the arena.

“So… do I win?” I asked, my voice uncertain.

He didn’t answer. His gaze remained locked on , expression as hollow and cold as stone. And then.

He moved.

One mont he was ten feet away, the next he was inches in front of . His fist slamd into my stomach like a piston. My vision shattered around the edges, my lungs convulsed, and I staggered back, clutching my abdon.

“What—what are you—”

Before I could finish, a black baton appeared in his hand, a blur of motion arcing downward. It connected with my ribs in a aty crack. The force buckled my knees, and I collapsed to one side, choking on a strangled gasp.

I didn’t have ti to recover before his hand closed around my jaw. Fingers like iron clamps locked in place as he slamd my head against the rocky ground. Stars exploded behind my eyes, static filled my ears, and the world twisted into sothing surreal and unrecognizable.

For a brief, fleeting mont, there was silence.

My head lolled to the side, my cheek pressed against the cold stone. But then his voice cut through the haze, sharp and biting.

“If we say fight, you fight.”

His boot connected with my ribs again. Sothing deep inside shifted, a jagged pain radiating outward from the impact point like splintering glass.

Another kick.

Another crack.

Every nerve in my body felt raw, exposed, like live wires stripped of insulation.

By the ti the punishnt stopped, I couldn’t tell if seconds or hours had passed. My breath ca in shallow gasps, my chest hitching painfully with every inhale. Darkness clawed at the edges of my vision, but consciousness clung to stubbornly, refusing to let go.

The last thing I rembered was the sharp sting of gravel digging into my cheek, the distant echo of the elevator doors sliding open… and then silence.

When I ca to again, the world was sharper this ti, still hazy around the edges, but shapes and colors started to settle into sothing familiar. Above , the leaves swayed gently against a sky painted with streaks of orange and pale blue. My ribs ached deep and dull, and every breath was tight, but at least I could breathe.

“Peter?” Thea’s voice ca softly from beside , careful and trembling around the edges. Her face hovered into view, her storm-gray eyes filled with worry that she wasn’t even trying to hide. Her hair was a ss, a few loose strands stuck to her forehead, and her lips were pressed tight together as if she’d been holding back tears.

“You’re awake.” Relief softened the tension in her shoulders.

“Barely,” I croaked, wincing as my throat scraped out the word.

“Don’t talk too much,” she said, glancing over her shoulder. “Elric’s almost ready.”

I turned my head slightly. It felt like trying to move a sack of stones strapped to my neck. Elric was kneeling nearby, his palms glowing faintly with pale light as he muttered sothing under his breath. His expression was pinched with focus, beads of sweat trailing down his temples.

When he finally looked up, his lips pressed into a thin line. “Peter, I’m going to start now. It’s… it’s going to hurt, but I promise, it’ll help.”

There was sothing in his voice. A faint tremor, a hesitation. I realized then that the sight of laid out like this had shaken him.

Elric exhaled slowly, steadying himself before he pressed his glowing hands gently over my chest. Warmth spread outward. Not the comforting kind, but sharp, invasive warmth that dug deep into every fracture, every bruised ligant and cracked bone. It was an ache that didn’t flare so much as it spread, pulling at the edges of each wound, stitching them together with deliberate, agonizing care.

My jaw clenched tight, and my hands dug into the earth beneath , but I didn’t make a sound. Through the haze of pain, I felt Thea’s hand on my shoulder tighten slightly as if she were trying to share even a fraction of the weight.

Elric’s hands trembled slightly as he worked, the glow pulsing faintly with every deliberate motion. He was careful, impossibly so, his breaths shallow with concentration as he guided the energy where it needed to go.

Eventually, the pain ebbed. Duller, manageable. My ribs felt wrapped in sothing heavy, almost like an invisible brace. I let out a shaky breath, feeling air move freely through my chest for the first ti since the beating.

“It’s done,” Elric said softly, leaning back on his heels, his face pale from exertion.

Thea helped sit up against a nearby tree, her hands steady but her expression tight with concern.

“What happened?” she asked quietly. “I walked out and saw a knight dragging you out of the Hall.”

Elric filled in the gaps. “They pulled him out of the elevator. Then they showed him off, yelling about ‘not following the rules.’”

I took a deep breath, wincing as my ribs protested, and explained everything. The girl, the obsidian disk, her fear, my refusal to beat her when she was clearly unable to fight.

When I finished, silence settled over us, heavy and uncomfortable. Thea’s storm-gray eyes were clouded with thought, her brows drawn together in a tight line.

Finally, she spoke. “Peter, we have to follow the rules. When we join the military, we’ll have to follow orders. If they wanted you to continue, you could’ve just knocked her out. Soone would’ve healed her after—”

“That’s insane!” I snapped, cutting her off. “She couldn’t fight back, Thea. She was helpless. And what? Just so whoever’s watching can confirm I can ‘follow orders,’ I have to beat so defenseless girl into the dirt? No. Absolutely not.”

Thea flinched slightly at my tone, and I imdiately regretted snapping at her. But I couldn’t bring myself to apologize, not yet. The raw edge of my anger was still too sharp.

“The answer is no,” I said firmly. “I refuse to do that.”

Silence settled again, only broken by the faint rustle of leaves above us.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “Elric, how many more days of treatnt will I need?”

Elric hesitated. “I—I’m not sure. You’ve recovered way more than I expected. Maybe your transformation helped more than just your senses and physical attributes. I think… maybe one more treatnt tomorrow morning, and you’ll be fine.”

I nodded, feeling so relief at the prospect of not spending more days in pain.

“One more thing,” I said, shifting the topic. “Elric, do you know anything about a disk-like tool for magic? Black, kind of obsidian-looking, with spiral etchings?”

He shook his head, looking apologetic. To my surprise, Thea spoke up instead.

“It’s used to accelerate the flow of magic,” she said, her voice clear and confident. “It’s made from a rare material that acts as a conduit for elental energy. Which is different from world energy and internal strength. The spirals etched into it form a lattice that controls the flow.”

I stared at her, mouth slightly open. “How do you know that?”

Her gaze flickered away for a mont. “My mom was a magician… Anyway,” she continued quickly, “you gather energy onto the disk, and it runs along the grooves. The shape of the spirals speeds up the flow, focusing it toward the crystal in the center. From there, the mage can draw it into their body or release it outward as a spell.”

I couldn’t help but grin as an idea sparked in my mind. “Thea, the grooves… their shape. The magical energy flows through them like water and speeds up. If inner strength circulated faster, what would happen?”

She froze, her eyes wide as realization dawned. “If you circulate it quicker, you could diffuse more energy into your body at once. That would an bigger stat boosts, more strength, more speed, everything.”

“Exactly,” I said, feeling excitent bubbling in my chest.

“But…” she added, her voice hesitant, “if you circulate it faster, you’d burn through your energy much more quickly.”

“That’s true,” I admitted. “But right now, how long would it take for us to recover if we used up most of our internal strength?”

She thought for a mont, her brows furrowed in concentration. “Well… if you used everything, you’d probably die. But if you used most of it, it would recover naturally over ti. If we eventually filled the entire Grand Channel with internal strength and used it all in one burst… maybe it would take an entire day to recover fully.”

I nodded thoughtfully, leaning my head back against the tree bark. The idea was taking shape in my mind.