The Grind Starts
'I kinda rock this fit, though.' Christopher humd as he jogged.
He had discarded his armor for a set of pure white clothes. White cargo pants and a tight-fitting long-sleeved shirt as well as a white cloak with a hood that flapped in the wind. And with his Mask of the Drear, he looked like a ghost, or an assassin, or maybe even both.
And this was contrasted by the blood-red sheath that Scarlet rested inside on his left side to be wielded by his right hand and the green sheath Norn was in by his right side to be wielded in his left.
As for why Christopher had sheaths for the weapons, well, there were two reasons.
First of all, they looked cool. Second, they served a purpose, albeit one that wasn't particularly necessary.
As it turned out, his weapons, especially Scarlet, had a pretty nacing Aura on them. And while they could reign in these Auras, they still gave off a feeling of existential dread toward whoever looked at them.
Your journey continues with empire
Christopher knew this because there were tis when he would casually draw out any of the weapons, and the mbers of his cohort would look at them warily.
It was when Silver told him directly that he finally committed to making the sheaths. Though in hindsight, he should have seen sothing like that happening.
After all, the first ti he brought our Scarlet, Silver behaved like he was under imnse threat, and the system quite literally told him to put it away or he could risk causing heavy damage to the Dinsion at that point.
Moreover, even though Norn wasn't nearly as bloodthirsty as her counterpart, she was no less lethal. Again, his subordinates, especially Aisha this ti, told him that just looking at the blade made them feel extrely uncomfortable. The best way they could describe it was that it felt like having countless threads on your body being tugged at gently, but enough to let you know that you could be controlled at any ti. Which sounded uncanny, to say the least.
As such, Christopher made the sheaths not long before entering the hidden realm, and they served the purpose of completely suppressing the Auras of the weapons unless they were drawn, and also had the effect of gathering whatever excess energy the weapons unleashed, which could be used to perform one particularly heavy strike if the blade was drawn and swung quickly.
It was a pretty neat addition to his arsenal. However, many might see this as pointless. For starters, Christopher could already keep his weapons on him in the form of his tattoos, and they completely hid the Auras of both weapons until he summoned them. Not to ntion that it was faster to materialise a weapon than to draw it.
However, Christopher's excuses were that for one, it was incredibly difficult to get a soul weapon, let alone two, and one of the signature things of a soul weapon was the fact that it could stay in tattoo form and could grow with the user. So people were prone to underestimating his weapons if they saw him wield them on his body.
He also believed that the enchantnt that allowed him to gather energy in the sheaths could act as a decent surprise attack.
However, he, along with his weapons, knew that all of that was complete and utter bullshit, and the only reason he was doing it was because it looked cool.
Still, who was going to stop him?
So, while the Genesis Corps were dealing with their conquests, their leader embarked on a journey with the purpose of tempering himself.
***
Jenny was irritated, no not irritated, angry... no, not angry, she was LIVID!
Who the hell was that Vazar guy? Does he think he can just order her around when he wants to!?
She was a proud Scion of the Domitor Clan, ya heard?! Not soone else's subordinate!
Then again, despite being childish, Jenny wasn't stupid.
The fact that Vazar knew exactly what to offer as a bargaining chip when she had made sure to do everything to cover her tracks when searching for the Nascent Heart, but he just casually revealed that she needed it. Which was unsettling.
'I'll make sure father does another traitor sweep when I get back. No, two traitor sweeps!' She thought with determination.
She then felt a slight rumble below her and sighed as her familiar responded to her emotions. She looked down and gently patted the shell of the stadium-sized turtle that she was flying on.
Its shell looked as though it was made of glossy black tal, and the turtle itself was a deep shade of blue, its scales looking like tough ancient stone.
Moreover, the Aura it gave off was terrifying, an undisputed peak Apex-ranked being.
There were other things floated near the turtle as well. So were other giant flying beasts, others were the deep blue vessels of the Domitor Clan that were all headed in the sa direction.
'Ugh! I'm so irritated.' She sighed and lay down on her back, her eyes staring into the pale blue sky of the hidden realm.
With no one looking at her, the bratty, childlike persona faded away ever-so-slightly, revealing hints of a tired girl who seed aggrieved by life itself.
"..." Jenny didn't move an inch for a good while, and if not for her familiar having clear orders to keep moving forward until she said otherwise, it would have stopped to comfort her.
After a while, she sighed and sat back up, then flawlessly hid her true expression behind a mask of boredom. Well, it wasn't truly a mask as she was indeed bored.
'For a hidden realm left behind by a powerful Paragon, it sure is underwhelming. The treasures are all good, but its inhabitants are all weak.' She sighed and looked forward.
"Hopefully there will be sothing entertaining closer to the center." Her eyes glead as she spoke.
***
It didn't take long for Christopher to encounter trouble.
He had activated his senses to a moderately high degree including his sixth sense. And after joking for a while, he slowed down as he approached a mountain chain. But it was far larger than any normal mountain chain could hope to be, the smallest peak was already a few hundred kiloters in height.
His first instinct was to teleport past it, but then he rembered that he was training, so he decided to brave it.
But he'd only barely reached the base of the first mountain before he was attacked.
Christopher kicked back and avoided a pair of lethal claws that left very deep marks on the durable ground.
Christopher tilted his head as he took in his opponent. It looked very similar to a white tiger, only that it didn't have the black stripes... or any stripes for that matter, and was purely white. That and it was the size of a house.
At first, Christopher wanted to just one-shot it, but he fought the impulse and created a blade of ice to fight the tiger with.
This generated a wave of displeasure from Scarlet, but Christopher ignored it. Even in his suppressed state, he was still a weapon that would overwhelm most foes, with this tiger falling under that category.
So unless he needed to, Christopher had no plans of drawing any of his weapons.
The sword had barely ford when the tiger roared and lunged at Christopher, and Christopher used his footwork to dodge a flurry of strikes that aid to slice him apart or crush him.
Christopher reduced his perception to a similar level to that of the tiger to prevent giving himself an overwhelming advantage and fought as though the two were sowhat equal.
When he did that, he could imdiately feel the difference as the difficulty ramped up dramatically.
The tiger, while wild, possessed a decent amount of intelligence. Enough to try and corner Christopher and put him in a trap as well as multitask with its abilities.
While Christopher couldn't be said to be feeling pressed, he definitely felt the difficulty, and he quite enjoyed it.
He dodged another strike from the tiger and deflected another to the side using his sword.
Then he spun and avoided the Tiger's tail, continued the motion, and transferred the montum into his blade before slicing horizontally, slicing off a good chunk of the tail.
The tiger roared and imdiately began to press Christopher even more, but he kept his cool and continued to parry and dodge. Not trying to overpower the beast and simply observing its movents as he waited for an opportunity.
And it didn't take too long before said opportunity presented itself.
The tiger growled, and a cold mist left its body and started to condense around it.
Seeing this, Christopher didn't even hesitate. With a thought, his ice sword fell apart and reford into an exquisite ice bow. Then he pulled the string, and an immolating blue fla condensed and turned into an arrow.
Christopher took aim and calmly let the arrow fly. It streaked towards the tiger, which was still focused on activating itsskill, and it didn't have enough ti to dodge or defend itself. As such, the arrow burrowed into its eye and into its brain, then blue flas erupted from its eyes, nose, mouth, and ears as its brain was reduced to ash.
The Tiger fell limply to the ground, and the flas moved to consu its body and reduced it to ash as well.
"Huu~." Christopher let out a steamy breath and said with so satisfaction.
"Not bad. Let's do it again." He said and proceeded to the base of mountain.
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