[MA] 96. Whatever It Takes (Patreon)

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The tiny charcoal pieces that were Shen were pulled slowly back together, then melded into something that resembled a humanoid body, still floating. Then the Laws of Time reverted him to a healthy life throughout a few seconds.

Shen took a deep breath once he had his body back. He coughed and grunted. Existing like that had been one of the worst experiences of his life.

He stopped thinking about it as the golden beam was replaced by a vortex of glittering lights descending from the skies.

The vortex tip touched his forehead, and Shen was given a tremendous boon for his Path at this moment: direct contact with any Concept of Reality.

That vortex was a straight connection to the rules that made the very universe. He could pick any Concept, maybe all Concepts, and drink from them for twenty-seven seconds—or ninety-nine units of a time measurement unit used by the Heavens.

His enlightenments usually took instants or very few moments. That much contact with all that was a great blessing.

Or a great curse.

When Shen was given free access to all Laws of Reality, his mind froze in wonder and pain. It was like glancing at the entire universe and being aware of everything in it at once. His consciousness shut down entirely to protect him, and when he opened his eyes again, three seconds had gone by.

Shen took another deep breath and approached more cautiously. The Spear was the foundation of his Path, so he focused on it as he let his mind expand. As he got in contact with it, he immediately focused on the Concepts of War, Combat, and Sharpness.

Knowledge flooded his mind. When he got insights on a Concept, it was like reading a book page and slowly finding out more about it. He couldn't read the following line without reading the former first.

Now, he was allowed to read the entire pages all at once. But how could he understand advanced math without the basics? How could he draw from so much more of the Concepts without reading them line by line?

All he could do was "read" the Concepts as quickly as possible. He would meditate on them later, seeking more profound understanding. For now, it was about trying to memorize the feelings, impressions, and relationships ruled over by those Concepts.

About twelve seconds later, he had a splitting headache. Just looking at the parts of the Concepts he wasn't ready to understand hurt his soul. He tried to keep on it but had to give up after three more seconds because the pain made it simply impossible to focus.

Eighteen seconds were gone; nine remained.

Shen drew his mind away, and the pain faded. Even so, he knew going back to the same Concepts would make the pain return.

He had to decide on what focus next. Zephyr was his most advanced Concept, but suddenly, the lack of balance in his Path bothered him. That was an instinct he had just acquired because he had completed his Path. He understood too little of Arc Flash and Flow and not much more of Boundlessness.

So he drew from the Concept of Arc Flash of Laws of Lightning next, the Concept he knew the least of. He didn't delve too deeply into it but was surprised to see five seconds had already gone by when he pulled his mind back. He then went with Flow, intent on just taking a quick peek before getting to Boundlessness.

But how could one look at an entire Concept and not lose themselves in the marvels of Reality?

The twenty-seven seconds were over. The connection faded, and the vortex returned to the skies while he was slowly lowered down to the ground.

As soon as he touched the ground, he felt the things he had just memorized draining away. It wasn't too quick; it would take days or weeks for it all to fade, but fade they would. His mind wanted to protect him from things that might hurt to merely consider. His foundational Concepts suffered the most because he had drawn things much more advanced from them than he could currently understand.

Shen didn't waste time talking to anyone about what had just happened; he grabbed the spear and beheaded himself with a swift swing.

The pain was nothing compared to what he had just gone through.

He died, and when he reappeared in his circle, he sat down, closed his eyes, and meditated.

= - = - =

When the leaders of the age groups interrogated Sai and Alicia, the two explained Shen's reasoning for their "betrayal." There would be traitors, and everyone should always beware.

As for whatever the giant spear was, neither had any idea. Well, Alicia didn't. Sai believed it was a Heavenly Tribulation like in the stories he read. The Heavens tested whether cultivators were worthy or something like that.

Marzia considered those things very carefully. Everything going on was way beyond her, yet she was the most grounded of the fifteen-year-olds, the only Italians around. Her family business helped give her some perspective on things.

So she understood one thing very well: it would be to her advantage if anyone stronger than her didn't get the Achievement, especially Feng Shen.

There was a lot of nuance to power when you could hide behind walls and people. But when a single attack could kill bodyguards and crush the walls, all nuance came back not to politics or finances but the most fundamental truth of the animal kingdom: raw power. The strong ruled, and the weak submitted or died.

"You can reject the Holy Mary, God, ghosts, or even science," her father had taught her, "You can question me or your life. But never doubt people are willing to hurt others really bad if they can gain something with it."

Her family was a great example of that. They had a lot of clout, but even they feared and had to bow to those who had the power to send an army or missiles into their homes. It was unlikely to happen, but it was possible, and that changed things. Everything came back to raw power.

The opposite was also true, however. Shen would have to care about the power of missiles and the people here. Everyone tried to take your position when you were at the top—the system had told them the same thing. And he was undeniably at the very top right now.

Yet, despite the many machinations she could attempt to get rid of him and grasp extra power, she had decided she would protect him with her very life.

She had been there when Alicia said she would give up on her Achievement for him because humankind depended on him. That had sounded stupid at the time. Not any longer.

There was something more to him. No one there could summon a giant spear with a hurricane, much less survive it after being cut in pieces—not without the system's revival. He could. He also claimed to be able to deal almost twenty thousand points of damage to the final boss. That remained to be confirmed, but they had seen him repeatedly attack it without getting struck back.

He was their best, and the Multiverse Alliance was very clear of the dangers of the Void. They could be lying, of course, but the very existence of Earth and humanity depended on it. So, she wouldn't bet on it being a lie.

She knew that power brought jealousy, and she could feel the tension in the air. Some intended on killing him right before the golem died if they got the chance—as she herself had considered before deciding otherwise.

Marzia would protect him instead. The Alliance had said Achievements were significant. She would make sure the best humanity had to offer got his.

Whatever it took.

Maybe Shen would one day reveal himself to be a terrible tyrant. He had shown the inclination to do what was needed by killing the annoying couple, and Marzia knew the line to do more was easy to cross.

But she would rather be ruled by a human tyrant with human emotions and perspective than be consumed by the Void or be ruled by an alien beyond her understanding.

So she walked around and had very lengthy conversations to understand the political landscape, make alliances, and plan her moves.

= - = - =

Alicia watched everyone on the stage change their perspectives on Shen. All it took was for him to be cut into pieces, get healed by a miraculous golden beam, and then touch a vortex of shimmering lights coming from the skies. Nothing much to him, if she said so herself.

People became more cautious and pensive. Politics abounded. There was so much talk that they wasted the remaining time of that reset and a big part of the next doing nothing but discussing things.

Eventually, there was nothing else to discuss. So they started fighting free-for-alls on every reset, the golem on every tenth reset, and resting or talking on the eleventh.

Shen kept meditating for weeks. Sai kept watch all the while.

Alicia's skills became more appreciated after showing her Hellfire Eclipse. She exchanged insights with other mages, and they grew together. It was a fine time of progress.

When five weeks remained on the tutorial, Shen finally left his circle for the first time.

= - = - =

Shen stepped out of his circle. Three weeks. For three weeks, he had meditated on what the Heavens had given him. It had taken all of his learning ability and multitasking capabilities to understand as much as he could, especially in the first week. After that, he had managed to use his multitasking skills to cultivate too.

Now it was time to measure his gains.

The circle disappeared around him, and he rushed against the boss with his spear in hand. It was natural for everyone to look at him after the tribulation. Most were as curious as him about what had changed, so they just watched in silence.

Shen used Flow, Zephyr, and Boundless Qi in his body while activating his Zephyr-Gale Footwork and pushing his agility to the max. He wanted to see the difference his insights made on his speed.

Seeing the entirety of the Concepts he was pursuing—well, most of them—not only helped him progress but also gave him a perfect idea of how far he was from mastering them.

So, as he used Flow Qi and moved the way the Concept told him to, he knew he had only known about 5% of it before the tribulation, but now he understood 15%. The improved Concept told him how to move in a way that decreased his friction with the ground; he touched it just enough to keep momentum. It also reduced his friction with the air; he positioned himself perfectly aerodynamically. Shen flowed.

Zephyr was a special case. He hadn't touched it during the reward, but he had already understood enough of it to see the whole picture and know how far he had come and how close to mastering it he was. He had been and still was at 55%. Zephyr Qi moved the air around him to make the most of the Flow's aerodynamics, a great synergy.

As for Boundlessness, he knew little of it, to begin with, so he could only roughly estimate he understood between 10% to 30% of it. Boundlessness pushed him even further past the limits that Reality tried to impose on him. Shen wanted to move fast, so his understanding of the Concept aided him.

The Concept-infused qi from all three also worked together to make him move faster. They told him how to use his muscles in much more effective and ingenious ways to obtain higher speed.

Shen moved, and he was fast.

When he approached the boss and climbed the steps, the three Concepts continued assisting with his speed. At that moment, War also helped.

War had been the Concept he knew the most about even before the tribulation, at 65%, and the one that had improved the most.

When he had started meditating, the memories fading slowly, he had to decide what to prioritize. He had focused on War the most because it was the closest to mastery and thus the one that gave him the best chance to reach D-rank in this boss.

Shen was currently 90% of the way to mastering War.

When he looked at the steps floating around the golem, he saw dozens, hundreds of paths, and thousands of possibilities of what could happen if he took them. At a glance, he could determine the perfect way to take so he would reach the top as fast as possible, all the while considering how well he could avoid the boss' attacks. He could also predict how every possible golem attack—from what he had seen this boss do and knew of golems in general—would blow the steps. He factored that to pick a path that would let him drop to the highest island available after he threw the spear and the golem's strike forced him to leave the top of the path.

Combat, the Concept he had focused the second most on, had improved from 60% to 80%. All the difficulty he had had with motor coordination in the ninth stage had just disappeared. To have a proper fight, he needed to be the master of his body. It had also assisted in his speed while running and climbing and now let him take everything from his agility and strength much better than before. When he jumped, he reached higher. When he moved, he did precisely as he wanted, nothing more, nothing less. When he dodged incoming attacks, he also considered his enemy capabilities and knew exactly what to do to—and had the means to do it to the letter. His control over his body had reached levels he had never even thought possible.

When Shen reached neck height, he filled his spear with Sharpness, Boundless, and Arc Flash Qi then threw it.

Sharpness was the foundational Concept that had improved the least. The previous 60% now rested at 70%. Yet, that was enough for him to understand it in a whole new way.

Hadn't he already concluded Sharpness was the ability to cut? That something only needed to be sharp enough to cut the target and nothing else? So when he saw the golem's weak spot this time, instead of mighty metal, he saw layers.

Shen's Concept of Sharpness and his spear weren't good enough to completely cut through the thick metal, but why did he need to? If he just scratched the surface, wouldn't it be good too? And if he was focusing on it rather than on going through the entire metal plate, wouldn't he use his power much more focused and better?

So when the spear reached the D- resistance metal, it left an almost invisible scratch, and he considered it a great victory.

And right when the spearhead touched the neck, Arc Flash created a spark with significant charge. That Concept had improved a lot, from 1% to 20%, but mostly because he had understood so little of it before. The farthest away from mastery a Concept was, the easier it was to advance on it. That made his gains with War all the more impressive.

The spark blew to release a bright flesh, heat, and resulted in an arc blast. Shen's understanding of Arc Flash also let him know that the explosion could be even stronger because electricity was running on the golem's body. And it was indeed so.

The explosion was substantial, loud and dangerous.

| Titanic Metal Golem (D) | 50,000 / 49,940 | -60

Victory!

His improved Sharpness and Arc Flash—and the little push from Boundlessness—had worked so well that Shen had surpassed the "max" damage allowed by a weak spot.

The blast threw his spear away, but both War and Combat had already made him aware of this possibility and predicted where it would be thrown in that case. Hence, he was ready to pull it back at the best time possible in order to save as much qi as possible.

He had fallen to a lower step as the golem had crushed the one from which he had thrown his weapon. Thanks to War, it wasn't as low as step as usual. He resumed his climb.

The explosion had been strong enough to chip the tip of his spearhead slightly, but the E- anti-wear enchantment was enough to fix it before he threw it again.

Shen's two weeks of cultivation had also increased how much qi he could hold in his core and withstand with his body from six to eight hours. That, of course, was not considering any other expenditure, such as throwing his qi-filled spear. Even so, it gave him more to draw from, and it assisted in his total damage output.

| Titanic Metal Golem (D) | 50,000 / 49,921 | -60

It took him 4.1 seconds to attack again. That was enough for the golem to regenerate 41 HP, but it didn't matter.

Shen's gains were astounding.

He fell once more and spent the next while improving his qi expenditure vs. damage output until he reached the best he could. He also perfected how to use all the knowledge he had and his Concept-infused qi.

He ended up with enough qi for four hours of constant expenditure. In that period, he could damage the boss every 3.9 seconds for 62 damage on each attack. Or, in a number that mattered more, 23 accumulated, non-regenerated damage.

The result was incredible: he would be able to deal 84 thousand points of non-regenerated damage in that amount of time.

Shen could already kill the boss.

By himself.

It wasn't just the reward either. Completing his Path made it synergize better. It was as if he had been using a spear with a broken shaft, and now it was whole again. His understanding of the Concepts also felt closer somehow, as if they were more part of himself rather than an external source of knowledge he had merely understood.

No matter the reason, the result was terrific, and Shen laughed in triumph.

Then he had an idea and did one last test. He reached the ground, dodged the attempts to stomp and kick him, and thrust his spear with the full strength of his body and Concepts against the golem's feet.

| Titanic Metal Golem (D) | 50,000 / 44,211 | -7

He could even damage the Boss outside of weak spots now!

If the tribulation hadn't been enough to confirm the might of his Path, this was.

Shen didn't try to dodge the next stomp. He had caused too much damage, and the golem would pursue him until it regenerated fully. He was still not fast enough to escape the D-rank for that long, nor did he want to run away from the enemy he could kill if he wanted. It was a bit prideful, but he was fine with that.

Shen kept laughing in sheer joy as the golem turned him into paste.

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