Saksham wanted to curse but he just silently gritted his teeth and decided to go ahead and do the last thing he had planned before leaving for the mission. Yes, you thought right. He was talking about the Hyper Occulus. That was the last thing on his "To-do List" before leaving.
Except for that and telling his parents about the extraordinary world, he had done everything else. And since he couldn't tell his parents about the extraordinary world, Hyper Occulus was the only thing that was left. So, without any further ado, Saksham decided to do it.
He said in his head, "Make the new Hyper Occulus."
"Are You sure you want to use 60 EP?"
[Yes]/[No]
Saksham didn't hesitate and pressed [Yes]. Just as he said that, he saw light particles of various shapes and sizes started to appear out of nowhere. They slowly came together in the air. As they stuck together, they started to create a fuzzy figure or something big. Saksham looked at all of this happening in mid-air with surprise and curiosity. This was the first time he had seen something being made by his powers in front of him.
At some point, the light particles stopped appearing and the bright and fuzzy figure suddenly came into view. It was a giant machine. It looked so complicated that the person looking at it would start feeling nauseated. There were runes all over it along with some mysterious symbols as well as lights flashing around from time to time.
Suddenly Saksham heard in his head, "Catch it gently. Or it will break."
Saksham was confused when he heard the system. Suddenly the giant machine started falling from mid-air and Saksham understood what the system meant. He screamed internally and rushed ahead at full speed and raised his arms to catch the falling machine. As soon as the machine touched Saksham's palm, he caught it and negated all the force. Then, he gently put it down on the ground beside him.
Wiping the imaginary sweat on his head, Saksham heard a word in his head, "Good job."
Saksham suddenly paused and took a deep breath to control himself from cursing out at the system. After calming down, he looked carefully at the machine he had made. It looked something that looked simple and complicated at the same time. He couldn't explain it properly but that feeling existed as he looked at the machine. Shaking his head, Saksham took a walk around to further inspect the Hyper Occulus. He couldn't see the helmet which he had put on in the IOEA. Feeling puzzled, Saksham asked, "How do I use it?"
"You simply have to place your palm on that place which is protruding outwards. Then, a sample of your blood will be taken to analyze your body. Then your body will be scanned afterward. And after that, will the machine change its shape to reveal a place for you to lie down. Only then will it truly start." The system explained in short.
Saksham heard it and nodded. Although he wanted to ask more about how it actually works, then he realized there is no point in doing that. So instead of trying to understand something he won't understand, it's better that he just tried it once himself. But suddenly he realized a problem. The machine would collect his blood sample. But with his strong defense, would it even be able to do that?
He asked the system, "Well, I think there are some problems with this. I don't think it will be able to take my blood sample. My skin is super hard. I doubt it can do anything about it."
"Why don't you go and try it and then think about all this." The system replied.
Saksham felt puzzled as to why the system told him to try it even though it would fail. He still went to the Hyper Occulus and gently places his palm on the protruded section. Suddenly, a small sound came from the Hyper Occulus, and at the same time, he felt a sharp pain in his palm which disappeared just the next second. Saksham raised his palm and looked at it in surprise to find a tiny red dot on it.
At this time, he heard the voice of the system in his head.
"Still think it will be useless for you?"
The system asked with its usual monotonous voice. But Saksham felt as if the system was mocking him. He rolled his eyes and ignored the mocking tone and said, "Well, no. Whatever it used to take the blood sample, is extra-ordinarily sharp. It could even penetrate my skin like it was nothing. That's really surprising."
"If you don't have any other doubt, you can try it out yourself." The system said.
Saksham nodded and then stood in front of the Hyper Occulus. He saw a small section on top slowly rising and a small circular thing coming out of it. It rotated a little before bowing down and then rising back up. Saksham realized the Hyper Occulus was scanning him. He stood at his spot until that circular thing went back inside the Hyper Occulus.
Saksham didn't have to wait for long before the Hyper Occulus slowly opened up to reveal a place to lie down. Saksham went ahead and slowly lied down on that place. Slowly a few wires detached from the Hyper occulus and attached themselves to Saksham's body at different places. Then, a helmet slowly came out and went on top of Saksham's head.
Saksham saw this and slowly closed his eyes. The next thing he realized was that he was in a dark place. Looking ahead, he saw a small board with 3 options on it.
=> Melee Practice
=> Power Use Practice
=> Continuous Battle
Looking at these options, Saksham realized that this Hyper Occulus is really different than the one he used in IOEA. He can use it in 3 different modes. He didn't know what will happen in the 1st and 2nd mode, but it looked like it could be used to practice your melee. Meanwhile, you can practice your powers in the 2nd mode probably. As for the last, Saksham was pretty sure it was the same as the one he used in the IOEA that day.
Since he knew what the 3rd mode was, he decided to just try out the other 2. He clicked on the [Melee Practice] and suddenly the options disappeared from his front and the darkness disappeared as well. What appeared in front of his eyes was a tooltip box. It read:
[You Are restricted from using powers here. This mode is to practice your melee fighting style only. Practice to your fullest.]
Saksham saw this and understood that here he couldn't use any of his powers. In fact, when he felt his body, he realized all his strength was gone. He felt like he was back to a normal person.
Looking ahead, he saw a person slowly approaching him. He realized it was the "dummy" for practice. Saksham also stepped towards the "dummy" to see how this would work. Suddenly the "dummy" ran towards him and jumped in the air, trying to give Saksham a flying kick. Saksham dodged sideways as the "dummy" went past him.
The "dummy" rolled on the ground and stood back up. It rushed towards Saksham once again and punched towards his face. Saksham saw the punch and blocked it with his right hand. But as soon as the punch landed on his hand, Saksham felt a sharp pain and then a burning sensation coming from his right hand. He jumped back in panic and created a little distance between him and "dummy".
Seeing the "dummy" not move, Saksham took a deep breath and looked at his trembling right hand. That punch almost broke his right hand. He forgot that he had become an ordinary person again here. He stupidly tried to stop that punch with his right hand, resulting in him almost getting his hand broken. And the "dummy" was clearly not just punching blindly or else it wouldn't have almost broken his right hand.
From what he understood, this place was for practicing the melee fighting style. So the "dummies" here know a thing or two about hand-to-hand combat as well. Saksham shook his head and pressed [Exit] at the corner of his eyes. The next time he opened it, he was back at the earlier dark place where he had gotten the 3 options to choose from.
But he didn't choose anything else and pressed [Exit] once again and left the Hyper Occulus. Standing up from the Hyper Occulus, Saksham shook his head and stood aside. Although he was happy with the new Hyper Occulus, it also made him realize his actual hand-to-hand combat skills are pretty sh*t. But he didn't bother brooding over it for now. He just made a note in his head to do something about it.
After coming to this conclusion, Saksham finally eased up. He looked at the Hyper Occulus, feeling satisfied. He never expected the Hyper Occulus to be so much better than the original one. It had 3 different options rather than just one. It could be used by all types of people.
It can be used to practice your hand-to-hand fighting skills and even get combat experience. Fighting with no powers like a normal person can definitely help a person to hone his combat skills properly. Saksham was really happy with it.
As for the [Power Use Practice] mode, Saksham was pretty sure that it was for practicing your power only. It would definitely have some sort of limitation on the person so that he/she would only use the powers to practice there. And as for the last mode, Saksham couldn't be any more familiar with it. He had spent a long time fighting inside it in the IOEA.
The new Hyper Occulus didn't look worse than the one he used in IOEA. In fact, it felt more comfortable and smoother than the one in IOEA. All in all, Saksham felt that the 60 EP he spent didn't go to waste at all. He sighed with relief and looked at Anitha, who was still standing on her spot with her eyes closed. Thinking about the new [Tree of Life] that she has now, made Saksham smile with relief and happiness.
But suddenly, at this time, something came to his head. He quickly asked the system, "Wait a minute! You told me that after grafting the branch of [Tree of Life], it would grow into a new sapling in no time. Then, Anitha can use [Aura] to nourish it and grow it. If she can use this method to grow the [Tree of Life], can't I do the same? Why should I use EP to grow my [Tree of Life]? Are you scamming my EP? Huh?!"
Hearing Saksham's doubts, the system was silent for a little while before speaking in a speechless tone.
"With the Quality of [Aura] of this world, it would take tens of years, even if not hundreds to grow the [Tree of Life] even 1 inch taller. Do you want to grow the [Tree of Life] to its full height and power using just [Aura]? Alright, just wait for a million years. Maybe it might be possible then."
Saksham heard this and scratched his head. Hearing what the system said, Saksham understood what it was trying to say. But it looked like the system wasn't satisfied so it spoke again.
"You use your powers to grow the [Tree of Life] from 1 stage to another instantly. Which is basically skipping thousands of years of growth time. The sapling you planted in Anitha will give her healing powers stronger than anyone in this world at least. She doesn't need her [Tree of Life] to grow for a while. Meanwhile, you need the next stage of the [Tree of Life] as quick as possible to not die while fighting."
"If you want to wait for years to grow it, then you don't need to use EP. Next time you get your full EP back, just use it to learn the method to manually nourish the [Tree of Life] inside you." The system finished and went quiet.
Saksham heard this and felt embarrassed. He coughed lightly and acted as if nothing happened. And just silently looked around the abandoned warehouse. He started to think about various things and possibilities. He looked at the Hyper Occulus and realized that he forgot to ask a question about it. But he felt a bit embarrassed about asking anything from the system now. He sighed lightly and just reminded himself to ask about the power source for the working of Hyper Occulus later.
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[Soul Heaven Sect]
Inside a giant hall, there were 7 stone seats. Each of those seats had a person sitting on them. Each of them adorned a loose robe of 7 different colors. In front of them, stood hundreds of people wearing similar robes, but smaller in size and in grey color only. Clearly, the 7 people sitting on those stone seats were some important people.
One of the people on the stone seat opened his mouth and said, "Aditya, step out."
With this command, a young man of about 23-24 years, stepped out of the neatly arranged queue. As he stepped out, all the eyes in the giant hall, fell on him. They were a mixture of jealousy, envy, love, respect, fear, and zealousness as well. But most of it was fear and respect. The young man was a force to reckon with.
As the young man named Aditya stepped out, the other people sitting on the stone seat also nodded lightly. They were really satisfied with this young man. He was the strongest person in the younger generation and also a rare genius. If nothing went wrong, he would become the youngest Elder of the [Soul Heaven Sect].
While the people sitting on the stone seats were having different thoughts, Aditya and stepped out of the queue and come to the very front. As he stood there, silence fell upon the whole giant hall. No one said a thing. Even the sound of the breathing fell to the minimum.
At this time, another person on the stone seat spoke, "Tonight, Aditya will lead several of his sect members to the middle-east to retrieve the final material needed for our Grand Ceremony. The other members of the team will be chosen by Aditya himself. I hope you will choose wisely, Aditya. We have to retrieve this material no matter what. Even if it means using the 'that' Artifact."
Most people standing in the queues were puzzled when they heard the last sentence. But the people standing in the forefront suddenly widened their eyes in surprise. Even Aditya raised his eyebrows as he heard it. But he still bowed a little and said, "I am grateful for putting such trust on me. I will do my best to retrieve the said material. You won't be disappointed."
The people on the stone seats nodded. But suddenly they heard a dissatisfied voice coming from the neatly arranged queues.
"Why is Aditya allowed to lead this group? He is just a [King of Soul] level. I am also on the same level as him. So, why is he leading this group then?"
Everyone looked at the owner of the voice and found a tall and boorish-looking man with a face full of dissatisfaction, stepping out of the queue. He came out and stood not far away from Aditya. He looked at him and then looked at the people sitting on the stone seats. He said, "I am not weaker than this Aditya in any regard. Please, give me a chance to prove myself."
As he said this, he bowed at a 90 degrees' angle. The whole hall went silent as they heard this. Aditya looked at the boorish man with ridicule in his eyes but he still stayed quiet and waited for the Elders to speak. And sure enough, one of them spoke, "You want fairness?"
"Yes, Elders." The man nodded firmly.
"Then, if you can defeat Aditya in a one-on-one fight right here, you can lead the team as the leader. How about it?" An Elder said in a tempting tone.
The man heard it and his eyes flashed with an evil light. He thumped his chest and said, "This is the fairness I have been wanting, Elder. Thank you for granting me this chance."
As he said this, he looked at Aditya and snorted coldly. He took a few steps back and said, "Come at me with your full power. Everyone is afraid of you but I am not. Today I will show you, your real place in this sect."
Aditya had his hands behind his back as he chuckled a bit. He said in a calm voice, "Come at you with my full power? Heh! You overestimate yourself. But I think…1% of it should be enough for you."
"What!? You dare mock m-"
Before the boorish man could complete his sentence, his entire body exploded into a bloody shower. Small pieces of meat and internal organs slowly fell on the ground soon after the explosion. It happened so fast that no one even had a chance to react. No one saw how the man died. No one knew what just happened in the span of a single second. The people standing at the forefront of the queues even had a few drops of blood fall on their faces before they reacted.
Horror filled the hearts of the people present in the hall. They didn't dare look straight at Aditya as he stood at his position with both his hands behind his back and a cold smile on his face. The pressure being emanated by Aditya made them tremble in shock and terror. What surprised them, even more, was that even though he was standing closest to the person who exploded, none of the blood or meat touched his body. His robes looked as good as new.
Meanwhile, people were still reeling in shock, Aditya turned towards the Elders and said, "I will carefully choose the other people of the team before we head out tonight."
All the Elders seated on the stone seat nodded lightly before dispersing the queues. When everyone left, Aditya was about to leave as well, but he was stopped by one Elder. The Elder's voice was serious and grim as he spoke, "We expect no failure in this mission. Take everything you will night, even 'that'. And also, beware of a few people from IOEA inside that barrier. There has been a rumor about IOEA recruiting a powerful person to their side. He may or may not be the one entering the barrier. Try not to have any conflicts inside the barrier with them if not necessary. Avoid any conflicts with IOEA if you can."
Aditya wanted to refute but he stopped himself and just nodded and silently left. When no one could listen to him, he silently muttered under his breath, "I will kill anyone who dares to come in my way. Even if it is IOEA…"
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