"Damn…"
Suspicion was mounting. From now on, the Empire would keep breathing down his neck in order to keep track of exactly how powerful he was. It would be better for him if they underestimated him, but it was only natural that a well-established species in the Convergence wouldn't commit such a foolish mistake. Arimiar and Varlian had always taken him seriously. There was no way for him to hide his strength.
'My only choice is to surpass their expectations entirely.'
It was the only possible course of action. He had to grow faster than the Empire expected him to, becoming so powerful that they wouldn't be able to push him around so easily. He needed to become as powerful as their King.
Liam slapped his own cheeks lightly. To grow that powerful, he needed to train at a higher intensity than ever before. He closed his eyes for a few seconds. When he opened them again, they were as sharp as a blade.
A day only had 24 hours, but that didn't mean he couldn't work harder. By increasing his rhythm and the intensity of his training, he'd be able to push himself further.
'I have two months.'
The only reason he spent six months inside the training room before was that he was unconscious. This time around, that wouldn't happen. His training time had been reduced. Liam touched his chin, deep in thought. In order to maximize the effectiveness of his practice, he would need to pick something to focus on. What should he train the most? His Aura control? Perhaps his movement Skills, to get in and out of the battlefield faster?
'What am I closest to achieving a breakthrough on?'
What could provide him with the biggest gains in the shortest amount of time?
'Passive Skill stacking is no longer a priority. Should I focus on my Active Skills?'
Ethereal Body almost trivialized his other Passive Skills. Passive Skill stacking was tremendously effective when considering multiple Skills at the same general level, but in his situation, where a single Skill overshadowed all the others, getting one more A-Rank or even S-Rank Skill wouldn't help much. That was why Liam contemplated his Active Skills.
'It doesn't feel like they're lacking, though.'
Eynart, his master, was weak compared to the soldiers from the Kingdom of Luweth, but after fighting them for so long, Liam felt like he could say with certainty that the Golem was much more skilled. As expected from a creature that lived for centuries, Eynart's experience and technique were on another level altogether. As its student, Liam's Active Skill series was better than anything he'd seen in the First Level of the Library. At his current level, Liam also didn't know how to improve upon those techniques. He hadn't quite reached Eynart's level of skill just yet.
His eyes widened. Of course! Why hadn't he thought of this?
'I need to hone my technique.'
In a way, technique and stat effectiveness were similar. Both were about using low stat values to deliver a much greater force. Liam hadn't forgotten how Deknir, the Golem Sword King, and Eynart had fought against him in spite of their lower stats. Eynart closed the gap between them with Passive Skills, experience, and technique, while Deknir remained overwhelming until the end. In terms of experience, Liam had been fighting for years now, and in terms of Passive Skills, he now had Ethereal Body. As such, technique was the only thing he still needed to improve on.
Liam got his spear out of his inventory, grasping it firmly. There was no longer any need to hesitate now that he had decided. He would spend the entire two months focusing solely on the fundamentals.
'It would be better to have a teacher to correct any mistakes I make, but it can't be helped.'
He would have to trust himself. Remembering Eynart's training routine, Liam decided to make some changes to it. He would execute each movement 500,000 times while using Waterstep at the same time, merging movement, attack, and defense to the best of his ability. Liam's right foot hit the floor strongly.
The air around him imploded. He crossed the distance between one end of the room to the other in a few milliseconds, his powerful mind not failing to keep track of his surroundings. His spear shot forward like an arrow, splitting the air and creating a vacuum.
'Faster!'
His left foot touched the ground. He dashed to the side, rotating his body at the same time, executing a horizontal cut. Using every move in order was no longer important; all that mattered was that he executed them over 500,000 times by the end of this training cycle. It would be better for him to use them whenever he felt like it was the best moment, instead of following a predetermined order. It was the moment he started to truly modify Eynart's training routine, something he wasn't able to do before due to his low stats and experience.
'Stronger!'
The air imploded once more, this time even more loudly. With an upwards swing, Liam divided it, then thrust his spear right in the middle of its most concentrated section. The whole room shook.
'Better.'
His movements became deceptively more delicate, despite their sharpness and accuracy increasing. A very slight aura was emitted from his body, one that gave off the feeling of belonging to a divine spear.
It was the beginning of something great.
In the midst of his training, Liam didn't notice time's advancement at all.
'499,999… 500,000!'
Perfectly straight, the spear pierced the air parallel to the ground. The turbulent air continued to flow, showing no signs of calming down. Liam broke his stance, returning to a neutral position and looking at the ceiling. He let out a breath.
"Come on, Liam. 30 seconds."
It was the amount of time he'd designated as a rest period. Of course, it was nonsensical. Given the training's intensity, it wouldn't be surprising if an ordinary warrior decided to rest for a week or two after finishing it. The reason why Liam didn't do so was for three reasons: the first, he couldn't settle for acting like an ordinary warrior. He had to transcend that. He needed to become so powerful as to dwarf over entire species, not be a mere foot soldier. The second, his regeneration applied to his muscles and stamina as well, and ever since he got Ethereal Body, it had only increased. His recovery ability had reached a level that could only be described as frightening. The third was Unbreakable Will. Even if he pushed himself to his very limits, he would be able to keep training as long as his Will supported him. So long as his willpower didn't give out, his body would remain standing.
This was the method he'd come up with to make the most out of the two months he had.
Liam counted the seconds with closed eyes. At the end of the 30th second, he immediately moved. The routine restarted.
Days passed by one after the other. They quickly turned into weeks, which turned into a month.
It was on the day exactly one month after his awakening.
The sound of metal hitting the cold floor resounded. Liam's spear was dropped on the ground. It was an act that was almost sinful for a warrior, but he couldn't help it.
"AAAAAAAH!"
His roar shook the very walls. Liam collapsed to the ground, clutching his head. It throbbed with harrowing pain. The whispers had returned, this time louder than ever. They scratched at the edge of his sanity, digging their claws into his mind and tearing it apart. He curled up on the ground, writhing in pain.
[30 of these so-called "seconds" every "month" seems to be your limit.]
[You have a long way to go, Last Star.]
Infinite voices rang out inside his head. As he heard them, Liam forced his mind to get its bearings. His Will burned fiercely, trying to follow his desire to organize his thoughts. It was only through this that he understood the words of the entities in the darkness. He only had 30 seconds. He needed to find out everything he could about as many things as possible.
"You… What have you… Done… To me?"
He spit out the words through clenched teeth, fighting through the pain. This was the first thing he wanted to know. He needed to understand why he felt the constant pain and why the voices remained with him. He needed to understand why they still talked to him.
[You are our last hope.]
[And we are yours.]
[We have decided to help you to the best of our ability since long ago.]
[The contact between you and us was all we needed to start.]
Liam shook. Barely processing the voices' words, the term "help" stood out to him. It meant that the entities weren't hostile. Of course, the word "help" could be positive or negative depending on the context, but he chose to bet on it being positive in this case. The voices should be able to kill him easily, yet they had never done so. It was enough for him.
"What about… My Status Window?"
He needed to know why his Status Window had turned black, showing information that wasn't there before. He had already guessed it was due to the voices since the Window now gave off a similar aura, but he needed to be sure.
[We have blinded him. We removed his gaze.]
[We have destroyed part of his System's grasp over you.]
[And created our own.]
[Your Status Window can no longer be seen by him.]
Liam's eyes widened. So that was the shattering sound he'd heard? It was the sound of the System around him being destroyed? Had they created a System of their own because he was used to having one? No, he didn't have the time to think such things. Precious seconds were ticking by. Liam heard the voices before he could formulate another question.
[To think that Chaos and Order would be reduced to mere Hybrid Skills.]
[The distance between you and our goal is infinite, indeed.]
[That is why you must transcend infinity.]
[We will help you.]
[Rise, Last Star.]