Dru held his sword at Chaus's neck. It was so close to his neck Chaus could feel the coldness of the blade.
"I lost."
"Well fought." Dru praised.
"How much power did you use?" Chaus was curious how far away he was from Dru.
"15%"
Chaus sucked in an air of breath. He still had a ways to go.
"You've mastered advanced magic so it's time for you to move on."
Chaus protested. "But elder magic?"
"You walk the path of a magic warrior. Your physical and magical abilities must be in harmony with each other for you to succeed. It does you no good to have more powerful magical abilities than physical."
Even though Chaus was at the lower (beginner) intermediate stage of Dragon Steps and Blood of the Spear Emperor, they were profound techniques that stood at the top of the world so they were on par with advanced magic.
Even though he was disappointed, Chaus realized Dru knew better than him so he decided it was time to move on.
The fourth platform was the biggest and most complex of all the platforms Chaus saw. It was a literal obstacle course. There were dummies strewn about, traps, stepping logs, floating spheres, and things Chaus had never seen before.
Dru appeared besides Chaus. "This is for mastering soul manifestation. Currently you're able to manifest your soul into armor and weapons, but nothing else. This platform blocks all your abilities but soul manifestation." Dru paused for a few seconds to create barrels of water and food. "It would be better for you to experience it."
Chaus walked to a floating sphere. This was the start of the course. Chaus placed his hand on the sphere. A path of swirling air appeared in Chaus's vision.
Chaus started following the path. The first thing the path went through were stepping logs. Chaus didn't use soul integration so he could only rely on his 11 year old body and soul manifestation to pass the logs.
Chaus jumped on the first log. As he landed, an arrow came flying towards him. Sh*t. His first thought was to use magic, but he remembered he could only use soul manifestation. However, it was too late to do so. Chaus could only twist his body in an attempt to dodge. When he twisted his body, he lost his balance and fell off the logs.
Dru stood there laughing.
Chaus glared at Dru, embarrassed.
"Just so you know, there are 6 more courses after the stepping logs."
Chaus sighed. He would be spending a long time on this platform.
Chaus attempted the logs again. This time when the arrow came flying at Chaus, he manifested a shield to block the arrow. The arrow bounced off the shield and Chaus jumped to the second log.
Chaus expected another arrow to come flying at him, so he held his shield up in prepartion. However, contrary to expectations, a large log came flying at him instead. Chaus cursed again. He tried blocking the log with the shield, but it was too much for his 11 year old body. Chaus flew off the logs and landed on his behind. Chaus expected another laugh from Dru, but all he heard was Dru's voice.
"There are no limits to soul manifestation. You're too close minded. Open your mind and explore different possibilities."
After saying that, Dru disappeared.
Chaus was thankful for Dru's advice. Chaus limited his soul manifestation to tiny things like shields, but soul manifestation could create so much more.
Chaus got up and attempted the second log again. This time, Chaus manifested a large pillar to block the log. The log bounced off the pillar.
Chaus jumped onto the third log prepared to block anything. Nothing came at him. Chaus grew tense. Suddenly the log beneath him started shaking. Chaus lost his balance and fell on the ground. Chaus cursed.
He got up and attempted the third log again. This time when he lost his balance, he created a platform beneath him. From the platform, Chaus jumped to the fourth log. Like usual, Chaus fell from the fourth log.
This process repeated over and over again for the entire week.
By the end of the week, Chaus reached the 100th log. Every time he fell off, he had to start from the first log.
There were 250 stepping logs in total, but the last 150 logs differed from the first 100. The first 100 had the same traps every time, but the last 150 had traps that changed every time.
Chaus's soul manifestation speed and reaction speed improved, but he struggled with the last 150 logs.
Chaus spent a month attempting to pass the last 150 logs, but he failed every time. The furthest he reached was the 212th log.
Another month passed and Chaus finally completed the stepping logs. Chaus celebrated internally. He rested and then started walking towards the next course.
The next course consisted of two dozen dummies. The dummies were made of stone, and they came in varying sizes. They each held different weapons, swords, spears, bows, lances, and blades.
Like the stepping logs, there was a floating sphere marking the start of the course. Chaus put his hand on it and a mark appeared on the dummies. Chaus was supposed to penetrate the mark with a soul manifested object.
The dummies began attacking Chaus. They were surprisingly fast for creatures made of stone. A dummy wielding a spear attacked Chaus. Chaus manifested armor and a spear and fought the dummy. Chaus didn't have soul integration helping him so he had to dodge the spear using Dragon Steps. Although Dragon Steps wasn't as effective as it was when Chaus used soul integration, it was more than enough to dodge the dummies' predictable attacks.
Suddenly, an arrow came flying towards Chaus. Chaus quickly manifested a pillar to block the arrow. Then another dummy wielding a sword began attacking Chaus. Chaus had to destroy the dummies otherwise he would get overwhelmed.
When Chaus saw his chance, he stabbed the spear dummie's marked area with his spear. The spear dummy crumbled in pieces. Two more dummies took its place.
For every dummy Chaus killed, 2 more took its place. Chaus continuously fought the dummies while blocking ranged attacks. After 5 minutes, Chaus was exhausted. His spear felt heavy and it was hard for him to move. Out of the corner of his eye, Chaus saw an arrow flying towards him. Sh*t. He was so tired he didn't notice it until now. He didn't have enough time to stop it.
Chaus waited for the pain, but it didn't come. The arrow stopped an inch away from Chaus's body. The arrow started disappearing and the dummies Chaus destroyed came back together. The marks on the dummies also disappeared. The course had reset.
Chaus lay on his back resting. He was exhausted. He knew he couldn't destroy all 24 dummies fighting like he did. Chaus had only killed 4 dummies. He needed to destroy them faster before he ran out of energy.
When Chaus completely recovered, he touched the floating sphere. The marks appeared on the dummies again. This time Chaus focused less on defense and more on offense.
Chaus stabbed his spear at the first dummy that came at him. The dummy crumbled in pieces. More dummies joined the fray. Chaus had to dodge arrows and strikes from the dummies while attempting to destroy them. Even though Chaus focused more on offense, he still had to defend otherwise he'd fail the course. He continued his combination of defense and offense until a spear reached him.
The dummies recovered and their marks disappeared. Chaus killed 6 dummies this time.
He couldn't kill them fast enough with his spear alone. He needed other ways to kill the dummies. Soul manifestation.
If Chaus could create sharp objects with his soul, he could destroy the dummies faster. The problem was that the objects Chaus created couldn't move on their own, and the dummies certainly wouldn't run straight to their deaths. Chaus needed to learn how to move his soul manifested objects.
Chaus began by manifesting a needle. The needle was thin and a foot long. Chaus tried moving it, but nothing happened.
Chaus began thinking. He needed something to move the needle. It couldn't be his physical body, so it had to be something else. He couldn't use magic so he had to use his soul to somehow move the needle.
Chaus began experimenting. He moved his soul and used it to push the needle. The needle began moving, but very slowly. This was a start.
Chaus took a break from attempting the second course and practiced moving the needle every day for a month.
By the end of the month Chaus could make the needle move as fast as an arrow, but he was limited in how far he could move it. He could only move it 25 meters before the needle went out of his range and disappeared. However, this was more than enough distance to reach the dummies.
Chaus believed he had a decent chance of passing the second course with the needle.
Chaus put his hand on the sphere and the marks appeared on the dummies. He manifested his spear and needle and sent the needle flying towards a dummy which held a bow. The dummy instantly crumbled. Chaus then destroyed the first dummy that reached him. He began his routine of dodging and attacking. When he had time, he sent the needle flying towards the dummies with bows. Although he had the needle to help him kill the dummies faster, he miscalculated.
Chaus didn't have the ability to split his consciousness so he could only focus on one thing at a time. Thus, even though Chaus had an extra weapon to help him kill the dummies, it didn't increase his killing speed as much as Chaus hoped.
By the time a weapon reached Chaus, 12 dummies were destroyed.
Chaus was disappointed in himself. He grew too cocky and faced failure. Since the needle worked, Chaus didn't give up on it. The next thing Chaus had to work on was splitting his consciousness.
People could only focus on one thing at a time. Only with intense practice could they focus on two things. Sometimes they could focus on more than two things.
This was Chaus's goal: to be able to split his consciousness in two.
The first step in reaching this goal was for Chaus to create two needles at the same time. Chaus began manifesting the needles, but they broke apart soon after. Chaus didn't expect this to be easy.
He spent 2 weeks practicing the manifestation of two needles at the same time.
After two weeks, Chaus could now successfully manifest two needles at the same time. Now he needed to move both needles and make them do different things. Chaus moved one needle towards his right and the other to his left. Instead of doing what Chaus wanted, both needles moved forward. That was as expected.
5 weeks later.
A thin needle moved towards the right while another thin needle went around in a loop. Chaus called this move flying needles.
Chaus had successfully split his consciousness in two. He could now focus on two things at the same time. Chaus attempted to split his consciousness in three, but everytime he tried, a splitting pain invaded his head so Chaus deemed two as his current limit.
Chaus walked to the floating sphere and touched it. A scene he had seen before appeared in his eyes.
Chaus engaged in battle with the dummies. Chaus stabbed a dummy and it crumbled to the ground. At the same time a needle pierced another dummy. Then an arrow flew towards Chaus, and Chaus deflected it with his spear. Meanwhile his needle continued destroying the dummies.
A while later
The last dummy crumbled. Chaus was exhausted, but he had killed all the dummies. He completed the second course. He sat down and rested. After he recovered, he walked towards the third course.