*
It was pretty infuriating to see that even Josh was stomping on me hard despite the disparity in strength between Astrid and him being huge. Physical strength that is.
When we started the second phase of training, all our abilities were recorded into the data base. It extends from Safe Zone 1, managed by the lady we met at the general meeting, Rena.
When I spammed Gamble yesterday, I rolled different kinds of abilities. I even got a lot of penalties which made tracking my progress a very tedious endeavour.
Imagine having to train someone only for them to just suddenly freeze and not move for the next thirty minutes. Or for them to suddenly have their face change into a "cliché and ordinary" face.
That happened.
I rolled a double blank, which meant that the penalty time was extend to an hour.
The penalty itself was a review.
I heard my voice in my heard as I bashed on the movie 'The Justice League 2' from 2024 for its cliché and ordinary villain on my YouTube channel.
And well, my face turned into a standard human face. No distinctive features. Just eyes, nose and mouth.
I don't know how that worked to be honest. All I remembered was the confused looks I got from everybody.
I had sparred with Astrid after that experience. That was when I discovered that she was a monster. In terms of raw physical strength, she was beast. Her technique was incredible too. She could fight on par with me in Commando. She held back, though.
I was curious about her background, but preferred to leave it up to her to share. I did ask what her innate ability was though, and she said she'd tell me someday.
I had assumed that I'd be able to bash in Josh since Astrid, as I assumed, was way stronger than him.
Well, I was wrong.
Josh was a beast too.
I was lying on the floor with patches of red and purple skin, some blood visible in different places. Josh sat beside me.
It had been ten minutes since I had lied down to recover some of my strength. After the first exchange, I had been unable to even reach him. I tried every shrewd tactic I could think of in Commando but he beat him black and blue every time.
I pushed myself up and sat.
"Your ability is insane dude," I said. "Physical objects can't touch you, can they?"
"Yeah," he replied.
"That's so cool," I said, shaking my head.
"I wish it was," he said. "Innate abilities themselves can exhibit wondrous effects but not all are based on good things."
I looked at him and saw the melancholic look in his eyes.
"Well. Either your ability is based on your love for outer space or you're a hard-core hermit," I said.
Josh gave a short laugh.
"It's the latter. I'm surprised that I'm slowly changing. I used to feel repulsed by human interactions. I enjoy my personal space so much that communicating with people became a bother. I was surprised when I started to open up again. It was all Astrid. She whacked my ass into shape, forcing me to talk to her," said Josh.
I listened attentively. I vaguely felt that I wouldn't get to learn about this man from his mouth ever again after this.
"She was the first person I talked to about my life since the apocalypse. She had forced me, of course," he said with a smirk. "However, once I started talking about my parents, that hard core attitude I had built up with seclusion, broke. I ..cried.
I mourned my parents. I closed myself in ever since they died. Never shared my feelings. I was genuinely showed but how much emotion I had built up inside me."
As I listened to his story, which sounded like it was starting from the middle, I got a clearer picture of Josh.
He really was a hermit.
The way he spoke really embodied the fact that he rarely spoke about his emotions. He was suddenly spilling excess detail, but I listened anyway.
"My innate ability came about because I was scared of living in a world where my parents didn't exist. I loved them too much to go on without them.
I chose solitude over anything they taught me. It became my joy. In short, I embraced cowardice and made it the weapon I use today. Don't envy me. Your ability is cooler."
I was short of words when he said that. He even gave me a pat on the shoulder that made me feel like he had added me to his inner circle.
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked.
"Well, I saw you grow from fear. The person you were when you first arrived and the person you are now are extremely different. I respect that. Secondly, I'm trying to dissuade you from taking a shot at our MILF, she's off limits! She's like a mother to me," he said with a glare.
"Bro!" I exclaimed and face palmed.
Josh stood up and yanked me up to a stand.
"You seem recovered enough. Let's continue. Keep rolling," he said with a smile.
We had bonded but I really wanted to punch this guy.
I took a deep breath and my dice appeared.
I was hoping that I didn't get a penalty right off the bat.
I threw the dice and held my breath.
A penalty was not a fun experience after all.
As the dice landed they revealed..
Dice A: 1
Dice O: 1
'.....'
Holy shit!
I was ecstatic!
This is one of the few times that I rolled this one.
I was happy that I did.
For two reasons.
One. If I could actually harness this ability into my body, I would become tremendously powerful. Our bodies were extremely adaptive after all.
Two. I could definitely bash Josh with this.
The Celestial Sundering Rings technique.
For the most part, when I genuinely rolled my dice, abilities from the Character category lasted for five minutes.
This made me appreciate the thing we call time since I had been getting used to Free Roll.
This technique was the technique I created for the character in my top novel, Ping Wu. It was a powerful technique that generated rings of energy that were able to rend anything provided that the user had enough strength to power them.
The technique got stronger the more rings one could conjure. They could be used for offense, defence and mobility.
Mastery in the novel was ranked from First Ring Master to Fifth Ring Master.
Being able to use even a single ring was an immense achievement. I imagined that I would be greatly nerfed considering that the full scale of the Sundering Rings exceeded planetary proportions.
A powerful feeling overtook me as the power surged into my body. I was shocked by the punch that it packed. I felt my muscles expand and grow so tough that they could called steel mounds.
My height grew a little and thank goodness I wore a vest and sweat pants otherwise this would have been very awkward.
My eyes shimmered with a golden glow and when I breathed out, white steam streaked from my nostrils.
I saw hints of golden energy oozing from my body.
This was the technique manifesting.
It was the first Ring.
The power kept building up in me until it was on the cusp of reaching the Second Ring. My body was overwhelmed. It could barely withstand this power that came straight out of a novel.
Josh was looking at me with awe.
He got into his stance and a serious light flashed in his eyes.
Feeling that I might not be able to handle the power of the Sundering Rings for the full five minutes I had it, I decided to attack without delay.
I applied pressure on the ground with my right leg as shot forward!
A golden circular pulse left my foot and ran along the ground, releasing a force to my body that pushed it at a speed that went beyond what I could even understand.
Unlike the last time when I rushed in front of Josh, this time both of us were shocked. He didn't even realise what happened before I was in front of him.
I gathered my wits and threw a punch with all my strength. I was used to be pummelled hard despite using my full capabilities.
A pulsing golden ring came from my arm as it travelled along it going in the direction of my punch!
Josh quickly crossed his arm and I saw the distortion before him which was his innate ability in full force.
The golden ring that followed my punch collided with Josh!
With Josh!
I was surprised.
My fist was halted by Josh's innate ability. The force travelled through whatever the heck protected him and released a low quake on the floor!
The golden ring however, seamlessly passed through his innate ability and hit his body!
I remember seeing Josh's shirt vanish from existence, his skin start to crack and break as if disintegrating!
'Shit!' I panicked! Was I killing him??!
The next moment, I felt a powerful surge of power on the ground and Josh was launched towards the ceiling where he bounced off, sped towards the wall behind me and then shot towards me again!
I was confused!
Did I do that?
"You won't get me that easily!" said Josh from behind me.
I was relieved. I genuinely thought I was going to kill him.
It seemed that he had launched himself with his innate ability upwards and towards the walls to avoid the full force of the ring.
Now he was attacking me from behind.
I gathered up force in my legs, a broader ring of golden energy being released which made my feet turn in a blinding speed. I found myself facing Josh who had a grin on his face. His shirt was gone and I could vaguely see his skin shredded on his chest and arm.
Yet...
He was throwing a fist that had looked like it carried turbulent winds!
I could barely see it. It looked distorted like a mirage!
As he flung that fist at me, I hurriedly brought my arms together to block, boxer style. A golden pulse of energy emanated from them, creating a circular golden shield that only covered the area where Josh's fist would land.
I heard Josh pronounce with his mouth the name of his attack which met my golden shield a split second later.
"Extension Ability: Lonesome Fist!"
The air danced when the collision happened. A shockwave shook the entire room with a resounding...
BOOOOOOOM!
The room couldn't take it! The walls cracked and floor's rubber was ripped to shreds! Dust and crumbs of the walls and ceiling fell to the floor.
I felt the overbearing force of Josh's attack but it didn't manage to break my shield!
The air rustled, quivering from the force of our abilities to such an extent that I felt like it formed blades as it collided with itself.
The chaos settled after a few seconds. I stumbled to the ground and groaned. I couldn't handle the amount of strength that ran through my body. My body couldn't take it all yet.
I only lasted for less than ten seconds!
That was insane! And it was just the First Ring!
Josh looked at me with surprise.
"Wow! That was crazy! I knew it was the right thing to personally train you," he said as he shook his hand as if it was hot on his face a happy grin.
Bro! We almost blew up a missile resistant room!!