After he was at a considerable distance from the scene of battle, Clarence started removing traces of his escape. Although it would still lead his pursuers, if any, till from where his trace disappeared, it was still better than nothing.
He soon found a cave, which he entered and blocked the entrance with a boulder. As soon as he was done, he plopped down on the ground. The adrenaline rush from the earlier battle and escape fading away.
He stayed in that position, as he really was tired. Fighting a rank 5 beast was not a simple task, even if it was critically injured.
He was a moment away from death's door at every point in the battle. One minor mistake and the least he would've gotten away with was a missing limb.
As soon as he felt relaxed, sounds of breaking rang from his body. Alarmed, Clarence quickly took out a mana blocking formation and set it up around him. He himself sat in the center of the formation soon after in a cross-legged position.
The sounds increased, but they were unique in a way that it was only audible to Clarence. He soon felt a seal break in his body, allowing an all too different or you could say unique energy course through his body.
'Is this what mana feels like in a body?', but before Clarence could continue his train of thought, he felt another energy rushing into his body from the outside.
It felt entirely different from the previous energy. This energy felt familiar to him, as if he had come across and used it many times. The energy soon converged near his brain.
When the energy density reached a certain level, he felt a space open up inside his brain.
He guessed this to be the mindspace one opens up when the person takes the first step into cultivation.
The dense energy rushed inside his mindspace and started converging and compressing itself until it was a crystal clear hollow orb through which one could see through.
As Clarence recited the true demon scripture, the transparent hollow orb started rotating slowly before quickly increasing its speed, soon reaching a tremendous speed.
As the orb rotated, the outside mana rushed into it to fill it up, but the orb kept spinning, sucking in mana to fill his body. Only when both the body and the mana core in his mindspace were full did the orb, which is also called mana core, stop spinning.
Beside the mana core, Clarence could see another orb in his mindspace. This orb was of golden blue color, the same as his eyes. Just looking at it made one feel that it's beautiful from the depths of their hearts.
This one was filled with the first rush of energy he felt after breaking into rank one. Opening his eyes in confusion, Clarence could clearly sense that his situation differed from others.
He guessed that his condition might be related to the system. It was the only thing he thought to be out of place in his entire life and one which he couldn't yet make sense of.
[Congratulations for taking the first step towards cultivation]
[Your authority rank has leveled up!]
[Your authority rank is now level 2]
[A new feature has been unlocked in the system]
[Check out for more information]
Ah!
Just as he was thinking about the system, it popped up. After Clarence read all the notifications, he mentally called out,
"System"
The same crystal blue screen appeared in front of him with white text on it.
He could see a new tab below the previous two tabs.
[ 1. Stats ]
[ 2. Shop/exchange list ]
[ 3. Simulation]
Clarence clicked on the third tab and a list of sub-tabs opened up below it.
[It creates a domain in your mindspace where your soul will be automatically transported.
The domain is yours to use however you want, for example, to fight opponents, test artifacts, improve techniques and skills, develop strategies against certain opponents]
[ Opponent - ? ]
[ Opponent's armory - ? ]
[ Field - ? ]
[ Host's armory - ? ]
[ Extra conditions - ? ]
As soon as he read the description, immense joy would be a severe understatement of what Clarence felt right now. He literally shouted "YESSS!", before coming to senses that he was supposed to be 'hiding' in the cave.
Reading the description again, he found out a flaw, which would be that once his soul goes into his mindspace, it would leave his body vulnerable out in the open.
So, rather than immediately testing out the new function, he decided it would be wiser to do so somewhere safe.
Choosing not to think about these things, Clarence tried feeling the newfound power after breaking through to rank 1.
When he executed a few of his moves, he was delighted to discover that the dexterity of his body has improved to new heights.
He could also feel mana flowing through his body. He guessed that this might allow his techniques to exert more might and variations.
He could also feel that he has a small amount of mana under his control, with which he can use a few spells.
Techniques are executed through the body and use the mana flowing through it as an optional support.
Spells are cast using the mana contained in the mana core located in the mindspace.
The mana stored in the mana core can be used for all purposes, including techniques, while the one which runs through the body can only be used to provide support to the body or execute techniques.
When he tried controlling the golden blue energy in the other orb, he was delighted to discover that he could use that energy to execute both techniques and cast spells.
When he felt that energy coursing through his body, he could feel that his mana sensitivity improved by a lot, which went back to the usual as soon as he stopped letting that energy flow through his body.
He also found out that using the golden blue energy allowed him to perform the techniques and cast spells with more ease and flexibility, plus the displayed techniques and spells held more might compared to when they're executed using mana.
Clarence was happy and confused at the same time. He was happy that the golden blue energy was better than mana, but confused that, is it all the golden blue energy was capable of?
He genuinely thought the energy was unique. There were already a lot of scriptures available to strengthen properties of your mana, so it was nothing new to him.
Even his own true demon scripture would add properties to his mana as his cultivation level increases.
Discarding all the thoughts from his mind, Clarence put the mana blocking formation back in his spatial bracelet and moved aside the boulder since he already had enough rest. He currently had the golden blue energy running through his body to enhance his senses.
As soon as he was out, he picked up mana fluctuations not too far away from him. Not willing to take any risks, Clarence decided to run away.
The fluctuations became more noticeable not long after he began running, convincing him that whoever was pursuing him was closing in on him rapidly after being discovered.
His leg technique improved as he ran, and the process of implementing it became easier as he reinforced it with golden blue energy. His current speed had already reached that of an ordinary rank 4's normal speed.
He turned to the left to avoid an incoming attack. He could pick up obvious fluctuations from three sides after some more running, indicating that at least three enemies were present.
He soon heard someone say from one of the locations,
"Stop! We just want the snake carcass, give that to us and we'll go"
Clarence felt like laughing when he heard what the owner of the voice said. If they put up reasonable conditions which ensured his safety while he gave them the carcass, he was ready to give it up in order to save his life.
He sensed the three people to be rank 5, whom he himself doesn't have even a slightest chance against. But they wanted him to stop? It was obvious they wanted to silence all the witnesses.
Without slowing down in the slightest, he kept changing directions with the help of trees and replied,
"I won't stop! I'll drop the carcass 100 meters from the point where you stop chasing me."
Clarence felt the energy fluctuations fade away as soon as he said that. After running along with the same changing directions, he took out the carcass of the snake and dropped it without slowing down.
He kept running without even looking back or slowing down even for a single moment, even though there were no energy fluctuations.
'Exchange the sacred flower with the highest rank weapon usable to me right now.'
[100 year old sacred flower * L85A2 assault rifle]
With all information related to the gun transmitting in his brain, Clarence, who was running at high speed while performing inhumane maneuvers, without stopping, twisted his arm which held the newly acquired weapon to aim behind him and shot 3 times at three different spots in the darkness.