The next morning James headed to the gym where he planned to meet Olivia to discuss the next phase of her training, but when he walked in, not only the always excited Olivia, but Rick was standing there too.
"I thought I would get a leg up on the others, but Rick got a breakthrough last night, and reached the Refinement Realm."
Olivia said before James could even say good morning with a pouting face.
"That's amazing Rick, I'm happy you could join us."
James said, not paying any mind to Olivia.
"Okay you 2, heads up, the next phase of your training will be mainly fighting me"
The 2 of them looked strangely at him.
"In VR that is, you should both have noticed the VR cabin in your room, you can connect to mine, I have a personal room that has the same general entertainment as gods Domain."
The 2 of them were still looking at him whit a weird face, and then James figured out why, they thought he was a manager, that he wasn't even going to participate in combat, they probably even furthered their beliefs when they reached the Refinement Realm, not only did they get incredible control over their bodies, but their senses, especially to danger also greatly increased, and they still didn't feel anything from James.
"What are you 2 looking at, do you honestly think that 2 Refinement Realm newbies could sense my combat level."
Both of them widened their eyes, in all their overconfidence they didn't stop to think about that.
"If you don't mind me asking James, what Realm are you in?"
Rick asked cautiously.
"No problem Rick, I'm currently in the Domain Realm, and the second Realm in the realms of truth, but you don't have to worry about that just yet."
The 2 of them were gaping at James after his statement, the Domain Realm was just like a legend, only old monsters who never even showed themselves reached such heights, the youngest person who was currently a Domain Realm expert was 30 years old and he was trained by a super guild, yet, their teacher and boss was one of those legendary existences at the age of 18, this was madness.
"stop gazing like little children and be grateful, do you know how many people would kill to have a Domain Realm sparring partner, anyway, before we start training I'm going to explain the essence of the flowing water Realm, after all getting somewhere without even knowing how it looks is quite difficult."
After hearing the statement Olivia and Rick's mouth closed in a hurry and their strange expression was replaced by an excited one.
"now then, let me explain what the flowing water Realm is. Through detailed observation of their opponent, players could place themselves in their opponent's position in order to understand their opponent's every action. They could then anticipate their opponent's next action, or even multiple subsequent actions, and make the most appropriate response. In other words, before their opponent had even taken action, players in the Flowing Water Realm could have already known what their opponents were going to do next and carried out appropriate countermeasures. As you can guess, it doesn't matter how fast your reflexes are, a person in the flowing water Realm is going to see your actions coming before you even make them."
Olivia and Rick nodded their heads up and down, they were extremely eager to get started.
For the next 5 hours strait James fought Olivia and Rick, it was not only great for them but also for James, fighting in God's Domain uses a lot of mental power, especially when you're fighting at the Domain Realm level, when stepping out of his cabin, he had to take 3 S-grade Nutrient fluids to recover, he also felt that his mental power was already back to that of a half-step mental strength master level, even though his physique was lagging, only being at the level of a professional athlete.
For the next few days, their training continued, and exactly 3 days after the 3 of them started sparring in VR every one of the remaining teammates had reached the Refinement Realm and had joined them.
The day after that James had called all of them except Mike into a conference room. Now that they had all reached the Refinement Realm, he had their first mission for them.
"The reason that I have called you all here is to give you your first mission, as you all know, our team will consist of 20 people, what I didn't tell you guys yet is that our team will be divided into 4 smaller teams, each of them led by one of you, so that gets me to your first mission, go and recruit the last 16 members"
James said while laying down 16 pieces of paper and 4 VR goggles on the table.
"you can decide amongst yourself which 4 players you want on your team when you do you will be tasked with recruiting them, you can come by me to get their contracts, and while you're on the road use these VR goggles to keep training."
James then walked out of the room to give them some time to look over all the applicants, he was first planning on doing all the work himself, but recently, after being around so many geniuses, and fighting with them, he felt that he was getting closer to breaking through to the 2nd level of the Domain Realm, this gave him a huge wake-up call, seeing all his teammates progress so quickly he forgot how talented he himself was, if he spend most of the next 2 years training with his new teammates, there was a big chance he might reach the legendary beyond Domain real, he might even get a breakthrough in the realm of truth, but if he spent the next 5 months to a year traveling he could forget about that, he wasn't going to make the same mistake that he did in his last life and waste his prime years.
And so for the next month that is exactly what happened, James managed to have a breakthrough not only to the second level of the Domain Realm, but he also managed to become a 2-star mental strength martial arts master, the second achievement didn't feel that great to James, he was after all a mental strength grandmaster in his previous life, and with the amount of S-grade Nutrient fluids he had, getting to this level was only a matter of time. Speaking about S-grade Nutrient fluids, his supply was running short, with there already being 10 new members who all got 25 bottles, he was as good as out of points and Nutrient fluids, but luckily for him, the next tournament was right around the corner.
Another big development happened over the month, only a couple of days ago all 4 team leaders had reached the Flowing water Realm, they were currently flying back to the office to get to their next step of training.
So in the same conference room, they had sat in a month ago, they were currently patiently waiting for James.
They didn't have to wait long, as a couple of minutes later the door flung open.
"Hello there everyone, it is nice seeing you in real life again."
"You would see us more if you didn't send us to recruit these more teammates."
Olivia said pouting, everyone just chuckled and James continued.
"I have called you here for 2 things, the first is the explanation about the Void Realm, and the second is about your participation in the monthly tournament of the Gods Domain association."
They all looked at James with anticipation and worry, he had told them about what challenges the tournament holds, and according to him at the second level they had to defeat 60 Flowing water Realm level opponents, even for the flowing water Realm, the 4 of them were skilled, but taking out 60, that was impossible.
"Are we ready for that?"
Charlotte asked while looking at the floor.
"Well Charlotte, think about it as a wonderful opportunity to grow."
Livia said while gently patting her on the back.
"That's right Charlotte, this is an amazing opportunity, and if you bothered to look at the company's stock once in a while you would know that our S-grade Nutrient fluids are running out, so the more people participate, the better."
The big teenage boy said scolding.
"all right calm down everyone, everything is going to be fine Charlotte, but just like Rick said, we do really have a shortage of S-grade Nutrient fluids, so anything helps, but just be prepared to not have as many next month as this one, now that that is done, I will be explaining what the Void Realm is. The essence of the Void Realm comes down to improving your senses, a void Realm expert can sense any movement around him without having to see a thing, with you guys talent I'm petty sure you already had some experience with sensing movements, so you just need to develop that sense and hone it."
His explanation was done, but all of them were still staring at him with anticipation, when he kept quiet Olivia decided to speak up.
"aren't you going to give us some new amazing training method?"
She said while bobbing up and down. James looked at the rest and they were also nodding.
"No, I will not, the training will simply be sparring with me, the only difference is that I will be attacking with more attacks at once, so you will be forced to rely on your senses, and you will also be fighting with your 4 students, having 4 opponents at one's will greatly help you in your journey to the Void Realm, now that you all know how to proceed, we will be having 1 last training session before the tournament tomorrow."
And so the tournament came and went, there was nothing noteworthy, every single one of the team leaders couldn't make it past the second floor, and James got destroyed on the fifth floor, only this time, he felt the attack coming, something that was beyond him at the first level of the Domain Realm, he also managed to get 66.100 points this time, he could get another 300 or so bottles of S-grade Nutrient fluids, whit the ones he still had, he came to 500, not nearly enough but still something.
James called the 4 team leaders back to the same conference room that they sat in before the tournament.
"I'm sure all of you have learned a lot from the tournament, and you must be excited to start training, but I have business to discuss, it is regarding our S-grade Nutrient fluids, you will all be given 100 for you and your entire team this month, so use it sparingly, this will be the same for the foreseeable future, so you better make it work, other than that, I expect you all to have recruited all of the remaining members and that they all reach the Refinement Realm by next month."
They all felt rather strange while James gave them commands, he had never really given them a task, he just helped them develop, but they were also determent, this was their first task, and from the looks of it a rather important one, so they wanted to do it right.