[Chapter 29 Comment]
[Twin_dragon13773: So he can sense the essence in the air? Seems pretty useful.]
[amber_lazuli: how can maya easily kill the skeleton with a sword. it's because an extension of his body like the machine power?]
[Adam_Balch_7324: Getting them to learn from each other because after all only fools never share]
…
Bam!
Li Wei shattered the ground, including the skeletons underneath it. The only one remaining was the skeleton that had fought him with a sword.
It was clear that the skeleton had the advantage of having a weapon, but that didn't matter. After all, Li Wei only needed to glance to the side, as he found his weapon returning to him.
Maya had thrown it back.
Once he caught it, he charged forth, clashing with the skeleton. Since there were no more skeletons to help him, Li Wei soon overwhelmed the enemy and eventually destroyed the skeleton.
"Huu..." Li Wei sighed in relief, realizing that the strategy was successful.
As expected, Maya had already reached his position while asking, "Hey, what was that? No, more like, what was with that sword?"
"The sword?" Li Wei fell silent for a moment before explaining his thoughts. "Teacher said that the thing you needed to defeat your opponent was in me. So, I figured out that I could somehow compensate for the essence part. My weapon is made of a special alloy that is not only hard but also a good conductor of essence. You should feel something being drawn into the weapon, right?"
"Yeah. So, that's Essence?" Maya frowned.
"It seems that Teacher has understood that your body doesn't have a talent for utilizing essence. But it doesn't mean that you don't have essence at all. It's something you should possess from birth. But my cultivation allows me to increase the amount of essence. As for you..."
"Are you telling me to learn cultivation?" Maya asked.
"That's probably not going to happen. Not only have you passed the perfect age to start cultivating, but your body also doesn't have talent in utilizing it. However, your robot is using essence, right?"
"Ah!" Maya understood what he wanted to say. "I see. There are batteries for essence. If I fuse them with your alloy, I can somehow use essence... Normally, in our world, we don't need essence in our bodies because supernatural abilities will use the essence in the air. But since my supernatural ability can't use the essence in the air, I can use this kind of combination to somehow use essence like others."
"I don't know the details about your world, but you should have understood the general idea." Li Wei nodded. He couldn't help but turn to Theo and clasp his hands, "Thank you for your guidance, Teacher."
Theo smiled. He couldn't help but glance at the comments this time. It seemed that the question in the comments had been answered.
But before he continued with his explanation, Oliver suddenly landed between them as a concentrated essence hit the ground in front of him, causing a shockwave.
Bam!
Oliver made an awkward smile. "Ehm, guys? Can you help me a little? Or if you can't help, then can you move away for a bit? I'm still trying to fight this guy."
It seemed that Oliver was the only one who had trouble comprehending the lesson. He took out a big refrigerator, placing it in front of him as another concentrated essence fell on top of the refrigerator and knocked it to the ground.
"Kh." Oliver gritted his teeth, not knowing how to handle this skeleton. Unlike the other skeletons, this one had a lot of essence and kept shooting him away.
He tried to use his RPG or grenade, but they were useless against the skeleton's barriers. Even if he managed to break it, the skeleton's barrier absorbed most of the power. So, he didn't know how to defeat the skeleton.
"You're still not done, Oliver?" Maya raised her eyebrows.
"Shut up." Oliver clicked his tongue and retorted.
Meanwhile, Li Wei couldn't help but observe Oliver while recalling Theo's lesson for Oliver. They were classmates in the academy and comrades-in-arms during the mission. So, if it was possible, Li Wei wouldn't hesitate to help them.
After all, he believed that Theo wanted to increase the overall strength of the class by giving them private lessons. After seeing through Theo's intention, Li Wei wanted to help him decipher Theo's lessons.
"Oliver... Can you only store objects?" Li Wei asked.
"Huh? Why did you ask?" Oliver glanced at him while avoiding another blast. But when he saw Li Wei's serious expression, he had to answer him. "Yes."
Li Wei furrowed his eyebrows. "No, let me rephrase my question. Is the object that you can store limited to something normal, not magical items that have essence in them?"
"Huh?" Oliver was confused for a moment and corrected his answer. "I can store magical items."
Li Wei wanted to tell him the correct answer, but Theo suddenly patted his shoulder, as if telling him to stop. Li Wei was confused, but Theo raised two fingers. "Li Wei managed to see through the lesson even though I tailored it for you... Well, we don't have much time, so I will provide you with two hints. Where does the item you store go? Don't limit yourself."
Oliver fell silent for a moment before replying, "Of course, my inventory was a special space that was connected to me. Or how else could I bring them out? And what do you mean by the second question? My inventory can only store items... no, magical items too... Wait, magical?"
Li Wei's question seemed to be stuck in his mind, making him realize there was something he could absorb other than items.
When Oliver raised his head and saw another volley of concentrated essence, he couldn't help but raise his palm.
Due to how dangerous this attempt would become, Oliver couldn't help but gulp, wondering if this would work or not.
As soon as the essence was about to reach him, Oliver shouted, "Store!"
In that instant, the concentrated essence disappeared.
"!!!" Li Wei and Maya widened their eyes in shock. On the other hand, Oliver felt a sharp pain in his body.
It felt like he was swallowing a huge meatball without chewing it. However, he could feel that meatball entering his stomach and staying there for a bit.
Then, Oliver pointed his palm at the skeleton and released the concentrated essence he had swallowed earlier. "Go!"
As expected, the concentrated essence flew off, heading straight for the skeleton. The skeleton used its barrier to block it, but the attack Oliver launched was strong and shattered the barrier. The shockwave blew the skeleton away.
"Huh?" Oliver looked at his palm dumbfoundedly. He never thought such a thing was possible. Li Wei had asked him about storing magical items. That was the moment he realized that he could store the item and the 'essence' that stuck with those items. In other words, if he wanted to store the essence itself, it was possible.
"This..." Oliver turned around, looking at Theo.
Theo only smiled at him. "It's your power. It seems that it's quite hard for you to swallow that violent essence, but it can be trained."
"Inventory... devour and release..." Oliver thought this ability would allow him to grow even stronger. No one would imagine that such a powerful ability was almost buried because of having the wrong teacher. "Thank—"
Before he finished, Theo pointed at the skeleton, who seemed to have stood back up, indirectly telling Oliver that before he did something else, he had to defeat his opponent first.
Oliver turned around and understood the assignment.
"Understood. Let me handle this skeleton for a bit." Oliver smiled excitedly while taking out his grenades. "He's gonna go kaboom in a bit."
"Kaboom?" Li Wei tilted his head in confusion.
"Just ignore it. That's just this world's jargon." Maya shook her head helplessly.
Since it wasn't important, Li Wei turned to Theo and asked, "It seems that my body is more important than I originally thought."
"Indeed. Although that lesson wasn't for you back then, I believe I have told the class not to rely on their eyes to 'see' their enemy." Theo reminded him of the sparring session where Theo fought the entire class.
Li Wei looked down, contemplating.
"In your scenario, your body is naturally releasing essence. If I'm not wrong, you have been absorbing essence since you were a kid, right?"
"Yes. Cultivators have to cultivate, which means absorbing the essence in the air to increase their essence reserve in their dantian." Li Wei nodded while pointing at the stomach area. "So, our sensitivity to essence should be at the top among other realms. That's why I can sense the flow of my essence so easily."
"That's right. This is what I want to teach you, but you haven't reached the complete answer yet."
"The complete answer? Is there something more to 'seeing' through essence?"
"Of course. Right now, you have no control over the essence that your body naturally leaks. However, that doesn't mean you can't control it. After all, it's still your essence, right?"
"Yes."
"Then, do you think it's possible for you to form a barrier with your essence? In a spherical shape, to be exact. That should be the easiest. You can later change it depending on your needs."
"Forming a shape with the essence from my body..." Li Wei tried to concentrate on the essence and tried to move them. Although he had a hard time controlling it, he could sense that the essence actually reacted to his control. It seemed that the method was possible, and all he needed was practice.
"The more you can control your essence, the bigger that barrier will become. When that happens, you can actually see everything within that barrier from an omniscient point of view. This should be extremely useful, right?"
"Indeed. It might not reach Maya's level, but it's still useful."
"Then, what if you add your sword intent to that barrier?"
"Now that I think about it, I can infuse my sword intent into the essence. Just the barrier alone is like a domain... and if I add my sword intent... No, wait. This feels extremely similar to the Sword Domain in my world. However, the paths are different..." Li Wei gasped. "Don't tell me... It's possible to form a Sword Domain like this too?"
"We are from different worlds. Our world has its respective way of utilizing our latent power. So, can you say that there are similarities between our abilities?" Theo smiled.
Maya nodded in agreement. "Well, one plus three is four. Two plus two is also four. There is more than one way to reach the same answer, especially with the fact that our worlds are different."
Li Wei fell silent for a moment. During that time, Oliver returned with a smile. "Teacher, I have finished the assignment. Thank you very much."
Theo nodded and snapped his fingers. "There is one more useful thing you can do with this."
Suddenly, a barrier made of essence began to come out from his body and expand to the surroundings.
Theo then used his illusion to let his students see what he could see through this method.
"This is... what I will see once I master this technique?" Li Wei gasped. It felt like they could see through things.
At the same time, they suddenly found out something ridiculous.
They were surrounded by houses. Behind those houses, skeletal hands started emerging from the ground, pulling up their bodies. There were approximately fifty skeletons hiding behind the houses. More importantly, they all carried bows.
Maya instantly picked up on the danger. In other words, the skeletons were planning to ambush them from all directions.
"Teacher?" Li Wei, Maya, and Oliver hurriedly turned around, facing those skeletons. Even Nana came to him, realizing this was what Theo meant by protecting the children when the time came.
Theo only smiled at them, as if he had expected something like this the whole time. "Why do you think those three skeletons waited for you, listening to my lessons? They are just buying time until the traps are ready."
"Why did you not tell us?" Maya shouted in frustration.
"Surprise."