Underground the Owen Tower, inside the Nexus chamber was a small pond with clear pristine sparkling water. The surface of the water was as clear as a mirror without a single ripple on its surface, a gentle wave of Nexus swayed above the pond and slowly fused into it.
Inside the pond, Ivan could be seen in a crossed-legged posture with both eyes closed as he refined the Nexus energy that was fussing with the pond. He had long lost track of time and didn't know how long he had spent inside the pond, the only thing that he knew was that he had made progress!
Ivan focused and made his profile appear in his mind.
NAME: Ivan Von Charles
Talent Group: Primal Talent type: Wisher Talent: Wish card
Talent lv: SS AP: 3.47% Rank: NULL
Upon seeing the information on his profile, Ivan was so stunned that he gasped; temporarily forgetting that he was under, and ended up swallowing a mouthful of water which ended up choking him.
He hurriedly got out of the pond while coughing hard, it took him a few seconds to calm himself and return his attention to the information displayed on his profile. Precisely, his AP.
AP: 3.47%
Ivan:(┛❍ᴥ❍)┛彡┻━┻
3.47? That was an additional 0.36% to what he had before! It was more than three times what he would usually get from training in his room for three nights!
A single night usually gave him a 0.11% increase in AP.
"How long have I been in this place? Don't tell me I've been here for a whole day!" Ivan questioned himself in utter disbelief. He suspected that he had gotten carried away and had wasted a whole day here. No, he couldn't call it wasted since he actually made the progress of three days in one!
"I have to go, the tower master must have waited all day for me!" Ivan screamed to put his clothes on and immediately dashed toward the stairway.
While leaving, Ivan ran into someone in the third chamber.
A petite figure sat cross-legged with both of her hands resting on her lap, her long hair tied up behind her back in a ponytail.
She opened her eyes and they locked with Ivan's eyes, a look of hostility immediately flashed through her eyes.
This person was Miko, one of the repeaters, and ranked third on the ranking. She was the same person who had challenged Ivan one the day the ranking was revealed.
Ivan halted his steps and locked Miko in a short staring competition.
"Hmph!"
Miko snorted disdainfully and turned her head away, she closed her eyes and continued to absorb the Nexus around her.
Ivan also did not stay long and continued climbing, he didn't encounter anyone else until he arrived in the corridor where he saw the two people who were watching the place.
"Ah, you finally came out. The Tower master asked you to come straight to him when you come out" one of the men in black uniform said immediately when they saw him.
"Is that so? How long has it been since I came here?" Ivan asked in a calm tone but he was worrying internally.
"It's been a bit over three hours" They replied in unison.
Ivan "..."
Really? Just three hours? Are you two joking with me?
Seeing that Ivan wasn't reacting the two men looked at each other, wondering if they had said something inappropriate.
"Uhh, is everything alright?" One of them asked while waving his hand in front of Ivan's face.
Ivan snapped out of his daze and let out a few awkward coughs.
"Sorry, I was distracted for a bit just now. How long did you say it had been since I was inside?" He asked again to confirm that he hadn't heard wrong the first time.
But the response was still the same, it had been three hours!
'So I got an increase of 0.36% in just three hours? Crazy!' Ivan exclaimed in his mind while walking into the elevator
Arriving at James' office, Ivan found James reading a book which he immediately put down when Ivan entered the office.
"Came out already? I thought you'd spend more time there, isn't the effect exciting for you?" James asked with a raised eyebrow.
" It's not that, the effect is actually…" Ivan tried to explain but stopped halfway, still finding it difficult to believe.
" No need for words, show me how much progress you made in three hours " James demanded and Ivan made his profile appear.
James stared at the 3.47% AP with a blank face, his mouth hanging open.
It took him a few seconds to recover, Ivan did not say anything about this since he had reacted the same way too.
" Sorry about that, how much AP did you have previously?"
They entered a brief question and answer session where James asked how many AP Ivan had before entering the Nexus chamber, how many AP he usually got from training by himself, and how many AP he got from training in the Nexus chamber.
He was once again left in shock after Ivan answered all of his questions.
'This is only the beginning of the second month in the tower and he's already so far ahead of others? Is an SS-level talent so terrifying?' James screams internally, instantly coming to the conclusion that it would not be a problem for Ivan to hold onto his first place on the ranking at all as long as he kept working hard; catching up to the repeaters and surpassing them was only a matter of time!
Without delaying any further, James proceeded with why he had asked Ivan to come to him, which was for talent training.
Other trainees with similar talents would be having their talent training together but Ivan had the tower master as his instructor, other trainees would be envious of him if they knew.
James grabbed the book that he was reading before Ivan walked into the office.
"I guessed that you haven't made any new discoveries about your talent so I will be going with what I've gathered. I have been looking through books with abilities similar to your talent…cards. While such talents are very rare, I've found records about some" James explained and began instructing Ivan according to the information he had gathered.
One was asking Ivan to try using his card as a throwing knife. According to James, there was once a Nexulyte whose talent was a flying card. He was able to use his cards like a set of throwing knives and the cards were able to cut through almost anything!
Sadly, this method did not work as the card immediately scattered into light particles after going a few distance from Ivan.
They moved to try another method that James had also discovered. This time, it was for Ivan to use the card as a summoning ticket. In the record that James had found, a certain Nexulyte was able to summon different objects and even beings with her summoning card.
Ivan tried it but nothing happened even after five minutes of changing the summoning phrase he used.
They tried another method but that one also failed, Ivan had to remind James that he was only able to summon three cards as that was his limit before running out of Nexus energy.
"Sigh! I guess we'll have to stop for now and continue tomorrow, I'll call Elora to come get you for your weapon training. Until you can use your talent like other Nexulytes, you'll need a way to defend yourself when necessary" James said with a helpless sigh.
While he contacted Elora, Ivan was Staring at the card in his hand as the dream he had played in his mind. He clearly remembered all that the man had said and the demonstrations he showed to Ivan.
Still staring at the card Ivan quietly muttered to himself while creating a scene in his mind.
"Envision it and make it a reality…Slash?"
Immediately after muttering the last word, the card in Ivan's hand trembled and glowed before shattering into specks of red, blue, and gold light which then transformed into a long beautiful sword that had a red blade, blue hilt, and golden crossguard!
Swoosh!!
The sword turned in the room for a split second and finding only one person aside from Ivan, it immediately slashed at James.
Ivan watched this with terrified eyes, his mouth opened wide as he planned to scream for James to look out but it was obvious that the sword would act faster than his warning.
But he seemed to have forgotten that James was the Tower master of the Owen Tower for a reason.
In the split second that it took for the sword to slash James, he turned around while at the same time, his left hand was being covered by the sleeve of a nano suit.
Clank!!
A loud sound rang out as James grabbed the sword with his robot-like arm.
"Watch out!" Ivan screamed out at the same time.
Everything had taken a fraction of one second, he didn't even see James move.
Ivan ???
Ignoring the stunned Ivan, James studied the sword in his grip with a surprised look on his face. The sword remained in his grip for only about twenty seconds before scattering into red and blue particles which drifted into the air.
He turned his gaze to Ivan after the sword disappeared while retracting the nano sleeve that was covering his arm.
Ivan immediately snapped back to his senses when he felt James stare.
"I…that wasn't intentional, I can explain" he quickly said, thinking that James was suspecting him of trying something stupid.
" I know it wasn't on purpose, I couldn't feel any killing intent from you or the sword which shouldn't have been the case if you were trying to harm me; that would have been impossible even if that was the case, at least for the current you. But…how did you do it?" James assured Ivan he was bothered about what just happened before asking what he was curious about.