382 Land of Darkness

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***

Once Sora entered his Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, Sora stood there quietly.

He looked at the clear mini sea in front of him with clear eyes and a calm mind.

Bringing out the Eternal Pagoda, Sora entered it and walked right into the Tempering Floor. The floor where anything can be tendered as long as it's wished.

In his moment of sculpting the branch into the Practice sword, Sora had a minor enlightenment. He had finally realized what it was that was strengthening his strength and weapons, it was his Will and the merge of mind, body, and spirit into the sword, a state known as 'All as One'.

Once Sora entered the Tempering Floor, he had chosen to temper his Will and make it stronger.

In an instant, Sora saw a huge and ancient character appear in the middle of the floor with a soft and resplendent glow. It was the character for 'Will' strengthened countless times by millions of tiny 'Wills' formed by coming together.

The huge 'Will' formed by the coming together of many millions of tiny 'Wills'.

With this, Sora felt like an ant trying to move an entire world by himself. In an instant, his Will was crushed to nothing.

"Gah! Damn…" cursed Sora as he coughed up blood. This Tempering Floor is very powerful but it was also very dangerous. It gave very powerful and amazing benefits that are even better than those who were strengthened in other forms.

With his will crushed to Nothingness, the Tempering Floor rebuilt his Will and quickly smashed it again.

After a whole day of crushing and rebuilding, Sora's Will was already stronger than before. However with the drawback of coughing up blood and being damaged each time his Will was crushed definitely drew a lot out of Sora.

With an unhealthy and pale face, Sora struggled to stand up. With trembling limbs, Sora finally stood up before heading over to the clear Sea and soaking himself in the water.

Refreshing his body and relaxing, Sora began to cultivate until he could no longer go before going to meditate. After the meditation, Sora continued to meditate, cultivate, and train.

Before he was kicked out by the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, Sora tempered his Will once more before resting in the sea and regaining his lost blood and stamina.

…

After two years of hard work in the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, Sora's mind had been strengthened considerably and his Will had become ten times stronger than before.

By the time he exited his Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, it was 11:59 PM, aka 23:59. Sora appeared back in his room and found Yui fast asleep on his bed.

Smiling gently, Sora properly tucked Yui into bed before laying down next to her and falling asleep.

Like the previous day, Sora took Yui to the school she was just enrolled into before heading to Rath and entering the Underworld.

Sora entered the game and trained in the Basic Sword Techniques and fusing his mind, Body, and spirit into his weapon.

Just five hours before Sora was to be logged out, Alice looked for him. She wanted him to instruct her more in the Nine Ice Fist.

The third day ended and Sora was pulled from the game after parting ways with Alice.

…

"Welcome back!"

Like routine, Seijiro greeted Sora and Kirito who had just been logged out.

"Well, I have to go," said Sora, jumping off the table like always.

"Wait! I will be telling you all something important this time around," said Seijiro, attempting to stop Sora.

Sora stopped and turned to look at Seijiro with curiosity, wondering what it could be that this man deems important.

"Starting tomorrow, you will be spending a month each afternoon inside the Underworld," said Seijiro as he pulled some papers. "I want you both to sign some papers that agree to this time acceleration. Nothing will happen, this has already been attempted on some employees from before. It's more of an agreement on your behalf in case you feel like time is somehow different."

Sora and Kirito took the papers and signed them before handing them back.

"Then I will be leaving now," said Sora, leaving right after giving Seijiro the papers.

…

In the blink of an eye, 12 days passed by, or in other words 12 months in the Underworld.

Sora had successfully trained his Basic Sword Technique up to a masterful level where he can effortlessly perform a strong move. His moves are swift and they are heavy.

He had trained his Object Control Authority up to 78 from Just some measly 19.

Sora taught Alice many ice and flower related techniques that made her stronger. A strong and stable movement and footwork technique, and a strong passive technique that makes her light on her feet and increase her strength by ten times.

Sora even went ahead to teach her a mind cultivation technique that prevents anything from messing with her mind and memories.

On the thirteenth day, or the thirteenth month, something had occurred in the Underworld.

"Let's head to the mountains to find the dragon!"

Alice and Eugeo turned to look at Kirito with surprised faces. Alice's face turned to joy and Eugeo's turned into concern and worry.

"But we'll get in trouble!"

Kirito shook his head with a smile, "Not if we sneak over there."

Eugeo remained worried and Alice jumped up, quickly pulling Sora to her side, "Cone on, let's go!"

Not saying anything, Sora followed along quietly with a smile. Eugeo begrudgingly followed, worried the whole time.

"We'll be alright, there's nothing dangerous over there," said Kirito with a wave of his hands.

Sora and the rest walked up a trail, hurrying to go see the cave where the dragon and the said knight had fought in.

When they had entered, they only found a massive freezing cave with a pile of dragon bones there, as well as a large amount of gold and weapons. Besides the dragon bones and treasure, there was a blue sword laying on top of the gold, emitting a slight chill.

When Eugeo and the rest found the dragon bones, they immediately remembered the story of the knight and the dragon. Almost blurting out at the same time, "White Dragon."

Sora ignored the Sword, not willing to wield such a sword. At this point, it would suit Alice more since she had practiced in ice and flower techniques.

Instead, Sora walked to the pile of dragon bones, amazed by the Will of the dragon still lingering on it.

Looking around with a tiny bit of hope, Sora found a dragon scale.

'Reverse dragon scale,' thought Sora as he picked it up. It was a white scale that was very similar to white snow in color. Not a singlet blemish or scratch on the scale.

It contained a majority of the dragon's Will and Essence within it.

'This shall be the base of my weapon,' thought Sora.

Eugeo and Kirito didn't pay much attention to Sora as they attempted to instead move the sword. Alice grabbed some ice and followed Sora around, so she noticed the scale Sora had picked up.

"That's a pretty object," she said with her eyes glued onto the scale until Sora put it away. "But you shouldn't take it away, this would count as grave robbing."

Sora nodded, "This might be the reverse scale of the dragon. It's the strongest, yet weakest point of a dragon. And I'm sure the dragon wouldn't mind if I took it. I have a long history with dragons that would surprise you."

"You're quite knowledgeable about dragons," said Alice, looking at Sora with innocent eyes. At this point, she believed almost everything Sora said. She still looked at the White Dragon's Reverse Scale with a sigh before looking at Sora's face with a smile.

"I've done my research on them when I hung around with them. Although there was a pair of two dragons that just loved competing against each other," said Sora with a small smile on his face.

He lightly shook his head as he remembered the first time he had found Ddraig and Albion fighting it out together at a mountain with many dragons surrounding them.

Soa was a dragon and even had millions of dragons enter his Heavenly Universe before. He had vast amounts of knowledge about every single being living within his Heavenly Universe and any world connected to it.

By now, the dragons have the entire world to themselves with their large population. 90% of them can willingly become humanoid and often live on other planets with other beings. The ten percent are those who own the three worlds until they become humanoid.

"Can you tell me more about dragons?" asked Alice with hope in her eyes.

Sora nodded, "Sure, there's no problem with that at all."

Whilst Sora began to tell Alice various things about dragons, Eugeo and Kirito were now playing around a bit with the bones of the dragons before exploring the cave a bit more in.

"Besides the reverse scale, dragons also have one or two scales that tend to be five times stronger than the other scales. Which are usually used for armor and other items," said Sora after explaining some other stuff about dragons.

Sora walked over to the chest of the dragon and grabbed a single bone from the dragon's chest, the bones with the most Will attached to it. It would serve well as a scabbard after Sora customizes it a bit.

Crrk.

Sora ripped the rib bone out of the giant dragon skeleton, making a rough sound that broke the silence of the room. Everyone turned to look at Sora for a while before continuing to explore the ice cave.

Looking at the dragon skeleton, Sora looked at the disappearing Will with a sigh. The two items with him had the most will within them, perfectly containing the majority of the dragon's Will.

"What will you do with that?" asked Alice, curious as to what Sora was doing.

"I found the perfect materials for my sword," said Sora as he strapped the dragon rib bone to his back along with the White Dragon Reverse Scale.

With both materials having a high amount of Will almost equal to each other, both items were compatible together and could harmonize. The harmonizing will increasing the strength of the weapon and make the sword stronger, lighter, and more sharp.

Just having the two materials together makes the Will stronger already and strengthening the material itself.

Once Sora carried the items on his back, Sora walked over to Alice before walking with her over to where Eugeo and Kirito were. Kirito and Eugeo didn't bother asking much about the stuff on Sora's back since they all thought about taking some souvenirs back as well.

Alice was taking some ice from the ice cave, and both Kirito and Eugeo were set on coming back for the sword they can't quite move yet.

If it was Sora, he would have easily lifted it with his 78 Object Control Authority. However, such a poorly and naturally made weapon from the world didn't appeal to Sora. He didn't have to check it's information to know that it is a sword that doesn't fit him. It fit more Alice who had been training in ice and flower technique all year long.

She had even reached quite a good level in proficiency that Sora approved as decent for her age.

"Should we keep heading in?" asked Kirito as he tried getting Alice to go ahead since she's the one with the only one, besides Sora, who can generate a light within their little party.

Everyone follows behind Alice, walking deeper and deeper into the Ice Cave before coming up against a seemingly different world. It was as if two worlds had collided together and merged halfway, leaving the world split in two.

Sora and the rest looked at the red ground and the gloomy skies on the other side of the ice cave with awe. Besides Sora, the rest looked at the red land with some fear and caution in their eyes.

"The land of darkness..." muttered Eugeo as he looked absentmindedly at the red ground.