Ch 11 – Training

Boom!

Sunlight lightly washed over the dense forest as birds and animals of all sizes and shapes woke up. But by the time they woke up, loud booms continuously erupt in the far distant clearing where no beast dare to approach. Air seemed to explode at random intervals, while trees and rocky bits fly get toppled down and fly into the air.

"Crap, I really need a healing type Gu for this shit," Kaleido wipes his face covered and dripping in sweat. He stared at the decimated area in front of him with a small grin and dispelled the humming space knife that he held tightly.

Pouring primeval essence into a Gu inside his aperture, a spatial bubble appeared right beside him colored void black. He puts his hand inside it, and he sensed all of the objects that were stored within a ginormous space thousands of meters large in diameter. Inside the spatial bubble, there were countless things that can be found, from fruits, clothing, books, and many more.

His hand grabbed at his old water container and pulled it out. He pop open the lid and drank the refreshing water inside his flask. "Fuwah, the water's as refreshing as ever, but what's better is this Rank 1 Space Bubble Gu. If I hadn't found it from my second Gu hunting exploration in space cave, then I would have had a way harder time storing all of the stuff I have. But with this, and its absurd space thousands of meters wide, I would have no problem carrying as many items as I need."

Storing his flask inside the void black space bubble, he dismissed it and instead focus on the area in front of him once more. It was the clearing he used to safely test out his Rank 1 Space Step Gu from before, and now, the clearing has expanded vastly. There were more trees toppled and destroyed, while destroyed boulders can be seen everywhere, giving the area an apocalyptic air. From random rubble to craters here and there, one can only wonder what caused all of these things to appear in this peaceful forest.

'After training for nearly an entire week nonstop, I managed to raise my proficiency with my Gu Worms to the point that by my estimates, they should be as weak as a normal Rank 1 Gu. Though I don't know how strong they really are at maximum power, because even after all of the mental mathematics I've done to estimate the strength of a Rank 5 Gu, it is no way near the full power blow I can deal with Space Knife Gu.' Kaleido took a step, and his body disappeared in a flash.

In the next moment, as the void black light disappeared, Kaleido appeared inside his cave once more where a bonfire gave a warm glow to the dimly lit cave. Atop the fire, there was a stone slab with pieces of meat lying on top, and they sizzled while giving off an aromatic scent that made Kaleido salivate.

'Formless Barrier Gu!' Kaleido called out from his mind, and a nigh-invisible barrier condensed from space covered his entire body. If any other Gu Master used Formless Barrier Gu, they might only use it as a defensive type Gu Worm and protect themselves from harm, but after training for so long, Kaleido controlled the barrier and wrapped it around the meat sizzling atop the stone slab.

Slowly, with his meticulous control and usage of immense amounts of primeval essence, the perfectly cooked meat entered his wide-open mouth. A burst of flavor invaded Kaleido's senses, and he smiled happily: "Yum! I knew that there was potential in deer meat! And who would have thought that Formless Barrier Gu can really be used for pseudo-telekinesis? Hehehe, I wonder if its higher-ranked forms can alleviate its foundational strength so I can really have spatial telekinesis."

Kaleido hummed to himself and voraciously ate the meal he prepared a while ago. If one looked closely, Kaleido's body has rapidly changed after first arriving in this world. His muscles were more defined, his hair was longer and wilder, and his eyes shone brightly with an otherworldly flair. 'Once nightfall descends, it would mark the end of my first week in this world, huh? With my new set of Gu, I can already live freely inside this forest if I wanted to. But still, if I want to progress further and faster, I'll have to deal with my lack of knowledge, and what I need is Lo Clan City!'

'But still, this body of mine really is kind of amazing. The more time passes, the less sleep I needed. My wounds are also continuing to heal faster and faster, which means that I only need to eat more and my muscles would nearly automatically develop without much effort with the continuous physical exertion I've been doing. I wonder why it's like this. Is it because my cultivation level rose? Or is it that my body is somehow changing the more time passes? Or maybe it's because of the weird marks on my body that seems to be the cause of my space path Gu Worms being so ridiculously strong?'

Kaleido patted his bulging stomach and closed his eyes. He got into a lotus position, and he breathed in deeply. Inhale, exhale; air continuously entered and left his lungs which calmed Kaleido's mind. All of his useless thoughts disappeared; he focused all of his attention on his aperture and moved the primeval essence toward his aperture walls.

His aperture already had solid light walls, meaning he was already at Rank 1 Upper Stage! This was an unprecedented achievement that puts him directly in the realm of monsters. But Kaleido didn't know that, and in a way, this was the showcase of ignorance is bliss. He continued to cultivate; his mind never faltered unlike before when he was still a complete newbie.

He showed technique incomparable to his crude methods from before. His primeval essence flowed smoothly like a calm stream, feeding, and nourishing his aperture walls and reinforcing its light to a higher level. But just like always, his aperture's primeval essence never once got depleted. It was always full because even when he tried to, his primeval essence production speed is just too fast!

"Hoooo…" Kaleido opened his eyes after a long while. "An hour, that's my longest yet, huh? It's like meditating for an entire hour, but way harder. Damn, I can both meditate and cultivate at the same time! Ha! That must mean the mental health of this world's Gu Masters must be quite good, right?"

Dismissing his passing thought, he groans and stands up. He felt his constructed body that hasn't moved for an entire hour being reinvigorated with strength. His mental energy that has been depleted quickly recovered, and he felt all brand new in a matter of minutes.

'Let's do my final training session, shall we? After that, I'll rush to break through my current realm and reach Rank 1 Peak Stage!' Kaleido yawned and calmly walked out of his cave. His eyes gleamed with brilliance, and a void black knife appeared in his hands.

Inside his mind, a clear mental map of the entire forest appeared. There, dangerous red markings covered multiple places, and Kaleido saw that a certain dark red marking was quite close to his cave. 'Up north, there's a group of beasts, huh? Good, good! If I do reach peak stage, then that should be enough for me to finally start traveling towards Lo Clan City, but I should first test out my full battle strength right now.'

Kaleido's body rapidly flashed one step at a time through the forest. At maximum capacity, he can use Space Step Gu to appear tens of thousands of steps away, but the difficulty in doing that is too immense for Kaleido who's still a complete newbie with Gu. For him, he can confidently use Space Step Gu with complete accuracy just beyond a hundred steps.

But due to that, he has to also account for Space Step Gu's condition. If he used it enough times at rapid succession without letting it rest, it would overexert itself and be destroyed. While he theoretically does have an access to an endless amount of Space Step Gu back in his self-named space cave, he would have a hard time acquiring them due to the endless amount of Gu Worms back there.

'So this is where you guys are!' Kaleido's eyes flashed and he halted his steps. Even when he stared at an empty clearing in front of him, his Gu Worm, Spatial Domain, was activated. This Gu allowed him to not only create a more potent spatial domain where he can sense everything within it, but it used less of his mental energy! The only disadvantage was that it used primeval essence and the Gu could break if used for a long enough time, but he has nigh-infinite primeval essence, and Spatial Domain Gu is quite durable!

Below him, he saw a large cavern where thousands of wolves reside! It would have shocked him to see such a large number of wolves if it was the him from before, but now?

"Four thousand-beast kings, huh? Good, no, that's great! Let's see how strong you are, you beasts!"

Slash. Kaleido fearlessly slashed his knife down onto the ground, and an explosion occurred. With that, he engaged in a bloody battle against thousands of wolves, all of that for the sake of testing his current limits.

***

Kaleido stared at the last remaining wolf in front of him with a cruel grin. It was the last wolf thousand-beast king, and he was going to savor it for last. The space knife in Kaleido's hands disappeared, while the formless barrier of space around his body further solidified.

"You fucking bastard, you were the one who sent those wolves back then to investigate my cave. You really had me shocked and made me take my first rowdy fight in this world. Hehehe, let me show you just how petty I can be!"

He rushed forward fearlessly, and the wolf did the same. From Kaleido's vision, the whole world has come to a near-standstill. The wolf that ran towards him was slow as hell, and with just a mere thought, he appeared right in front of it all of a sudden.

Bam. His barrier-coated hand jabbed straight into the wolf's opened mouth, and sharp spikes of space exploded inside its mouth. But Kaleido didn't stop, he doesn't want to stop! This raw fucking feeling he felt was so good, it felt animalistic and primal that made his blood pump vigorously.

Before the wolf, the thousand-beast king whose strength can rival Rank 3 Gu Masters, can respond, Kaleido dealt another fatal blow. His protruding index finger stabbed into the wolf's eye, and more spatial tendrils extended under Kaleido's immense control that elevated formless barrier flexibility to another level altogether.

Under the tendrils of space barrage, the wolf's brain was punctured countless times and its strength rapidly left its body. Kaleido felt satisfied, and his body disappeared in a flash.

"Whew!" He appeared back at the cave once more. Miraculously, his entire body doesn't even have a drop of blood or flesh on it, and not even a bloody stench can be smelled from him. "Formless Barrier really is overpowered! If I use it before a bloody fight, then the blood and flesh that gathers around my body would fall to the ground once I dispel the barrier, meaning I don't have to take a bath after every fucking fight."

Kaleido ignored his aching muscles and instead got into a lotus position the next moment. 'Enough about that, if I can deal with theoretically four Rank 3 Gu Masters all on my own, then I'm confident of leaving this forest unscathed! Lo Clan City, just you wait! Once I reach peak stage, then that would mark the day Kaleido will officially set out on his journey to leave this goddamn forest.'

***

Flash. A shadowy figure rapidly ran and teleported through the dark forest as stars brightly glittered in the night sky above it. Kaleido can be seen wearing a black cloak that covered his body from head to toe, and tied to his waist were sheathed knives. In a world where a mishap might lead to his death, Kaleido wasn't going to entrust his life to his Space Knife Gu as his saving grace and had multiple backup plans already prepared in case things go wrong.

But as he was rapidly traveling at top speeds, his eyes dilated and stared at the dim orange glow in the distance. 'Fire?!'

AN: This chapter has 2128 words.

Dude, I haven't been able to write crap this past week! I hate school bro... Although as long as you were there, I wouldn't mind suffering a little bit so I get to see you~ *Bites lips*

Now give me them power stones, wink wonk.

Anywho, I'm now a filthy clout chaser because I finally got them glasses with no prescription and only wear them for that psychological halo effect of making me look smart which equates to better first impression.

Though smart is kind of true, but it definitely ain't national level smart. Bruh, imagine if I was actually going to the national quiz bee competition for geography in the Philippines, I'd be dead. Do you even know what me and my partner did in the quiz bee competition in our school?

We didn't review shit, we had zero points in the easy round, and bla bla bla. The only saving grace was that we had my fucking eraser which we used as a flip a coin and we... unbelievably, got most of the questions right in the true or false segment because of that flip an eraser bullcrap!

Then we became second place in our grade level, and that almost made us go to the nationals. Luckily for us, because of certain conditions, we were unable to join, which was a breath of relief for the both of us.

But if I was forced to, I wouldn't mind going to the nationals.

(December 23, 2022 – 393rd day of writing)