2 Trial By Lightning

(Cao Cao POV)

LP, each second is kind of calming to watch. Being comforted by rising numbers is a bit strange, but such is my life now. After the small conversation with the Spear before, it had gone quiet, and the rain was not helping, so I decided to create another skill, that being mana skin. This one took 4,000 LP from my now 7,700 LP, which built up after two hours.

The skill itself is quite simple: using my Mana from my small magic core, I can coat my skin with it and reinforce it against external attacks and elements. The skill itself comes from the anime Black Clover and is often used by the magic knights to keep themselves protected by external magic as well as the elements of nature. 

The technique itself is twofold as it allows me to protect myself against the elements, such as the chilling wind and rain, while also training my Mana control and the overall amount of Mana at the same time. The skin itself has a type of aura that is very noticeable, but for now, considering the fact that it creates a small yellow glow around me. The color may be affected by the fact that my soul has the Spear of Longinus in it.

For now, though, the mana skin helps keep me warm and walking through the pouring rain.

Wait, why is it raining? The sky was clear before? Unless…

My theory is then proven true but in a different way: a large flying man appears heralded by loud thunderstorms, and as he appears, he immediately looks upon me with a myriad of emotions to which I summon my Spear.

He almost laughs as he says with his booming, "Is this what caused the anomaly? Another wielder of the Spear? I would be scared, but I could tell that you are inexperienced."

I do admit to being scared, as in one day, I encountered a god to which he continued, "Now what to do with you? It would be so easy to kill you and rip that Spear from your corpse, but I am feeling generous. Be honored mortal I, Leigong, god of thunder, shall give you a chance." He then gestures to his side and multiple warriors made of lighting form, with their forms barely comprehensible to a normal human.

"Now, the challenge. If you defeat these five warriors, I shall let you go; if not, you shall die here. I truly am the most generous deity." He really likes to talk about himself, doesn't he?

I then get into a basic fighting stance and use my remaining LP for another skill to give me an edge, being an essential Sojutsu skill for spear arts, and the knowledge then fills my mind as my stance subtext changes, which Leigong notices.

"It seems there is more to you than I thought, or are you simply a genius? It matters not the fight begins!" He then claps his hands and teleports away in a flash of lighting, and the warriors wielding large swords rush me at a speed I cannot even comprehend. One immediately slams his fist into my chest, sending me into a nearby tree, with the spear and mana skin being the only reason I am alive.

Coughing out some blood due to the impact, the warriors again rushed me, which I then dodged under one of their strikes, to which another slashed towards my chest, which I parried using the pole of the Spear. I then heard Leigong yelling sarcastically, "I thought wielders of the Spear were mighty warriors, yet you continue to disappoint me. Come on! Show me that fire humanity has!"

"Be quiet, you overblown lightbulb!" I yell mentally as I run through the trees with the warriors seemingly laughing at me, yet the sounds they make are rather similar, so that may just be my imagination. But as I stopped, suddenly, the warriors passed by me, with one nearly hitting a tree.

Using the sudden ceasing of my momentum, I extended the Spear and swiped it through multiple trees with the warriors able to dodge, but one does have its arm cut off. But it is made of lighting that simply regenerates it instantly, which I noticed. But this is all I can do: run and learn.

My LP is growing with each second, and after five minutes of the fight, I have gained 300 LP. My LP is currently at 500, which is good but not enough, as one of the warriors noticed my focus and used it to his advantage. I am then slashed across my back, causing me to fall and the warriors to surround me.

Leigong again says, "So this is it? I am disappointed. They truly do not make sacred gear wielders like they used to. Finish him." The warriors nod, and under the pain, I roll out of the way, using my mana skin to try to heal my wound. Breathing heavily, I say to them, "Is this all you have, Leigong? I am whelmed."

The thunder becomes more erratic. I feel his annoyance grow as he yells, "Finish him!" But the time was all I needed as I now had enough LP to create a new skill. With only 100 LP left, I created a skill meant to generate pure water, and using my magic core, I generated a small blast of water, which eliminated two of the five warriors.

The warriors seemed stunned for a moment, and that moment was all I needed to blitz them. Using my Spear, I extended the length again and swept through the three, with only the last able to dodge in the last second. The final warrior then gains a fighting stance, to which I do the same, and as the lighting crackles, we rush each other, and as our weapons meet, a barrage of sparks occurs.

Luckily, the material the Spear is made out of keeps the lightning from hitting my hands, and with a wipe to my eyes, I dodge under him and slash at his left leg, which causes him to fall to one knee, and before he can regenerate the leg, I slash him through the chest ending the fight.

As I stumble back, even with the wound closed, I still have lost a lot of blood, and the thunder then ceases as Leigong stands above me.

His expression seems like a mixture of irritation and acceptance, and as he looks at me, he says, "You have won the challenge, and I find your ingenuity impressive. Let it be known that Leigong is a magnanimous deity, but for now, you are weak. Keep growing, spear user, and let us meet again."

He then disappears in a flash, and the storms recede as if they were never there, and then the pain from my cracked ribs catches up to me, and I groan in pain on the ground and wonder if this was the universe punishing me for taking a new path. And as I feel the light of the Spear on my body, I send a thank you as I say shakily, "You know if you weren't an inanimate object, I would owe you so many favors."

The Spear seems almost amused, and as the night sky is revealed, the lack of light pollution seems odd, but I accept a free view. And as I lay there, I saw another screen pop up, which feels like a decent compensation for what just happened.

[Survive Meeting A God + 10,000 LP, Win A God's Challenge + 5,000 LP, Defeated Opponents + 500 LP]

The grind truly does not stop.

Regardless, I look at my now increased LP storage of 15,570 and smile as I decide to create another skill, Biological Regeneration, which costs the lowest rank of D 10,000 points with 5,580 LP left, I created a new skill that is meant to increase LP generation and while at the lowest rank left me with only 600 LP but the gains are real.

Essentially, the increase in LP is taken from 1 per second to 2 per second, which doubles my daily LP from 86,400 LP a day to 172,800 LP a day. While this does seem like a lot, I have been able to gather the costs of various skills with abilities like Boost, Penetrate, and Divide or Reduce from the Heavenly Dragons, which cost around a couple million each at the lowest rank. While I can organically train the skills, they will take time to grow stronger.

I can bypass magical-based skills with the essence of the archmage as well as the essence of the blank, but my essence of skill generation allows me to get out-of-context powers. So I can bring the Warp from Warhammer 40,000 into DxD, and I won't have to worry about the chaos gods, as it will simply be my own Warp within my Magic core. I essentially have all the potential, and with my regen, I now have more time.

It is unknown whether or not I am actually immortal due to the nature of LP or life points making me immortal, but I do not want to take the chance. To be honest, I want to follow the ways of Sun Wukong and his multiple forms of immortality, as immortality is good, but it can be better. I also managed to spy a dimensional travel skill, and it would cost a lot, to say the least. 

While I do know I can increase my LP with powerful emotions, pleasurable times, and defeating powerful foes, I am still only 13 years old. Since Cao Cao never had a confirmed age, I assume that I am a year older than Issei.

Currently, it is the year 2004, and Issei should be around 12 or 13 years of age as Issei is 17 when the story begins in April of 2008, so if I am 14 in 2004, in four years, I will be eighteen. So, I have four years to get stronger, which should be more than enough for now. Sensing that I still had eyes on me, I got up from the ground, noticing that my wounds had closed completely.

It's nowhere near the power of someone like Deadpool or Wolverine, but it should help with the smaller cuts, and with more time, the regen will improve as I get stronger. But after getting up, I started walking through the forest again as I heard the Spear speak again. (You did well against the warriors of lighting. Although the fact that we encountered a god so early is either a swing of good fortune or you have the worst luck I have ever seen.)

Chuckling, I said to the Spear, "I assume the former if I am feeling chipper, but hey, at least it was not someone like Hades or Indra." The Spear sends a mental nod as I say, "So, can you read my mind?" The Spear seems to feel almost offended as it says ( Throughout my years as a sacred gear, I have noticed that most of my wielders prefer to have their thoughts to themselves, and besides, it's not like I can judge.)

Well, that is a relief as an enemy may be able to read my mind through the gear, so with that out of the way, I found myself in a small town its name I did not care to learn. I simply walked into an alleyway, and after placing the Spear back into my soul, I sat down against the wall, as I sat there, I wondered again how I could improve from there.

As I pondered, I felt the Spear speak again (You seem to like being in your head a lot. Is there something you wish to talk about?) Sighing, I mention, "I am simply feeling overwhelmed. Have you considered the term choice paralysis?" The Spear simply satiated (I have existed for hundreds of years and have been held by many wielders from young to old; they have thought similar things to you. Realizing that the world is so much larger than you know is both humbling and confusing. I am surprised you are not bitter after everything.)

"Being bitter over the sins of people simply doing their job or gods being gods would be foolish, although I wish I did have a better start. It's funny as I feel kind of robbed as with this name, I should hold power and respect, but such things without action or merit mean nothing."

As I said this, the spear hums in agreement before saying (Yes, the title is only as good as the actions that preceded the title as even the great general Cao Cao started as a lowly soldier in the beginning, even if he did hold a higher position in society. It took time, patience, and a bit of luck.)

"You believe that luck is a factor?" I asked, almost surprised as the Spear, in its neutral voice, said (Back to the beginning, luck was always present. There will always be those who are loved by luck and those who shall suffer for reasons they will never understand. Luck itself is affected by many things, such as Karma, as well as any curses one may suffer for one's bloodline. I will never say that luck is so all-encompassing that those with skill will never be able to succeed, but it is good to have it on your side.)

Nodding in agreement, I ask the Spear, "So, any ideas? While I have some, it is nice to have a second opinion." The weapon then grows silent as if thinking but then adds ( I have a few places we can start as my prior wielders have set up safe houses and other places, but they all exist on the opposite side of the continent but..) The Spear then stops as if hesitant, to which I say, "But what? Any place is better than this."

(There are some in Japan, but the gods there do not take kindly to Holy Relics. Which does make sense as some of my wielders have killed many Yokai and various Japanese Clans favored by the gods.)

Facepalming, I groan as I mention, "So, any other issues I should know about? It's so nice to know that I'm basically blacklisted before I was even born."

(Well, you are going to have enemies among the Devils, Hindus, Chinese, Japanese, Fallen Angels, Greeks, Romans, Pure Angels, The Church, and some wizard organizations. Oh, and the Fae because of the shattering of Excalibur.)

I have a mouth, and I must scream.

Which I do mentally as the Spear gives me a hesitant and awkward chuckle while I regret all my life choices.