Chapter 9: Hidden Sects

As we followed Damon as he walked, he suddenly turned around and we all stopped.

"Children, please move behind me." He said.

We followed his words and walked behind him, then we turned to stare at what he's going to do. We heard him say some weird words, and then he spread his arms wide and clapped his hands. The walls in front of us were suddenly moving close to each other.

*Rumble* *Rumble*

And then, after a few seconds of shaking, the direction where we came from was nowhere to be seen. Only a wall.

"What was that, Damon?" I asked as Sarah, one of the older children, carried me in her arms.

He looked a bit tired but he said, "That was magic, I'm sure all of you have studied what it is. Magic comes from Mana, and with enough control, you can create, move, or destroy a lot of things but at the cost of your Mana. Mana is within us, it's what makes us live. It's our life force. Some have more than others, and some have less. The older you get, the more your Mana decreases. But Mana is also said to cause long lifespans if you have a technique that can increase it. And for now, this is enough of a lesson. We should go."

Then we continued.

Along the way, Damon said that this tunnel stretches over 80 Kilometers and I could hear some of us groan when they heard that. While I won't do any walking since I'm just a toddler, the others weren't so lucky. Aside from me, the youngest here is 6 and no one wants to carry a child that big while they're walking. Well, except for Damon that is.

Damon is strong, like super strong, so he's able to carry 2 children at the same time if he wanted to. But for now, he decided to carry some food that they managed to get from our previous home. The amount of food we have could feed all of us for the next 4 days, which is more than enough for us all to reach the end of this tunnel.

At the end of the tunnel, Damon said that there is a safe house waiting for us inside the core of a mountain. While I don't know how the basic physics of nature didn't kick in while he built this tunnel and that safe house, I guessed that it had something to do with magic. I mean, c'mon, unless you're a goddamn wizard, no one can build this kind of tunnel on their own.

Anyway, this event would surely leave me without any insects to grind with. Since a few days ago, I've been asking Damon for 3000 insects a day, and 3 days later, I now have 788 KP. Minus the 30 KP I spent earlier, I still have 758 KP. I felt so rich back then but a quick look at the items that's in the [Shop] quickly crushed that hope. Who would feel rich when the things they want the most costs around 50,000,000 KP? No one. 758 KP just feels… lacking.

By the way, that 50,000,000 KP item is a spear which has a description that says:

[Name: Spear of Law and Chaos]

[Item Description: A spear created by mixing the Pole of Law and the Sword of Chaos. The pole was made from the soul of the spirit of the law, and the blade of the sword is made from the soul of the spirit of chaos. It shouldn't have been possible for the two to exist together in harmony, but the mysterious blacksmith who made them was somehow able to combine them and make a new weapon that would bring justice and destruction]

[Abilities: Summon Demons of Destruction and Angels of Justice]

[Stat Bonus: 5,000,000 [Physical] and 5,000,000 [Mana], and a 2 percent chance of instant kill]

It's so overpowered that I almost drooled when I saw it. But the thing is, the entire [Shop] is full of that kind of item. Many of them are ten times more expensive, and some even reached the number of billions of KP. It's disappointing to see so many powerful weapons and not be able to use them.

Anyway, I decided to buy 60 clones and put them all in [Training]. In about a year, I would be so powerful that I would be able to fight an entire Kingdom on my own.

[Name: Auguste]

[Age: 2 Years, and 273 Days]

[Power Level: 1]

[Physical: 0]

[Mana: 0]

[Fighting Skills: -0]

{Kill Points: 158}

{Dispel Clones – Yes or No}

{Numbers of Clones: 80: Max - 100} (All Working)

-Options-

[Training]

{Physical Training}

 Running – Clones*15 (Gain +75 [Physical] Every 10 Days)

 Pushups – Clones*15 (Gain +75 [Physical]Every 24 Hours)

 Sit-Ups – Clones*15 (Gain +75 [Physical] Every 6 Hours)

 Swimming – Clones*15 (Gain +75 [Physical] Every 5 Days)

 {Mana Training}

 Meditation – Clones*20 (+10 [Mana] Every 2 Hours)

[Fighting]

[Shop]

___

If my calculations are correct, I should get around 2,100,000 [Physical] and 43800 [Mana] per year. If I decided to dispel them a year later, I would be the most overpowered 3 years old in existence. But I won't dispel them until 5 years from now unless something bad happens.

Tutorial bot said that the average power level of an adult in this world is 100, 10 for mana and 90 for physical. So Damon must have around 1000 Power Level for physical strength, but I don't know about his mana. Mana and Physical are different because Mana is more powerful than Physical.

For example; if I have 1,000,000 in [Physical], I would only be able to lift a building with two hands. But, if I had 1,000,000 [Mana] I would be able to lift a mountain with one hand and another in my other hand, while not touching them both. This is what I would call "Behavior of Ignoring Basic Physics". Increasing my [Physical] stat would only enhance my overall physical state while increasing [Mana] would prolong my life and could let me use it to enhance my overall strength. 

In short, Mana is overpowered. But to use Mana more efficiently so that you won't use enough of it to kill you, you need to train your body so that it doesn't deteriorate like normal humans. A human's body deteriorates as they grow older, the same goes for any other creatures. That's the phenomenon that we call "Aging". An average life span of a human is 50, 80 if they are lucky. In this dangerous world, numerous monsters of any species lurk everywhere. Be it may be a city or a forest, there is a monster living there.

That's why no one can live that long. There's also the fact that many groups of humans all over the world have already managed to figure out how to control and increase their mana; these are what they would call "Hidden Sects". These "Hidden Sects" have been spotted everywhere in the entire world, and it is rumored that there are 3 Hidden Sects in the Bronze Continent.

Joining them would have been good for me in the future if it wasn't for the fact that they are almost impossible to find. Everyone who ever saw them in action had their memories wiped, and they would usually wake up in a ditch somewhere with no memories of the previous day.

I just tossed the idea of joining one and gave up. They're not worth my time anyway. I'd rather stay with my current family and protect them forever.

Soon, everyone was tired. It's been 8 hours since we started walking and we haven't even reached the middle of the tunnel.

The tunnel seemed never-ending, no matter how much we walked we could only see darkness stretched as far as the eyes can see. It's honestly chilling how terrifying the darkness here is. It's like staring at the abyss and then it stares back at you.

Damon told us to take a rest, for now, we would continue our walk tomorrow once everyone is fully rested.

We ate the rations we had, and when we were finally full, we went to sleep. Except for Damon, who I heard talking with someone. I couldn't figure out who he was talking to because I was extremely tired from earlier, and soon I ignored it and went to sleep.

Meanwhile, with Damon…

He stood a bit far away from the children as he spoke to the blue talisman he was holding.

"I and the children will reach the safe house in 3 days, so I hope you'll be there."

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry. Is the safe house clean?" A female voice sounded from the talisman.

"Me, you, Gray, and Toram had built that together and none of us have ever stayed there. So of course it's not clean, Terra! Use some common sense!"

"Tch, I would have to arrive there tomorrow. I can't live in a dirty house, and you know that, Alex."

"How could I not know, you clean freak? You used powerful spells to chase Gray all over the land, to this day he's still hiding from you and it's all because he stepped inside your house with a dirty shoe!"

"To be fair, I told him not to do that."

"You threw a mountain at him!"

"To also be fair, that mountain was also full of dirt."

"Every mountain has dirt, Terra! And that mountain's owner was the Grand Elder! You better be thankful to him that he didn't clean your head off right off the bat!"

"Heh, that old geezer won't be able to touch me because I'm friends with the future matriarch of our sect! Besides, I'm also a candidate for the position of the Grand Elder since the old geezer is going to retire in a few months."

"Anyway, I'm going to sing a lullaby to my children. Goodbye, and see you at the safe house, Terra."

"Tch, why did you have to open an orphanage anyway? Your life was so fine in the Sect, no one was able to find out who you are and no one would attack you for your real identity."

"As I've explained to you before, Terra, it was because me and Jade weren't able to conceive a child. That's why she divorced me, remember? Oh, by the way, how is Jade these days? Is she well?"

"She's married to the Fourth Elder, who also happens to be infertile. Well, it was obvious anyway because he kept going to brothels and f*cking a lot of women and they strangely didn't become pregnant, even after one of them confessed that they didn't take any birth control and put a hole in his condom. Jade is currently filing for divorce, and it's not been going well because, unlike you, the Fourth Elder is actually resisting. He's using all his power in the Sect to keep Jade for himself. She's losing a lot of money, almost losing half of her wealth."

Damon, or Axel, chuckled a little at that, "That's kind of hilarious. She's turned into a complete joke."

"Everyone in the sect thinks of her like that. Anyway, since there's no food in the safe house, I'll be buying a lot of food and water and transfer them all into my storage ring. Goodbye, Alex, I'll see you in 3 days,"

"Damon" smiled, "Yeah, see you, too."

Then she ended the call and the talisman burned to ashes.