Stone Class (2)

I tilted my head, feigning confusion at his words, "What do you need me to do?"

Convir interlinked his fingers and placed his chin in one of the notches his hands created before answering my question, "Well, because you are practically at the forefront of this plan, I'll tell you what's happening right now. We've almost driven the Sect Leader into a corner, and he's beginning to get desperate. I'm sure you know that the Wild Beast attack was human-made, as most others do. The popular theory as of now is that the Fortune Nine Sect is behind it, but that isn't the case."

I chose to continue my dumb act and kept the intrigued look on my face, prompting Convir to continue, "You see, I was able to figure out that the Sect Leader was actually behind the attack. This shows that he's beginning to fear the power that Medisma and I are gathering. He's beginning to lose his sense of reason. And that is where you come in. You are strong Quis, strong enough that you could beat a 2nd Half Coal Class Wild Beast, and that was before you ascended to Stone Class. If you're put in a good situation, you might even be able to match a Grand Elder in strength. I need you to show off that strength during the midterms. We're going to show the Sect Leader that we already hold the power to destroy him before he does anything rash. This way they'll be forced into surrendering and the sect will once again be unified."

He stood up and walked around the desk before meeting me and putting a hand on my shoulder, "Quis, you are essential to this plan succeeding. No, you're essential for the survival of the sect! The sect that saved you from death. The sect that became your friends and family. The sect that gave you the power you hold now. I need you Quis... The sect needs you!"

Passion swirled in my eyes, a rare occurrence for what was usually a dark ocean and I looked Convir dead in the eyes, and said with pride bursting in my heart, "I will do it for the sake of our sect! Let's show the Sect Leader that he messed with the wrong group of people!"

Convir nodded his head, "I'm proud to see how far you've come Quis... You've truly changed for the better. Now go, take this, and prepare for the midterms."

He lifted his other hand and in it were two scrolls that were sealed with a red stamp. I humbly grabbed the scrolls before nodding my head and leaving the room with vigor in my step. Before I left the room entirely though, I made sure to ensure Convir's trust in me, "I will not let you down Convir!" And like that, the door shut behind me, once again separating me from Convir.

I still made sure to run out of the school like I was in a hurry though, it would be foolish if the preemptive thought of victory destroyed my carefully laid out plan. Once I was out of the building and far enough into the jungle, I slowed my pace, and eventually came to a searing stop upon finding another abandoned building hidden deep within the flora. It was here that I would test out my new body.

Once I sat down in the tall grass, I immediately noticed a change: My body didn't feel exhausted at all. Before this, I had great endurance from my constant training, but after all that running I did, I would at the very least be winded, though that didn't seem to be the case now. This was the first thing that made sense to me. In the cultivation of Technology Path, unlike Magic Path, you don't change the actual property of your body, instead using outside factors with your body in unison. At higher levels, this would eventually end with your every move exhausting your body to death.

For example, when I was fighting Fragitus, although her Martial Art had more to do with strengthening her explosives, there were a couple of times when what she did didn't seem physically possible by my standards. And when I would use my Magic Circles to use power outside of my body's ability, although I didn't show it, my body would crave oxygen. So an upgrade in stamina made sense.

Next, I would test out durability. I went up to a nearby tree and ripped off a particularly sharp branch. Next, I shoved it into the loose dirt before stomping onto it with my foot after taking my sandals off. Once my foot hit the stake-like branch, I heard a crack. Once I brought my foot back up. What laid on the ground was a broken piece of thick wood.

This served as both a durability test and an offense test. If it were before, my foot would probably be slightly impaled, if not fully. But instead, the stake was broken and my sole didn't have a scratch on it. That meant that my leg was strong enough to break the wood at a weird angle and my sole was defensive enough to not get hurt in the process. This was going to be very useful, as it would make minor attacks on me futile. But this also brought up a question in my mind, 'If your body gets this strong after ascending to only Stone Class, then why was I able to hurt Fragitus so easily back in the coliseum?'

It was a hard question to answer as information on anything to do with ascension was hidden deeply besides the requirements to do so, and the obvious boons. For example, I knew that I would be able to practice Martial Arts and Physique Arts once in Stone Class, but I didn't know that it would come from my body having a dramatic upgrade. And now that I think about it, how come that was only ever mentioned to me after I ascended to Stone Class?...

After the strangeness of the entire ascension process, this pointed my gut even farther into the direction of a deep conspiracy being behind this, but that wasn't something that I had much reason to worry about right now, what was more questionable to me was consisting of two things. Why did that blank sheet of paper suddenly have words written on it? And, more importantly, why do I remember the entire process of ascending to Stone Class?

From all the information I gathered on the many things of this world, the process of ascension was what I gained the least of, and by that I mean a whole lot of nothing. And it wasn't that they blocked that information in the Jungle Region specifically because it was obvious this was something true for the entire world. No one remembered how they ascended. Yet I did... Why was that?

Well, when looking at why something happened to you that hasn't happened to others, you must look at your other differences. And when I did that to myself, I could think of three things that might be behind my remembrance. One is the fact that I came from a subworld. Coming from a world that has different laws might exempt me from some laws of this one. Think of it as how a free man has more consciousness than a slave would have. The slave only knows that they must help their master in whatever he asks them to do. A free man however would have enough self-consciousness to know that he doesn't belong to another person and would have the right perspective to revolt. My soul is not from this world, so I have a different "perspective".

My second hypothesis is that it has to do with the Golden Strawberry I ate before. That entire incident in filled with mystery to me. Why did a fruit from the main world suddenly show up in a subworld? And how come it had the specific ability of sending me to the main world, procuring a body for me, and then on top of that also embedding my mind with the knowledge of their language? There were many holes of logic involved with that thing, which also gave it the chance of affecting something else, like this right now.

My final idea is based on me being the acclaimed son of Hades, an ancient God of the Jungle Mythology. This was something else that was mixed with mystery, the most apparent question being: "How do I know if I'm actually his son?" But it would be weird for an actual God to tell me I'm his son if I had nothing to do with him, so I chose to accept this reality until proven otherwise. This meant that I was, in all technicality, a Demi-God. Of course that was in name only. I originally thought there was nothing gained from my lineage except for that incredible rush of adrenalin I got when in a life-or-death fight, but this could be another effect of my family tree. It wasn't something I could just ignore.

Those were my three ideas, but at the end of the day, they were just hypotheses with no real testing or proof behind them. One of these is likely the answer behind this, but there's also the chance it has to do with something completely different. However, what was important was that, unlike everyone else, I didn't forget how to ascend. As of now, it didn't seem like that knowledge would have any negative repercussions, so I would just move on. Having knowledge like that, as long as I keep it to myself anyway, can only be a good thing.

Speaking of knowledge, I needed to figure out something else. My body wasn't the only thing that would change from my ascension, the Duranian would also go through a change. The change would be something similar to when I first awakened it. On top of a qualitative and quantitative increase in Genesis Liquid, there would be a major geographical change. Like in my original ascension, this change would have to do with multiple factors.

But instead of my entire life experience up until that point being put into it, it would only take into account the time I spent cultivating it to the next realm. That way the change was more personalized based on the path I was following. But it would still relate to my original Duranian, so I wouldn't get something like a blacksmith floating in the middle of an ocean if I dabbled in the sword a little despite following the Water Branch. This was also why it was so strange that I had two seemingly very different environments inside of my Duranian.

I took a deep breath, preparing myself for the sight to come. The last six months of cultivation have been a mix of many things, so I wasn't exactly sure what I would get. It was something similar to gambling, but, at least there wasn't a real chance for me to lose. I would only have to work with the additions... I closed my eyes and focused on entering my Duranian, and soon enough, I was inside to witness the differences.

The first thing that I noticed was that the entire Duranian had grown larger. Before it was about 10 kilometers squared, but now it seemed to be a bit more than double that, 25 kilometers squared maybe. But even though it changed in size, the locations within it grew along with it. The most apparent thing that made itself known right away was the island where I built the large tree before. It wasn't that it changed much, but when I looked at it, for some reason I could almost sense life coming from it. But once I focused on it, that sense disappeared.

The next thing I noticed was the giant pit located just outside of the town. It was a pit of sand, but it wasn't just sand. In this sand were fragments of metal, long coils of metal cords with spikes attached to them, and strangely shaped metal blocks that seemed to have more to them as they led on. These were only the things I didn't recognize though. I was able to see stray arrows and bolts along with broken-down cannons and catapults. I also found the occasional skeleton hidden within the sands.

The final thing I noticed... well, it was probably the most peculiar out of all the things I'd seen today. While I was examining the pit of sand, I heard a door from my town opening. After I heard this, the next two doors opened as well. This piqued my curiosity, and I made my way to the town, and what I saw shocked me. Standing in the town square huddled around the well were three semi-transparent human-like entities. Two of them were copies of me, one with a joyous mask on its face and the other with a mask full of sorrow. The last creature wasn't like the other two at all. It took on the appearance of an old man, with greyed hair, a long beard, and a small frame. It was the perfect example of what a hermit would look like.

As I was floating in the sky, observing the three ghost-like "humans", the hermit suddenly turned and looked at me before I heard words exit from its mouth, "Come Ikusho, stand by the well with us, the meeting is just beginning after all. It would be great if you could join us."