New Technique, Second Stage

Immersed in enlightenment, Bruce sat motionlessly. He hadn't moved an inch from his position ever since he sat down.

Ideas and thoughts flowed seamlessly in his mind. The process was like completing a puzzle. Some thoughts were useless, while others contributed to making the puzzle whole.

Slowly but surely, a technique born from Bruce's imagination was taking shape.

"Finally."

After a while, Bruce muttered under his breath. He opened his eyes, calmly taking in the white world around him.

His eyes shone with wisdom and enlightenment. But on closer inspection, there was a trace of happiness and excitement in those eyes.

"This technique... I'll call it Martial Void then. No need to think much about it."

He decided to name it "Martial Void" since he took inspiration from the white world around him and his current abilities.

"Nothingness begets everything. That's where it starts."

The technique he made was extremely simple.

In fact, it only had one ability.

Using it will cause a white invisible aura to envelop his body and give a massive buff to his overall offensive prowess.

That was it.

In a sense, it was a "reinforcement technique" that just buffed his attacks.

'But the buff... hehe.'

Bruce lacked an offensive skill, so from the start, he intended to make a technique that could help him offensively.

To make the technique, first, he set his sights on the green special energy "life force" that could provide him regeneration and physical immunity.

"Life force" had the unique sole trait of being able to reinforce him defensively, but it couldn't help him much offensively.

So he took inspiration from the world around him. A pure, white realm that resembled oblivion. Then, he used his understanding of the world to transform life force...

The result was another special energy in itself. A variation of life force that augmented his offense instead of defense.

Bruce called this energy "Aura", the manifestation of a living being's strength.

"Let's test it out."

Bruce stood up and assumed a stance. A white, invisible energy slowly came out of his body and enveloped him entirely.

He thought for a moment and created a figure of Alex in front of him.

A while ago, he realized this place was essentially his "mind" where he could create anything he wished. The Cipher didn't tell him for some reason.

"Alexander" stood in front of him, looking at him emptily.

"I always wanted to beat you up. Too bad I can't do it without a reason."

Bruce laughed. He clenched his hand tightly, feeling an overwhelming power course through him.

Then, he threw a punch at Alex!

Woosh!

It was faster, stronger, and heavier than his usual punches. He estimated that the buff aura brought him increased his strength to around 150% - 200%.

Bam!

"Alex" wordlessly received his punch, causing a booming sound to echo in the noiseless white world.

As soon as he was hit, he was blown away by the sheer force of the attack!

Bruce was sure he had broken a bone or two. He walked up and approached where "Alex" landed, looking at the man with a devilish smirk.

Unfortunately, the figure was fake and could not scream. Otherwise... he would've really enjoyed his half-brother's terrified and gnarly expressions.

Finishing the test, he made the figure disappear.

Bruce looked at his arm, enveloped by aura.

"My first time creating a technique was a success. As expected... Top-level comprehension is really a busted skill. It's priceless, in fact."

"An increase of three-folds, reaching the strength of a level-1 evolver. Only genius evolvers can do such a feat. If word gets out I developed a technique that can make a pre-evolutionary have power that defies understanding, those old men in the academy will definitely fight over me..."

He could only imagine the commotion it would cause. Although it was not that rare for certain pre-evolutionaries to have the strength of a level-1 evolver, his current case was different.

Most pre-evolutionaries that had level-1 strength in history were just naturally strong because of their awakened ability.

In other words, they were geniuses.

But in his case, he developed a technique. That was not only much harder, but a much more terrifying feat.

[The Infinite Cipher]

[Mind Domain Task: Master Top-level Comprehension (100/200)]

[Evaluation: A]

[You have passed the first stage. It took you a total of 12 hours, 5 minutes, and 3 seconds to create a technique from nothing.]

[Proceed to the next stage. Y/N?]

"Huh?"

Seeing the evaluation, Bruce was taken aback. He only got an A evaluation from that... and it seemed like he hadn't fully mastered the skill yet.

Even though he passed the trial, the progress bar was still short of a hundred points.

"Is it because I wasn't able to surpass the Cipher's expectations...?"

"Unlike in the body domain, I directly mastered and evolved Lower Regeneration, causing me to have an SSS evaluation."

Bruce rubbed his chin in contemplation. Moreover, since "Top-level Comprehension" was a much more valuable skill, the difficulty of mastering it was higher.

'... It's not a big deal. I'll check the next stage and finish it quickly. How hard could it be?'

Thinking like that, Bruce didn't hesitate to press the 'yes' button. His figure vanished and appeared at the next stage of the mind domain.

Woosh!

... But after a while, he returned to reality with a gloomy and sour look. All of his joy was extinguished as soon as he went in the second stage.

"Simple my a*s. You're asking me to create a f**king miracle!"

Bruce cursed in anger. He rubbed his temple to calm himself. In a sense, the second trial was as simple as the first trial.

The second trial was set in a destitute library, with only a few books on its shelves. The reason it was only a few was because the library contained only the books he had fully read and understood.

And unfortunately, Bruce, in both of his lives was never an avid reader.

Using his knowledge, the second trial's task was for him to make a new evolutionary pathway that suited him...