21 Over clock
The tension in Jax's room was palpable.
Jax was minding his business, filling out the paperwork required for running his city, but Red Bandit Mountain's intrusion was something he had never forgotten. He was even getting anxious since Porter didn't return for a few days.
The uneasiness in his heart was replaced with relief when Porter teleported into his room.
But, his face darkened as he took a closer look at Porter's appearance.
Porter's body was riddled with light wounds and bruises, and his clothes were damaged beyond repair.
"Was it a beast?" He questioned subtly.
"No."
Jax began imagining the worst-case situations, and the anxiousness returned.
'Did an expert notice the relic? Did he pinpoint it to me?'
Jax let out a long sigh before ordering Porter to explain what happened.
Porter took a seat and began to describe.
He talked about the Tiefling that attacked him on sight, even surviving one of his spells quite easily. Jax became concerned when he heard the Tiefling broke Porter's shield with one strike.
Even though he was a cultivator nearing the third stage, Jax's shield was too strong for him to penetrate so easily. He knew he would need to exert considerable effort to destroy the shield as Porter described it.
It might have been a Tiefling, but until he knew further, the Tiefling couldn't be underestimated.
After a moment of silence, Jax questioned, "Anything else? What about the relic?"
Porter looked uncomfortable after being asked about the relic, and a hint of embarrassment could be seen on his face.
"Well, I was caught off guard and I forgot to look at the relic."
Jax could feel some anger rising within, but he snuffed it out, maintaining his composure in front of Porter. At his level, mastering emotional restraint was a basic requirement.
"That's fine, you still don't have much battle experience. I'll need to fix that before you head to the military school in the capital."
Once he heard 'military school', Porter's mood grew worse.
He, as a mage, was destined to rise above the others.
Of course, power came with many strings attached. Once someone in the capital noticed his existence, it was determined for him to go to military school and then fight for the empire.
Their talk was cut short by a loud ringing sound emanating from a small object on Jax's desk.
Seeing this, Porter quietly left the room, and Jax picked up the item.
He had a serious expression on his face, as if he couldn't afford to offend the person calling him.
Porter stood behind the doors of Jax's room, but he couldn't hear the phone call conversation. It was no surprise since Jax's room was soundproof.
After a few minutes passed by, Jax called him in.
Porter didn't have time to make himself comfortable before Jax warned him, "The enforcers are coming, Porter."
…
To put it slightly, Porter shocked Ray; he was impressed.
If Porter knew how to fight, Ray could have been in serious trouble. Porter was, fortunately, inexperienced in both fighting techniques and cultivation.
The young age that Porter possessed only impressed Ray more. It was obvious at first glance that Porter was still in his teens: a stark difference from all the old monsters that Ray battled so far.
With Porter, the mage's advantage over classic cultivators was exposed, and Ray's eyes were dead set on claiming it for himself.
'Killing a mage… will be difficult.'
He used his most powerful attack from the start, but he still couldn't beat Porter in a fight. Things would be different in the future now that he was aware of Power's capabilities, but there were still a few mysteries.
For example, couldn't he just teleport away? What was Ray going to do in that situation?
Maybe there were limits to Porter's teleportation, but Ray had no clue how it worked.
Ray sat down on a rock and reflected on the fight with Porter, meticulously analyzing every detail in search of information.
He had no understanding of the spells or how they were cast, but he remembered something important about Porter's appearance.
Porter's clothing bore the words "Konola," which also happened to be the name of a nearby city. The city wasn't very far away; at his speed, it would take him less than a day to get there.
The pieces matched up, and an evil grin formed on his face.
'Want to run away? That's fine, I'll simply hunt you down. There won't be an escape next time, young mage.'
Who was Ray to let such an opportunity fly under his radar? He had no idea when he might run into another mage, let alone one as young as Porter.
His only worry wasn't the mage, but the city lord who stood behind him.
He figured a powerful figure like Porter was closely associated with the lord of the city, so attacking Porter was akin to attacking the city lord.
If he was sneaky, there was a chance of assassinating and escaping without confrontation. However, Ray wasn't willing to take such a risk when he didn't even know the strength of the city lord.
Judging by his current location within the empire, he could safely assume the city lord was around the bone-refining to organ-refining level. He had a degree of confidence if the city lord was at the bone-refining stage, but if they already refined their internal organs, he even lacked the confidence to escape.
Someone who refined their organs was a single step away from becoming a stage-3 practitioner. It wasn't something the current Ray could approach with his current strength.
Ray delved into his inner consciousness and opened the book once more. After becoming a skin-refining cultivator, he knew he could access another page.
His expression became serious as he read the contents of the page. He still didn't understand why he had it, or who that old man in his consciousness was, but he knew it was something beyond his current scope of imagination.
After finishing the page, Ray understood it perfectly, since the book explained it so well.
In a nutshell, the technique overclocked his body to reach a heightened level of strength for a short period of time.
The mechanism behind it was advanced—so advanced that Ray hadn't an inkling of an idea as to how it worked. Fortunately, he didn't need to understand the complexities behind it, he only had to implement it.
As for how long the overclocked state would last, there was no definite answer. The more health you were willing to sacrifice, the longer you could continue in the state.
His consciousness broke away from the book and entered his body. He had to make several changes before he could make use of the overclocked state.
The ki veins had to be adjusted, and organs needed some adaptations.
There was a lot of work to do, but he was a quick worker. Whenever he did something, he always had the feeling he did it thousands of times before. Without any external help, he would perfect the action simply by repeating it a few times.
He was also utilizing the relic to cultivate whilst reorganizing his body. Ray was unwilling to waste a single second doing anything less than his full capabilities.
