Chapter 20: Body Strengthening Technique.

Blaze roared as he kept spinning and moved into the monster ranks. The monsters didn't stop, though, and more of them closed in.

Blaze didn't falter; instead, he spun the greatswords in a tight circle, and the flaming tornado intensified once again. The monsters were thrown back once more, and some of them were consumed by the black flames.

But the skill suddenly stopped working, and the whirlwind deactivated.

'What now?' Neo asked as he felt that they were in a pinch, but Blaze still had a grin on his face as he said, "Remember the idea?"

The [Authority of Flame] burned brightly as his body was again engulfed in black flame along with the blade. Blaze narrowed his eyes as he saw the monsters speeding toward him.

He sneered and moved one of the greatsword above his head. The blade erupted in flames, becoming brighter and more black with each passing moment. As the monsters came closer, he brought the greatsword down in a powerful arc, and a slash of fire erupted in an arc from the blade, sending the creatures flying.

"Let's see if this works."

Blaze muttered as he started spinning and the fire on greatswords formed a small circle of fire which expanded and soon another tornado of flames expanded from him as it sent the monsters flying. Some weaker ones even got burned by those flames.

"Dodge."

Blaze jumped back but kept spinning as his figure was now a small tornado, which the monsters were having trouble penetrating into.

'That monster is using long range attacks.'

Blaze moved toward the monster as he abruptly stopped spinning, and the tornado vanished, but the blade was still on fire and fully charged, which he slashed in an arc and sent out a flame arc which blasted the monsters away.

"This place is like heaven. I won't ever run out of Nether energy here."

He arrived before the monster, that had a long beak, and plunged one of the greatsword into the monster and set it on flame, which incinerated the monster's body.

The monsters showed no sign of stopping as they poured in from the gates and even if he had infinite energy, the same was not true for stamina.

Blaze now plunged the great swords into the monsters and formed two swords, one Black and one Golden, with which he cut down the monsters.

Only 5 minutes had passed when he heard a chime. Which told him.

He leveled up!

"Seriously? If this keeps on going, I might reach level 20 faster than expected."

Neo was also surprised, as if he really went by this speed, then he didn't want the monsters to stop at all. But stamina was again the problem.

"The Breathing Technique."

He found the answer to his problem and Neo got to it as he used the [Primal Breathing Technique]

Blaze felt energy filling his lunges before going into different parts of the body like adrenaline was injected into his body. He became more aggressive and took the initiative as he charged into the monster files.

Another 5 minutes passed, but Blaze's stamina was full as the breathing technique worked, keeping him in optimal condition.

"Let's try this."

Blaze said as mischievousness flashed in his eyes, an enormous scythe formed above the monsters.

'…. It's huge.'

Blaze's grin widened and used the flame arcs to create a space for himself. He jumped as he grabbed the descending enormous weapon. Using the [Authority of the Flame], he set it on fire as golden flames covered the blade and moved it around in a circle.

It was extremely heavy, so he was having difficulties even moving it. Blaze gritted his teeth and activated the [Rune Fury] and [Power Absorption]

He felt a new boost as his muscles bulged and roared as his body started cracking. He absorbed a bit of power from every monster, but because there were too many of them, the end point was too much and his current body couldn't handle this much.

The multipliers he had in the trials were different things because the Tower was keeping the power from harming his body, but now this much power was wreaking havoc in his body.

"Go To Hell!!"

Blaze roared and swung the scythe which also increased in length and flame intensified as it incinerated the monsters, leaving only their essence sphere behind. He didn't know how long he kept going as things became a blur, and he lost consciousness.

….

Neo opened his eyes and found himself on a patch of grass. He pushed himself up groggily but felt pain as his muscles twitched. He looked around and found him in the place where he entered the Twin Towers from. He sat down and shook his head to get rid of the dizziness.

"What happened?"

{No Idea.}

Neo looked around and tried standing up, but he wasn't able to as he felt his muscles were jelly now.

"Went a little too far, I think." Neo said, as he smiled wryly. He didn't expect that [Power Absorption] skill was this overpowered.

Neo created a walking cane and used it as a support to walk to a tree nearby. He sat under it as he opened his status panel to see what happened.

Status panel:

『 Status (1 of 2)

Name: Neo Orpheus.

Class: Technomancer

Level 17 (5,523,000/6,553,600)

Title: First in the Era

Health Points : 1,700/1,700

Mana : 890/890

Strength: 150+ 33 [-100] Agility : 150 + 19 [-100]

Stamina: 150 [-100] Intelligence: 150 + 7 [-100]

Vitality: 150+ 20 [-100] Perception: 42

Luck: 39 Willpower: 38

Unallocated points: 0

Chaos points: 84

Resistance: [Folded]

Spells: Isolated Space Creation.

Skills: Inspect (Max), Whirlwind, Aether Manipulation, Fear Aura, Soul Tandem

Technique: Primal Breathing Technique.

Equipment Abilities: Dash, Shadow Clone, Rune Fury, Dash of the Wind.』

He found all his natural stats at 150 and then looked at the notification that was constantly blaring.

『 Player's attributes reached the peak of Unevolved. To gain more points, please evolve to the next realm or strengthen your body.』

『 Player is in a weakened state.』

『 Time to recover: Unknown.』

He saw that every state had a [-100] next to them, except Perception, Luck, and Willpower.

Neo looked at the notification and closed it. He was silent before checking with the tower. He willed and found himself in the white room again, but this time the floor was covered with essence spheres. Neo was stunned, as the sphere could easily make a small hill if gathered.

{I feel proud of myself.}

Blaze whistled when he saw the scene and now knew how he jumped up 4 levels, but then the pain also told him the reality of how reckless he was and almost destroyed himself.

『 Congratulation on successfully defending the formation.』

『 Checking for what Keeper needs.』

Neo felt like he got scanned by something and was a little surprised, as this differed totally from how [Ascendance Tower] worked. Now he was waiting for the reward.

『 Received: Body Strengthening Technique.』

『 Received: Low grade Divine Healing Elixir.』

A potion bottle appeared before Neo, who was looking at him with a raised eye as Blaze said.

{Should it go like, now I have to find a potion only to find its recipe then look for ingredients for them then look for a powerful alchemist to make the potion for me or learn alchemy and something along the line that would help me make companions and such.}

This line of thought impressed Neo, and he said, "High Luck did all of it."

{Yeah, and spoiled the fun as well as I didn't get to make friends.}

"Am I not enough?"

{…. You know that you and I are one, right?}

"…."

{Never mind, let's get this over with.}

Neo held the potion and used [Inspect].

『 Name: Divine Healing Elixir (Low Grade)

Description: This elixir is made from rare divine herbs and infused with the power of the Celestial Realm. It has powerful healing properties, capable of restoring even the most severe injuries.

Effects:

➠ Restores health and vitality, healing even the most severe injuries

➠ Boosts the immune system.

➠ Accelerates the natural healing process

➠ Rejuvenates the body, restoring energy and vitality.』

Neo looked at the description and the effect, then opened the bottle. He gulped it down and sat down in case the pain assault him, but nothing such happened, instead he felt a warm feeling spreading through his body and every part of his body slowly getting nourished by it.

{Don't moan.}

Neo controlled the feeling as that would be embarrassing even if he was by himself. He sat down and subconsciously activated [Primal Breathing Technique]

A small vortex formed around him as the divine and nether energy drilled into his body and another notification appeared.

『 The effect of the Divine Healing Elixir has been amplified.』

The warmth that he felt increased, and the Neo could feel the strength returning to him and this feeling kept on for over 5 minutes before stopping as the potion's effect died down.

Neo opened his eyes and looked at the status panel and found the negative values were no longer there.

After which he stood up and stretched his body and moved around before checking the other reward.

『 Name Body Strengthening Technique.

Description: This technique combines the power of demons and divines to strengthen the body beyond human limits, enhancing strength, speed, endurance, and resilience.

Requirements: Advanced level of proficiency in demon and divine power manipulation, high level of physical fitness, and mental fortitude to endure the process.

Effects:

➠ Strengthens the Body.

➠ Nether and Divine energy flow in the body will be enhanced.

➠ User can endure more damage.

➠ Allowing the user to push their limits without fear of injury.』

{Wow that's a lot of words.}

Blaze commented as he read through the whole page and then went to the next page that told him how to practice the technique.

"Hmm… Need to find a place with Nether and Divine energy. Check."

"Meditate to clear my mind. Breathing techniques can do that, so also check."

"Intake the Divine and Nether energy for that a body that has a high affinity for the Nether and divine energy. I know someone. Oh wait, it's me. Check"

"Nourish the body slowly to avoid creating any problems. Okay, that would need a little focus, otherwise everything else is a check."

Blaze commented at every point and then sat down there, as this room had everything that was needed for him to practice this technique.

Blaze then looked around before saying to Neo, "You take the right side, and I'll go through the left. It'll be faster this way."

Neo was speechless when he heard that, as the manual said that they have to do it slowly and Blaze even agreed, but now he was going through it recklessly.

"Ok, ok. Just handle the Divine energy. I'll handle the Nether energy."

Neo started manipulating the Divine energy as Blaze moved the Nether energy to erode his muscles.

"This will hurt a lot," Blaze said as he closed his eyes and started using [Primal Breathing Technique.] He cleared his mind as he focused and started moving the Nether energy into the body, which worked like hungry termites that could eat anything in their sight. It corroded his muscles, and a pain assaulted him.

The concept of using the Nether energy to consume muscles and then use Divine energy to strengthen them was new.

Normally, the energy, whether it is Mana, Divine energy or Nether energy, would follow a fixed path as they move around in the body to not harm the body in any way.

Evolvers would never take the risk of supplying mana directly to their body muscles, as it might cause irreversible damage, as mana was not something they could play around with.

They relied on the tower to evolve their body further and strengthen it. That was the reason he hadn't heard about a Body Trainer or a Body Strengthening Manual.

But it didn't last long as a bright golden energy seeped into those muscles and eliminated the hungry termites while also regenerating the corroded part.

This masochistic way kept on going for 4 days straight without him knowing, but he didn't need to worry, as the time in that room was dilated and only half a day passed outside. The same thing that happened when he was climbing the mountain in the trial.

They spent a lot of time climbing that tree to reach the peak, but outside, only 30 minutes had passed.

...

『 Name: Primal Breathing Technique.

Type: Breathing Technique

Description:

The Primal Breathing Technique is an advanced technique that allows the user to harness their body's natural energy to enhance their physical and spiritual abilities. By mastering this technique, the user can vastly increase their stamina and endurance, making it ideal for long battles.

Effects:

➠ Accelerated stamina regeneration.

➠ Amplification of the effects of potions and elixirs.

➠ Enhanced physical and spiritual power.

➠ Increased resistance to mental attacks and illusions.

➠ Boosted sensory perception and reaction time.』