29 Chapter 29: ADC
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Zatanna explained "I have had a lot of time to think this last month, and I realized that my mastery over my magic wasn't nearly good enough. I've often had accidents, but most of them were more minor in nature, thus why I didn't take them seriously."
"But it is only now that I realized any of those incidents could have had much worse consequences, which is why I decided to learn the Mystical Arts. Hopefully, this will help me control my powers in the future."
Edward smiled and said "It is a good initiative. You should ask Merlin for books."
Zatanna stayed silent for a second, before showing a half hearted smile and said "Sure." Edward, oblivious to Zatanna's expression, nodded and left the room, leaving a dejected girl behind.
Edward then met with Arthur, who was looking exhausted. The later asked "Anything problematic to report?"
Edward shook his head and replied "On the contrary, everything is great. I'm ready to fight anytime, although the longer we wait, the stronger I will be."
Arthur raised an eyebrow and asked "You broke through that limit you told us about?" Edward nodded, and said "I gained many things, including the Ebony Blade… speaking of which, is that a problem?"
Arthur shook his head and said "No, of course not. It's more of a relief to be honest. This sword has pestered my cousin for too long, and since we share the same lineage, my descendants could also be cursed."
Edward nodded in relief, it was better to be sure. Arthur then added "Unfortunately, we can't go finish the job right away. Morgana can dispose of her summons and summon fresher ones as she wishes, while my men are still tired of the fight."
Edward shrugged and replied "It's fine, even if the demon fully recovers from it's injuries, by the time it does I should have become even stronger than it, I'm already fairly confidant of killing it today with the Ebony Sword."
Arthur nodded, a little relieved, and said "Then we shall continue our sparring lessons?" Edward nodded, this was very important too. Maybe even more, as his Chi Sense had evolved alongside his mind, and he was curious to see how it would develop.
Unfortunately, Edward had to wait for a few days for this sparring lesson. Arthur was quite busy everyday with the fallout of the battle, as it turned out there used to be a village where Morgana established her castle, and the people living there had probably been sacrificed by Morgana to some demonic entity to get her orcs.
Although it saddened Edward, it only strengthened his resolve to get stronger and stop the mad witch. He also learned the origin of this fight, Morgana's lover, a knight called Accolon, had challenged Arthur to a duel to the death for his throne, and was defeated. However, Merlin was certain this was only a petty excuse of Morgana to attack them.
Still, this Accolon thought the victory could only be his as he had asked Arthur not to use Excalibur, but the fool didn't understand that after years of using Excalibur, Arthur's body had long memorized the moves.
Although he wouldn't be invincible in sword fight when he let go of the sword, he was still much more skilled than any knight.
Anyway, a few days later, Edward was facing Arthur, once again. This time, he did not take the first blow, but instead waited. Arthur didn't hesitate to send out his own blow.
As Arthur approached, Edward felt his surroundings with his Chi Sense, and he felt something different from before. Not only could he feel Arthur and his intention, he could also feel the sword.
This feeling was shallow, and hard to sense, but it remained amazing nonetheless. Not only did it confirm the theory that Chi is what binds everything in the Universe together, it also meant that he could predict the trajectory and strength of inanimate objects too with training.
As usual, Edward lost the fight, but he wasn't dejected in the slightest. Not only was he training his Chi Sense, but also his Chi Manipulation.
Now that he had breached the limit, not only was he getting stronger physically again, but he also was able to manipulate his Chi outside of his body, like his master did with his Dragon Fang.
Until now, he had discovered several uses for his Chi. One as a weapon, it could be used to enhance various aspects. He could strengthen the impact of a blunt weapon, the sharpness of a blade, or enhance the durability of anything he touches, be it his armour or his weapons.
Because his Chi was still relatively weak, the effect wasn't very good, and could be considered negligible on the Ebony Blade with how strong it was, but there were still some use to it. For example, in his spars against Arthur, Edward would use his Chi to make his sword more blunt, so he wouldn't injure him or himself accidentally. With how sharp his sword was, it was very needed.
Another effect of his Chi was the capability of healing, it would heal him when it circulated around his body, but he could also infuse it into someone through touch to heal them. The process could be a little slow, but it was better than nothing.
Unfortunately, Chi was also finite. Be it to coat an object, heal someone or circulate it around his body, it would use some Chi. Chi had to come from somewhere, and according to his Master in Martial Arts, Dragon, Chi came from the nutriments of what he ate.
However, with his enhances senses and his spiritual energy, Edward also discovered that breathing would also bring some Chi in his body.
It was very small in amount compared to what he would get from eating, and with the amount of air a normal person took in when they breathed, it could be considered negligible too, hence why it was never discovered there was Chi in the air around them.
However, with his ADC, Edward took in much more air than a normal person, and much faster, hence why he could feel the Chi coming in.
This allowed him to recover his Chi must faster, and it also allowed his Chi to continue working constantly.
It took a lot of Chi to purify his body, and with his reserves he would barely hold a few minutes before being depleted. This made his ADC quite dangerous actually, as without any Chi the air entering through his pores wouldn't be guided anymore and bubbles of air would form around his body, which could kill him.
Thankfully, the recovery of his Chi through ADC was stronger than his expenditure, meaning he could keep his ADC on constantly. Edward had to admit, he had been quite lucky this time, as it could have ended badly for him because of his miscalculation.
Something else Edward noted was the color of his Chi, unlike his master's which was yellow, his was dark purple. He wasn't sure though why this was so. The color could come from the Chi's quality, quantity or maybe everyone had different kinds of Chi.
Finally, Edward pondered on how he should name his current stage. When a martial artist reached the limit of humanity, they would be called Chi Masters. Now that he had breached this limit, as the first one to do so, he had to name in hope others would reach it in the future.
His first idea was to go simple and call it Chi Grandmaster, but he was a bit bothered by the idea. He was certain he was bound to reach another limit at some point, and there would be another level beyond that limit, which he assumed he would soon reach thanks to his ADC nourishing his body at a mad speed.
By then, what would he call it? What would be beyond grandmaster? Wouldn't it become meaningless at one point?
That's why he decided to rename them. He was the strongest martial artist now anyway, so he could change the name of Chi Masters if he wanted and they wouldn't dare to say no, as in the martial world, martial might was everything.
So after some thinking he decided to name the first realm, that is when the first strand of Chi refines the body, to the limit called Chi Masters until now, the Body Strengthening Realm. Because this was all the martial artist would do, refine their body with their Chi.
As for the realm he was currently in, he juggled with several names, for example Chi Gathering or Chi Refining, as in this realm he was strengthening his Chi in both quantity and quality.
But after a while, he instead decided to call it Spirit Awakening, so the future generations would never forget the way to reach this realm.
After this, time passed quickly, and two months went by. During those two months, Arthur's men completely recovered, including Percy, who cried in happiness when he discovered the Ebony Sword had left him.
Those two months were pretty calm in Camelot, Zatanna learned the Mystical Arts with Merlin, while Edward trained in both magic and fighting, although he did put more emphasis into his physical training.
Edward showed once again his incredible talent as in those two months he managed to defeat Arthur in combat, while the other wielded Excalibur. This was thanks to his Chi Sense, which he had mastered to the point he could feel the trajectory and force behind anything falling under his Chi Sense.
This was a lot of information to digest, but thanks to his evolved mind he was able to take it all on and keep it on constantly.
But even more crazy was his Chi, as he had already touched the next limit. It was all thanks to his ADC, which nourished his body multiple times faster than before. He estimated that if he used the same cultivation process as before, then reaching this limit would have taken years, and that is if he meditated 7 hours a day.
Honestly, it was both pleasing and frustrating, because he got stronger much faster, and by his own efforts at that, but after being stuck for so long he got back to being stuck so fast. It was like escaping prison after years of captivity only to be jailed back months later.
Edward did some calculation too, and estimated how much stronger he got with those two months. When he was at the peak of Body Strengthening, he had 362 Kg of strength, and he now was at 750 Kg of strength.
It was almost double the strength, and with this came an increase in speed, durability and senses. Adding to his Chi Sense and ADC that made him a tireless machine in fights, he felt he could fight a hundred of him back when he arrived in this time.
It was quite the crazy improvement in those two months. However, he hadn't reached the peak of the Spirit Awakening Realm.
Although his Chi had been refined to the limit and couldn't grow any purer for now, meaning it couldn't make his body any stronger, nor could he store any more of it in his body at one time, he had developed another kind of energy, and that was spiritual energy.
His spiritual energy had also been growing, but at a much lesser speed than his physical energy, or Chi, as his ADC didn't have any effect on it. For now, the only way he had found to increase his spiritual energy was to use it continuously, like a muscle, and to meditate.
Increasing his Spiritual Energy didn't make him stronger, but it improved his control, and was very beneficial for his mind, which he felt had become much sharper than it ever was.
And after those two months, it seemed it was about time for Edward to test his newfound strength.
At the pond Edward had first discovered his breakthrough at, Edward was hovering above the water, in a lotus position, while the pebbles were flying around him at a rather fast speed.
While he was meditating, a portal appeared above the beach of pebbles, and a voice came through it "Camelot needs your help."
The pebbles abruptedly fell as Edward opened his eyes, and he floated to the edge of the water as he looked beyond the portal.
