Chapter 24:"Curiosity"

Ugh... How strange...

When Zak finished... "Connecting to my nerves" so to speak, my senses became strange, at first it was as if I was dizzy....

When I managed to get used to it, everything changed. I could feel my body! It wasn't like being out of this abyss either.... But it's a big damn breakthrough.

Apparently he enhanced my senses to the limit, along with a few obvious improvements if you know what the parts Zak controlled.

I did a few jumping jacks, then did some "stretching", it felt almost like a yoga class.... And I must say... What a godly coordination and balance I have now!

I left the tests while I kept my guard up again, although, to be honest, I've never done anything that exposes me enough, I don't plan to make the same mistakes again.... No.

Baël: "Zak How long has it been?"

Zak: "About... 25 minutes, most likely."

Zak spoke in a serious voice, apparently concentrating.

I kept my jokes to myself for the moment while I waited....

When about 30 minutes passed, something happened....

(Narrator's POV)

An old black-haired man floated in an abyss, observing the development of Baël's test.

It's about time...

The old man thought.

Suddenly, next to the young white-haired man, what appeared to be a scythe blade appeared from a cut, from the same fissure, a skeletal figure crept out, bending its limbs and body in strange ways.

It was 2.5 meters tall and 4 meters long, grayish skin covered the bones, its limbs measuring three centimeters in diameter, a bald head with no eyes, two holes extending slightly across its face acting as a nose, sharp teeth, gray like metal, merged with the deep darkness in its mouth, somewhat difficult to see despite having no lips to hide them with.

Digitigrade legs protruded from something resembling a pelvis, much smaller than its rib cage, other similar legs protruded from under the ribs, finally, the last pair of limbs protruded as arms, however where the hands should be, a protrusion coated with a metal-like material fell downward, like a double-edged scythe, being able to control the opening of this with the "wrist", both claws seemed to be coated with some kind of smoke.

The beast moved with extreme stealth and care, however this did not prevent it from moving with extreme speed and fluidity.

"This one is more skillful than the last one.... Let's see how he manages handles this"

As the old man smiled with amusement, the beast slashed with one of its claws towards Baël's side, trying to attack at an odd angle and place.

The young man narrowly dodged the attack and kept moving his body keeping the spin to try to counterattack.

The old man's eyes widened slightly in surprise.

'That dodge.... It was much better than the first one before.... He narrowly escaped, but it's obvious that he sensed it and therefore acted at the right moment.... Maybe he has an exaggerated difficulty working under pressure? After all, those rare divinities always find... "Special" people..."

Meanwhile, Baël could make out a silhouette in his vision, Zak organized the information he got from Baël's senses to create that figure and make predictions of where the beast might be in other colors.

The beast contorted one of its legs, dodging a kick from Baël, the white-haired man did not stop and continued to fight.

After a few moments the thin neck of the beast shattered like ceramic when it received a punch.

The beast faded away as if it were nothing but dust....

The old black-haired man nodded slowly as he watched, a few moments later, two of those beasts appeared simultaneously from two different cuts in the abyss.

(POV Baël)

Yes! This feeling of control... IT'S THE BEST I'VE FELT IN A LONG TIME!

The feeling of being able to feel everything around you, as if these were part of your own body... Eyes in the back of your head? They're useless compared to this! I'm going to get addicted to this shit!

The feeling of my mind being eaten away by the endless abyss was gone, I no longer felt like my sanity was going to spill over into madness, plus the images Zak was making of those atrocious monsters were wonderful for this situation!

Those things aside... Those monsters were strange, I couldn't sense their Ki, so there are two possibilities, they're not living beings, or I'm somewhere outside the Dragon Ball universe, so living beings don't have that energy, or.... Maybe a mixture of the two.

I was wondering why a god... Well, divinity, whatever.... Would give his reincarnate a weapon that didn't kill...

He had actually come to some conclusions, it may be that, seeing as most of his chosen ones didn't make it, most people it was used on would not survive, so it was almost the same as certain death.

Or also, by using this on someone who had managed to cause... Killiath... Some trouble, they might be able to complete the challenge. So, if they die it was equal to one less enemy, but if they complete it they would become a very strong enemy capable of rivaling his chosen one, and thus put on a great show, after all this was for fun....

Besides, it's not as if I hadn't done similar things... In some simulation games I used to have a favorite, I could buff others to make the whole thing interesting, however the moment I saw that they could finish off my favorite I would end the false justice I was doing and make it so that my favorite could easily destroy the others....

Finally, what I was waiting for happened, my senses were triggered as an electric sensation appeared on my shoulder.

In my eyes something blue appeared, before my brain could process what it was, my body began to move in a reflex action, as if I had been burned.

When I processed that it was an attack, I followed the movement that my body had started to make some time ago, those small instants allowed me to dodge the blade attack with no problems.

The blade that was going to pierce my left shoulder tore through the abyss, as there was no air in this place not even a breeze accompanied it, that stealth that this place granted them, in addition to the one they already had in itself, was what terrified me, if it wasn't for Zak previously I wouldn't be able to dodge more than the first attack....

The monster's other blade wasted no time apparently, as it appeared from below to my right, in an upward attack that would pierce my back, leaving me trapped as if on a hook.

Zak calculated the speed of the attack and my position and decided that at this point it was feasible to turn my body as I went back to the left, I would lose the advantage of being close, however this monster was much faster than the others, at this point it was not in my best interest to get any closer to it.

When it seemed that I would be free from the attack, another warning came from my back, a downward attack on my left side.

Without time to think, my body jumped as I turned slightly, this could leave me exposed to a fourth strike, however if I didn't do it the battle would already be lost.

Despite Zak's extremely quick reaction time, having already been on the move earlier, it was an extremely bad position to be able to dodge the two attacks, one of the two cut into my back, below my left shoulder... going down to just over halfway down my back and coming dangerously close to my spine at the end of the cut.

The other meanwhile cut across my abdomen, almost being the side, slightly above the waist and going up until it almost reached my right pec.

Even being in such a bad position, Zak and I managed to minimize the damage done, leaving only superficial cuts on my body, so they would not damage my mobility.

A red mark appeared in my vision, this was the attack that Zak predicted, and it matched what I expected. I was in the middle of a jump, my right side pointing to the ground having turned in that direction while doing something similar to a backflip.

My right arm twitched, as the true attack marked in blue appeared and approached me, threatening to cut my neck, my right forearm slammed into the joint at the beginning of the blade, deviating it just enough for it to pass in front of its target — my neck.

Since the monster had both of its arms in motion, I could not refuse the opportunity before me. My left fist, already prepared in advance, propelled itself to a blue spot in the monster's head.

When it collided, the characteristic sensation of these creatures came to me, something akin to breaking twigs or chicken bones, as the body vanished into the abyss.

I fell to the ground cushioning the fall as if it were nothing and taking advantage of the force of it to turn in the other direction, facing the monster that had attacked me at first.

(Narrator's POV)

Baël continued with less difficulty, the task becoming easier and easier as he got used to the new way of fighting.

Meanwhile, the old red-haired man could not hide the surprise on his face, and thought....

"Hahahahahaha! He was able to reduce the damage he would receive to something so insignificant! Impressive! Certainly impressive! To think that a speck of dust like him would be so much fun.... This test is made to match his physical conditions, his reaction time is so impressive, he seemed to have the characteristic ability of this universe.... Ultra instinct was it....? Hahahaha! "

A short time later, the monster before Baël disappeared.

(Baël's POV)

Ugh... Those fucking beasts are horrible... It feels like constantly being on the edge, it's so... Stressful...

Apparently its head wasn't as resistant as other parts of its body. For example, when I deflected the second monster's attack, its joint didn't break in the slightest, I only managed to slightly change the direction of the attack.

I feel as if this test skipped several levels.... The monsters are now much faster and smarter! They had predicted my first moves and acted with incredible coordination.... They managed to force me to take two hits even with Zak controlling my reactions and reflexes.... And there were two of them at the same time! With their coordination their strength was greater than just adding them together....

Huh? What the hell is going on?

The darkness around me seemed to... Move?

A few moments later, a black-haired man appeared before me, it was the old man....

Well done! Very well done! I found you so interesting that I decided to skip the other levels and see how you could do."

Son of a bitch... It was you, you bastard! You increased the difficulty a lot more... It had to be a gradual change, so you caught us off guard!

Baël: "So is the test already over?"

Old man: "That's right! You were able to force yourself through that icy place, even when you didn't see a way out and were on the verge of death you didn't stop swimming!"

Baël: "Does that mean that as long as I had continued I would have passed that test anyway?"

Baël: "No"?

...

Old man: "The test also tested if you were smart enough, or if you had enough technique to do something and pass it! Do you think that life is as easy as going ahead with willpower?"

Well... He has a point....

"It's only when you think things through and prepare yourself, only at that moment, that's when willpower kicks in, when you stop churning like a worm in the dirt and focus on getting better, once you can follow the path that's when you move forward without letting anything stop you, not even yourself."

A harsh way of putting it... But it's true, if you move forward without having enough strength, in this cruel world you will only be crushed.... The best thing is to focus all that willpower to prepare yourself, and there you can reap the rewards, just as I have done since I came here.... Even with my willpower I knew I couldn't do anything the moment someone stronger than me was against me.... That is a truth, and only a few people are lucky enough that they don't need to follow it, I guess some of those reincarnated people fall into this section....

Well, in this test, you have tested your combat technique, capabilities such as your reaction time and performance in unexpected situations, or on the other hand your deduction ability in some places. After all you can always complement a poor skill with a better one!"

Baël: "I see.... Certainly these tests were inhuman..."

Old man: "Of course!"

...

You think all reincarnated people are human? There are always members of other races or worlds! Only the best prepared can pass this test, the new favorite of the divinity, the bearer of this dagger, according to my calculations? He has a 60% chance of being able to pass all the challenges, without use of his divinity granted advantages, you however have shown a chance of..... 85%, and I put the last 15% in doubt because of external things like mistakes."

I sighed as my legs began to shake, my head felt distracted, I think? That I've reached the limit of how much attention I can pay.... After all a normal person can only put their attention on something for about 55 minutes....

Well... You've earned your way out of this place.... Or so I'd like to say, the very act of leaving is another test."

Baël: "I understand... Sir, what about my advantages like [Gamer Mind]?"

Old man: "Your advantages will come back the moment you leave, don't worry about it!"

The old man chuckled lightly, a few moments later, he appeared before me, touched my forehead with his index and middle fingers and immediately lowered them down the void at high speed.

My consciousness was momentarily gone, I didn't know how much time had passed, I only knew that my mind was completely at rest.

I was once again in the abyss, however a voice came out of nowhere, it was the same as the old man's voice.

I have reduced the density of reality so that you have the necessary power to cross the space-time of this place, you only need the technique".

Go through space-time?! How do you want me to do that?!

Fuck... Okay, okay, focus... In Dragon Ball it was possible to do it... They did it with... Energy or pure power, however there were techniques like Goku's teleportation that could alter it...

I tried to move the Ki in my body and, to my surprise, it finally gathered forming a sword in my hand.

Zak: "Baël... Let's treat this as if it were just another tissue.... I'm not sure if it will work, this is too fantastic even for us... but according to the data I saved with the system when we got here.... The dagger cut it in a similar way."

Cutting a tissue... Heh... Zak having to use crude representations, that's a new one....

I guess I'll have to make a "perfect cut" in that case.... Yes cutting something requires technique and power, and the old man said I don't have to bother with the latter.... All that's left to do is try it!

Baël: "Zak, make your best effort... Don't leave a single unnecessary movement, and try the theories that come to your head, I'll try to keep up..."

I made my first cut, putting all the strength of my body into it, a simple downward cut.

I didn't feel anything though... It didn't seem to have made any effect, I just noticed how it was much cleaner and faster than the ones I normally did.

Zak: "Make the sword sharper! The advantage of an energy sword is that its tip can be smaller than an atom, and therefore sharper!"

Sharper... Sharper...

The whole edge of the blade seemed to get smaller and thinner, but nothing happened.... It's not enough! I have such a great control over the Ki, but I still haven't succeeded?!

Well, well, if I can't make it that way....

The front edge of the blade, what is called the true edge, was greatly sharpened, while the back edge, or false edge, became even more unstable, hardly maintaining its shape.

Focusing all my attention on the true edge, and leaving only what was necessary on the false edge, I put all the strength I had into a single cut.... But nothing happened...

I kept cutting the void, again, and again, and again, and again, each time focusing my attention on a smaller portion, while Zak, who partially controlled my movement, tried to make the cut even more perfect.

ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME!? A worthless dagger can do it having a user with no technique whatsoever.... Even a divinity could do it with a simple finger... But we can't do it with something so simple?!

Zak:"... Baël! Stop acting like a dumbass! There's something left to test!"

Baël: "Something to prove? Tell me what theory you have"

Zak: "Just concentrate everything on the tip, no need for a full edge, make the tip as sharp as you can, as pointy as you can, don't spend energy on a full sword Just make something small! We don't have the requirements to do the other options I have in mind."

Just a point... Not a full cut, something small and then it can be upgraded? Yes... Yes! It's a no-brainer... I doubt it would work in a normal environment, but being in this ideal environment for it to make the crack.... It should work...

On the tip of my index finger, a small glow appeared, spreading slightly.

Sweat was starting to slide down my forehead as I concentrated on this spot, even with my surgical control over Ki it wasn't easy to do....

Zak moved my arm, a precise and agile movement.

Y... White light started to come out of a point!

Did we make it?! Is that a hole?!

Zak: "This can't be real! Have we cut space-time?!"

But... It closed immediately, and it was barely perceptible...

Hahahaha! I didn't expect this!"

The old man's voice sounded again from the same abyss.

Old man: "You made it, you punched a hole in space-time! Was it was unstable and barbaric? Yes! But certainly was one breach! The way you thought about this was wrong, but it did have some effect, although that wouldn't work anywhere else..."

Fuck yes! WE DID IT!

Old man: "That's enough, you can get out now..."

The abyss changed to the cave I was in before with the old man, a black dot appeared in front of me, this elongated into a line only to open up into a black sphere my size.

Zak: "So this is a gap in space-time? But that defies all universal laws, just the thought of doing that is impossible... How?"

I was as shocked as Zak, I couldn't quite figure out how it worked at all, and I wanted from the bottom of my heart to study it, after all I was a scientist in this world among other things....

I approached the spherical fissure until I entered it ....

...

3.293 words.