What was this strange power? Abel wasn’t sure, but he reckoned that it was probably the force that separated different worlds and dimensions. It was a scary power. Flying Flame and Black Wind were already charging about a hundred meters away from him. Their instincts told them to move back.
The range of his combat qi was just about the same as his power of the Will. The two were probably directly related to each other. No wonder the more powerful knights focused a lot on training their power of the Will. They couldn’t control it as well as the wizards could, but they could strengthen it with “strong external stimulus.”
By “strong external stimulus,” it’d usually be some sort of near-death experience. The most common way to have one was to have a really good fight. Since the advanced knights were already in the higher tiers, the only way for them to improve their skills was by pushing themselves over their absolute limit. And that’s the most dangerous part about it. Every time you tried to be better than you already were, you had to put yourself very close to death.
Abel was different. He chose the “put the eggs in different basket strategy,” which was to practice being a knight and a wizard at the same time. He could only do this because of how unique his golden combat qi was. That being said, the two classes mixed pretty well together. Knights were good in terms of durability, whereas wizards were done with their efficient attack methods. Depending on the type of combat he was in, he could change to whatever mode that was more fitting.
There was something strange about what he just did. He wasn’t sure what would happen if he was using the power of the dimensions with his attacks. Now that he did, he was just more confused than before. There was no one around to explain anything to him, so naturally, he would have no idea of what he was doing
Disappointingly enough, when Abel looked back into his own soul, he realized that he was out of the power of the dimensions. That was kind of uncalled for. He was just planning to test out his new power. He didn’t expect to be out of it so quickly.
If he still had any more left, he was planning on practicing an assassination attack he just thought of. It worked like this: he would be in his invisibility hoodie. Then, he would turn on the stealth mode of his transformation necklace, throw himself off White Cloud, and stab his target with his Jade of Tan Do or something. If he could actually make that move, he could also use the headband in his invisibility hoodie to increase the range of his power of the Will to a 150-meter radius. That way, anything in that range could not escape his combat qi combined with his dimension-splitting power.
But, still, it was a shame that he couldn’t practice that. After shaking his head, the effect of the soul potion finally wore off. Instead of completely exhausting him, though, it actually made his soul a lot stronger than before. A new space was actually just created in his soul chain.
Abel got another crazy idea. He looked over the distance for the stone giant that was on the mountain. Unlike Flying Flame, White Cloud, and Black Wind, all that it did was to stay in the same place for many, many years. As useless as that might sound, it was actually exactly what he needed. If he wanted something to be stored in a sanctuary, that stone giant could just be that sanctuary.
And that was not to say that it was useless in a fight. In fact, nothing could be so far from the truth. Anyone would be terrified if they were fighting a ten-meter tall stone golem as their opponent. Abel certainly would be. So, f he was planning to let it do his biddings, he must first form a spiritual bond with it.
Under a green aura, he chanted out the words needed to cast a “mount enhancement techniques towards the stone giant. It was a lot easier than he thought it would be. The stone giant accepted to be his companion with no resistance whatsoever. After connecting it with his soul chain, he could now communicate it by sending in his thoughts.
“I’ll call you Johnson from now on. You fine with that?” Abel asked. He was very satisfied with the name he came out with. Even the Rock wouldn’t be as strong as this stone giant. Obviously, the stone giant didn’t know what the origin of that name was, but it was fine with being called that.
“So, uh,” Abel asked as he’s always wanted to, “Can you combine with any types of rock? Like, can you make any type of rock a part of you?”
“As long as they’re rocks, Master,” the stone giant replied. Judging from the way it was speaking in full sentences, it seemed to be much more intelligent than Abel’s other summoned creatures.
Any rocks, huh. With that in mind, Abel took out a hematite ore and a 130 skill metal base from his kong kong spiritual beast bag. After putting them to the ground, he continued to ask the stone giant.
“Which one of them can you absorb?”
Instead of replying, a white light flashed out of the stone giant. Then, once the light disappeared, both the hematite ore and the rough base were on its body.
“Awesome!” Abel said with a light flashing out of his eyes, “Alright, I’ve made my decision. I’ll turn you into the real” Johnson; you got that? You’re going to be a real star amongst your own kind!”
If he could find himself some very hard metal, even the strongest spell would not be enough to deal damage to Johnson. He could also set up multiple magic circles on its body and have it run over his enemies. And that’s not all to it. Right now, countless ideas were popping out of his mind. The only thing missing was the time to make these ideas into reality.
“What about this?” Abel asked as he took out an ordinary gemstone, “Can you turn this into a part of yourself?”
Once Johnson absorbed the gemstone, Abel decided that he should arm its body with multiple perfect diamonds. He wasn’t sure if that was a good idea, though. If he really did that, it’d be the same as telling everyone that he knew how to create perfect gemstones. Well, for now, it’d probably be better if he was reserved the idea for the future.
Back to his knight’s training: just then, he got really close to being a knight’s head commander. He wasn’t quite there yet, but he could clearly see how he was already much stronger than before. Even without his ability to combine the power of dimensions with his combat qi, the dark-golden combat qi threads he created would certainly be of great help in his future fights.
That being said, he wasn’t sure what his current rank was. Whether it was the Bennett’s or the Harry’s, no one in the history of either family had ever reached the rank of a knight’s head commander. No, not with the techniques that they passed down to him. It wasn’t like he was complaining or anything, but right now, he felt like he was probably some sort of “fake knight’s head commander or something.
Still, being a “fake” would indicate that he was only a few steps away from being the real deal. Right now, he could already combine his own combat qi with another power that he felt comfortable with. And if there was anything that was still missing, it’d be the right kind of “conviction” that he would have to seek on his own.
So far, Abel had been extremely successful with his progress as a knight. He barely encountered any major issues on his way. Now that he was close to being at the top, he still had a bunch of unanswered questions. That’s the problem of being a prodigy. You could achieve things that were never done before, but you could never find someone on the same path as you that had more experiences.
Instead of figuring it out on his own, Abel decided that he should seek some advice from Hoover first. As a fellow member of the Blacksmith Union, he was sure that he’d be happy to share some tips. To do that, he would have to travel to the Duchy of Carmel first.
And speaking of the Duchy of Carmel, that just brought back some very unpleasant memories. Abel became a little upset when he remembered about Wizard Cliff. That despicable man was the reason that he couldn’t go back to his family.
It was probably a good time to visit Wizard Cliff. With that mind, Abel decided to give him a “little surprise” by making a trip to the Kingdom of St. Ellis.
