Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis rode on his Lightning Board for multiple hours until a settlement finally appeared inside his Spirit's range. The Core-Continent was smaller than the other two continents, yet it was still gigantic in size. The settlement was only a small village, with no more than 1,000 people living there. Yet, their strength surprised Gravis.

"Every adult has, at least, a fully tempered body. There are even some people in the Energy Gathering Realm, though mostly all of them are at the first level," he said to himself.

As he thought about it, it actually made a lot of sense. The Body Tempering Realm only required resources. The will was only necessary to reach the Energy Gathering Realm, and some people would surely manage to increase their wills.

If everyone had the resources to temper their bodies, at least some of them would be able to condense their Energy Vortex, and judging by the abundance of the Core-Continent, body tempering resources were no issue.

An Energy Gathering expert was nearly non-existent in the Outer-Continent. In the Middle-Continent, there were a lot of those, yet in the Core-Continent, they could apparently only be considered as just some stronger mortals. Gravis guessed that the Sects would probably only accept Energy Gathering experts that were at the age of 16 or below. This was way harder to reach than just tempering one's skin, like in the Outer-Continent.

Gravis used his Spirit to quickly check through all the papers of the village. It only took a couple of seconds for Gravis to find a map. "The next town is to the north-east, while there is no sign of a city. Well, I should check the town first."

After saying that, Gravis left towards the indicated direction. There was no reason to stay in this village. It should only take an hour for him to arrive at the closest town. Yet, the distance was evident by Gravis taking a whole hour to get there with the ridiculous speed of his Lightning Board. Someone with a fully tempered body would probably need over a day to reach the town.

After an hour, the town appeared inside his Spirit. As Gravis' Spirit went through the town, he was even more surprised about the strength of the inhabitants. Every single adult was inside the Energy Gathering Realm. The guards, especially, had already reached the seventh level, at least. The officers were nearly all at the ninth level of Energy Gathering with their bodies emanating an equally powerful aura.

'An elder of an Elemental Guild would only count as an officer in a

than a disciple of an Elemental Guild. Those disciples had, in turn, a lower status than the elites of the guild. The elites were lower than the geniuses, and

officer inside a town would be devastating. One shouldn't forget that an elder in

Spirit Forming Experts. Gravis guessed that they were the town lord and vice-town lord, and he felt that they were warily watching him. They

would care about some town lord position,' Gravis sneered. 'I'm only

his Spirit to look through the notices but didn't find anything important. There was no mention of any favors or Joyce. Gravis guessed that those notices were probably only findable in the cities. Gravis also saw a map

Well, that sounds ominous,' thought Gravis as he noted down the location of the city. 'I wonder how the city looks like with a name like that. Anyway, there's no

they saw him go. They had felt the powerful will inside Gravis'

looked at the sky. "It's getting darker," he said as he rubbed his chin. "It should only be the early afternoon right

to the front and noticed that the sky on the horizon was even darker. Then, he turned around and looked at where he came from. The sky in that direction was brighter. Gravis rubbed his chin in more thought. "Interesting. So, the closer I get to the city, the darker it gets. I guess that is one

more interest as the sky grew darker and darker. When Fear City appeared inside his Spirit, the sky was already pitch black, no stars to be seen. Yet, something surprised Gravis even more. "My Spirit can't enter

Gravis' Spirit neared Fear City, it was deflected. It was like Gravis' Spirit was a river, and Fear City was a boulder. His Spirit could only flow around Fear City,

his chin in interest. "So, a city inside the Core-Continent has the ability to even stop Spirits. That sure is interesting. On

City. It was gigantic, probably tens of kilometers wide. The city's whole border was packed with 50-meter-tall, black walls with red spikes poking out of them. By all intents and purposes, the city looked like the lair of an antagonist in some fairy tale. The perpetually

fine if I enter. The Sects shouldn't know yet that I have killed their "Vice-Guild Masters". This obviously looks like an outpost of the Darkness Sect, but I'll be okay for a