Lightning Is the Only Way

After around an hour, the liquid vanished. Gravis quickly cleaned off the remaining moisture from his body and the room with his lightning. "Well, seems like this trial is done too. I guess it's time for waiting again," he said while cracking his neck.

The stele in the middle of the room vanished, but the door didn't open. "Waiting it is then," Gravis said. "The beginning of the Heaven's Trial was rather exciting, but everything since then was just a bother or boring. I would have expected more out of you, Heaven."

No answer came.

After that, Gravis summoned the body tempering pills that he had gotten from Manuel earlier and started consuming them. After eating all of them, his body reached 33% of the Self Stage's requirements. After that, it was back to training. Just like with the last trial, Gravis spent his time trying to control the output of lightning with the will-sphere, dodging lightning bolts from the Growth, and fine-tuning his control over his strength.

Like this, eight months passed.

CRRRR!

The door opened, and Gravis opened his eyes. "Finally," Gravis said in exasperation. "Honestly, are you trying to bore me to death, Heaven?" Gravis asked. "I already spent over a full fucking year in this Heaven's Trial, and what happened during that time? I fought a guy. That's all."

Gravis stepped through the door, which quickly closed behind him. 'I'm about 93% of the way to the Tree Stage. In total, reaching the Tree Stage would have taken around 15 months. Reaching the Self Stage would probably also take around 20 months or so. At that point, I could reach the Unity Realm whenever I want. So, I would barely be 22 when I return to my homeworld. Six years, huh?'

After a while, Gravis reached another small hall. Like before, his group was already waiting for him. Joyce jumped forward and hugged Gravis. "You're still alive! Thank goodness," she said. "Thank you so much again for your training. Without it, I wouldn't be alive anymore."

Gravis was a little taken aback by the sudden hug, but he quickly pushed her gently away. "As I said, it's nothing. Don't mention it."

Joyce pouted a little when Gravis pushed her away, but she didn't really care. Her pouting was more playful than angry. Now, Gravis finally had time to inspect the group. Joyce's Will-Aura had become more powerful, and she was already in the process of concentrating it. She probably could only compress it to about 97% or something, but it was a start.

When Gravis saw Manuel, he smirked. Manuel had also managed to condense a Unity Will. He was an Ascender's Talent, and he had already been close to condensing one before. Together with two trials that had been perfectly tailored to him, condensing a Unity Will wasn't anything special to him.

Claude, the lightning disciple, had a fully condensed Will-Aura now. Only a little more tempering, and he would also condense a Unity Will. The darkness disciple was still a bit off from a fully condensed Will-Aura, but his Will-Aura was powerful enough to reach the Sapling Stage.

be able to reach the Self Stage, while one would be able to reach the Tree Stage. This was very impressive for a group. Apparently, Heaven really treated the group kindly. Those three would probably become the most powerful group of ascenders that this world had

was your

"It's totally like you said," Joyce said with a chirpy tone. "The second trial was way more difficult than the first one, but not impossible. We

eyebrow. "Cultivators?"

We had to fight one-on-one against each puppet and then again in teams in every possible configuration multiple times. All the puppets had different fighting styles and elements. To top it all off, they were really good at fighting. We

rubbed his chin. "So, Heaven gave you a lot of different opponents with different strengths. When you became more powerful, the enemies also became more powerful. I think it's impossible to find any better tempering in this world,"

Those beasts had also had different strengths and weaknesses, but there was still a significant difference between the two types of tempering. The

one featured puppets mimicking humans and the other featured beasts, but that the puppets were just that, puppets. They lacked the originality, will, drive, and emotion of a living thing. They were great

better than this. The more tempering Gravis went through, the more he realized how lucky he had been to be born with such a background. Saying that he had achieved everything by himself

world, but without the preparations beforehand, he wouldn't have been able to achieve such power.

Poke!

as someone poked his forehead. "Hey, you're spacing out again!" Joyce said. "Is something

his head. "Sorry, no. I was just lost in thought,"

helplessly. "You've been doing this ever since I met you again in the Core-Continent. Are you really sure that

"Yes. I am just lost in thought

said what was on her mind. Some people might find that attitude

be helped if you're just slow in

furrowed his brows.

yes," Joyce interrupted with a dismissive wave of her hand. "So, how

smirk. Then, Gravis sighed and also smirked. 'Okay, she got me. It's

the whole mood in the hall changed. It changed from relief and lighthearted

BANG!

wall in anger. "How

WHOOM!