TS6 - Chapter 3

The problem was his close to limitless endurance. His body produced energy so quickly, especially now that he had the atlas star for a heart, that his muscles simply didn't fatigue like normal, which made it hard for him to stress them to the point where they would grow. It was no exaggeration to say that he could do an infinite number of push-ups given enough time.

Instead, he needed to figure out a way to improve his physique without resorting to exercise. As he meditated, he worked through that problem. He had only been considering the issue for a few minutes when he suddenly paused his meditation, the answer so painfully obvious that he actually groaned. When Eve appeared in front of him, grinning at him, Thorn could only smile sheepishly.

"Let me guess," Eve said.

"You finally remembered that you have access to the shop of the endless worlds and 19 destiny points," Thorn said. "Do you still have a record of everything on there?"

"Yes," Eve said. "Hold on, what do you want to sort by?"

"Anything that could temper my physique," Thorn replied, "and improve my strength."

"Sure, give me a second."

In actuality, it took nearly 10 minutes before Eve opened her eyes and snapped, causing a series of windows to pop up in front of Thorn, each introducing a technique available for purchase in the shop.

"These are all techniques that improve your physical ability comprehensively, but the destiny point cost is pretty high.”

[Immortal body: Develop an unstoppable, indestructible, immortal body. 50 destiny points.]

[Unbreakable Treasure Form: Fusing powerful treasures with your body. Increase your strength, speed, and toughness. 27 destiny points.]

[Faster than Light: Transform your body through a series of specialized exercises until it can move as fast as light. 20 destiny points.]

[Unbreakable Diamond Body: Infuse energy into your body to create a perfect defense that is harder than diamond. 15 destiny points.]

[Earth Tyrant's Strength: Gain the strength to move mountains. 15 destiny points.]

One after another, Thorn looked through them, his frown deepening as he went. Each option on the list promised incredible results, but their costs were equally high. All the best options were well out of his reach and would require at least a year of nothing but forging to gather enough points. Furthermore, though he had 19 destiny points at the moment, Thorn didn't really want to spend all of them, and as cool as the abilities sounded, none of them really caught his attention.

Over the years, Thorn had developed a sort of sixth sense for what would actually help him and what wouldn't, and now, as he was looking through the store, he found that most of the expensive options simply didn't trigger his instinct. Even the ones that did didn’t seem like they would be that helpful. The best option, the [Immortal Body Art], was the only one that made him take a second look, but at 50 Destiny Points, it was not an option at the moment. Closing his eyes, he began to think through the issue. After a few minutes of mulling over, it opened his eyes and stared at the list again.

"What if we took a slightly different approach?" He said. "What if, instead of thinking about my body as a body, we start to think about it as a piece of iron? How do you improve a piece of iron?"

"You mean you want to try a forging technique? Like you do for your mental strength?" Eve asked.

"Yes, sort of. We can grab a bunch of lower level techniques and start trying to figure out how to modify them into something that'll work for me. Since I can already forge my spirit we have a template for how to make it work. What if I just did that same thing with my physical body?"

"Huh. That's not a bad idea," Eve said. "Especially since, with your new unified force, you could actually imbue your own spirit into your body, which would provide an extra layer of force, as well as a sort of instinctive will."

"Okay, that's kind of a terrifying idea," Thorn said, "but it also makes sense in a weird way. After all, what spirit is better suited to be infused into my bones and muscles than my own? Still, I don't think it's going to work directly. Why don't we look for somebody tempering techniques that focus on that style of improvement?"

"Sure," Eve said. "I'll filter out all of the ones that require special items and try to pick some that have a similarity to your forging methods."

Closing her eyes, she fell silent once more, and after a few minutes, a new window popped up in front of Thorn.

[Iron Skin Tempering: Transform your skin until it's as hard as iron. One destiny point.]

[Iron Muscle Tempering: Transform your muscles until they're as hard as iron. One destiny point.]

[Iron Bone Tempering: Transform your bones until they're as hard as iron. One destiny point.]

[Iron Tendon Tempering: Transform your tendons until they're as tough as iron. One destiny point.]

"Um, Eve, I don't know that these are going to be much help. My skin is already as tough as iron. Plus, what we're looking for is something that'll increase my strength and my speed as well, not just make me tough."

"Keep looking," Eve said, flicking her finger and causing the list in front of Thorn to scroll.

After iron came bronze, and after bronze came gold. After Thorn had gotten to the bottom of the list, he saw that there were ten total levels, and in each level, there were four different forms of tempering. According to Eve’s explanation, each of the four tempering systems focused on one of four aspects of body cultivation: defense, strength, endurance, and speed. By doing each in order, the four systems overlapped to create a complete body cultivation method. However, lower levels had to be completed before the upper levels could be used, so to buy each level independently would cost 220 Destiny Points, making it impossible for anyone to purchase.

"This seems to be a comprehensive system," Eve said, "that can take you all the way from the bottom straight to the very top. It's been split up into all of those pieces to help someone earn a bit more destiny while making it affordable for other people to buy bits and pieces likely to use as a reference. More importantly, however, I can tell that the person who listed it for sale is the same person who listed the 50 Destiny Point [Immortal Body Art] ability, which makes me think that this is just that art, broken into four different ten-piece systems. What I'm proposing is simple. Buy one of the single-point, iron-ranked skills. Then, we'll buy one of the ten-point immortal level skills and see if we can extrapolate how to get from one to the other. If we can do that, then we should be able to just buy the single-point skills and extrapolate them as well. Once we add your spirit forging into it, then the result will be a skill that'll likely lead you higher than even that so-called immortal body. Chances are we're going to be able to shortcut a lot of it simply because your physique is already so impressive. But what we need right now are reference materials to test out."

"Alright," Thorn said, "go ahead and buy what you need."

Immediately, 11 of Thorn's destiny points vanished, and the iron-level training manual for skin tempering, along with a 10-point immortal-level manual, appeared in front of Thorn with a hum. The five scrolls glowed briefly before disintegrating, sending specks of light flowing into his head. A huge rush of information filled his mind, but his mental strength allowed him to carefully control it, organizing it as it came in.

"Ha, jackpot," Eve said. "I love it when I'm right like this."

"Did you figure something out?" Thorn asked, still sorting through the information in the scrolls.

"Yes. It'll take me a bit to get a comprehensive plan together, but we can absolutely use this."

The sheer amount of computational power Eve possessed was mind-boggling, and sometimes Thorn wondered if there was more to her than met the eye. For the next two hours, he and Eve talked back and forth, discussing various options, as Eve simulated hundreds of millions of different paths for body strengthening, using the five manuals as reference points. When they were finally done, she let out a long sigh and sat down on Thorn's palm, looking exhausted.

"All right, I think this is it," she said, creating a window in front of Thorn's eyes.

[Body Forging Technique: With your will as the hammer and the world as the anvil, reforge your body.]

“I'll add your body forging rank to your status so you can keep track, but it's really pretty simple. You'll use your mind to compress unified force into your body, starting with your skin. At the same time, you're going to be spirit-forging to blend your power seamlessly into your body. If this works, and it will, we’ll follow up with your muscles, and then your bones, and then your tendons.”

After reviewing the technique that Eve had put together a few times, Thorn nodded.

"All right, well, let's give this a try."

Not knowing what the effect would be, he first checked on Akira to see how Mina was doing, only to find that both of them were asleep. Glad that Mina wasn't sitting up fretting, Thorn centered himself and began the process.

He heard a dull thud in his mind as he focused his power onto the tip of one finger and began the fusion. A wave of excruciating pain shot up his arm, and he had to forcefully stop himself from dispersing the power. It wasn't the worst pain he had ever felt, but it carried a particularly sharp sting since he was voluntarily choosing to do it to himself. Yet Thorn's will was inviolable, and at an excruciatingly slow pace, he continued to press his united force into the skin on the end of that finger.

Only after an hour did he stop, pausing to wipe the beads of sweat from his forehead and strip off his soaked shirt. "This is gonna take forever," he said, looking down at his finger, where there was a pin-sized dot that had been merged with his united force.

"Just wait till you get to the rest of your body," Eve said. "I do expect it to speed up once your united force improves in level. However, remember, you're jumping straight from zero all the way up to the top level. There's no difference between that spot on your finger and the highest rank of body-tempering in the Endless World store."

"Okay, that's a fair point," Thorn said. "Better get to it."

Taking a deep breath, he focused his mind once more, and for the rest of the night poured force into the tip of his finger, only stopping when Eve reminded him that they were supposed to eat breakfast with the representative from the Temple of Man.

Letting out a long groan, Thorn cast a quick spell to clean off his body and then changed into fresh clothes. He met Mina downstairs, where he could stand up straight, and the warrior from the day before soon arrived to escort them to the Temple. After letting the proprietors know that they would keep the rooms, they headed to the Temple of Man, where they were brought to a small dining chamber.

It was clear that they weren't prepared for someone of Thorn's size, as they didn't have a stool that would fit him. Instead, they'd procured a large stone from somewhere, and it was currently sitting next to the table. Thorn appreciated the gesture, as it meant he'd be able to sit rather than squat while they ate. A few minutes later, a thin man with a gleaming bald head walked in. His gaze was brooding, though it brightened slightly when he saw Thorn.

"Ascendant Thorn, a pleasure to meet you. I am Head Priest Winrid, responsible for the Temple in Cloud Treader City."

"A pleasure to meet you, Winrid. This is my companion, Mina."

"Hello."

After exchanging pleasantries, Winrid sat down, gesturing for Thorn and Mina to do the same.

"My apologies about the chair, Ascendant. I'm afraid we don't have anything that suits your stature."

"This is fine," Thorn said. "In fact, there was a time when I used to carry around a rock like this everywhere I went, precisely for that reason. While being big has its advantages, it's not always the most convenient."

Breakfast was served in four courses, each one larger than the last, and all clearly for Thorn's benefit. Somebody had obviously done their research on him, which made Thorn quite curious. Halfway through the meal, he brought the question up, asking Winrid directly if they had received information about him.

"Yes," Winrid admitted as he used his fork to spear a piece of fruit that Thorn didn't recognize. "Any time a new Ascendant is added to the ranks, the Temple directories are updated. It includes information on a whole variety of things, especially preferences. Though I must admit, I'm surprised to see you here. As the records indicate, you had entered Urmag'Tal’s puzzle, and as far as I know, it should still be active."

"We came out a bit early," Thorn said, "but the Temple doesn't need to worry. None of the god beasts remain, so the entire thing should be swept clean by the representatives from the Temple."

"What do you mean by, 'none of the god beasts remain'?"

“I mean that they either ran or we killed them," Thorn said calmly, his words leaving Winrid in shock. "The reason I'm here is because of the one who ran. He brought one of my attendants with him, and I want him back. To that end, I'm hoping that you'll be able to help me use the dimensional gate."

Taking a deep breath as he tried to process all of the information Thorn had just thrown at him, Winrid's annoyed expression returned. "As much as I wish I could help, I'm afraid that's out of my hands. The dimensional gate is controlled by the governor, and at the moment, he's a bit preoccupied with a problem down in the mines. You see, the dimensional gate needs both my token and his, and we have to be present in order to use them. It's a safety measure to ensure that if the city falls into enemy hands, they can't use the gate to bypass the defenses of other cities. Until he's done dealing with the issue in the mines, I'm afraid the gate won't operate."

"What's the issue?" Mina asked. "Is it something we can help with?"

"Potentially," Winrid said, looking first at Mina and then at Thorn. "Somehow, corruption is causing the beasts in the mine to go mad. We're not sure about its source, but we could certainly use the help suppressing the beasts while we search for a way to purify them."