Chapter 23 Self-Evolution(3)

[you have advanced to tier/level 9/3]

After I was finished eating I checked the system message.

Although I had advanced to level 3 of tier 9 my reserves didn't feel as if they had increased at all.

The only thing that changed was that it was easier to circulate my aether around my pathways.

As I circulated the leftover aether from the fight around my pathways I found it easier and easier to push it outwards towards my skin.

Although every time I tried to push my aether out of my skin it would still make cuts, however they weren't as big as the cuts that were made the first time I reinforced my weapon.

Instead of blindly exploring the forest like I had.

I instead found a concealed place.

After I was as concealed as I was going to get I started to practice more with my pathways.

Starting by circulating a strand of aether around all the currently available pathways.

After I had done that for a significant amount of time, I was able to decrease the time of circulation from 10 seconds around all the pathways to 5 seconds to circulate it.

After I had decreased it to 5 seconds it was getting harder and harder to decrease the time.

At first getting it down to 9,8,and 7 seconds only took a couple of rotations each but after trying to get it down to 6 seconds it took up a whole 10 minutes of circulations to increase the speed then a further 30 minutes to get it down to 5 seconds to my current time.

Unless I wanted to sink more and more time into this I would need to focus on something else.

I have just the perfect thing to work on too.

Instead of decreasing the time needed to circulate my aether around my pathways, I want to focus on a less injuring way of reinforcing my spear.

While I could always just heal the cuts that come from releasing my aether from my hands to the spear it would be much more efficient to instead work on not having to cut myself when reinforcing the spear.

To start with I want to try using an even tinier amount so that it may pass through my skin instead of cutting through it.

After planning what I wanted to achieve and how I would do it I started.

Instead of jumping into the deep end and pushing the aether out I started by trying to control tinier and tinier slips of aether.

I kept on practicing that until I was able to, on command without delay, separate what had to be a strand of aether smaller than a cell.

[you have advanced to tier/level 9/1]

'Huh, just controlling my aether to that extent brought me to borderline tier 8.'

I could feel that I was just one step away from advancing to tier 8.

Still I didn't stop practicing, now that I was able to pick out that tiny of a thread I tried to weave it between the cells of my skin, muscles, and bones all the way out to the spear I held in my lap.

Green wisps of aether appeared outside of my hand.

Although there were still tiny cuts, the amount decreased from a staggering 15-20 cuts to only 2.

The practice in control was a huge success.

But it could be better.

Just this progress showed that there was a possibility to use reinforcement without injuring myself.

…

Coming out of my hiding hole after recovering the lost aether from the environment, I saw that the sun had not set.

Although many hours had passed the sun was still up, sending down small wisps of light through the canopy of trees covering the forest.

I had practiced enough back in my hiding hole but now it was time for exploration.

While I would grow in power by hiding, that was only power and strength not in prowess.

While some might think there is no difference but there is with strength and power you could kill something of the same level but with prowess someone like me could kill a tier 8.

Just like how I could kill those wolves and boars although they had more strength and power than me.

…

This time I did not just blindly walk through the forest hoping for something.

This time I looked for tracks.

I looked for anything that would allow me to either find or hide from predators and prey.

However at the moment I had no reference frame on what tracks and scenes were what.

So I followed every single track and disturbance I could find.

If it was a boar or wolf then I would engage in combat each time trying to minimize the movements I would need to kill them.

Each time I would kill one I would get more intimate knowledge of their instincts, or their fighting style, of their power.

However no matter how many I had tracked I had found nothing but board and wolves.

Of course there were packs of them but that was all.

…

I had found something weird.

It was after I had gone a great distance, at the very least 10 miles into the forest from my rough estimate, that I came upon a fog wall.

I followed the fog wall but from what I could see it did not let up.

It surrounded the further parts of the forest blocking me from further exploration.

I even tried to attack it with my spear but no damage was done to it.

I still followed the fog wall though. There had to be something on that would allow me to go further.

…

It was after, from my count, 2 hours of mindlessly following the curve of the fog wall that I came upon a ruin.

It looked like an abandoned town, complete with houses, walls, and everything needed for civilization.

There was even farmland around the abandoned village.

'Civilization, what is this…' I whisper to myself.