"A barrier blocks your way ahead..."

Slow winds carried with them the whispers of the trees as they passed over this grass field paradise.

It was early in the afternoon, and in the middle of that grassland, a young boy and a young girl were sitting cross-legged, opposite of one another.

The boy wore baggy, white trousers and a red top that was bit too long for him.

The weird thing about this boy was that his skin was a light green colour, and a tiny fang was barely noticeable as it escaped his lips.

His hair was long, tied in a bun, with only a few strands falling gracefully on his face like ivory vines.

The girl wore a long, brown dress, torn in many places, that made her look like a simple, country girl, cute and lovable.

Her luscious brown hair fell down her back like a tiny waterfall. Her eyes had the same brown colour, complimenting her face and making her look rather innocent.

What was amazing about the girl was the fact that her body had a weird red glow on it.

It also seemed as something moving under her skin.

The boy opened his two, deep-blue eyes, that seemed to be able to gaze to the ends of the cosmos, and stared at every movement the little girl's skin made.

"I've had the [Quantum Eyes] for some time now but I still have no idea what they are capable of.

For now, I know they can see through structures, through light and even through energy. But I don't the full extend of their capabilities.

Right now I am doing something I never thought possible, which is directly looking at the movement of energy inside another person's body.

Oh, old man...

What the hell have you bestowed upon me?"

Iono said, with slight melancholy.

The glowing steadily stopped and the girl slowly opened her eyes.

"Iono, I did as much as I could. I understand the concept but it's reaally tiring. I'm so hungry!", Clarissa said, rubbing her belly.

"You're consuming energy to enhance your body's capabilities, no wonder you feel tired. I think that's enough for today anyway. Let's go grab something to eat.", he replied.

A bright smile appeared on the girl's face as she got up and skipped all the way home.

-----------------

After a hearty lunch, Iono bid farewell to the young girl, who had to go home because her mother would be back any minute.

"Tomorrow, same time, we'll continue tempering your flesh." he said while holding the door for her.

"Iono, don't say flesh! It sounds a bit grotesque.", Clarissa said.

"Where the hell did you learn the word grotesque?", Iono asked surprised.

"Hehe-", a smug grin appeared on her face.

"After you taught me how to read, Anna has been lending me books from your library. I have learned a lot of things I didn't know before!", she said with excitement.

*Sigh*

Iono smiled.

"Right, well, you go now and make sure you meditate at night like I told you. Enhancing your body with energy is not only about physical changes but mental as well. It's still early but you're gonna experience pain much, much worse than you expect!", he said with a scary grin.

"Stop messing with me!", she said, trembling.

And so Iono closed the door.

As he did though, something was stuck in his mind.

"Enhancing your body with energy...", he mumbled, seemingly in thought.

It was like he had an idea but at the same time didn't know what that idea was.

After a while, he simply left those thoughts behind and went on to do his daily training.

Iono's day was like this:

In the morning training with Clarissa.

After lunch, he would go to the forest for his daily routine training. This would usually be hunting Awakened beasts.

He would then spend the evening with his parents.

And lastly mediate for a few hours before sleeping, either refining his core, or trying to communicate with his cells, basically making strides towards Cell Reverberation, or even meditating upon his weapon arts, revising them and enhancing them.

His days were at the same time peaceful but also full of excitement.

He changed to some more ragged clothes that he wouldn't mind tearing, and left his house, dashing towards the forest of Nundram.

Like a fish in the sea, he jumped from branch to branch, navigating through the dense forest.

On the way he encountered many beasts, both awakened and non-awakened.

He chose to not disturb the non-awakened ones as they wouldn't even count as training and although he wasn't a saint, he still wouldn't take an innocent life without reason.

On the other hand any Awakened beast that crossed his path and dared to look at him the wrong way, would meet a gnarly end.

Blue Bears, Green Wolves, Giant Praying Mantis, Red Lizards. All kinds of territorial beasts would attack him the moment they sensed him and he would retaliate with no hesitation.

He only used his purple daggers, delivering deathly blows each time, cutting down not only the beasts, but the surrounding flora as well.

Some beasts had reached the Cell Reverberation and even Third Eye Body Sculpting stages, making Iono go almost all-out facing them.

Currently he was fighting a Horned Red Lizard. It was a stronger form of the usual Red Lizard.

[Graduate Class Dagger arts: Blade Storm]

He spun his body rapidly, while slashing down on the Horned Red Lizard's neck.

The head separated from the body and slumped on the floor, its eyes void of life.

Suddenly the blood of the lizard convulsed and gathered in a sphere.

*Ding*

"'User' has acquired have 7 Life force.

Life force(103/100)

Congratulations!

'User' has acquired the required amount to level up!

Level 1-> Level 2

You have been awarded 5 Attribute points for levelling up!

97 Life force required for Level 3."

"Nice! I leveled up! I'll add the points to Stamina again.", he said and pressed the small (+) in the screen in front of him.

"Stamina: 213↑5→218"

The refreshing feeling took over him, as all his past exhaustion disappeared.

Iono jumped on a branch and continued onwards.

--------------------

After many battles, Iono jumped down from a branch and stopped at a clearing.

He realized he had actually entered too deep inside the forest.

This was territory, that even Ballu, the so called King of Nundram, wouldn't dare approach.

It was said that the central parts of the forest were cursed.

Anyone entering, beast or man, would inexplicably disappear.

This was actually something that surprised Iono since such a curse didn't exist in his previous life.

Not just this but many other small details were different from what he remembers.

This was something that he couldn't really explain, but then again he didn't even understand what exactly happened to him and was therefore left with a ton of unanswered questions.

He thought to himself for a moment and decided to visit the central plains.

He once again jumped on the branch of a tree, and went further in the dense forest, jumping from branch to branch.

At this point the trees were rather big, towering at almost 10 to 12 meters tall.

Even though it was the middle of the afternoon, dense fog covered the area in front of him.

Thankfully he had the [Quantum Eyes], rendering the fog's try to lower his visibility, moot.

Iono jumped from branch to branch when suddenly-

*Crash*

Iono slammed on some kind of wall and fell on the ground.

"F*CK! That hurt!", he exclaimed, pushing himself to a sitting position while holding his head.

"What the hell did I bump into?", he wondered, as he looked upwards, only to see vast forestland.

The space where the supposed wall were, was actually empty.

"What the hell?!", Iono was stupified. Apparently he crashed onto thin air.

He slowly walked forwards, holding his hand out, trying to touch whatever it was that he crashed into.

Suddenly he felt his hands touching something solid.

The air in front of him was solid!

"What the hell is this? Barrier? Only high level energy rings are able to condense energy into a solid form. This isn't something that should exist in this continent. The mysteries keep increasing but I have no answers.", he said while glancing at his chest.

He placed his hand on the invisible barrier, which caused some kind of ripple effect in it.

Iono followed the ripple with his eyes, all the way till the ripple reached so far in the sky, even his [Quantum Eyes] couldn't see it.

Iono was left speechless.

How big was this barrier!?

It reached the highest heavens!

"This is definitely something that doesn't originate from Trissa. Not even beings from Tereth, the strongest continent, would have the ability to set such a barrier.

Now that I think about it, even the old man, Ophiuchus, shouldn't have been in Trissa.

Nothing makes sense anymore...", Iono was deep in thought.

Suddenly he took a step back, and a scythe appeared in his hand.

His core started spinning intently, as Mana and Aura, constantly turned into Prana.

An intense pressure exploded from within Iono, making any surrounding beast and animal run away in fear.

Prana left his core and surrounded his body.

It entered his muscles and enhanced them, making the veins all over his body pop.

His hair danced in the dense amounts of mana surrounding his body.

All of the energy, suddenly condensed and concentrated on the scythe he was holding.

Iono stabilized his footing, and raised his scythe above his head.

He held his breath, grit his teeth, and with almost all the strength he could muster, brought the scythe down, smashing it on the barrier.

*Chime*

When the scythe crashed on the barrier, it made a sound as if a gigantic bell was rung, reverberating to the highest heavens.

The ripple effect appeared once again, as if a visible wave was travelling through air, only it was much, much stronger and larger than before.

So strong in fact, it's resonance sent Iono flying away.

He crashed into a couple of trees, and then a couple more, until he hit the ground twice before coming to a stop.

He groggily got up, one of his hands was on his head.

"That f*cking hurt!", he exclaimed.

He raised his head to look at the barrier only to see some changes occur.

The ripple he produced, instead of going all the way up and disappearing, had actually formed some golden letters in the air.

The letters shined with golden radiance, making hard to distinguish them.

After a few seconds the radiance died down and they became visible.

They were in a language that Iono didn't know, but weirdly, their meaning was transmitted in his head.

The message wrote:

"A barrier blocks you way ahead,

Careful of your surroundings as you tread,

Solve my riddle with your head,

For my treasure you shall accept!"