Chapter 32: Damned Daniel
Realms are stages on which a martial artist is based on. Realms start from Unrefined, Water, Refinement, Peak, Abyss, Demon, Primordial, Enlightenment, Transmutation, and lastly, the end stage or the highest realm is the Heavenly Realm. Each realm is staged from Half-step, Low, Middle, and High. Average people all start at the Half-step of the Unrefined Realm while fighting professionals like boxers, black belts, kickboxers or any fighting athletes are in the level of the Half-step Water Realm. Those undisputed fighters are in either the High Water Realm or Half-step of the Refinement Realm. Bonafide Martial Artists are in either the Middle Refinement Realm or High Refinement Realm while Experts are in the Peak Realm in which one could learn certain advanced techniques of martial arts. The Abyssal Realm is for martial artists that have learned how to use their internal energy or Qi while in the Demon Realm have attained inhuman strength and attributes. The primordial Realm is the realm where one has crafted their special technique and has full control over their internal energy. In the enlightenment Realm in which Kaya currently is in the Half-step stage, one can find realization and full control of themselves from both the mind and the body. Transmutation is where a martial artist can break the mold that limits them from their human body and has long perfected the techniques they have learned, lastly the Heavenly Realm in which man has reached the peak of their mortality. You're a superhuman when you reached the Abyssal Realm. Although the realms may sound simple, getting to that stage needs a lot of strenuous training from both mentally and physically. Even Old martial masters could barely reach the Demon Realm and only those who have god-given talents and amazing body structures could reach higher realms.
Kaya started fighting as he taught Roman some pointers. Kaya had needn't took the undead monsters seriously after seeing their overall power and for now, he focused on nurturing Roman. He could tell that Roman had no proper training whatsoever but despite having not been taught, his own experience had allowed him to reach the Water Realm. If he had been taught at a very young age, he could have been in the Abyssal Realm already if not, higher than that.
"Tell me, what are your strengths and weaknesses?"
"Is this like some sort of job interview?"
"Just answer my question."
"Oh, well I have a very good mind and photographic eyes that's why I can have great spatial awareness and can think of situations easily. I can also see things very clearly, that 10 meters away, I can see and count all the spores on your body but that would take me a very long time but if I focus intently for a few hours, I may be able to count all the spores in your body. My weakness is probably being pessimistic."
"Why do you have to specify the spores in my body? Anyways, you have a good mind and great peripheral vision but what we need to fix is your constitution."
"My constitution?"
Roman was confused. Kaya wasn't surprised after finding out that his eyes were his biggest asset since he had witnessed himself what he could do just by his vision alone. He was able to detect the slight changes in the area and call him out to either move or be careful but it's better to have high sensitivity than enhanced vision since there will be times when one is unable to use their sight and have to rely on their other senses.
"Your constitution right now is shit."
"Oh..."
"You're being overwhelmed by your talent that your body can't keep up with it."
"What do you mean."
Kaya grabbed a thigh bone in the ground and tied it up to one of his legs. Now one of his legs was longer than the other. Roman was confused about what he was trying to do.
"This is what you're current state is. Do you see how one leg is longer than the other? The longer leg is your talent while the other leg is your constitution. With one overlapping the other, there will be an imbalance in your state. If you cannot fix this matter, you will not have any room for improvement."
"Ahh! I understand!"
Roman understood what he meant. Although his vision made it possible for him to perceive the slightest movements in the surroundings, his body couldn't keep up with his sight that's why although he was able to sense the incoming Death Knight, he was still unable to evade it, and as a result, it nearly killed him.
"So what should I do?"
"Learn how to crawl."
"Huh?"
"How can you walk with two legs that has an irregular length? You can't even run with that so it's better to learn how to crawl first."
"Oh! You mean to start from scratch!"
Kaya simply smiled. Roman was very quick-witted and could understand what he meant very easily. He was already building a tall tower that had a very weak foundation and if he choose to make his tower as tall as possible, there will be a time when this tower will topple down to the ground. It was best to rebuild this tower by strengthening the foundations first before he could start making the storeys up.
"What I will teach you are the very basics of being a martial artist and you must learn to master it in three weeks but this training must be learned in real life. If you practice this in virtual reality, you won't gain anything from it."
"Three weeks? Will I reach Refinement Realm in three weeks?"
"No."
"Oh."
Roman couldn't reach even the High Water Realm in one month what more would it be in three weeks? Well, not in his current state that is, as long as he is able to make a sturdy foundation, then reaching the Half-step of the Refinement realm would be hellishly easy.
"I'll send you the clips later but you have to do all the process without pause. If you choose to laze around and stop since you think it's too hard then I can't promise you that you can reach the Refinement Realm but if you are patient with your work, just like eating the monster meat, it may be horrible at first but once you get the hang of it, you'll bear the fruits of your labor."
"Yes, master! I promise to be hard-working!"
"Good but don't call me master, it's weird. For now, let's finish this dungeon quickly, my grandfather has probably arrived back home."
After which the two cleared out the monsters. Since Roman was useless against the boss monsters, Kaya had to finish them by himself while he cleared out the weaker monsters. In a few hours, they were able to clear all of them out, and with so many items, their bags had been filled to the brim, and they had to throw away the less valuable items. From floor 3, including the levels he had earned previously, he earned 19 levels reaching his level to 100. He was now able to upgrade his class to tier 2. Soon a window panel appeared in his view.
Ting~
[Class Quest
The Fighting Monarch has fought countless powerful opponents in his time and has lost to them countless times. He continued to persevere until he defeated all the strong adversities that may come his way.
Defeat 10 opponents that are tier 3 and 50 levels above you or 5 opponents that are tier 4 and 100 levels above you by yourself.
Conditions: Solo 10 tier 3, Level 150 opponents or 5 tier 4, level 200 opponents.
Tier 3 Level 150- 0/10 or
Tier 4 Level 200- 0/5
Rewards: Tier 2 Class
Penalty: Class Quest cooldown (1 Year)
Time Limit: Before you can reach level 150]
'As expected of a Mythical class, the quest upgrade is really hard.'
Kaya grinned as he tore the Floor-4 scroll. They soon appeared on a desolate island that only had one person sitting on a throne. This person had a thin and rather malnourished structure and wore nothing more but a torn garment that hid his private parts. He had a very long bushy hair and rather looked like a hobo but he had a black horn protruding in the left side of his forehead and a crack in his eyesocket that turned his left eye black with its pupil red. Beside him on his throne was a giant great sword that was brimming with a powerful deathly aura. Despite looking rather demonic and desolate, he had a fresh pair of shoes that looked majestic to the eyes, if one could wear this in both the game and in real life, they'd believe it's very high-quality shoes and probably had bought them from a very famous yet expensive shoe brand.
Ting~
[Damned Daniel (4)] [Grand Lord Boss Demon]
Level: 203
HP: 600,000,000/600,000,000]
"Oh no..."
"Why?"
Seeing the sudden pale complexion on Roman's face, Kaya was bewildered. He had seen the man get shocked or stunned but he had never seen him look so frightened as if he was facing the devil himself.
"We should stop now...this...this is just impossible."
"What are you talking about?"
"Have you heard of the downfall of the Sand Storm Guild?"
"No?"
Roman proceeded to explain. The Sand Storm Guild was a very famous First-rate guild that was raking up popularity due to the many elites they had that overwhelmed the number of their average members by 8:2. That time was when the Demon Shrine Dungeon was booming in popularity and they were the few candidates that could reach floor 12. Although they had chosen hell mode to flex on their rivals, they had quite a smooth sailing from floors 1-3 but it was when they arrived at floor 4 that things went a 180 turn. On floor 4, you would randomly face a tier 4 boss, the most common one was Harbinger, a tanky demon, the next one was Calipso, a magic demon, and Jackson, a berserk demon. But those demons had a certain fixed chance rate of 33% which would add the three to 99% but the 1% was the most difficult demon to defeat, Damned Daniel. The demon possessed the ire of a tier 5 boss monster, the intelligence of a tier 4 NPC, and the skills of a Primordial Realm expert. It had a powerful domain that made players' movements sluggish and they were unable to move at all. What's more is that if you were to die from his sword, the Soulkeeper, you'd be barred from playing the game for 8 months in real-time. That was a year in the game so that was why parties would choose to enter the hard mode rather than Hell mode since the chances of Damned Daniel popping out from Floor 4 was increased by 20%, although it might be low, it was considered a high percentage increase. Damned Daniel had ended the great progression of the Sand Storm Guild after all of its elites had been banned from entering the game for a very long time. Now, Sand Storm Guild had become a third-rate guild and most of their elites had joined other guilds having their reputation as one of the weakest guilds there is.
"I understand but that's more of a reason why I should fight him. I have to test my limits (and for my class quest)."
"Do you not understand me? Nobody has ever defeated Damned Daniel ever since the opening of the dungeon what more would it be to solo it? We can choose to leave right now, we've already gained so many treasures and we have to stock some more storage bags to collect more loots."
"Don't worry, I won't fight a losing battle. If I know I can't defeat it then let's leave but you should observe from afar and don't interfere with me. Plus, I am that 'Nobody'."
Kaya simply grinned as he leaped to the center in which he faced Damned Daniel with his two composite swords made from the spine of the Lich.
Ting~
[Lich's Spine
Type: Composite Sword
Durability: 2000/2000
+30% Magic Penetration
Sharp Essence- Each of your attacks is converted to magic damage.
A segmented blade that is connected by a Mana thread made from the spine of a Lich. The sword can stretch to a wide range allowing the segmented blades to weave around like a sharp whip as they disconnect from each other. Due to its bones being highly condensed with Mana's veins, its damage is equal to 200% of the player's Intelligence as pure magic damage and 150% of the player's Strength as base damage. Magic spells cast with the blade deals a 50% additional effect.
Requirements- Alon]
'These blades are amazing. It brims with mana and its sharpness is on another level!'
Kaya couldn't help but admire the two composite swords in his hands. It was a sword that could bend at every angle when swung and he could choose to retract and disconnect it however he wished. It was probably the strongest weapon he had.
"Demon, I'm your opponent."
Kaya pointed at Damned Daniel who was drowsing on his throne. He slowly opened his eyes and he released his overbearing aura around the place. Even from far away, Roman who was spectating could feel the pressure that made his body slump to the ground as he recorded the scene but was surprised to see Kaya unfazed by the pressure that he could even barely stand despite being a kilometer away from them.
'What an aura, will brother Alon truly defeat him?'
Roman was worried. He had seen Kaya do the impossible a couple of times but this time, he was facing the epitome of the impossible. He could only hope that he would survive a few of his attacks before they could choose to forcefully leave the dungeon, although they might lose 1-2 levels, it was worth it considering the astronomical gains they had earned.
On the other hand, Kaya simply grinned. The aura he released was the domain of a High Primordial Realm expert but seeing he has yet to lift a finger, Damned Daniel was probably testing him so in exchange, Kaya released his domain.
Like a cargo ship crashing through a yacht, Damned Daniel was immediately pushed back and stood up from his throne seeing that a puny human was able to overwhelm him in terms of aura and pressure.
"To think a virgin beta male like you could defeat me in the battle of pressure. You're probably the first one that has able to do this from the many cunts I've faced."
Damned Daniel spoke revealing a wide grin on his face. Kaya simply brandished his blade at him as means to provoke his actions.
"I'm honored to know that."
"The pleasure is mine. As a gift, I'll give you a swift death and I won't use my Soulkeeper's power, my hands alone will be enough to beat the living shit out of you."
"Huh? You wanna throw hands then I'll accept your offer."
Kaya retrieved his composite blades back to his inventory and curled both his fist into a fighting stance as he flick his hands to a 'Come!' gesture.
"Ungrateful bitch!"