[Underground Labyrinth] (9)

The reason behind Ken's whistle was the mana or Ki that lingered behind after his unexpectedly strong attack. Feeling the kilometres wide "puke," Ken was dumbfounded for a moment, but remembering his decision to get it over with sooner and return to the academy, Ken acted.

Ken activated another combination skill, hoping to have two powerful skills in his arsenal. Of course, even if he didn't really try to improve further, his strength would have been one of the strongest.

But,

It still would have "merely" been one of the strongest.

Being one among many wasn't really something to be proud of.

And Ken was someone who didn't like being "one of the strongest,"

But, he would very much love to be the "THE ONLY STRONGEST."

[Abyssal senses]

+

[Ki breathing]

+

[Ki control]

+

[Sword Ki]

+

[Heavenly Emperor's Sword Art]

[Combination Skill], not many know of this very basic fact, but the combined skill that he/she would get depends on the first and last skill they use, of course, the conditions of the selected skills synchronising with each other also applies, but the final result of a combination skill is decided by the first or the last skill selected.

Or so was the fact Ken analysed as he learned the skill stack and skill combination techniques in the [Last Life].

[Combination found!]

[Creating character's [Ex] skill.....]

[Combination complete!]

PANG-!

With a sharp pain in his brain, Ken went into a trance.

It felt as if his cerebrum, cerebellum, and brainstem went into overdrive and he felt many things that could potentially make one crazy.

But,

Not much is known on how it would effect or if it really would have an effect on an already crazy person.

His nerve cells too were acting extremely active.

His 24 years' of experience from his previous life flashed in his consciousness before the 18 years' experience of his current life flashed in his mind, the "revisit" of his life was far from pleasant, and since he had seen many things at a very young age, he consciousness was very dangerously well-developed, far more than many people who had seen and experienced at least 75-80 years of life.

And there was one thing he realised after his memorial revisit, there was this one thing he noticed.

For the 42 years of combined experience, he had put in the most effort on wielding his sword than he had imagined.

Whether it was done so that he could survive,

Or because he found, swinging his sword until exhaustion, fun,

Or because the pain he felt, when he was unable to breathe due to the severe exhaustion, confirming his existence,

Whatever the reason behind his persistent repetition of wielding a sword was, it was an undeniable fact that he had unknowingly dedicated almost 12 years of his life to wield the sword;

At that revelation, his mind blanked.

Then came the possibilities unimagined.

Trillions and trillions of sword-paths were engraved onto his consciousness.

Then every sword path got refined in his mind, the proficiency of the sword-paths in his mind increased by leaps and bounds in a matter of mere seconds, in which he felt to have lived an eternity.

Then every complex sword-path was cut down to form sword arts, which were then cut down to the most basic of the basic sword swings, namely: a vertical slash, a horizontal slash, a diagonal slash, and a stab.

Then every sword-path, every single one of them merged into what seemed to be one yet many sword art, which made even the four basic sword swings complex.

As the sword art got engraved into his mind, a name resounded in his consciousness,

[The Infinity Sword Art]

And his trance ended at that.

And,

This time, unlike last time when the system gave his combination skill a name, he knew of the current combination skill's name even before it was notified by the system.

Ken felt his palms, forearms, and biceps burning together with his head, as he subconsciously tried to apply [The Infinity Sword Art]'s principles to the new [Ex] combination skill's sword strike that seemed to be the most basic when compared what he had just learnt.

He merely had to do a vertical slash which seemed so easy yet so difficult.

"Huuu....." With a sharp exhale,

"Advent of the Nameless Dragon." Ken muttered under his breath which helped him to ease the intricate and detailed principles of the newly created sword art.

SNAP-!

With a snap, that resounded in the minds of those around him, the air flow seemed to have been cut off as they involuntarily and subconsciously knelt while their eyes gazed at the sword hilt and handle that was raised above his head.

The mana within him, those around him, and even the mana in the surroundings seemed to have disappeared without a trace, yet,

They didn't move.

They couldn't understand why,

But,

They instinctively felt as if they were to revere whatever was about to come.

It was the kind of reverence that humans felt in front of a God, if they ever met one.

Even if they didn't, they instinctively knew that they had to revere at the presence of a God, hence with or without their willingness' they would do what they, the humans, were supposed to when in presence of a being called God.

The glaring purple haze around Ken had disappeared as he muttered the combination skill's name,

[Combination Skill [Advent of the Nameless Dragon [Ex] activated!]

With the notification in his mind,

A thread of the Ki stored in the depths of his pitch-black mana with glaring purple haze Ki core seeped out of his hands which held the shattered sword blade's handle.

The thread then coiled around the imaginary sword's blade before a thin, intricate yet detailed Asian Dragon manifested from the thin strand of Ken's Ki, which those around him were gazing at, mesmerized, without moving their eyes away.

Not because they didn't want to, but because they couldn't.

With no sound whatsoever, the sword handle was swung vertically downward with the Asian Dragon still coiled around the non-existent sword's blade.

Soon,

The sword handle was pointed down at the ground.

The Dragon coiled around it, slithered down to the ground, coiled over as it gazed up at the ceiling which seemed to annoy it to no extent while its thin yet long seeming moustaches were huffed out of the way before a ear-deafening roar that instilled fear into the souls of those present around it, resounded throughout the whole Capital of the Dasiris Empire.

The thin coiled up dragon then shot up at the ceiling as if intending to break apart whatever was blocking its way of ascension.