Training Arc
Training for the past couple days with no interruption provided great gain's. At least according to my status...
Accessing Akashic Records.....
Soul Strata:
True Name: Sul-on
Race: ?
Inherent Traits: [Unique]Exoskeleton(E-Grade)
PL: 322
Body: 270/1200
Mind: 50/1200
Soul: 2/1000
Abilities: [Rare]Ki Manipulation(I-Grade)
Techniques: [Inferior]Ki Sense
The once heavy weight is now but a pittance on my glorious sculptured body... alright I'll stop. The I had to resort to stacking multiple tree's and rocks on my back and and hold them in place with a small amount of KI. As my power level soared the weight became nothing but balancing them on my body properly was proving to be a good exercise in my balance and KI control.
I let my body relax allowing what had to be at least 500 pounds of weight fall to the ground. Calling on my KI I allow it to flow throughout my body and direct it towards my palm. A glowing white ball of plasma hovering above my hand. My concentration fully on the ball of energy in my hand.
The last few times I tried this caused the ball to go blasting into my nearby training equipment into ash.
The wobbled ever so slightly, warping and changing in size ever so slightly. Sharpening my focus the ball stilled and I could feel my control over it increasing ever so slightly. I rear my arm back and toss it towards the lake.
Now usually KI explosion's resembled low-yield explosion's, this one I wanted to be different. The orb of KI expanded as planned but halfway through lost it's cohesion and simple detonated.
"Looks like it's another failure..."
I gather my KI and explode into the sky. This planet had a plethora of high power leveled creatures, even with shoddy level of KI Sense I could pinpoint several signatures more than 10x my current power level. There is no way anything can get to that level of power naturally. The rocks and tree's weren't particularly heavy and there were no tree's that produced any type of supplemental fruit, and so originally I was confused. However, it turns out that the planet is not uniform. Different area's have different amounts of gravity pressure and the power levels rise to compensate. As I arrive at my next destination I slow down my flying as the gravity gets progressively more intense.
Stopping only when I'm physically forced into the ground. The last time I attempted this I nearly died due to the extreme force of gravity. From there I train pushup's, situp's, sometimes I'd do a couple hundred rep's of pull-ups on the nearby tree's. My new body doesn't exactly get tired and my regenerative factor only sped up the process. Circulating my KI in this environment was also harder, everything felt heavier including the strange energy. Where before it was running through my body like liquid fire it now felt like a particularly sticky syrup, clinging on to whichever muscle in nearest and attempting to give it much needed assistance. Stopping my KI from helping me only added on to the strain and further developed my KI control.
I trained in this gravity for hours and halted my KI until it felt like second nature, then I moved further in and started the entire process once again. When I was finally safely into the next "zone" I flew back to my previous training area and to collect my training equipment and made my way to the same zone stacking the log's and rocks atop my body, holding them in place with KI and continuing my exercises.
It was grueling, but necessary. If I don't at least increase my power level to 1,000 by the time I meet the next head honcho of this area, I'm dead. Plain and simple. As my body cracks under the unimaginable weight I press on allowing my regenerative abilities to fix me up in a couple minutes. Leaving only to hunt weaker beasts to feast on, raw. Hey! I had no time to cook them, had to get back to the grind.
When I was finally done and adjusted to the gravity it was night-time.
Accessing Akashic Records.....
Soul Strata:
True Name: Sul-on
Race: ?
Inherent Traits: [Unique]Exoskeleton(E-Grade)
PL: 872
Body: 620/1400
Mind: 50/1400
Soul: 4/1000
Abilities: [Rare]Ki Manipulation(I-Grade)
Techniques: [Inferior]Ki Sense
Making my way to one of the now much larger tree's - everything gets bigger in heavier gravity ironically- I focus inwards. Right now I needed some type of body enhancement method I could perform with my KI. Although the energy naturally assists me in combat or other strenuous activity, the application is uneven and sloppy. I wanted to completely cut off this subconscious power-up so which is why I completely restricted my KI my training and hunting. I didn't want anything special just a more efficient version of what my body was already doing.
I spread my KI throughout my body with the intention to strengthen, all aspects of my muscle's functions. Improving strength, endurance, and flexibility equally afterwards I experimented, with a 40 - 40 - 20 split to each "stat" respectively. Standing up and going through a few motions I found it acceptable... but I could do better. This time I don't stop at my muscles but push further infusing KI into my "organs", bones, then deeper into my blood. I try to go even further but my control is sloppy the deeper I go and I start to lose control so I pull back keeping my KI suffused where I could safely control it.
I get up keeping a tight lid on my KI and start the same exercises once again, I want this form of enhancement to be second nature to my body, and once I'm more confident in my control I'll go even further until I can infuse my very atom's with KI.
*Notice! [Rare] Ki Manipulation(I -> H-Grade)
Subcategory: Ki Enhancement(C-Grade)*
I smile at the notification before continuing my training.
After a couple hours of uprooting various tree's and decimating the landscape. I get to the point where my enhancement is practically subconscious, and I'm easily able to change the degree of enhancement.
Satisfied, I flare up my KI and lock on to the nearest inhabitant. Finding my next victim was easy, fighting it not so much. In this zone as opposed to the previous one I inhabited it was completely populated by rat's, mice, and other small forms of rodents. All the same color but species had distinct enough features that I could differentiate them. In addition to there matching color scheme, they never fought alone. If I tried to engage a lone one I'd have to kill it immediately resulting in no real gains in term's of fighting experience and even if I was well above there PL fighting 30+ rats all in the upper 300's to lower 500's in PL was asking for trouble.
Not to mention the PL that absolutely dwarfed mine that moved in my direction anytime I was spotted.
So I had to get creative... KI blasts the godfather of any and all KI based attack was my ultimate solution. Although I still had somewhat shoddy control, making golf ball sized, murder spheres and sending them after any nearby PL's was easy enough. I also used the pursuing rats as training for my KI concealment. Eventually I got so proficient I was able to create a fake KI signature leading away swarm's of rat's whilst I attacked there flanks or there other more secluded allies.
This did wonders for my KI control and by the 4th day I was able to launch KI blasts like they were nothing. In addition to that I was able to make modifications to the blasts. Beams instead of balls, and delayed KI mines were easy to form.
Eventually I engaged the rat's in close quarter's combat, aiming to improve my skill. My senses only sharpened and I was capable of easily avoiding a small groups attacks and respond in kind with KI blasts. [KI Sense] and my 360 degree vision to keep track of there positions, KI blasts to keep rodents that were further away in check and liberal application of my ever increasing combat skills. To smash any rat that got close into the ground or run them through with a KI enhanced fist.
Accessing Akashic Records.....
Soul Strata:
True Name: Sul-on
Race: ?
Inherent Traits: [Unique]Exoskeleton(E-Grade)
PL: 2,622
Body: 1000/1200
Mind: 323/1200
Soul: 10/1000
Abilities: [Rare]Ki Manipulation(H -> G-Grade)
Sub-abilities: Ki Enhancement(C-Grade)
*System Note: Sub-abilities are capped at their issued grade, further evolutions of said ability may be acquired through sufficient experimentation*
Techniques: [Inferior -> Basic]Ki Sense
Predictably I got fed up with the cops and robbers game.
Dodging underneath another sloppy tackle I grab the ambitious rat by the tail and use him as a makeshift flail smashing his brethren into the already destroyed terrain. My [Ki Sense] keeping track of that same PL that once dwarfed mine. Barreling through the underbrush my opponent made itself known with a shockwave of sound aimed directly at me. It was massive, easily 10x the height of the other members of the swarm, and approximately the length of a large bus.
It's eyes, twin orbs of unnatural brilliance, glowed with an inner fire that betrayed an intelligence far beyond that of any ordinary rat. A deep, piercing crimson. That glowed in the dark of the woods.
Upon it's head sat a crown of gnarled branches, twisted and entwined with glowing runes that pulsed with a malevolent energy.
I easily pirouette away from one of the closer rats claw's and gracefully side step the sonic blasts. The ground cracks as I exert my lower body and the wind pressure from my leap blow's away some of the small fry's.
In an instant I'm in-front of the, unfortunately the rat closest to her intercept's and suprisingly instead of piercing straight through as I've done before the rat's defense holds and I notice a dark red glow around it's body. The rune's in the leaders crown glowed an ominous red and the power pulsating from the crown spread to each and every rodent left in the clearing. Each member of the swarm starts screeching, a nearly unbearable sound comparable to nails on a chalkboard.
Focusing on the crown, the Record's respond provide me with some basic information about my enemy.
[Gnarled Crown]
[Holder: Ob'str'yen]
[Designation: Swarm Queen]
[Abilities: Unknown]
"Interesting..." I hop back from my former position putting some distance between myself and the strange energies the crown is emitting. The swarm follow's me unwilling to allow me to escape again. Sadly for them I've fought them for day's on end and blast them away with a flurry of blow's. Unfortunately for me they're tougher, alot tougher and they bounce back on the offensive just as fast as I blow them away.
While dodging and parrying the attacking rat's. I fire a salvo of KI blasts directly at the Queen, a small portion aiming specifically for the crown of her head. The Queen, contrary to my expectations rushes directly into the blasts ignoring the first salvo entirely, destroying the second with a screeching blast of sound and instead smashes through her minions before disappearing halfway through her dash and reappearing directly into me. My breath - or its equivalent - is taken away as she shatters the outer layers of my torso's exoskeleton like fine glass, and I'm sent flying harshly into the ground digging out a trench of dirt and stone. Not letting up the swarm follows up on her attack aiming for my now vulnerable center while she continuously fire's sonic blasts in my direction.
Getting fed up, I launch myself into the sky whilst peppering the ground beneath me with sphere after sphere of KI, and launch myself at the Queen. She reacts as expected and uses her disappearing trick once again, but this time I'm ready. Holding my hand's outward just as the Queen reappears in front of me. I grapple her for just a moment before she once again disappears, but this time before she can resurface through the screeching chorus of the swarm I can make out a small thunderclap of sound.
"Wait! You move at the speed of sound?" My initial guess was that the Queen used some type of movement technique or could teleport to nearby members of her swarm. But it seems like she can simply break the sound barrier, and she commands her swarm to continuously make noise in order to mask the thunderclap sound of her movement. However...
"If you can control sound, can't you just will the thunderclap to not be produced?"
Suddenly the clearing goes silent, and the Queen has an almost contemplative look on her face
"Wow, you're a real idiot huh?" Those were admittedly a poor choice of word's after just instructing my enemy on how to better utilize her skills regardless of how true they may ring.