CHAPTER 23

As everyone slowly came down from the military van. The man assigned each of them to different room numbers. It got to Jonathan turns and the man sounded loudly, almost like he was screaming in Jonathan's ears.

"Head to Room AAD, and get some sleep immediately!"

Jonathan saluted right away and marched to the entrance where all his comrades had been heading to. The place was dark so he couldn't tell how different the headquarters was from his former world, but as he got inside the building, he could tell that only a little had changed about the headquarters. It was still the same thing.

The same room structure and design. With that, he was able to locate his room faster.

Jonathan knocked twice on the door before entering his room.

As he entered, he saw three people dressed in a regular military uniform, and they were standing, more like they stood up when they heard the knock on the door.

The three men saluted right away when Jonathan entered.

"Private Kelvin."

"Private Timothy."

"Private Jeremiah."

Jonathan cheeks moved a little when he saw the honor he was receiving from his roommates. 

He stepped closer to them before saluting them back.

"I am Private Jonathan Hayes. It would be an honor to share this space with you guys."

With that, they shook each other's hands and Jonathan was given the bed close to the wall on the right hand side.

When Jonathan put his bags down, he saw that the three men were looking at him. One of them finally voiced out seeing Jonathan caught them staring at him.

"We heard Baytorn was attacked a few hours ago. What were the intruders like?

We heard that some of you were forced to fight in the battlefield to defend the base from getting attacked."

Jonathan finished making his bed before responding to them.

"You heard correctly, but we weren't forced to defend the base from getting attacked. It is our duty to ensure the base stays safe and the people stay safe as well, so we awakened our ability and went on the battlefield to fight with those barbarians called Alphacrest."

The men were shocked when they heard Jonathan participated in the war. 

"So you fought in the war. What was it like."

Jonathan could sense the fear in their faces, and he could tell they were martial arts ability users just like him. 

He stayed quiet for a while before he responded to them.

"Because you awakened the martial arts ability doesn't mean you are weak. The enemy evaded with five martial artists and one summoner. Those martial arts were powerful but together we were able to bring them down. 

You shouldn't worry about what has already ended, instead focus your energy on what is coming."

The men slowly nodded to Jonathan. They were satisfied with what he said, but they didn't say anything else because they were afraid of what Jonathan would say next.

It was best they knew nothing about the battlefield until they experienced it.

Seeing they weren't planning on asking him further questions, Jonathan rested on his bed. The instructor had already said they would have a long day tomorrow, and he hates it when Instructor says things like that, because it would definitely be hard.

Jonathan's eyes moved to the ceiling. Before he left the base, he encountered Greyson again and Greyson taught him how to enter the magical path. 

He wanted to wait for tomorrow so he would be taught by the instructor again, but he was too damn curious to wait for tomorrow.

Jonathan closed his eyes to feel the energy inside him. According to Greyson it would take him thirty minutes or more to feel his energy for the first time, but it only took him seconds, and he believed it was because of the system.

Jonathan felt the little energy inside his body. It was gold in color and it was spread across his body. When he was done sensing his energy, he started channeling them to his heart region. 

According to Greyson, this would take him an hour for the first time, but Once more, Jonathan was able to do it in seconds. Soon, Jonathan was starting to get a faded image in his head.

An image of a door far away from his reach. Jonathan thought about the image and he immediately found himself being teleported to another dimension.

Jonathan found himself in a space filled with white smoke which was coming out from the ground.

He was standing on a hard ground but he couldn't see it due to the smoke that enclosed the entire floor.

Jonathan gazed forward and he saw there was a door far away from him. It was exactly how Greyson had explained it to him. Since he wasn't at the first stage of the magical path, he would have to start from zero, meaning he would have to walk his way to the first stage, which awaits him once he opens the door.

Jonathan decided to walk closer to the door. According to Greyson, getting to the door might take him hours, the time taken was different for everyone. Greyson said it took him three hours to get to the door.

He said at first Jonathan wouldn't be able to walk properly, then Jonathan would learn how to walk, and then learn how to walk fast before learning how to run.

Jonathan listened to Greyson carefully when Greyson was explaining the first things he would experience in the magical path to him. Who would've thought that none of those things would affect him.

Jonathan was already walking fast from the beginning. He thought of running and he immediately got to the door.

He did it in less than ten seconds.

Jonathan's heart seized when he reached to the handle of the door which he held in less than a second.

He had no idea the system 10X progression rate would be this effective. With the way he sees it, he would make significant progress within the next few days he would be spending here.

Jonathan opened the door and he was greeted with a wide stairway that was leading to the clouds.

The top of the stairway was covered with clouds and clouds were descending from the top of the down. Because of the thousands of clouds covering the stairway, he couldn't see the end of the stairs.

Just like Greyson had said. The magical path was a stairway that had no end. He wondered if the grandmaster realm would be the same like this or would be different.

Jonathan cheeks moved. He would have to find out by reaching the grandmaster realm quickly.

Jonathan placed his foot on the first stair and he felt a sudden sense of energy.

A very strong one, compared to what he experienced in the smoke room.

Although Jonathan could feel the strong energy around. He wasn't intimidated by it, thus he easily placed both of his feet on the first stairs of the magical path.

Seeing nothing happened to him. Jonathan climbed a few more stairs and he discovered that it was as easy as climbing the stairway in his previous world.

Although he could feel the strong energy in the premises. He wasn't bothered by it so Jonathan continued to climb the stairway in a fast manner. He thought of running and he started running.

Jonathan ran as fast as he could and he covered more than fifty stairs in no time.

There was nothing different about the stairway to Jonathan. Greyson explained it to be very difficult, but to him it was normal.

The only thing he noticed was fatigue and he wouldn't be able to run as fast as he could in the real world. he was experiencing this because he only had a 10X progression rate, not that he was limitless.

God could've gave him a limitless progression rate, but God didn't because God wanted to see him work hard in getting stronger, thus the reason he could experience fatigue and couldn't run as fast as he should, compared to the normal world.

He believes he could run this fast because he was merely at the first stage of the magical path, once he climbs higher to the other stages, he might not be able to run anymore, however he would still do it better than anyone because he had 10X progression rate which nobody had.

Just as Jonathan completed the hundredth stair. The stairway color changed from gold to red.

Jonathan received a message in his brain.

"You have reached a skill creation point. Would you like to draw out energy from the surrounding to create a skill"

Jonathan gained the knowledge out of nowhere. He believes it had to do with the magical path way of speaking to the practitioner.

He wanted to ignore it when a system message came right up.

[Host 10X progression rate would also affect the creation of skill.

You will be able to draw 10X your current capacity]