LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 9: Spatial Stab
‘Phew… well that was nauseating’
Zyrus squinted his eyes as he looked around him. There was reddish-green vegetation and clear skies as far as his eyes could see.
“It would be perfect if not for this heat, right buddy?” Zyrus stretched his arms and breathed in the fresh air. Maybe because he was a player as even in this crumbling atmosphere he was able to live with ease. If it were normal humans then they would have died ten times over by the radiation alone.
“Skee~” A squirrel greeted Zyrus while eating a nut. For the squirrel, only a moment had passed when he disappeared and reappeared again.
Six months had passed by since Zyrus had reincarnated on Earth. The black robed man had given him this time to get used to his weak body. This earth was completely different from the one he knew from books.
The most prominent change was the sun, it was no longer yellow.
Red sun and its reddish sunlight had changed the earth’s climate in a drastic manner. It was hot during the day and too cold on nights. Drinking water was scarce; Zyrus had to walk for days to find a river.
Thankfully, Zyrus had the necessary survival equipments; otherwise, he would’ve starved to death in this barren land where nothing was edible.
“Hail the almighty cube!” Zyrus looked at the cube in front of him and shouted like a cultist atop a mountain.
In all honesty, the cube was indeed a godlike existence for him. It gave him knowledge, tools, direction, and everything he ever needed.
Even his clothes and sanitary products were provided by the cube. He was frustrated about how to use it, but after a month of futile attempts he had given up.
Things would appear randomly according to the environment. For example, the glider that Zyrus was looking at.
‘No matter how many times I look at it, it never ceases to amaze me.’
It was surprising to see a man-made structure on the present earth. Not a trace of mankind had remained on this planet. All the things humans had built, their civilizations and cultures were long lost in the tide of time.
It took him months to reach this place. He had spent a lot of time thinking about how the time difference between the two worlds worked. Take the squirrel for example, Zyrus's days on the sanctuary were just a second for it. And when he went back to the sanctuary, his time spent here would be equivalent to a second for Kyle and Lauren.
Wormholes and Time dilation weren't enough to explain the things related to the sanctuary. Regardless, he knew for a fact that a lot of time had passed on Earth.
Even the continents and mountains had changed after a billion years. The planet that he knew as ‘Home’ couldn’t be more foreign to him.
‘It’s quite sad.’ Zyrus sighed as he tied the glider.
The design of the glider was rather advanced, and there was even a user manual attached to it.
‘Won't I have 4 wings with this?’
He didn’t know much about aerodynamics or how the thing worked, so he read just enough to use it for the time being.
‘Welp, 4 wings are better than 2 I guess,’
His goal on earth was simple. He had to travel in the direction the cube pointed at.
Yup. That’s all there is to it.
Zyrus looked at the mission and the map for the last time before running towards the edge of the mountain.
[Mission: A relay across generations]
[Find the traces left behind by your ancestor, the first human who had come in contact with the sanctuary]
Below it was a topographical map, most of which was grayed out.
Zyrus had no clue about this mission and why that man had sent him back on Earth. One thing was for certain though, this mission was just as much, if not more important than his time in sanctuary.
‘7 days won’t be enough to reach the first location, I’ll probably reach there after hitting Lv 10.’ Zyrus calculated as he read the map again.
“You’re not the only one with wings now,” Zyrus gave the squirrel a smug smile and called it over. The bored squirrel was eager to jump over after seeing the new object.
“Kyu?” It looked around with curiosity while sitting on his chest.
“Don’t fall off little fella.”
Zyrus tightened the bag, or rather, the squirrel's home around his chest and stood at the edge of the mountain.
He wore the sky diving suit and fixed the cables around the horizontal plate of the glider. Finally, he put on his glasses which were named “OSIRIS MJ-65” and walked to the edge of the cliff.
He had a lot to learn on this 7 day period, but he didn’t want to think about that for now.
‘I’m about to do the most exciting thing in this life!’
Zyrus walked a dozen steps back, and then he jumped down from the mountain after a sprint!
“Woohoo…..”
In between the orange sky and dark forests below, he made his thousand-foot descent filled with thrill. He looked at the world around him while the wind howled in his ears.
He felt the gravity taking hold of him, dragging him towards the terrain below. The rivers flowing by in the distance and the trees that stood guard around them were reflected in his glasses as he dived down the mountain range.
He was getting further and further away from the sky, like a bright star that had fallen off from the heaven he glided along the crimson horizon.
“Hahaha.. it took me so long to figure this out,” Zyrus screamed as he approached the ground which seemed to accelerate in his eyes.
‘Everything was related to space. The flowing wind and the sturdy trees, the land, the sky, and even the gravity.’
Zyrus unfurled his parachute by pressing a button. How could he master the void if he didn’t know about the space itself? How could he find his source of origin when didn’t know about gravity and various forces that interacted in the spacetime?
Zyrus was lost in his thoughts as he observed the world around him with his newfound perspective.
He recalled the spells he used when he was the void monarch. He was able to erase the very fabric of space and bring down his own domain of void, but did he really understand it?
He was able to teleport for thousands of miles, he created spatial cracks with a wave of his hands, but did he know the underlying principles behind it?
Spatial Lockdown, Gravity field, Dimensional collapse… he had mastered dozens of high-level spells like these after reaching the peak of arcana, but then again, did he truly comprehend the rules that governed them?
He knew the answers to these questions better than anyone.
“To think that I still believed that I stood at the peak of arcana… what a joke.” Zyrus let out a deprecating sigh as he reached the ground.
“Skreee~”
“Yeah yeah, we're fine.” Zyrus rubbed the squirrel’s head and put a mint in his mouth.
His suit and glider vanished into nothing, but he was too deep in thoughts to notice that. He walked alone in the woods without even a fraction of his original power, but still, his every step carried the dignity of a Monarch.
After being reincarnated on this abandoned earth, Zyrus Wymar finally started his journey towards the origin of Void.
…
*Crackle*
Zyrus put the dried branches in the bonfire as he roasted his dinner. It had been 6 days since he came here.
He was sitting on the edge of a desert after his week-long travel. The Journey was uneventful to say the least. Although wild forests had their own difficulties, it was a heaven compared to the desolate wastelands he had to tread this time.
“I would be bored to death without you.” Zyrus scratched the squirrel’s back while looking at the starry sky.
He yearned for the day when he would be able to roam across the cosmos. It was an unfulfilled dream in the 1000 years of his past life, one that he was certain to achieve this time.
‘Welp, time to practice.’
Zyrus picked up his bamboo spear and practiced his skills for Sojutsu.
Although he didn’t know much about theories behind his spells, he was second to none when it came to utilizing mana.
‘It’s good to be humble but I shouldn’t underestimate myself as well.’
*Thrust*
He didn’t have mana and without it, he couldn’t practice any new skill. He knew that the skill created by using his origin source wouldn’t be recognized by the sanctuary’s system.
‘It is a power that is beyond the confines of the sanctuary.’
His practice these days was pretty straightforward. First he would read about spacetime theories and then he would refine his thrust techniques.
Forming a source of origin wasn’t something he could do in a short while, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t attack using it.
He was a master at creating spell models, and with sufficient knowledge he was sure of his success. He wanted to create a skill like a spatial stab, a single point attack with his full power.
Theoretically, this spear technique should be able to ignore defense and deal the absolute critical hit on every strike.
He put his right hand and right foot forward while holding the spear with an angle. The butt of the spear was held in his left hand which was positioned at his hipline.
His right hand was around the plexus region and he kept the tip of the spear in between his eyes.
Zyrus then thrust his spear by stretching his right hand with his left hand moving towards the plexus line. All the while he had maintained the speartip along his eyeline.
*Thrust*
After the short thrust, he practiced with long thrusts in which he made the same moves but this time his left hand moved towards the armpit of his right hand.
The memory of this movement was ingrained in his muscles after his arduous exercises. At this point he was able to focus on spacetime theories while practicing the spear techniques.
‘First things first, I’ll need mana for this skill, a lot of it at that.’
Zyrus came up with this skill after reading about the theory of general relativity. Massive objects like stars and planets create a curvature in the fabric of spacetime around them.
The greater the mass, the more it can affect the trajectories of the objects in its environment, including the light itself.
This is when the concept of gravity comes into being. Zyrus wanted to create a microscopic gravitational well on the tip of his spear by using mana.
*Thrust*
In theory, this mana-induced gravitational well should be able to distort the space around it. Via this distortion, the spear could cut through the space as if it were a tangible medium.
*Huff* *Huff*
‘This is a lot more complex then using the spell models via mental energy.’
It was like using a complex pre existing formula to solve a problem. It was much easier than deriving the formula itself. It did have its advantages though, the space models created after this learning process would be much simpler, meaning he could use them with less mana.
Spell models were general after all. How could they compare with the specific formulas he made for himself?
‘And this is fun.’
Like all mages, he was a seeker of truth. He had deep respect for the person who had created the scrolls for void magic.
Only now did he realize how difficult it is to create spells that everyone can use without the prerequisite knowledge.
He, just like everyone else had learned magic from those scrolls in the sanctuary. He didn’t have the time and opportunity to figure out how those three dimensional spell models were created.
Despite him being on the verge of creating a spell model for himself, he was far from the level where he could create spells similar to the ones scrolls.
Hours passed by as Zyrus was deep in practice. At long last, he saw a red light flash in front of him, beckoning him back to the sanctuary.
[Remaining Time: 00:00:00]
[Returning to the sanctuary]
…