First, I sat cross-legged on the floor, placing the staff beside me. Then, I picked up the infusion crystal labeled Staff Skill and rolled it in my palm, watching the blue particles swirl inside.
After a moment of hesitation, I decided to go for it and crushed the crystal in my hand.
The swirling particles flickered before surging straight into my head.
My vision darkened for a brief second, and when it cleared, I found myself standing on the waves of an ocean.
Dark clouds loomed overhead, stretching endlessly across the sky.
The ocean beneath was restless, its surface rising and falling like a living beast.
To me, it felt like a storm was coming, and the ocean was preparing for it. Then, my eyes landed on the person I believed this vision belonged to, a woman, not human, but something else.
She stood in the heart of it all, untouched by the chaos around her.
Her long silver hair flowed behind her, moving with the wind, but her dark blue eyes remained still, calm.
Her skin was deep brown, and her ears, long and pointed, gave her an otherworldly presence.
A thin silver crown rested on her head, its design simple yet elegant.
She wore a flowing white cape that reached down to her ankles, fastened at the front with a silver clasp.
Underneath, she had a dark blue, fitted top that left her shoulders and stomach bare, with simple silver patterns on it.
Her lower half was covered in tight, dark pants made of sturdy material, fitting snugly around her legs. A silver belt rested around her waist. The outfit was made for battle, allowing her to move freely.
In her hand, she held a staff.
It was sleek, made of smooth black material, nearly as tall as she was.
Thin lines of silver wrapped around its length, spiraling like ocean currents. The top of the staff curved slightly, ending in a sharp point, while the bottom was capped with a thickened edge, heavy enough for crushing strikes.
The ocean roared, and a monstrous wave rose before her, blocking out the sky.
She exhaled slowly.
Then, she moved.
Her feet shifted slightly, planting firmly on the surface of the water as if she stood on solid ground. Her grip tightened on the staff. As the wave came crashing down, she lifted the staff and thrust it forward in a single, precise motion.
There was no explosion, no thunderous impact, just silence.
The moment her staff touched the wave, the entire mass of water vanished. One second, it was there, roaring with unstoppable force.
The next, it was gone, evaporated into nothing. A sharp gust of wind followed, sweeping across the ocean, parting the water for miles.
Another wave rose behind her, just as massive. Without turning, she swung her staff in a smooth, sweeping arc. The wave split in two, both halves crashing down harmlessly on either side of her.
More waves followed, relentless, towering walls of water, yet she didn't falter.
With simple, effortless movements, thrusts, sweeps, and jabs—she erased them one by one. No wasted motion, no hesitation. Just perfect control.
She stepped forward, her white cap fluttering, her silver hair gleaming under the stormy sky. The ocean raged around her, but it could do nothing.
She was untouchable.
The vision continued, and I watched as she moved through every basic motion of the staff.
One by one, she struck, blocked, and parried the waves, never letting a single drop touch her.
Every movement was sharp, precise and flawless. And she was beautiful.
I had to force myself to focus on the staff, to watch how she moved rather than getting distracted by her presence.
There was a rhythm to her strikes, a perfect balance between speed and power. I memorized everything, from the way she shifted her feet to the way she adjusted her grip before each strike.
I wasn't sure how long she continued like this, but then something changed.
The waves stopped crashing. The ocean grew eerily still. The dark clouds above no longer rumbled. Only the wind remained, whispering across the water.
She took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling.
Then she shifted her grip on the staff, lowering her stance slightly. At that moment, I felt it, a force unlike anything before. It burst out of her like a shockwave, rippling through the air, making the ocean churn wildly beneath her.
Then she jumped.
The ocean beneath her caved in, forming a deep crater, before violently exploding outward. She soared into the sky, the staff spinning above her at blinding speed. In my vision, it became a blur, nothing but a streak of motion.
At the peak of her jump, she caught the lowest end of the staff with only her right hand. Her entire arm glowed with an intense, blinding blue light, the energy surging through her grip.
Then she roared.
With a single-handed swing, she brought the staff down in a massive overhead arc, not at the ocean, but at the very air itself.
Boom.
Boom.
The first explosion ripped through the air, sending shockwaves outward. The second followed an instant later, and the entire ocean seemed to collapse inward. The water compressed, shrinking, tightening, until it could no longer hold itself—
Then it detonated.
A massive explosion of water shot into the sky, breaking into countless droplets that rained down like a storm.
Below, nothing remained but a gaping crater where the ocean had once been.
And above it all, the woman floated, her staff in hand, untouched, unwavering.
Then the vision ended.
I sat cross-legged on the floor, the staff resting beside me, my fingers running along its smooth surface.
My mind kept replaying the vision. Not the woman, not the ocean, not the sheer destruction she had caused. Just the staff. The way she moved it. The way it responded to her grip like an extension of her body.
Her movements were simple, yet perfect. No wasted effort, no unnecessary flourishes. She had controlled the battlefield with only basic motions—thrusts, sweeps, blocks, spins.
Against waves towering over a hundred feet high, she hadn't panicked or hesitated. A single thrust, and the water shattered. A simple sweep, and the wave split apart. It wasn't about complexity. It was about control.
Then there was the final move. That image was burned into my mind, the way she had gripped the staff with one hand, how her arm had glowed, how she had swung not at the ocean, but at the air itself.
And what had followed… The sheer force of that strike had compressed the ocean, crushing it down before making it explode into nothing but mist. That was just raw power. The way I liked it. The perfect use of force at the perfect moment.
I exhaled and looked down at my own staff. Could I do that?
No.
Not yet.
But I could get there.
I tapped the staff against the floor, feeling its weight.
The basics. That was where I had to start.
My first goal was to make my staff an extension of my body. That meant drilling every basic motion until I didn't have to think about them. Thrusts. Sweeps. Spins. Blocks. If I couldn't destroy waves with a single thrust like she did, I would train until I could.
As for the final move…
I gripped the lower end of the staff with my right hand, mimicking her stance in my head. Lifting it up. Swinging it down. I repeated the motion slowly, feeling out the mechanics of the strike.
Speed. Power. Angle. Impact.
I would build up to it step by step.
First, control. Then, force.
I clenched my fingers around the staff.
It would take time, but I was confident that one day I would reach the same level of power, the power to obliterate an ocean with a single strike of my staff.