I blinked, confused.
"Did the bald demon lock me in?"
Frowning, I pulled up Steve's number and called him. The phone rang and rang, but he didn't pick up.
"What are you doing?"
Arkas's voice came from behind me, and I almost dropped my phone.
"Fuck!"
I spun around. Arkas was standing there, staring at me with narrowed eyes.
I gulped.
"Umm… Commander, I was thinking of grabbing some food."
Arkas ignored my comment.
"Have you gone through all the skills?"
I shook my head.
"Then go through them. Your food will be delivered here. Oh, and if you need a washroom, just call it out."
With that, he vanished.
I threw up my hands in frustration.
"Why does it feel like the old man doesn't want me near North?"
I exhaled and withdrew my Essence from the staff, watching as it shrank back to its original size.
Fixing it securely in my belt, I turned my attention to the other two skill crystals.
First, I picked up the movement skill infusion crystal. Taking a deep breath, I crushed it in my palm.
The swirling blue particles rushed into my head.
And just like before, my sight darkened.
When it cleared, I was inside another vision.
I found myself standing on a battlefield.
A storm of dust and blood filled the air, and countless Abominations flooded the land like an unstoppable tide.
Their monstrous bodies twisted and crawled, shrieking as they lunged forward. The ground trembled under their weight.
But in the middle of this chaos, there was a single being.
He was covered in a dark cloak from head to toe, his face and body hidden beneath the hood. Yet, his presence was impossible to ignore. He moved like a phantom, weaving through the swarm of Abominations with terrifying speed.
Then, I noticed how.
Every time his foot touched the ground, there was an explosion of wind. Not a normal breeze but a concentrated, violent burst. The force of it sent him flying in unpredictable directions, sometimes forward, sometimes sideways, sometimes even straight up.
A massive beast swung its claw toward him. He bent his knee mid-air and unleashed another burst of wind from one leg, twisting his body at an impossible angle, completely avoiding the attack.
Before the monster could react, he landed on its outstretched arm and launched himself forward with another burst.
He was untouchable.
His movements were chaotic, but there was a rhythm to them, like a deadly dance.
Sometimes, he kicked off with both legs at once, rocketing through the air in a blur. Other times, he used a single leg, spinning mid-air before dashing toward a new spot. Every motion was fluid, every dodge effortless.
A smaller Abomination leapt toward him from behind, its jaws wide open. Without even turning, the man stomped the air, the air itself and a powerful wind burst from his foot, sending him soaring backward.
He flipped over the monster and landed gracefully on the ground before vanishing in another gust.
He wasn't just running. He was dancing through the battlefield.
In mid-air, he shifted angles freely, bouncing off invisible platforms made of compressed wind. He curved through the air unnaturally, sometimes even reversing his momentum in an instant, throwing off the Abominations that tried to predict his movements.
An abomination, twice his size, charged from the side.
The man let himself drop, then at the last second, fired a burst from his foot. He shot straight up, twisting his body mid-rise, then propelled himself forward again before he could even land.
The beast swung blindly at the air where he had been, but the man was already gone, flashing through the battlefield, untouchable.
This wasn't speed alone. It was calculated bursts that allowed movement in ways that should have been impossible.
The vision ended.
I grinned.
It felt like the old man had chosen this skill specifically for me. I doubted it would take me long to master it.
[Seismic Burst] already worked in a similar way, gathering strength, mixing Essence, compressing it, then releasing it in an explosive burst.
I had even used it with my legs against Guro. If I trained it properly, I could create my own short bursts of movement.
I wasn't the type to dodge and weave through a battlefield like the man in the vision. That wasn't my style. I preferred direct impact. Instead of using this skill to avoid attacks, I would use it to throw myself into them.
I pictured it.
A step forward, a burst from my legs, and I would shoot toward my enemy like a battering ram. If I timed it right, I could combine it with my staff swings. A downward smash with my entire weight behind it, reinforced by a [Seismic Burst], it would hit like a hammer from the sky.
I chuckled to myself.
Arkas really had given me the right skills.
Even if the system didn't recognize this particular usage, it didn't matter.
I could train it myself. And as long as I kept leveling [Seismic Burst], I would only get faster.
I decided to test the skill before moving on to the next one.
Stepping back to the center of the hall, I took a deep breath and bent my legs, preparing myself.
Then, I sprinted forward.
My feet pounded against the training floor as I picked up speed. The rhythm of my movement was steady, controlled.
I activated [Psynapse Boost], sharpening my perception. Then, I activated [Seismic Burst].
Immediately, I observed how the strength stored throughout my body started to concentrate. I molded it, forcing it toward my right leg. There was some resistance, a pressure pushing back, but my Psynapse attribute handled it with ease.
The gathered strength pooled into my right leg, and Essence followed, flowing from my core straight into the limb.
I kept sprinting.
Just as my right foot hit the ground, my body bending slightly to leap, I triggered the stored force.
A small explosion erupted beneath my foot, launching me forward in a straight line. I covered 30% more distance than a normal lunge without [Seismic Burst].
Mid-air, I activated [Seismic Burst] again, this time shifting focus to my left leg.
I allowed more Essence to gather, adjusting for extra force. The moment my foot touched the ground, I triggered it.
Again, I shot forward. But this time, the movement felt slightly off, my left foot wasn't my dominant one. My timing wavered, and some force was lost in the transfer.
I landed and skidded forward before coming to a stop.
I looked down at my legs. They throbbed slightly, heat radiating from my muscles.
"Practice. I need more practice."
I exhaled, my mind racing with ways to refine the technique.
Right now, there was too much manual effort, deciding how much Essence to channel, when to trigger the burst.
It was an obstacle in my path to Essence supremacy. If I could automate even a small part of it, the technique would be much smoother.
But before moving on, I wanted to try something.
Bending my legs, I sprinted forward again. This time, as I activated [Seismic Burst], I kept my entire focus on the moment the Essence left my feet.
The shockwave fired, propelling me forward but as it did, I activated [Essence Shift].
I grabbed hold of the released Essence, forcing its state to change and molding it to fire.
Everything happened so fast. I couldn't do it properly, but still—
Boom!
A fiery explosion erupted beneath my foot. But instead of shooting straight, my body twisted sideways.
I hit the ground hard, rolling to absorb the impact.
"Fuck. That was bad."
Still, it gave me another thing to experiment with.
I pushed myself up, a grin forming on my face.
What if I applied [Essence Shift] to the generated Essence inside my body itself? Why to release it outside and then change the state?
"I hope I don't explode myself."