The System

CH- 55: A casual meet with the gods. (II)

    Winning a battle won't help you squat if you die because of the backlash or weaken yourself to the point where anything can kill you.

Tetsu etched the moral into his memory and got back up, continuing his journey.

By researching various facts, he learned they were thresholds for every aspect of the system. Stealth never upgraded, as Tetsu never met the requirements to cross the threshold.

Similar to working smarter, not harder. While you can strain your body and cross a limit, a proper diet and working out daily for an hour can provide better benefits with zero backlash.

The incubation ground is a hack and a boon to humanity, where experiments can be designed with outrageous risks and still have little to no backlash.

This is perhaps the most effective method to introduce a non-mana user to the concept of mana. It is essential to establish this basic foundation before moving on to the other two pillars. We may not have fully appreciated the importance of the first two pillars earlier, but perhaps this incubation ground can serve as a wake-up call.

Engaged in his thoughts, evading every threat with foresight and an all-seeing eye, Tetsu tried to break through the 'Leech Over' skill's threshold. Such skills will help him scout, escape, and mostly never engage in a fight, keeping his life and vows in one piece. So they became a top priority, and he aimed to upgrade them to Omni level by the end of the month.

Tetsu felt conflicted about the timer-sometimes he wished time would move faster to give him a sense of pressure, and other times he wanted it to stay put so he could have more time to experiment.

A childish dream to awaken his inner Tarzan was squashed by monstrous trees and upgraded monkeys with two tails. These two factors forced him to stay low and navigate the forest on his belly. At times he even went lower, digging tunnels to move ahead. Those monkeys were bad news, and he did not want to test his luck against any of them.

Once he reaches a clearing, moving against his intuition, Tetsu finds himself at the foot of a mountain.

It was almost as if someone suddenly remembered misplacing a mountain and placed it in Tetsu's path at the last moment because he swore there weren't any mountains towering into the clouds when he viewed the dream world from the top of the first mountain.

"The incubation grounds sure blew things out of proportion." Tetsu sighs and tries to measure the mountain's height.

He eagerly steps forward, unable to estimate but bubbling with excitement. The view from the mountaintop would be legendary.

As if hearing his thoughts, a presence descended upon him, suppressing his very being. The presence was several times stronger than the Dandralith's boss, and it felt like an arm choking the life out of him.

Like always, a part of Tetsu wanted to run, the other wanted to fight, and a cold, calculating part calmly placed pieces of the puzzle together, forming theories, plans, and conclusions.

"BEGONE!" a being shrouded in darkness ordered.

A cluster of shadows sat upon a throne made of corpses that were woven together. Several beast horns protruded around the throne's resting rail as trophies.

Within the crimson clouds at the peak of the mountain, the creature didn't bother getting up from its throne. The base of the mountain was miles down, where only wisps of its aura reached, yet that was more than enough for a mere level-four human.

The being could perceive, identify, and strangle the human to its death from here and with nothing but the lingering mana.

Death loomed over Tetsu. An imaginary arm held his throat, choking him slowly to his death. He didn't know what kind of power this was, but he wanted it.