Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis rode on his Lightning Board for multiple hours until a settlement finally appeared inside his Spirit's range. The Core-Continent was smaller than the other two continents, yet it was still gigantic in size. The settlement was only a small village, with no more than 1,000 people living there. Yet, their strength surprised Gravis.

"Every adult has, at least, a fully tempered body. There are even some people in the Energy Gathering Realm, though mostly all of them are at the first level," he said to himself.

As he thought about it, it actually made a lot of sense. The Body Tempering Realm only required resources. The will was only necessary to reach the Energy Gathering Realm, and some people would surely manage to increase their wills.

If everyone had the resources to temper their bodies, at least some of them would be able to condense their Energy Vortex, and judging by the abundance of the Core-Continent, body tempering resources were no issue.

An Energy Gathering expert was nearly non-existent in the Outer-Continent. In the Middle-Continent, there were a lot of those, yet in the Core-Continent, they could apparently only be considered as just some stronger mortals. Gravis guessed that the Sects would probably only accept Energy Gathering experts that were at the age of 16 or below. This was way harder to reach than just tempering one's skin, like in the Outer-Continent.

Gravis used his Spirit to quickly check through all the papers of the village. It only took a couple of seconds for Gravis to find a map. "The next town is to the north-east, while there is no sign of a city. Well, I should check the town first."

After saying that, Gravis left towards the indicated direction. There was no reason to stay in this village. It should only take an hour for him to arrive at the closest town. Yet, the distance was evident by Gravis taking a whole hour to get there with the ridiculous speed of his Lightning Board. Someone with a fully tempered body would probably need over a day to reach the town.

After an hour, the town appeared inside his Spirit. As Gravis' Spirit went through the town, he was even more surprised about the strength of the inhabitants. Every single adult was inside the Energy Gathering Realm. The guards, especially, had already reached the seventh level, at least. The officers were nearly all at the ninth level of Energy Gathering with their bodies emanating an equally powerful aura.

Gravis laughed a little as he saw that. 'An elder of an Elemental Guild would only count as an officer in a town inside the Core-Continent. That's quite the fall in terms of status.'

An officer of a town had a lower status than a disciple of an Elemental Guild. Those disciples had, in turn, a lower status than the elites of the guild. The elites were lower than the geniuses, and the geniuses were lower than the elders.

Falling from an elder to the level of an officer inside a town would be devastating. One shouldn't forget that an elder in the Middle-Continent had the power to eradicate all towns and cities single-handedly. They wouldn't even need their disciples for that.

'Not only that,' Gravis trailed off as he felt two Spirits watching him. The town had two Spirit Forming Experts. Gravis guessed that they were the town lord and vice-town lord, and he felt that they were warily watching him. They were probably afraid that he would steal their positions.

'As if I would care about some town lord position,' Gravis sneered. 'I'm only here to look at the public notices at the town board.'

Gravis used his Spirit to look through the notices but didn't find anything important. There was no mention of any favors or Joyce. Gravis guessed that those notices were probably only findable in the cities. Gravis also saw a map of the surroundings hanging on the town board, which also indicated the closest city.

'Fear City? Well, that sounds ominous,' thought Gravis as he noted down the location of the city. 'I wonder how the city looks like with a name like that. Anyway, there's no reason to stay here. I doubt that anyone in this town is used to trading with Spirit Weapons, considering their strength. I can probably sell stuff like that only in a city.'

After thinking this, Gravis left for Fear City. The two Spirit Forming experts in the town released a sigh of relief as they saw him go. They had felt the powerful will inside Gravis' Spirit, so they had been afraid of him taking over their positions. If that happened, they would've had no chance. They were not fighters! They were administrators!

Gravis rode on his Lightning Board for another three hours until he noticed something. Gravis slowed down and looked at the sky. "It's getting darker," he said as he rubbed his chin. "It should only be the early afternoon right now, and the sunset is at least several hours away."

Gravis looked to the front and noticed that the sky on the horizon was even darker. Then, he turned around and looked at where he came from. The sky in that direction was brighter. Gravis rubbed his chin in more thought. "Interesting. So, the closer I get to the city, the darker it gets. I guess that is one reason why it's named Fear City."

Gravis resumed his journey with more interest as the sky grew darker and darker. When Fear City appeared inside his Spirit, the sky was already pitch black, no stars to be seen. Yet, something surprised Gravis even more. "My Spirit can't enter Fear City," he commented.

As Gravis' Spirit neared Fear City, it was deflected. It was like Gravis' Spirit was a river, and Fear City was a boulder. His Spirit could only flow around Fear City, but not into it.

Gravis continued rubbing his chin in interest. "So, a city inside the Core-Continent has the ability to even stop Spirits. That sure is interesting. On top of that, I finally know why this city is called Fear City."

Gravis looked at Fear City. It was gigantic, probably tens of kilometers wide. The city's whole border was packed with 50-meter-tall, black walls with red spikes poking out of them. By all intents and purposes, the city looked like the lair of an antagonist in some fairy tale. The perpetually darkened sky surely didn't help its image.

'Well, my Spirit will probably work fine if I enter. The Sects shouldn't know yet that I have killed their "Vice-Guild Masters". This obviously looks like an outpost of the Darkness Sect, but I'll be okay for a time. Though, I need to hurry up. There's no reason to wait!' After Gravis made his decision, he quickly shot towards Fear City. He had to get some information and sell some of his stuff.

Meanwhile, inside the city, five people sat in a darkened room. They all wore grey robes that hid the entirety of their bodies. They all played cards with each other, apparently ignoring the darkness around them. Yet, when Gravis appeared in the surroundings of Fear City, one of them stood up.

"Sure enough, he has come," said the person with a gruff voice. "I knew that he would first come to this city since it's the closest one to his entry point. Look at him charge fiercely into the lion's nest, not knowing what awaits. Fiery youngsters really don't know danger, even when it stares them right into the eyes."

The others also stood up one after the other. "Will we go forward with the plan, boss?" one of them asked.

The earlier speaker nodded. "Yeah, if we don't help him, he is basically dead meat. We don't want that, do we? After all, he is an extraordinary recruit for our cause."

The others nodded in unison.

"Alright, then let's move out before our dear Gravis gets himself killed."

After he said that, they all vanished.