(AN: Changed the Martial Spirit , Mortal, spiritual and sage stage into Martial Spirit Realm, Mortal Realm, Spiritual Realm and Sage Realm!)
Six days had passed since Osirs first visited the Inheritance Library of the Averzes, and now the final day to prepare for the challenge given to him by the God of Light had arrived.
He had learned countless new things and was now on the verge of a breakthrough into the Body Tempering Stage of the Mortal Realm.
His current body had become much stronger than it had been just one week ago.
To break through to the Body Tempering Stage, one must use a special body technique, endure the pain of training it, and slowly temper the body through persistent practice.
The special martial art Osirs chose was one of the most painful and at the same time, one of the fastest methods: the Burning Body Technique.
To train in this technique, he wasn't allowed to take in any air while performing the exercises, forcing his lungs to burn as he moved his body continuously, four hours every day.
Though the process was extremely painful and offered no real rest, the reward was worth it. The moment he broke through to the Body Tempering Stage, he would possess the strongest body among all his classmates, none of whom had reached that stage yet.
As for the other martial techniques he had learned, they were called Chicken Steps and Calm Breathing Technique.
These two were personally recommended to him by Teacher Volved, who said they were good foundational techniques for martial beginners. After reading through them, Osirs had decided to train in them as well.
However, he didn't have as much time to train those techniques as intensely as the Burning Body Technique, since his main focus was on breaking through to the Body Tempering Stage.
"Haa... haa... haa..." Osirs panted heavily, his face pale. Faint black lines marked his eyelids from a lack of sleep, but he didn't care. He simply knelt on the ground, breath ragged and body trembling.
After a few moments, his breathing began to calm as he slowly performed the Calm Breathing Technique. Soon, his breath stabilized and returned to normal.
With that, Osirs raised his head and looked to his right, where the small white fox was playing with its short, fluffy tail. The sight made him smile slightly before he stood up from the ground.
Stretching one last time, he looked toward the bright dawn and up at the clear blue sky, where the sun was shining down on the world. But then… something strange happened.
The sun began to widen?
"Did I see that right?" Osirs asked himself, narrowing his eyes to confirm whether there was something different about the sun, something that wasn't how it usually looked.
And there was.
"The sun… is starting to split?" he said in shock, his eyes widening as he stared at the sky. The sun was clearly dividing itself and he was too stunned to move.
He simply stood there, frozen, completely forgetting what he had originally set out to do.
After only five minutes, the sun had completely split into two round bodies. But unlike the usual yellow hue, one of them now appeared to be red.
And it didn't stop there.
The original yellow sun began to split again, this time into five more pieces.
Each of the suns had a different color. The largest among them was red, followed by purple, blue, orange, green, black, and then the yellow, the original source of them all.
This surreal vision of the sun splitting into seven differently colored spheres made no sense, yet it was happening before his eyes.
And in that same moment, far above in the heavens, the moon too began to split itself into five pieces, though Osirs couldn't see it from where he stood.
"What… is happening?" Osirs whispered, his voice filled with awe and shock.
And then, suddenly, a black and yellow screen appeared before him.
It was a message from the God of Light.
[The God of Light says that the other gods are slowly appearing in the world.]
"The other gods… are appearing?" Osirs said aloud as he read the message from the God of Light. His body began to shudder.
"Gods can do something like this?" he thought, stunned, as his hands began to tremble slightly. He clenched his fists tightly in response.
"So powerful…"
Osirs was amazed by the sight of the suns splitting into seven separate suns. Even though he didn't fully understand what was happening, he knew one thing clearly.
He was far too weak to comprehend these kinds of events.
So he made a decision, not to think too deeply about it, not yet.
With the skies now holding seven suns, Osirs felt a renewed desire grow inside him, the desire to become stronger.
He took a deep breath and smiled.
With that smile still on his face, he ignored the pain that lingered in his body and immediately began practicing the Burning Body Technique once again.
He even shortened his rest time, cutting it from four hours to just two, allowing him to train for six hours straight with only short breaks.
The burning sensation that flooded through his muscles intensified, but he endured it.
During this time, Osirs also continued training in the Averze Basic Swordsmanship, and after six days of nonstop effort, his mastery had reached the advanced and wasnt that far away to the mastering level.
But as the day ended, and Osirs looked up at the night sky, he saw something for the first time:
The moon, too, had split into six pieces.
"So now… seven suns and six moons," he whispered. "What a great change... The world is beginning to shift."
Back in the village, panic and fear had spread among the Averzes. Many were growing paranoid over the sudden appearance of the seven suns. But none of that involved Osirs.
He was alone, and no one came to speak with him.
And that gave him something precious, silence.
Silence… and time to train.
And thanks to the relentless effort and harsh training schedule he'd chosen, something within him had finally changed.
He felt it.
He had broken through.
"Yes… I broke through to the Body Tempering Stage!" he said with joy.
Looking up at the six moons, he noticed that unlike the varied colors of the suns, the moons all shared a similar hue, silver white, though each one held slightly deeper shades than the others.
"Truly a beautiful sight… right, little fox?" Osirs said gently, glancing at the small white fox beside him.
The fox lay curled up next to him, gazing at the sky with wide eyes.
Its clear, star like eyes reflected the glow of the moons above.
"Hehehe…" Osirs chuckled at the sight of the little fox's wonder filled face and opened his status window.
[Status
Name: Osirs Averze
Race: Averze
Serving God: Oberon, God of Light
Titles: Swordsman of Light, Sword Genius in Training of the Averze Village
Stage: Mortal Realm, Body Tempering stage
Soul: 5
Spirit: –
Body: 11
Vitality: 150
Skills:
– Low Grade Blessing of Absolute Light: A Low grade blessing from the God of Light. Grants the user a good affinity to the element of Light. The user may wield the Light element as naturally as a servant follows a prince.
– Sword Path Instinct: A natural instinct for the Sword Path. Greatly enhances the user's talent in all sword related skills, allowing them to pursue their own form of perfection with the sword.
– Mana Detection (Sealed):Locked. Will unlock once the user awakens the spirit.
Averze Basic Swordsmanship (Mastered): The foundational swordsmanship taught to all swordsmen of the Averze race. It provides a solid understanding of the way of the sword and grants the practitioner insight into swift and precise sword strikes.
Burning Body Technique: A painful yet powerful tempering method that pushes the body to its limits, allowing the user to break through into the Body Tempering Stage. This technique also grants a higher pain tolerance than most newly advanced Body Tempering practitioners.
Chicken Steps Technique (Beginner): A footwork technique created by a member of the Averze race, inspired by the nimble and erratic movements of a chicken. While seemingly odd, it improves agility and unpredictability in close combat.
Calm Breathing Technique (Advanced): A breathing method developed by the Averze to quickly stabilize one's breath during or after strenuous activity. It helps the user regain focus, reduce fatigue, and maintain composure in intense situations.]
Osirs looked over his newly learned skills, like the Averze Basic Swordsmanship and the other techniques he had recently acquired, but what stood out the most on his status screen were the changes to his stats.
His Body stat had increased to 11, and his Vitality had risen to 150.
From what Osirs understood, Body represented the raw physical strength of his body, while Vitality was tied to his lifespan.
As for Soul and Spirit, he still wasn't sure what they meant, but of the other two, he was confident in his interpretation.
He also speculated that 10 was likely the limit of the Body stat for ordinary people, and everything beyond that belonged to the Body Tempering Stage.
As for Vitality, he wasn't entirely sure. He only knew that the average lifespan of an Averze was around 120 to 130 years.
So… did this increase mean he could now live up to 150 years?
"So many new things…" Osirs muttered aloud, shaking his head.
His stomach growled, reminding him of something far more mundane. Carrying the small white fox in his arms, he returned to his wooden house and grilled some meat for the both of them.
After they had eaten their fill, they lay down together on the hay and drifted off to sleep.
But at the very same time, while the suns were still splitting apart in the sky, far away in the Godly Domain of Beginning and End, a realm belonging to Oberon, the young god was staring in disbelief at a new system message.
He was shocked. And more than that, he was truly worried.
[IMPORTANT NEWS! The First War of Gods has broken out]