Soul of Searing Steel

Panda Novel

If one should speak of Skill Mastery, the person must master hundreds of martial arts techniques and thousands of skills to be used at the tip of one’s finger, then Supreme Strength would become an even simpler quest for him or her.

That would be pure strength, the strength that exceeded one’s limitations.

Every training would definitely bear fruit. As long as one would be willing to put in effort, he or she would definitely be able to become stronger. That thought was deemed overly naïve. Only warriors who had just begun learning how to enhance their own strength would have such misleading ideas. However, truth to be told, the truth about this would be exactly the opposite of this.

Every training would not promise reward. One would even suffer a decline in physical function due to overtraining oneself. One might not be able to achieve results even if they put effort in it. It was very possible that one’s status would deteriorate instead of improve. A struggling through hardships might only be able to maintain the current status of one’s body from deteriorating. They would not be able to become stronger even if they trained to the point that even their sweat wet their shoes and soles.

These possibilities might be true, and there were countless examples to serve as facts. That was also the reason why the word ‘Gift’ was invented—humans had limits, and when they reached their limits, there was no way to become stronger anymore.

However, the Strength of Supreme would be the one thing that could break through that barrier. It was an existence that could break those shackles.

As long as a person would train himself, he would become progressive. As long as that person continued to work hard, he would become stronger—such extraordinary ability that seemed like a fantasy would be the truth about Supreme Strength, the power to surpass limit.

Mastery Strength was different from Mastery Skill where one could master hundreds of martial arts techniques and continue to learn new skills. One could just slowly understand Mastery over time. The Mastery Strength was also different from the Mastery Soul where one would only look at the degree of spiritual consciousness and determination of the person’s will. The concepts of these masteries were all different from one another. The awakening of Mastery Strength would require laborious training.

Effort and never slacking off. Even if there was no effect at all, one would need to maintain and persist to train daily. At the same time, one should assist in some of the battles that could allow oneself to blast with full power. By doing all that, the power would naturally be awakened.

Of course, for some lucky people, running ten kilometers a day, one hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, and one hundred squats would have been enough for the person to break the shackles of his or her limit. Meanwhile, people with bad luck… they might never be able to break those shackles even if they spent their entire lifetime trying. There was no example or whatsoever about them at all.

Joshua also did not know whether he was considered lucky or not. In the previous life, he took the path of the Skill Mastery. Meanwhile, he had succeeded in awakening the seed of Mastery as well in this life. If he could complete the quest for the trial, then he would be able to obtain Mastery Strength successfully. That should be deemed as a good luck. However, the number of battles he experienced would be much more than the number of battles any ordinary man would experience over a lifetime.

“Let’s see what the trial really is about then…”

With his eyes moving, Joshua was eager to look at the lower part of the light screen.

The quests for the Trial of Masteries had always been quirky and complicated. They might not be as difficult as expected though, however, it would be absolutely unpleasant to complete them. The quest for the Trial of Skill Mastery that Joshua needed to complete in the previous life in order to awaken his Skill Mastery power was defeating twenty-five different Upper Gold-Tier enemies with twenty-five different methods. It would not matter whether the enemies were daemons or humans, or what sort of weapons were used to defeat the enemies. It could be swords, or bows and arrows, or even chopsticks if one was capable of doing it. One could even use poison, ambush, or even ganging up on the enemy by asking for help from others. Everything would be accounted for as long as the methods were different.

Well, it sounded pretty simple. But truth to be told, one could only know and understand how difficult it really was to execute it. Who would not have become an existence that was superbly skilled in the arts of battles and possessed rich experiences in battles if that person had managed to advance into the Gold-Tier? It would still be better to fight with skilled weapons and methods of battle. Fighting with unfamiliar styles and methods would only end up getting seen through by your opponents and get smashed to the ground by them in a single blow.

“For the love of god… It’s these sort of trials again!”

As he swept his eyes across the quest list, Joshua put a slap on his face. He sighed helplessly and spoke slowly, “Can’t they just give me something harder, and yet can be done in one go? For instance, they could just task me with slaying one Supreme-Tier Aragami and that sort of thing. How long will it take for me to advance to the next tier then?”

The quests that appeared before his eyes were brief, however, not easy to be completed.

[Trial of Glorious Light—Monster Hunter]

[Defeat, kill, or hunt 30 different types of Upper Gold-Tier beings upfront.]

[Quest targets include: Humans, Elves, Dwarfs, Hobbits, Halflings, Lizardmen, Dragons.]

[—Only victory can prove one’s strength. Only with strength can one obtain victory.]

The intensely cold snowstorm was blustering on. The freezing winds that were piercingly cold as small tiny blades were blowing against the body of the warrior.

The reason why Joshua sighed was the high degree of freedom and flexibility in this sort of quests. However, the difficulty in completing it was definitely not easy at all. Although it did not have any limit to the races, however, regardless of any race out there, one would have become much more superior the moment when they were able to reach Upper Gold-tier. Even the most ordinary Dhole Worms would become gigantic if they could ever advance into the Gold tier. Well, they could basically turn into gigantic devourers that were as tall as seven to eight-story buildings!

To defeat thirty different Gold-tier beings— even defeating one dragon species would be an extremely difficult task. Joshua felt that, if he would not journey out to search for his targets, he might not even be able to get all thirty targets in his entire life. Well, it remained uncertain if the North would even have thirty different types of Gold-tier daemons to begin with.

“I am pretty sure that I remember. Some of them only needed to climb mountains and dive into deep waters to complete their quests.”

He complained along with some regret in his tone as he was recalling back on his memories about the scenes where the other players were posting about their attempts to complete the quests for their trial on the forums.

“Although one of them needed to climb the Dragon Island’s holy mountain, while the other needed to dive into the endless abyss of the sea in the distant South, however, regardless of any saying, their quests were much easier than mine.”

Swiping his hand across as he canceled the system, Joshua turned around and spoke loudly to the knights behind him, “Today’s training has ended. Dismiss. Gather back at the training facility before evening arrives. Those who are late shall not get dinner.”

“Yes! My Liege! Roger, my liege!”

Upon hearing their baron saying that they were dismissed for the time being, the exhausted people yelled subconsciously, but then they immediately complained, “But my liege, we’re currently in the deep part of the snowy mountain! We’re drained from running from morning till noon! Isn’t evening a little too…”

“You are right.”

After hearing those words coming from his knights, the warrior looked thoughtfully at the group of knights. Smiling gently, he said, “This training is to force you to your true limits, and then you need to try breaking through your own limits. Since that’s the case, it is indeed a little too late for you guys to get back by evening. You all can definitely complete the task if you would just put effort in it… Then, you all must gather at the training facility before 4 p.m.! Or else you’ll be ready to go to the construction site on the hillside to do some charity work—and you’ll also not be having any dinner! Dismiss!”

After he was done talking, a translucent shockwave was seen in plain sight, followed by the appearance of a transparent vacuum passage in the middle of the heavy snowstorm. After that, the sound of a squeaky sonic boom only came and lingered around by the ears of the knights a brief moment after that. Joshua’s shadow had also disappeared without a trace.

The group of knights were stunned as they were left in the middle of a blizzard with their mouths open. The cold winds were sweeping back and forth, causing the Upper Silver-Tier knights to feel as if their bodies and souls were about to be frozen.

“The strength of our lord seems to have improved yet again.”

One of the knights who even had his hair frozen into icy spikes let out a sigh as he truly admired Joshua. However, his words were interrupted by the others beside him almost in an instant. “Sigh… what good would it bring you, buttering the liege now? You can stop wasting your breath and start running, now!”

That line rang in everyone’s ears and everyone agreed on it at the same instant. Instantly, the knights began to turn around towards the opposite direction of where they were facing and started running towards the training facility down at the base of Mount Nissia.

Joshua went back to the liege’s residence in the main city as he wanted to gather enough information he needed first before head back to the training facility. He was surprised to see 03 wandering around, floating in and out of the ceiling by the front door of the study room.

The Artificial Intelligence seemed to be having a good time. She seemed to be fond of rolling and floating around like that. Because of that, the warrior’s emotions were slightly stirred. After all, 03 was just an Artificial Intelligence. She was really good at adjusting the angles of her projection though. Right while the corner of her dress was floating around, Joshua could not actually see what was underneath that dress.

However, he was not some sort of pervert who would purposely observe to see what was beneath the dress of a girl of course. If he could see it, that would be his luck. If not, that would not matter at all. Hence, Joshua immediately asked, “03, what are you doing in front of the study room?”

Meanwhile, 03 slowly turned her body around. She was hanging from the ceiling upside down looking just like a vampire. She lifted her head and spoke gently, “Before this, there’s an extremely powerful mage who came to see you.”

“A powerful mage?”

After a brief second, Joshua thought about the one powerful mage he knew personally. Then he nodded and said, “Master Nostradamus? Why did he look for me then?”

03 responded quickly, “The mage said that the construction for the Winter Fort is nearing its completion. He will be able to propagate and recruit new apprentices soon enough. Joshua, you’ll need to conduct a speech for the opening ceremony of the academy.”

Upon saying that, she gave a human-like shrug. “Here. You’re going to be a great, honorable dean of the academy.”

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