The Almighty Ring

Jiang Fei had been staying in the training room for more than two months when Domingo entered the room and approached him.

“Sir Ottogackt is here for you,” said Domingo. His tone was not as friendly as before. He was only like this because of the mess from before. After two days of consolidating his remaining troops and resources, he had yet to find time to rest. If Jiang Fei were just like any other trainee, he would have long been chased off the planet.

Even though Domingo would like to have Jiang Fei stick longer with him, he did promise to house Jiang Fei for the duration of three missions only. When time was up, as promised, Ottogackt had returned to retrieve his trainee. Honestly, Domingo was relieved that Jiang Fei was leaving. The longer he stayed, the higher the cost he would be raking up by using the training room.

Jiang Fei quickly jumped to his feet and bowed respectfully.

“Thank you for everything you’ve done for me,” he said.

Jiang Fei actually wanted to stay longer in the room. With extended time, he could buy 0541 more time to research the Blackhole Core and find a way to use it. Once done, he could use that to recharge the Core of Will and restore his domain ability. Without it, he would be a hazard to himself in the Valsalrian Army.

Sadly, for all that’s good in the world, his time in the training room must come to an end. Ottogackt had arrived and he had to leave with him.

“Greetings, sir Ottogackt. It has been a while,” said Jiang Fei with a salute.

“Indeed! I see you have made good progress!” said Ottogackt proudly. He was satisfied with Jiang Fei’s growth. Before the first mission started, Jiang Fei had been a weakling at only 65,000 combat level. Now, he had managed to double his strength to 120,000 combat level at an impressive speed. However, Ottogackt had failed to realize that Jiang Fei was unable to use Omnisurge. He might be stronger now but until he could restore the Core of Will, he would be stuck at 120,000 for some time.

“Thank you, Domingo. I will return this favor!” Ottogackt patted Domingo’s shoulder and said.

“It is only what I can do,” said Domingo, smilingly weakly.

The departure of Ottogackt’s ship marked the temporary end of Jiang Fei and Domingo’s relationship. To be honest, Domingo had little to no trust in the Terran when he had first arrived. However, after three missions and having lost almost all of his soldiers, Domingo was glad they had met. In the end, Jiang Fei was a strong Terran with a remarkable talent for combat. He could only hope that Jiang Fei would remember him as someone who helped him when he became a figure of authority in the future.

Back on Redstone, after leaving the port and hangar bay, Jiang Fei turned to Ottogackt and asked, “What training will you give me now, sir?”

“…” Ottogackt kept quiet for a bit as they walked back to the training academy. At the doorstep, Ottogackt suddenly turn to Jiang Fei with a stern look and said, “The graduation ceremony is in five days’ time. You will be joining as one of the graduate candidates.”

“C…candidate? G…graduation ceremony?” Jiang Fei stuttered as he spoke. It had only been more than a month since he had joined the academy and he was already asked to join the graduating candidates!

“You heard me right. Remember, you are my trainee and I only train those who are worthy of graduation!” said Ottogackt.

Jiang Fei knew about that but he had assumed that he was only going to receive the same type of training as the senior trainees, not join them at their graduation ceremony!

“You have five days to train and I will grant you the training room. If there’s anything you require, you need only ask. I want you to perform at your best during the ceremony,” said Ottogackt plainly. He was confident in Jiang Fei’s strength and believed that with the support of his unknown power boosting ability, he would be able to survive the ceremonial trial with ease. After all, he had seen Jiang Fei break past the one million combat level threshold once before.

That being said, Jiang Fei was currently stuck at only 120,000 combat level. At that level of power, he was not even the best amongst the beginner’s training class!

“If I may, sir, I need the training room to be set at 30 times chrono acceleration! I’ll leave the rest to you, sir!” Jiang Fei gave his request immediately. The graduation ceremony required the trainee to complete a series of trials that was famous for its lethality. The death rate was always above 20% and if Jiang Fei were to fall behind in terms of strength, he would surely be part of that statistic.

The only hope left for him was 0541’s completion of the test for the Blackhole Core. In five days, or five months, in the training room, he hoped that it was enough time for 0541 to finish his experiments as well as for him to recharge the Core of Will.

“Anything you need…” said Ottogackt without flinching. He had experience in training and to provide a last minute request for his trainees was only common. He had cultivated many champions and now, it was time for Jiang Fei to shine.

To help Jiang Fei, Ottogackt would fulfill any of his requests as long as they helped with his training.

In the training room, Jiang Fei made sure to use every precious second to train his sword skills, and rest when he needed to. For three months, which were three days in the real world, Jiang Fei continued training without disturbing 0541.

“There are only two months left… How is 0541 doing…” Jiang Fei thought to himself. To make sure everything went smoothly with 0541, he dared not disturb 0541 for fear of disrupting his experiments.

Days, weeks, and months passed quickly as ever. When it was one month until the day of graduation, 0541 returned with news.

“Captain! I did it! I’ve found out what it is for!”

“Bravo! Do tell!”

“I have ran billions of tests and millions of experiments, and found only two effective uses of the Blackhole Core.”

“Only two?!” Jiang Fei barked.

“Yes. It can be used as an energy generator. I can create a machine to extract its energy.”

0541’s first suggestion was the perpetual energy generator. It was the safest, zero-risk method to obtain energy.

“What about the second one?” Jiang Fei probed further.

“The second one is dangerous, but with high risk comes high reward!”

The second method was to fuse the Blackhole Core, like the Core of Will, into a living being.

“So, I’ll be fusing with another core?” Jiang Fei asked.

“Technically speaking, it would be the same as creating a second source of Qi pool for a martial artist,” 0541 explained.

“What of the risk?”

“One must be in full control at all times. If one were to lost control of the power output, there will be a risk of a runaway chain reaction that will be fatal for the user.”

“What sort of reaction are we talking about?”

“There are two kinds of hazard. The first is a rapid external energy expulsion. The user fused with the Blackhole Core will turn into a whitehole and release a huge amount of energy rapidly before evaporating altogether. The second hazard is a rapid gravitational generation that will destroy the user as well as anything close to it.”

After a long pause, Jiang Fei sighed heavily and said, “So you’re saying that once a user loses control, they will die, be it via an explosion or implosion?”

“That is correct.”