Way of the Knights

Chapter 251 - Breakthrough

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Enveloped in a tight cocoon made of energies. Raven's consciousness floated in an empty space of nothingness.

Contrary to where his consciousness was, the situation of his body was extremely active. Countless changes were happening each passing moment, his body was being reconstructed to a minute detail, and this changes had been happening for at least eight hours now.

Unlike he first time, Raven didn't feel any sort of pain in this breakthrough anymore, he just felt like it was a natural reaction. In fact, this breakthrough is comfortable. Not like he could tell when his consciousness is at an empty space.

Just like before, his body was broken down into a cellular because of how much energy he took in. The remains of his old body was used a nutrients for the newly incubated body of his and will bring an extreme familiarity to him. 

The only thing that remained of Raven was a shining brownish core that rotated on it's own inside the cocoon, and his soul that is being held down by core to prevent it from dissipating in the wind. 

As time went on, Raven's body was being constructed bit by bit. Each fiber of his body were baptized with tremendous amounts of energy, causing them to pulsate with vigor and activity. 

The first transformation made him experience a tremendous change in his outer body, the second transformation enhanced his muscles and organs. This third transformation is focused on his bones and marrows. 

As his bones started condensing, it looked like an immaculate set of bones. It shone with a resplendent brilliance and pulsed with strength. Anyone who sees this might even say that this aren't bones but white jades sculpted into a skeleton. 

As his marrows started producing blood, they were baptized by the abundant energies as well. His blood was vibrant and viscous, each drop was filled with life and energy. The vitality contained by his blood is a solid proof on how strong Raven's longevity was. At this point, it would take a century before Raven shows any visible signs of aging. Living up to 3,000 years is the maximum of Raven's longevity. That's if, he stopped cultivating at this stage, but that very unlikely to happen.

Cultivators who found success on this path tends to live a little longer than mortals. The reason why they seem to age is because their bodies weren't trained to a degree where it could last under the test of time. 

Now that the eight hours passed like a blur, Raven's body was nearly ready to emerge out of the cocoon. 

Inside of the cocoon, Raven was curled up like an infant. His eyes were closed, like he was trapped in a peaceful dream. Suddenly, his heart started pulsing and his blood started circulating inside his body. 

Raven's eyes snapped wide open and with a slight movement, the cocoon he was in exploded into shards that dissipated into the air. 

His naked body floated in the air. His eyes were emitting an intense white light that seemed like torches under the dark skies. The muscles on his body tightly clung on his bones, resulting in a very compact build for Raven. His shoulders broaden for quite a bit and his hair that previously had blue tips were now fully covered in that oceanic color as it flowed with the wind like a graceful stream of water. 

When the resplendence of his eyes were gone, Raven's consciousness returned to reality as his body slightly hovered down. As his feet touched the ground, he waved his hand and clothes came out of his spatial ring which he placed nearby. 

He wore the usual all black attire that really enhanced his look even further. Raven was somewhat dazed for a while, causing him to stare at an empty space for quite sometime. 

After a moment of feeling lost. Raven released a sigh and gently closed his eyes. His face expressed a concentrating look as a silhouette of an armor suddenly appeared and enclosed his body. 

There is no helmet, and the rest of the armor looked like a bunch of metal plates that has a smooth surfaces and was bonded together by an amateur smith. 

The shoulder guards were curved and took a shape of a folded rectangle that is placed on his shoulders of course. He had a pair of arm guards that starts from his elbows and ended on his wrist. A plain chest plate, leg armor with knee pads, and boots.

Raven looked at himself wearing the armor and smiled wryly. The armor was certainly unimpressive, it didn't look like it could even withstand a punch from him but this was fine for now. At least he still condensed a Knightly Armament even though he's practically not an Energy Path Cultivator anymore.

Having this armor would at least help in keeping the existence of the Book of Chaos as a secret. If he hadn't been able to condense a Knightly Armament, Raven would definitely have headaches explaining himself in the future. 

Nevertheless, Raven has become an official Knight of Kingdom at this point. While he may not care about the title since he had been defeating Knights for quite some time, still it's something to celebrate. 

As for the matters of his Knightly Armament, that will eventually be fixed. He just needed time. After all, how the armament appears followed the innate disposition of an individual. So as long as he fed it with his energy, his Knightly Armament would slowly transform and materialize. 

The Knight Stage is divided into four categories: Knight, Bronze Knight, Silver Knight and Golden Knights. Regular Knights' armaments would look like they're made out of steel once they fully materialized. As for the rest of the stage, it's represented by the name. 

What comes after this stage is Heroic Realm, Champion Realm and Ascendant Realm. 

Heroic Realm is a stage where one will condense their Heroic Souls, formed by their Will and Virtue. The Champion Realm is where their Domain starts condensing and the Ascendant Realm is the absolute pinnacle of the Mortal Realms. 

Reaching those stages would take time so Raven decided to not think about them just yet. For now, he's just satisfied that he reached this stage at the tender age of 16 and a half, this on top of the fact that he wasn't actively cultivating to raise his cultivation realm. 

Raven stared at the Sun which was about to peak at any moment right now and felt a deep sense of elation. His hard work was certainly paying off. If things continued going down this way, then he won't be afraid to act on his future plans. 

He smiled and went towards the Training Room that he built. 

Upon going inside, Raven briefly examined his body and found that it was everything that he wanted. His physique wasn't overly broad but not too petite either. This body could explode with an overwhelming force in a snap of a finger but could also exude the gentlest touch if needed be. 

He then went inside his Core and observed the Seals as Inos described them. Comparing the size of the gaps as he saw before, there is a visible difference. At least he could now access more from this enormous reserves which means that he will last longer in battle. He withdrew his consciousness and stood up.

He then took out a brush and started applying his Chaos Force on it. Raven's hands delicately swayed, which caused Inscriptions to condense and land on his body. Lines upon lines of golden insignia wrapped his body. At his chest, he drew what looks like the most important part of the inscriptions. Once he's done, he closed his eyes and channeled his Chaos Force on the Inscription on his chest.

Raven suddenly felt restricted. It was like something was holding his body back, preventing him from moving seamlessly. He gently nodded and supplied more Chaos Force on the Inscription, causing the restriction to raise. When it reached a level that even moving his fingers was a labor, Raven stopped and remained in place.

What he placed on himself is a Movement Restriction Seal. It does what the name suggest. In fact, this seal could even make breathing harder for Raven. 

He placed this seal onto himself due to Inos' advice to keep on training his body. At some point, Raven stopped using his Gravity Suit since he no longer felt any benefits from doing it. He could even admit that he slacked away on training his body since he felt that his usual grind was already enough. But now, he found another reason to continue his Body Conditioning and Training, of course he will develop a new regimen.

With this seal, each of Raven's actions will take more energy and effort to perform. And he planned to never take this off unless the situation called for it. This will make his physique even stronger and his explosive force even greater. It would even have an effect on his raw speed and raw strength.

But since Raven couldn't even breathe properly right now.. It would be wise to adjust from this state for now.