Way of the Knights

Chapter 315 - Stagnation Zone

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Inside a spacious room, Raven could be found blindfolded. 

*Whoosh* *Whoosh*

His body swayed like a leaf as he dodged several projectiles coming his way. Of course, he wasn't able to dodge every single one but at least he was able to do so for the more dangerous ones. 

There are at least twenty mounted automatic crossbows hiding behind the walls of this room, all of them had incredibly sharp arrows which could easily penetrate and energy defenses. Half of those crossbows had poison tipped arrows. 

There is a mechanism behind the walls that constantly shifts the position of the crossbows, there were no sound being emitted nor any visible traces of it doing so and they fire at different intervals which makes it more dangerous. The only way that Raven was able to tell was due to his improved awareness. 

If this was before he injected the blood, Raven would've had to at least activate his ocular technique and monitor where the crossbows will shoot and which ones are dangerous. He would still be able to dodge most of them but it would be incredibly taxing. Plus, he might not be able to accurately time every single shots, which will obviously cause him to get hurt. 

But because of his improved awareness, observing the movements behind the walls was relatively easy for him and this is even without him activating his ocular technique. 

Raven had already adjusted to his new sense during two weeks of practicing inside this room. He's at the stage where he's reacting instinctively to the projectiles. 

His Spatial Awareness allows him to observe the movements around him even without looking and know where the arrows will come from. Time Awareness allowed him to know when the crossbows will shoot at the slightest hints, even before the firing sound occur and it also help him know when he's going to get hit. 

The combination of these two allowed him to become extremely efficient in his movements and refine his finesse and agility. He had been getting rid of the unnecessary movements on his footwork which will lessen the rise of his fatigue in future battles. 

"Deactivate." Raven said out of nowhere. 

After saying that, the movements inside the room stopped and the crossbows also stopped firing. The arrows which are scattered on the floor, suddenly floated and went back to their designated storage. Raven sat down and caught his breath for a bit. After doing that, he stood up and gave out a voice command once more. 

"Stagnation Zone, level 3 activate." 

As soon as he said that, the room changed and shifted to accommodate his command. The silver ceiling flipped and revealed a rocky surface. The walls shifted and was replaced by panels which is filled by Elven runes. A strange sound occurred and after that, he heard three pitching tunes and the room suddenly darkened.

At the instant that it turned dark, Raven felt his movements turning slower. It wasn't just his movements either, he could also feel that his thoughts were becoming stagnant as well. This isn't because of gravity, this is because the time around him was stagnated and he was being forced to either allow himself to be affected or resist it.

Raven didn't move from his position, there was no point on doing so anyway. Instead, he opted to stand in place, close his eyes and raise his senses to the maximum. 

If the profound impression that he got from time is that, it was like being caressed by the gentlest wind which erodes everything it passes through. The impression he got from the Stagnation Zone was in a similar sense to that only, it feels like he was going against a sandstorm. 

Just like the name implied, the Stagnation Zone causes one to slow down their movements and their thoughts at some point. The reason why Tenrou built something like this, is of course to train one of the techniques he developed - the Time Skin.

Just like the name implies, Time Skin is covering one's self with a thin layer of protection against time. In this scenario, it's like fighting fire with fire. With Time Skin, not only he will no longer have to worry about stagnation, it would also be similar to wearing stagnation itself. Any attacks that hits the time skin will be subjected to the stagnation, which means that it would take longer for the attack to actually make contact with the human skin. 

Normally in order to successfully activate the Time Zone, one needs to be enlightened with Time Laws. But Tenrou found a way for someone to learn it without needing to be enlightened. 

Of course the basic requirements is to be able to sense the essence of time. After that, one has to be constantly be exposed to an area where time is stagnant. The longer one stayed in that place, one's body will gradually get used to it until they won't be affected by stagnation anymore. 

The Stagnation Zone perfectly mimics that. Now, all Raven has to do is to adapt and he will develop the technique eventually. 

True to his uncompromising attitude, of course Raven wasn't just satisfied with this. 

After he got used to the feeling of the level three stagnation, he opened his eyes and summoned his hammer. He didn't mind that the summoning was also slowed down.

When Raven got a hold of his hammer, he immediately started performing swings to practice. He believed that by doing this, he is effectively cutting down the time needed for him to get used to the stagnation. According to his estimations, he has to get used to level 10 before he could actually condense a Time Skin. 

Time Skin is just one of the techniques that Tenrou was able to replicate. There's also things like Spatial Folding, Accelerate, Substitution, Rewind, and etc. 

As for the Laws of Time and Space insights of Tenrou, Raven followed his advice and chose to nor read it. He also believed that would be wiser to forge his own path rather than following someone. 

If he ever experienced enlightenment for both of these, then he would consider reading it. 

But someone were to ask him, Raven couldn't confidently say that he wanted to learn Time and Space Laws at all. 

This is due to the fact that he already have his Destruction Laws with him. Unfolding more about its mysteries is already a difficult thing to do even with Raven's capabilities. Adding not only Time but also Space into the mix might be a little too much for him to handle. 

It had to be known that in his previous life, it took millennia of constant combat and mediations to master Earth Laws, and that is one of the simpler Laws to gain enlightenment from. He don't even know if he knew any people who gained enlightenment from Destructions Laws.

Well, Astrid is one. But her era had already passed. And while she said that she will give him tips when he needed it, she didn't say anything so far and there's nothing he could do about that.

What more if he added Time and Space to all of that then? Wouldn't that be considered as biting more than he could chew? 

Also, Time and Space has a certain synergy towards each other. They might be vastly different from each other but they could work together. Which made Law Fusion of Time and Space doable. That being said, where does Destruction comes in? Isn't it too out of place? 

Thinking about this didn't help Raven at all. And since he doesn't know what to do just yet, might as well safe that for later.

On a different note. Even though Raven is busy training here, he is in fact, still travelling all thanks to Tenrou's Spatial Abode.

It's original name was Torrential Quicksilver Chariot. According to Tenrou's records, there used to he four Quicksilver Horses that used to pull whole thing. However, Tenrou decided to free them just before he prepared for his closed-door cultivation. 

Needless to say, it could still move on it's own. The Spatial Abode travelled in a obscured and folded space, making it almost untraceable to anyone. The reason why Raven was so confident about going through the depths of the Red Zone is because he knew that he's going to receive this abode. With this, not only did he travelled in a constant pace, he could also pick his battles.

Training and fighting, if could somehow find balance within these two, then he would come back to the kingdom as a different man. 

It also rather fortunate that he got this moving abode. This is due to the fact that his next destination he's challenging will prove be at least ten times, if not higher, in difficulty compared to the Withered Forest of the West. 

It is a place with a very deceiving surface yet incredibly horrifying depths. If Raven's not careful here, he would truly die since as of right now, he's completely outclassed by monsters waiting for him in there. 

His next destination is, The Sunken Ivory Castle of South.