Way of the Knights

Chapter 491 - Skills Acquired

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Raven's enlightenment lasted for two whole days before it ended. 

Even though Raven was a bit reluctant about that, there's nothing he could do about it. He needed to properly digest everything that he learned from the experience and apply it naturally until it becomes second nature to him. Even though gaining more knowledge about Spacetime Laws is useful, practice is something necessary as well in order to balance out the effects. 

Raven could always set up the necessary conditions to enter the state of enlightenment anyway. Although there are still chances of failure, with every supplement he has, the rate of failure is low. He could always try but its not necessarily better to just sit down in meditation. 

With that in mind, the foundations for his Spacetime Laws are now set. After taking a brief rest, he tried out everything that he could manage to do with the Spacetime Laws so far. 

The first trick that he learned is Historical Reading - at least that's what he called it. This skill allows him to read the history of any object that he touches. The sensation was akin to a memory, taking the point of view the object in question. So far, his expertise in Spacetime Laws allows him to view an objects memories three days prior and further from present time. He still needed practice on using this skill since the visions he gets from the objects still sometimes appear blurry. 

The second trick he learned is the sensing the Spacetime Void and opening it. Right, this skill is a bit tricky for him. Unlike the first trick, which came to him somewhat naturally, this second skill needs a lot of work. From what he could tell, sensing the Spacetime Void is the easiest part since it would appear to be omnipresent. What's difficult, is to make an opening on it. It takes a lot of concentration to do so and one misstep might prove disastrous so Raven couldn't help but be careful. 

He had to remind himself that he's no longer just playing with Space nor Time, he now has a direct connection to the other plane of realities, and if he's not careful, there's a large possibility for him to tip the natural balance, causing everything to go chaotic. If that won't kill him, then the Heavenly Laws of the Divine Realm would do so. So he had to be extremely careful. 

So far, he could make an opening which is a big as his fist. It's possible for him to throw in some object inside but so far, everything he tried sending through the opening will disintegrate the moment it enters. Raven would be lying if he said that the scene where everything he threw in disintegrated to non-existence didn't send some shivers down his spine. Of course it did! So much to the point that he's actually doubting if he could truly traverse this void just fine. 

Well, he just have to find that out once he's skillful enough to make a stable entry where he could fit. 

On another note though, Raven discovered some limitations to Spacetime Laws. 

Through his enlightenment he found out that so far, he could only interact with his past and future self through whispers. Although it was possible for him to travel back to his past, he would not be able to physically appear in that time, he could only send a message, akin to a transmission, to himself and himself only. Aside from that, he's as good as an observer. 

At first he thought that this is somewhat unfortunate but once he sat down and thought about it, he figured that it made sense. Spacetime Laws, although rare and extremely powerful, has its own set of certain rules and bottom line to follow. By itself, it's already considered as cheating so it's understandable for it to have its limitations. 

And it's not like he couldn't do that in the future. He's unsure when but a time will eventually come where he will be able to master his grasp over these laws and allow him to do as he pleases. 

Going back to the skills he learned, the final skill he managed to develop is Heroic Influence for Spacetime Laws. The territory he managed to built is extremely small. It wouldn't even go past a meter from where he stood, so much for a 'territory' really but its uses are far more useful even compared to his Destruction Territory. 

Raven's Spacetime Territory allows him to be practically immortal. If he's faced with a life-threatening situation, he could activate this and possibly survive in dangerous situation he's in. 

Upon activation, the Spacetime Laws will harness Raven's existence in the three plane of realities. Should he die in the 'Present', he would be sent in the 'Past' which is three days before the present time. If for some reason, the 'Past' proves to be rather dangerous for Raven, then he will be sent into the 'Future' instead, which is three days in advance from the present time. 

To make things more simple. If somebody or something wants to kill Raven, then they need to kill him in the Past, Present and Future at the same time. If they can't do that, then there's a huge chance that Raven would ultimately survive and get revenge or avoid collision as early as possible. 

The reason why the size of the territory was this small is because it's only meant for Raven. Even if he's hugging someone during that moment, only his consciousness will be sent in order to warn his past or future. In a sense, this is practically immortality for him since that current parameters are only limited by his current understanding and practice with Spacetime Laws. Once his expertise were raised - which is almost certainly going to happen, he wouldn't be limited to just three days. 

Frankly, the potential of this skills he learned somehow freaks Raven out, and this is coming from a man who experienced Soul Rebirth. How could he not be? If he's being honest, the plethora of things he could do with just these three skills are already plenty. Just imagine what he could do once he gets to the second concept, the third, so on and so forth. Imagine what would it be like if Raven earned complete mastery over Spacetime Laws. 

Forget about the Abyssals, even the Heavenly Laws might not be able to kill him anymore. 

Just thought alone really freaks him out. Either way, what's bound to happen will eventually happen. No need for him to be distracted about things that won't happen in the near future. 

What's more important is that, he hasn't even spent an entire month here. There's still more than five months remaining for him to do the other things he had in mind. 

With that, Raven spent the last week of his first month stabilizing his realm and his Spacetime Laws, he polished the skills he just learned to the best of his abilities. Once he's done with that, it was now the time for him to do apply some seals in order to prevent anyone from finding out that he cultivates Spacetime Laws. 

Raven still hasn't forget Geezer's warning, and he certainly knows that he's not yet strong enough to resist the enemies of his master so he needed to be careful. In order to keep himself safe, he wanted to keep the matter of him cultivating Spacetime Laws as a secret since it's his trump card. 

In order to do that, he had to seal all fluctuations that it produces to the best of his abilities. Thankfully, he learned some new seals from plethora of seals he received from all different sources. It's only the matter of combining them and applying it to himself that might pose some difficulties. 

With how much time passed since he got the [99 Destruction Seals] and [99 Holy Seals], his avatars managed to decipher four seals from the former and two on the latter. 

As for the technique he received from Erica as well as the rosary he received from the elder of the sect, he hadn't touched those so far. He's planning to once he gets more Avatars. 

Anyway, the additional seals he learned were already enough for the job. Using the 3rd Destruction Seal in addition to the 1st Holy seal along with other regular seals as supplements, he's able to craft a unique seal that suppresses all traces of his Spacetime Laws. 

He called this seal 'Fate Concealing Seal' since it conceals the traces of his ultimate trump card for survival. The seal looked like a four-leaved clover which is imprinted on the back of his hand. 

With this seal, so long as Raven won't go nuts with his release of Spacetime Laws, the seal would be able to suppress and erase all of its traces. Now, he shouldn't need to worry about using his Spacetime Laws in front of people. So long as they don't sense it, he could always bluff his way out of it.. This way, his trump card will remain hidden and he could buy more time for himself in order to get stronger.