Ari stared at the screen in deep thought, his eyes focused on the failure tab.
The consequences for failure during the trials led to death, but for his first official request, it reflected as question marks.
He wasn’t naive enough to believe that failure had no consequence at all. It might not be his death, but he knew Reality Bender would find a way to punish him in some way or another
‘Then again, I might actually die in the process.’
Before he could even think about completing the request, he had to increase his stats, and if possible, his rank.
The problem was, he only had a week.
‘Would it be possible with Maya?’
As a freshman cadet, Ari had restricted access to the tower through the academy.
If he wanted to grind for levels on his own, he would have to enter the tower illegally, which had its own set of problems.
The alternative would be through a special permit, but those were hard to come by, especially for cadets.
A plan formulated in Ari’s mind.
‘Might as well kill two birds.’
Ari had a few ideas for spell and skill combinations he wanted to test right away.
“Maya.”
“Yes?”
“Would you mind sparring with me?”
Maya grinned. “You’re full of surprises, aren’t you.”
She rose from the couch and stretched with her arms above her head.
“Very well, I could use some light exercise after dinner.”
Marissa glanced at Ari in shock. “Are you insane?”
“Yes?”
“Darling, are you sure about this?” Lana asked.
Ari chuckled. “You guys are acting like I’m walking to the gallows or something.”
“I know, right?” Maya commented. “They’re making me look like some kind of monster.”
Ari, Marissa and Lana gave Maya the side eye at the same time.
Maya’s eyebrow twitched. “I don’t like that look you’re giving me.”
“What look?” Marissa said.
“You must be imagining things.” Lana muttered, avoiding her mother’s eyes.
Ari grinned. “I don’t know about them, but I wasn’t staring at your face.”
Lana and Marissa elbowed Ari’s arms.
Maya flashed a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“We’re all training tonight,” she said. “Go and get changed.”
The sisters shot Ari a glare before heading up the staircase in a hurry.
“You should change too.”
“Nah, we can go right now.”
“Okay then, follow me.”
Ari followed Maya through the house making a mental note of the layout to ensure he wouldn’t get lost later.
They reached a shiny white door he recognised from the brief tour he had before.
When Maya placed her hand on the door, a blue magic circle appeared and it slid to the right.
Ari peeked over Maya’s shoulder and couldn’t help but whistle.
He’d seen similar rooms in the comic, isolated training spaces designed to withstand multiple nuclear explosions, but none of them were as massive as this one.
‘It’s to be expected, but still...’
Maya headed in first and made her way to the centre of a pure white room that appeared to stretch for dozens of kilometres in either direction.
As Ari entered the room, Marissa and Lana rushed in behind him, dressed in overly stretched, skin-tight fitness attire that left most of their bodies exposed.
Marissa wore black and Lana, navy blue, with white and black trainers respectively.
Their glares did little to stop Ari from appreciating the magnificent view they'd just gifted him.
In contrast, Maya wore a short black skirt and white shirt, with black stockings and heels.
With three of her buttons undone to relieve some pressure from her overworked shirt, Ari thought she looked more suited for a very different kind of arena.
“Shall we begin?” Maya asked, opening her arms.
“Come, attack me all at once.”
Maya released a wave of Mana that made the enormous room feel cramped and the air, heavy.
“Y-you first, Darling,” Lana said, stepping behind him.
“You wanted to spar with my mother, right? So, go ahead.”
“...Yes. We’ll observe your fighting style first to prevent any miscommunication,” Marissa remarked.
Her words made sense, but Ari knew she was full of it.
He chuckled.
Transcender Origins was known as the pinnacle of Full Dive VR for a reason, with a God Tier rendering engine and ultra next-gen technology, it made experiences in the game feel nearly indistinguishable from Reality.
Ari experienced the oppressive pressure from powerful bosses, dragons and gods in-game, but feeling the real thing with his own body was something else entirely.
‘Her Mana is giving me Goosebumps.’
He immediately activated the Martial Enhancement skill Accelerate, followed by a new skill: Enhanced Recovery.
The skill boosts Mana and Stamina recovery for a short period of time.
Ari had no delusions; he knew he couldn’t defeat her with his current strength.
However.
“Maya, why don’t we make things interesting?”
Maya's ears perked up. “What do you have in mind?”
“If I manage to reach you, you have to make out with me.”
Ari received a jab on his lower back, and another on his left arm.
Maya grinned. “Alright, sounds fun.”
“M-Mom!”
Maya smirked. “Are you nervous that I’ll end up kissing Ari?”
The sisters shook their heads, one slower than the other.
“But, it’s not fair that I’m the only one risking something, isn’t it?”
Ari raised his brow. “I’m listening.”
Maya flashed a devilish grin.
“If you fail to reach me, the promise with my daughters becomes null and void.”
Ari felt a tug on the back of his T-shirt.
‘High risk, high reward...’
His excitement rose, causing a daring grin to flash across his face.
Ari took a step forward. “We have a deal.”
As his fighting spirit surged, Ari subconsciously released his Mana.
Maya grinned. “Come then, show me what you’ve got.”
Ari lifted his foot and used Blink.
He disappeared from their field of view in a haze.
“Huh?”
“Where did he go?”
Ari reappeared in a blind spot a few meters behind Maya, then used the spell Magic Missile.
Vhoom!
A pair of purple projectiles whizzed through the air towards Maya’s back.
Dun! Dun!
A block of ice materialised mid-air, intercepting the missiles before they even got close to her.
‘She’s fast as expected.’
Vhoom!
He launched two more missiles aimed for her legs.
Dun! Dun!
They were smoothly intercepted as well.
His opening moves were simply to confirm the speed of Maya’s defence, now he had to find a way to breach it.
<Blink>
Ari disappeared again.
Vhoom!
Dun! Dun!
Ari kept his distance, firing at new angles, even increasing the number of Magic Missiles to create an opening, but each one was intercepted effortlessly.
Maya did not move from her position once, nor did she move her head to track Ari’s movement.
She used something similar to a Mana zone, which alerted her to everything around her with pinpoint accuracy.
Ari moved faster than any F-Rank Lana and Marissa had ever seen. They couldn’t afford to lose focus or they would lose track of his movements.
Maya, however, showed no signs of effort at all.
She launched lances of ice at him to gauge his response.
Ari evaded each lance with fluid acrobatic movement, mixing dash combos with reflexive dodging to make it appear effortless.
“How will you handle this?” Maya asked.
She launched four lances at an accelerated pace.
Ari stared at the approaching lances and grinned.
Ari dodged the first lance at the last second to trigger Perfect Dodge, then used the time delay to jump into the air as the lance neared his chest.
He used the skill Boundless that allowed him to walk on the air, then performed a second jump into a somersault and landed on the base of the projectile.
Ari used the lance as a platform to mask Boundless, then executed a dash to propel himself forward.
His figure blurred across the air as he chained dashes like it was second nature to use projectiles as platforms.
As he leaped from one lance to another, he charged a Magic Missile to increase its size and power.
Following three swift transitions, he leaped off the fourth lance to launch the charged missile with added inertia.
Whoosh!
Boom! Bang!
With the momentum from the triple dash and full charge activation, the missile tore through one of Maya’s ice defences instantly.
Dun!
By the time it reached the second block, the missile ran out of momentum, becoming stuck before dissipating.
Focused on the missile strike, Ari failed to notice a fifth Ice Lance circling in from his left.
With nothing below to help him dodge, Ari appeared helpless.
Witnessing Ari’s combat prowess, Lana and Marissa’s jaws slackened, and their pulses raced.
From the onset of his assault, they clenched their fists without realising.
They understood their mother’s strength better than anyone, so they did not believe he would reach her. However, the way Ari fought, and his presence in battle, they couldn’t help but subconsciously root for him.
Seeing him falling helplessly after a thrilling and valiant attempt at reaching their mother, even though they knew it would be pointless in his current position, the sisters couldn’t stop themselves from calling out to him.
“Darling, on your left!”