Transcending Dreams
B2 - Chapter 88

He looked away to check his stats, mainly his Spiritual Energy.

Spiritual Energy: 1037/1130 (20% per Hour)

Only a little over twenty minutes to recover all of it.

“Let’s set off in about half an hour,” William announced.

“Unless you know how to make the Greeter work faster, nobody is going anywhere for hours, let alone half,” Shitou corrected.

“Why would this Greeter be needed?” Kae asked the question on William’s mind.

“Another security thing. How should—”

He tuned out Shitou and started to make plans immediately. Kae might be unhappy about the delay, but this was perfect for him.

The Elemental Gauntlet cost him six hundred Spiritual Energy for each use. Recovering that spent energy would take over two hours, so this was a perfect time to test it out.

“Shitou, is this place safe?” William interrupted the baby spirit’s ranting.

“It used to be. Then that monster came here and destroyed everything.”

“… I’m sure that won’t happen again,” he replied with an awkward chuckle before handing the rock to Kae. “I’m going to test my spirit artifact while we wait. Let me know if you need me.”

Kae glanced at the gold, glove-like gauntlet on his right hand and nodded. “Go ahead.”

“Hey! Did I say you could hand me off like some common object? Don’t let my appearance—”

William tuned out Shitou again and retreated to a distance. He didn’t know how the gauntlet activated, but its cost implied that it might be violent.

He flexed his right hand and sent most of his Qi to the Elemental Gauntlet, fully expecting it to drain most of it. That didn’t happen.

Instead of a system alert letting him know that six hundred Spiritual Energy was deducted, his right hand lit up with a fierce glow of concentrated Qi.

William stared at his hand before releasing the Qi, cutting off the glow on his hand. He hadn’t used a spirit artifact since the Impact Boots in the Shard, which had been destroyed. Maybe he was just out of practice.

He tried again, this time with more care. He closed his eyes and gathered his Qi before guiding it to his right hand. He could feel the Qi eager to spread out, so he waited a few seconds for it to settle and then pushed.

William directed his Qi to enter the Elemental Gauntlet as he observed the process carefully. Just like before, it wasn’t successful.

The gauntlet seemed to actually reject his Qi. He sensed it fail to enter the spirit artifact before returning to his body.

He opened his eyes and frowned in thought. He remembered the Impact Boot eager to absorb the Qi it was provided, so he wasn’t sure why the gauntlet was different.

It wasn’t an issue with a deficiency of Spiritual Energy since he had more than enough available, and the system didn’t warn him about not meeting the requirements to activate it.

William shifted through his memories to replay what Mei Lingxi said about the Elemental Gauntlet when she introduced it to him. There must be something obvious he was missing.

“For those that can bear the cost, it is a lethal tool that could act as the decider in battle. It amplifies any element of the wearer and directs it into the target.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

He shook his head to rid himself of the drowsiness. Doing that was mentally and physically taxing, to the point where it was similar to an hour of intense fighting.

Still, it was worth it.

William had completely forgotten the latter sentence. The gauntlet doesn’t convert Qi into elemental Qi as he had assumed. It only amplified it.

… That made it far less desirable in his eyes.

He had been walking around with a glorified glove the entire time, thinking it could possibly save him if he had backed himself into a corner. He shuddered at the likely fatal surprise that he would have before an embarrassing death.

William sighed as he sat cross-legged on the ground. It looked like he would be spending the few hours of delay trying to convert his Qi into Lightning Qi.

He remember a saying that was popular on Earth.

Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.

William decided not to be insane and to try something different. Instead of jumping right into attempting to convert his Qi, he would do something he scoffed at before.

Meditate on lightning, specifically, how Lan Yang’s Lightning Qi felt when it was rampaging in his body.

He had to shove aside his skepticism of this working, which took more than a few minutes, before he immersed himself in his memories.

Unpredictable. Destructive. Powerful.

Those words stood out as he let the memory of the rampaging Lightning Qi permeate his consciousness. It shifted from calm to destructive in an instant, attempting to tear at anything in its path.

William saw some information he missed. Yes, Lightning Qi required him to compress his Qi to ridiculous levels, but it also needed organized chaos.

It was hard to explain, even to himself, but William had an idea of what to change. Admittedly, it was a minor change compared to what he had been trying before, but enough where it should have a hopefully satisfactory result.

He slumped in exhaustion when he pulled himself out of the meditative state. He didn’t have quantified stamina, but he knew he was closer to empty than full. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ N0vᴇlFire(.)nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

William took a few seconds to gather himself before getting back to work. This time, he turned his senses inward instead of meditating.

He repeated the steps he had had success with last time, gathering all his Qi and compressing until it changed to a state that vaguely reminded him of plasma. He then carefully withdrew the firm command he had over it that kept it compressed.

William started at the center, carefully letting go of his control while keeping a firm barrier that slowly expanded. Outside the barrier, his command kept his Qi in order. Inside, it was free to act as it wished.

At first, it didn’t seem like it did much of anything. But the pace at which he was expanding the barrier was excruciatingly slow.

When the barrier surrounded around one percent of his Qi, it happened faster than he could react.

Lightning Qi burst into life, fighting to destroy the barrier and escape. Someone, William was able to keep his composure and continue methodically expanding the barrier.

Sweat dripped down his face as the barrier kept getting bigger and bigger, reaching the point where nearly fifty percent of his Qi had been transformed into Lightning Qi. He couldn't maintain the barrier any longer.

The Lightning Qi shattered the barrier and seeped into his body, making him twitch erratically at the repeated shocks he could feel. He was terrified that his health was taking a beating but was powerless to do anything about it.

It took nearly a minute for it to end before William’s body went back to normal. He gave his QI a quick check, noticing a qualitative chance that suggested that converting it to Lighting Qi would now only take a simple command before opening his eyes.

[Side Quest Completed | Access Lightning Qi]

[+10000 XP]

[Hidden Bonus | Convert 5% of your Qi into Lightning Qi]

[+2500 XP]

[Hidden Bonus | Convert 10% of your Qi into Lightning Qi]

[+5000 XP]

[Hidden Bonus | Convert 25% of your Qi into Lightning Qi]

[+10000 XP]

[Hidden Bonus | Convert 50% of your Qi into Lightning Qi]

[+20000 XP]

[Level Up! | 10 Stat Points Added] x4

[Modified | Martial Skill Compatibility]

[Heavenly Thunder Infusion | 0% —> 27%]

[Trait Added | Heavenly Thunder Infusion Passive effect (+20 Agility)]

William smiled happily as he read the alerts. It had been a while since he had received a hidden bonus from completing a quest. On top of that, he had his very first positive trait and increased compatibility with the human-tier martial skill of [Heavenly Thunder Scripture].

With Lightning Qi and Thunder Qi being the requirement for [Heavenly Thunder Infusion], the increased compatibility made it clear how to get the full hundred percent.

It would reach fifty percent when he had the ability to change all of his Qi into Lightning Qi. He would need to do the same with Thunder Qi to get that hundred percent.

“Wei Liang, Shitou says he’s ready,” Kae called out.

William looked away from the system screen and stood up. He felt much more confident, even though he hadn’t had a chance to test the Elemental Gauntlet.

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