When William opened his eyes, he found himself staring at a sea of stars. He blinked once then twice as the gears inside his mind started to turn.
'I was in Master's room...,' William thought as he tried to remember the sequence of events that happened before he lost consciousness. 'Master made me lie on the bed then she asked me to close my eyes. After that I felt something soft touch my lips and then… I found myself here.'
The young boy's thoughts didn't continue past that point because a familiar voice whispered in his ears.
"Glad to see you are finally awake," Celine whispered. "Although, it doesn't bother me much, can you put on some clothes first?"
"Huh?" William turned his head to look at his beautiful master.
Celine was wearing a skin-tight body suit that seemed to resemble Cat Woman's costume. The corner of Celine's lips was curled up into a teasing smile as she looked at William's lower half.
"How cute," Celine teased.
William lowered his head to look at what Celine was staring at. His body immediately curled up like a shrimp as he used his hands to cover the proud and mighty Little William who was standing up in its full glory.
"Calm down," Celine chuckled as she looked at the embarrassed boy in front of her. "We are inside your Sea of Consciousness. Just imagine yourself wearing clothes and the problem will be solved."
The boy immediately did as he was told and clothes did appear on his body. William sighed in relief as he felt the familiar shepherd's clothes that he had been wearing for a long time.
"Master, you said we are inside my Sea of Consciousness. How come you are here?" William inquired. This was not the first time he entered his own Sea of Consciousness because this place was where the Divinities hid themselves inside his body.
He was just surprised that Celine was here as well.
"Good question." Celine nodded her head. "The answer to your question, my dear disciple, is that I snuck inside your Sea of Consciousness. The reason? The reason is because this will be the special venue for the next phase of your training."
'System, can you hear me?' William whispered in his mind.
< Yes. >
'Will there be a problem if we train inside my Sea of Consciousness?'
< If the host's soul receives sufficient damage then this place might collapse, and you will not be able to wake up ever again. In the outside world, you will be in a coma for the rest of your life. >
William sucked in cold breath as he realized the grave danger he was in. Celine said that this would be the venue of their training. This meant that one mistake and he would become a vegetable for life.
The young boy lightly coughed as he looked at his Master with pleading eyes. "Master, can we switch locations? This place is not a suitable training area."
"No." Celine shook his head. "This is the perfect place for our training. We will be killing two birds with one stone if we do our training here."
"Master, do you know that I might die if we train here?"
"Yes. That's precisely why we're training here, my cute disciple."
William's face darkened when he realized that Celine was fully aware of the dangers that accompanied training inside his Sea of Consciousness.
What William didn't know was that even though the System said that he would go into a coma if his soul received sufficient damage inside this place, it was not as bad as he thought it would be. Only when his soul disintegrated into a million pieces will the "sufficient damage" clause apply.
Meaning, even if he was sliced into a hundred, even thousands of pieces, the injury to his soul would be very minimal.
Even Truck-kun, the number one perpetrator in sending people to the isekai worlds, could only temporarily damage William's soul after he crashed on him. Simply put, it would take an extremely powerful attack to damage a soul beyond repair.
"Don't worry. At most you will be unable to move your body for a few days," Celine assured him. "However, this training will be very beneficial to you."
"How can this training be beneficial to me, Master?" William inquired. "Can't we just do regular training?"
Celine sighed as she tucked her long, silky, purple hair behind her Elven ears. "Your grandfather told me that the reason behind why you want to get stronger is because you wanted to go to the Silvermoon Continent. You wanted to meet your mother, and find a way to save your father, correct?"
"Yes," William answered.
"Do you have a plan in mind on how to accomplish your goal?"
"Train until I become as strong as my father before I go and meet my mother."
"And how many years will that take?" Celine placed her hands behind her back as she waited for William's answer.
"Twenty years?"
"You're quite an optimist aren't you. What makes you think that the Elven Council will give you twenty years to grow?"
William noticed that Celine's words were laced with malice when she mentioned the Elven Council. He didn't understand why Celine was telling him that the Elven Council would not give him time to grow.
"Master, what do you mean?" William inquired. "Why would the Elven Council target me?"
"Do you really not know the answer, or are you just playing dumb?" Celine looked at William with contempt.
"Master, I don't really understand what you're talking about."
"Ignorance is really bliss."
Celine shook her head as if she was disappointed with William's answer.
"Enough." Celine raised her hand and a black spear that glinted with the power of darkness appeared in the air above her. "We came here to train and not to talk about these things. Now, draw your weapon. Let me see the extent of what you've learned in your training."
William looked at his Master with a serious expression as he raised his hand.
"Come forth, Stormcaller!"
A spear materialized above William. It was the family heirloom of the Ainsworth Family and the young boy grabbed it firmly in his hands. Tendrils of lightning snaked around the spear's body as its blade glowed with a purple light.
"Good stance," Celine praised. "Let's see if it has substance."
She took a step forward and disappeared from where she stood. A second later, she reappeared in front of William with her spear poised to strike.
Although William wasn't able to follow her movements, his perception had alerted him of the danger in front of him.
The two spears collided, but the one that was blown away was William's. Celine took another step forward and turned into a dark mist.
William felt danger from behind, so he immediately turned his body to parry Celine's attack from his rear.
"Where are you looking?" A teasing voice whispered in his ears.
Before the young boy could do anything, his head was grabbed and slammed into the ground. Celine didn't stop her attack and kept on slamming William's face to the ground until the boy's face was smashed to a pulp.