Once he finally placated Zara’s anger a bit, Damien stepped out of bed. Flexing his muscles that had gone slightly sore from overuse, Damien went and threw on the robes that had been prepared for him.
They were a similar color to the disciple token, and the same ones being worn by those guarding the wall when he first came to the sect.
Their design was fully black, looking like an endless night, but lines and swirls of deep blue that encapsulated its surface made it look more like a starry abyss.
After admiring himself in the mirror for a bit, Damien injected his mana into his disciple token to see where he should be headed.
The second he did so, a small sheet of information appeared in his vision.
[Disciple- Damien Void]
Status- Outer Court Disciple
Master- Grand Elder Tian
Living Quarters- 17A
[Tap to open map]
He realized that the Cloud Plane was more technologically advanced than he originally thought, they seemingly just preferred their old school customs.
Clicking the map icon, he saw many locations highlighted in red, with one shining particularly bright.
[Induction Hall 6]
‘This must be where that old man wanted me to go.’
Even if he had accepted Tian Yang as his master, he still hadn’t witnessed the old man’s capabilities. This led to him not recognizing him as his master any more than superficially.
Still, Damien did as he was told and exited the building, walking towards the location that was outlined.
Along the way, he saw many beautiful scenes. Disciples laughing and enjoying their daily lives, the lush greenery that lined the mountain and melded with the sect perfectly, and the sound of music that would occasionally resound from somewhere within the large city.
The mana in the atmosphere was especially calm and ethereal. It was like the soft hum of a lullaby but at the same time the lively music of a renaissance fair. The ambiance was, in his opinion, a very accurate representation of the word celestial.
It was otherworldly and uncaring for mundane affairs. It was something he truly appreciated. He felt that he should really explore this place at some point once he had settled down.
As he enjoyed its products, he ended up smiling. The battle he fought with Long Chen brought him the excitement he was searching for when he adventured to the Cloud Plane. But he also realized he had plenty of flaws.
Thinking back to the battle, he realized that he really did have a lot of cards he didn’t use very often. Since he was always focused on improving his sword art or fighting at close range, many of the abilities of his Vector Controller class were collecting dust.
Even his vector field, which had the capability to offset much of the damage he took during that final impact, was mostly unused. It wasn’t that he had forgotten about it, he simply didn’t like using it if he wasn’t fighting with his life on the line.
His fight against Long Chen was purely a friendly duel. Even if the two of them had gotten out of hand with their final confrontation, it didn’t change their original purpose. And in the end, Damien felt like he had lost.
Logically, the two of them had tied, but it didn’t matter. The only thing Damien had at the moment was brute strength. If his raw power was equal to or inferior to Long Chen’s, it was impossible for him to win.
Realizing this made him think about all his previous fights. He couldn’t think of a single one where he won based on strategy or technique.
Even his most recent fight with the sea dragon was purely based on raw strength. They had bombarded each other with devastating attacks until only one of them remained standing.
‘An I an idiot?’
His thought process always revolves around what was currently going on, never thinking about the future. Sometimes he would introspect and realize his flaws, but even that only had him reevaluate his past.
He realized that his journey so far was genuinely without purpose. At first, all he wished for was survival. He needed to stay alive so that his mother wouldn’t die a lonely death without ever waking up from her coma.
But he had never truly believed that he wouldn’t be able to save her. The only time when that thought could have possibly shown up was while he was in the dungeon, but back then he didn’t have the time for idle thinking.
‘Why do I even want to gain strength?’
It was the core of his being, the desire to become strong. The desire to dominate everything and become the most powerful. Yet, there was quite literally no reason for it.
He wanted strength because he wanted strength. He wanted to travel worlds just for the adventure and new experiences. He had no grand goals, and he hadn’t experienced any true tragedy to drive him.
But he had no intention to lose anyone, so he didn’t know whether it was a good or bad thing that his life’s trajectory was going the way it was.
‘A true goal. Motivation.’
It wasn’t something simple to find. Life was easy on Damien. Perhaps it was fate or purely luck.
‘Or maybe I just have some incredible plot armor.’
He didn’t think so. He had worked hard to get where he was today. He spent years and years doing grueling work to achieve his current strength. But he knew it was naive to think it was all his own achievement.
There were plenty of times when pure luck was the reason he could continue forth.
Arriving here at the perfect time for the disciple examination, gaining a connection to earth’s world core, meeting Rose, finding Kurt’s subspace in the dungeon, and even succeeding in his very first evolution after killing the 1st class wolf. All of it could be considered as the machinations of fate or destiny.
Everything was going so perfectly that he started doubting whether he was truly in control over his life or if some supreme being was steering him in a specific direction. But he shook off that thought.
He wasn’t nearly important enough for someone with the power to manipulate things like that to care about him.
He also realized that he might be ADHD or something because his thoughts had skewed so far from his original intention that they were almost unrecognizable.
By the time he snapped out of his thoughts, he was already in front of the induction hall. Its structure wasn’t anything special, but it was clear that it was meant for large gatherings of people.
When Damien opened the door, just like he expected, there were another hundred or so new disciples there as well. These were some of the others who passed the exam with him.
However, when they turned back to see who had entered the hall with them, any and all conversation was hushed.
“Hey, isn’t that…”
“Yeah, when they said there were only 998 spots I thought of the possibility but…”
“He is a supreme genius on par with Long Chen.”
Facing the countless stares and mutters about him, Damien indifferently walked up to the crowd.