Serum: C180

The Sky King hovered a distance away from a city. 

It was a major branch city, and branch cities in the Otherworld were quite literal in their meaning. 

A massive tree stood at the center of this city, boasting a gargantuan height of nearly 6 miles. However, this tree was merely an offshoot of the World Tree, though it happened to be one of the more important ones. 

Surrounding the tree for miles was a metropolis with a population of about 3 million elves. And to the west of this city, there was a massive pit mining operation to pull out a dense Aeralite deposit. It was a city that flourished around this mine and became a small economic center that contained various industries such as crafting, enchanting, mineral processing, and more.

Pandora observed the city from the command center, her face placid.

Her eyes flickered back and forth between the mountain and the tree in the distance. Her mind posed hundreds of questions, answers, hypotheticals and possibilities in the span of just a few minutes. 

She sat there in silence, nobody daring to disturb her. 

When she pondered over what to do, there was very little logic involved, yet she seemed to be in tune with calculative forces beyond even her own comprehension. 

There was very little rhyme or reason behind all of her thousands of thoughts. She couldn't even keep track of it all. It was like her brain was a mess of images, sounds, and dreams that never seemed to guide her down any particular path of decision making. 

But she let it all flow as it wanted, like her mind wasn’t her own. And at some point, one of her thoughts became constant. 

And then, those thousands of thoughts locked in around that singular constant, falling into place while outlining everything she needed and wanted to do. 

Before long, she had made her decision as if the answer was brought to her by the divine. 

“Dock us on the opposite end of that mine. Keep us out of sight. We will be here for the next month.”

“Understood.”

The Captain followed her orders stiffly, taking the Sky King around the open pit mine and placing it somewhere inconspicuous. 

Once they were docked, everyone in the command center went silent and turned toward Pandora. 

She sat there for another minute in silence. All those of the Shadow Troop were able to instantly see the shift in Pandora’s mood when Dirk disappeared. Now, there was no face they wanted to see more than his, anything to make her happy. They felt like she’d start killing them otherwise. They didn’t dare breathe too hard around her. 

She spoke, their thoughts snapping to attention.  

“Captain.”

“Awaiting orders.”

“Prepare to infiltrate the city. We have two targets. The first is the mining operation. At some point, we will need to get in there, so open the channels for me. I don’t need information, just a way in.”

“Understood.”

“The second target is their water reservoir. Find its location and give me a full report on all facilities they use for irrigation, sewage, filtration, and transportation. Nothing happens until both of these orders are carried out, so get it done.”

“Orders received.”

With that, the Captain walked out with several others. Pandora remained there, a small smile blooming on her face as she continued to scheme. 

Then, she rose and turned on her heel, heading to her own little workshop. 

It was a secluded room not far from Exos’ workshop. It wasn’t even as big, but it was completely filled. 

There were several tables around the room, all of them covered in books, vials, glass bottles, and odd magic devices. The liquids going through all of these items radiated assortments of colors, some of them giving off smoke and bubbling within their containers. 

She walked up to one of her tables that carried an assembly line of beakers. Inside of the bottle at the end was a black tar-like liquid. 

She took out a small vial from within her personal pocket ring. 

Inside of that vial was a shimmering green liquid. At first glance it both looked and felt like some sort of vitality potion that would rejuvenate and nourish the body. 

But the reality was far different. 

Upon opening the vial, she poured just a drop into the beaker before her, mixing the liquid with the black tar. 

And the two mixed, bubbling until the black color evaporated. 

The process took a few minutes, and when it was finished, the only thing left was a crystal clear liquid that looked even clearer than water. 

She lifted it and brought it over to Exos’ workshop. 

There, Exos was working on yet another project. But he stood when he saw Pandora. 

“Good afterno-”

“I need one of your animals.”

She spoke while walking to a cage in the workshop. 

Inside of it was a robust reptilian. It had been pacified, so it didn’t make noise as she approached. 

She opened the cage, walking over to a bowl inside of it that contained water. 

And she poured a mere drop of the clear liquid in. It mixed seamlessly with the water. There was nothing different about it, even its aura. 

Then, she shut the cage and walked away. 

“Let me know when something happens.”

She left the workshop with those words, leaving Exos confused. 

He looked over, seeing the reptile drink the water out of curiosity, but even after 10 minutes, nothing happened. 

So he let it be, going back to his own work. 

……

…

The next morning came, Dirk arriving for another roll call before getting sent back into the mines. The situation was monotonous, nothing new or exciting happening. Nobody even looked at Dirk as the schedule proceeded as normal. 

Of course, Dirk’s own objectives continued just as normally. 

Eleanor was gone now, not that she was ever someone to worry about. Dirk now had no distractions, not even someone to run into out in the forest at night. He was the strongest person in the camp and nobody knew. 

Of course, the guards were a bit on edge when their overseer never returned. But when the message came down that she was simply relocated, they all doused their worries and forgot about it. It wasn’t like she did anything anyway. She was just the high ranking daughter of a noble. She had no hand in the daily affairs of the camp. 

Because of that, Dirk was allowed to work on his objectives in peace. 

He worked within the mines, digging tirelessly deeper into the mountain. His instincts acted like a guiding light in the pitch black depths.

But whatever he was trying to find was still far away. He also had to continue digging out ore for the other workers so they didn’t have to break themselves. 

Otherwise, his overall objective was easy. He was using this entire camp as bait. Although he was maintaining the suffering of all the slaves, he could only concern himself with so much. He had a mission to complete that took precedence over the comfort of these people, not to mention his own training. 

Most of his time was spent digging, but anytime he wasn’t, he was working on his martial arts. 

He hadn’t expected to run into Eleanor, but it was only beneficial for his progress. He had told Grandpa Qoi that he would only need a month to achieve basic martial mastery, but that time was actually shortened. 

During his battle with her, he had tested his sword against her own. While she obviously wasn’t as constructive as Grandpa Qoi, guiding all his strikes to perfection, he was still able to find his way to basic sword mastery. 

It was as simple as gauging the force in each exchange. By comparing the effects of his strikes with Eleanor, her responses, and how he handled each of her own strikes, he could figure out how to perfect each of his sword strikes. 

Plus, Eleanor was an Heir, someone who had mastered the basics of the sword thoroughly. As she had stated, she wasn’t some common foot soldier who may neglect the basics to push toward something more advanced without the best foundation. 

Her training was top tier, as was her sword technique. So Dirk, although almost killed in the process, was able to glean the best of what the sword had to offer from her. 

Now, he only needed to work on the other weapons. 

And utilizing a pickaxe actually helped with things like his axe mastery. 

Not only that, but there was one weapon that he didn’t even need to practice with. 

One night, when Dirk stepped outside for more training, he slipped into the forest and pulled out a bow. 

It was a high quality bow pulled straight from the Dark Kingdom’s treasury. While only a Grade 5 bow, it stood at the pinnacle of its level, looking like more of an art piece, but still very much a functional weapon. 

It was heavily enchanted, giving it myriads of special effects relating to spatial warping and the like. So Dirk didn’t even think about using it while fighting Eleanor since he was trying to match her strictly with the sword and his anima.

Not only that, but if there was any weapon Dirk couldn’t be more confident in, it was the bow. 

And that inherent skill showed itself when he nocked an arrow and pulled it back. 

As his elbow retreated, he could feel all his muscles correcting themselves, drawing the bowstring back as the arrow was guided toward its maximum potential. 

And just as quickly, he let it loose. 

The arrow sailed through the forest in a straight line, colliding squarely with a tree. 

And when it made contact with the trunk, the wood splintered open, the trunk exploding as the arrow plowed straight through it. 

It blew up the trunks of three more trees in its path before landing on the 5th tree, sticking itself halfway through and stopping. 

Dirk nodded, feeling like there was nothing more he could do to perfect the usage of his bow. 

In fact, he held back. So much as holding a bow felt dangerous to him. 

Because he was so proficient with ranged weapons, he felt he could develop his own bow technique on the spot. Let alone annihilating four trees, he could probably bombard a city as if he were artillery. There was so much he could do with it that he felt the bow was practically begging him to unleash its full potential, as if nobody but him could do so.

But if he took even a single step further with the bow, he would cut himself off. Even the slightest alteration to a basic shot would put him on the path of no return. 

If it were anybody else, they would utilize those feelings and become a martial genius overnight. But Dirk was shooting higher, and doing so would only limit him. 

So he put the bow away, clearing his mind of its image. 

The spear, the sword, the axe, the bow, the knife. 

These seemed to be the primary five weapons. Anything else was a variation of these, at least in this world. 

And then there was hand to hand combat, comprised of boxing, kickboxing, grappling, and several other styles that utilized every part of the body as a weapon. 

But Dirk didn’t feel like he needed to learn absolutely everything. He wouldn’t need to learn how to use a halberd, a pike, a kukri, a crossbow, zweihander, gladius, mace, or any other specialty weapon. 

What was more important was bringing all his martial styles together. He should be able to pick up any weapon and understand how to use it, no matter what it was. And more than that, he had to follow the advice of that Martial Master, the Kimin Godsum. 

Use a sword as if it were an axe, an axe as if it were a bow, a bow as if it were an axe, a spear as if it were your hands. 

When he got to the point where all martial styles merged into one universal art, then he would achieve mastery. Of course, that wouldn’t come until he was a much higher rank, but starting now wouldn’t hurt. 

So Dirk utilized his time to find constants among all the basic skillsets of every weapon he could think of. He tried and tested everything he could fathom, even doing things that seemed completely illogical like hacking at trees with a spear and throwing his sword as if it were an arrow out of a bow. 

Like that, time continued to pass as he waited for the resistance to show. 

And it wasn’t until two weeks later that he finally finished one of his objectives.