Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 950: Immobile

Asher continued sitting against the tree, lost in thought. ‘Sigh, creating trump cards isn’t easy,’ he mused to himself, as at the end of the day, he and FatelessPen had come up with nothing.

‘I could avoid any battle that might come,’ Asher thought to himself as his eyes remained fixed on the clouds hanging in the sky.

With Virelass’ Position Marker ability, he could teleport every Wargrave back to the Wargrave Estate, ensuring that not a single life was lost in the event that anything happened during their journey back. And not only that, he could also teleport every single student and Star Academy Instructor back to the Separate Dimension.

He could even teleport the nobles too, their children, their guards, and everyone else, making sure not a single person died.

With the Position Marker, he could do all of this in a couple of hours, going back and forth without losing a single mote of Astra energy or even stamina, as the ability cost absolutely nothing to use, no matter how many times he spammed it.

Asher couldn’t help but imagine a situation where he brought such an idea to Azaron and Malrik, only for them to laugh in his face and say something as outrageous as, “Running is a privilege reserved for our enemies. Wargraves are the ones they run from.”

He was certain that those two, along with the rest of the Wargraves, would jump at any opportunity to fight, so long as it didn’t lead to catastrophic consequences like wiping out an entire city of commoners and the like. At the end of the day, he wouldn’t be able to convince them, and they would all end up fighting with smiles on their faces, probably dying with wide grins as well.

Such mad people.

But at the same time, Asher was sure that although Azaron and Malrik might never openly admit it, they wouldn’t have come this far without safety measures in place. For example, one-time mass teleportation scrolls or single-person teleportation scrolls. Although such items were ridiculously expensive, Asher was confident that Azaron and the other Wargraves probably had one or several stashed away inside their space rings.

As for the students, Asher decided not to worry too much. Cindralis wasn’t called the Goddess of Space for nothing. Besides, they had someone as outrageous as FatelessPen with them. Even if a spatial restriction were imposed, the man could probably ignore it entirely and teleport everyone away regardless.

‘Meaning, the ones actually in danger, if anything truly happens, are most likely the nobles and merchants who came through the transportation companies… but whoever makes a move would most likely ignore them,’ Asher concluded to himself.

But with an hour on his hands and nothing to do, Asher couldn’t help but continuously overthink everything.

‘But… since the Rivelle, Canestane, and Whale families have come under the protection of the Wargrave family, wouldn’t that mean they’ll return with us, forcing the other Wargraves to fight while protecting them at the same time?’ Asher calculated.

Asher knew that nothing would make the Wargraves simply abandon those three families after taking them under their protection. After all, the Wargraves weren’t mercenaries or adventurers who could coldly abandon those under their care in the middle of a battlefield.

‘Hopefully Father or Brother gives them a teleportation scroll if they have one. That way, they can return safely,’ he thought to himself as he shook his head.

He was already imagining Azaron refusing to do so and instead allowing those three families to remain present simply because he, Azaron, wanted to raise the stakes of the battle and have even more fun.

Although Asher wasn’t particularly close with Finch’s or William’s families, he still wouldn’t want anything to happen to them, especially the cute little girl called Rachael, who had been so eager to awaken.

‘Speaking of Position Markers, I haven’t tested everything related to the upgraded version,’ Asher thought to himself as he suddenly remembered.

He rose to his feet, deciding to use the remaining forty minutes to test everything out, as he had already spent twenty minutes overthinking countless different scenarios.

In the past, Asher had been restricted to only three Position Markers, but now he had ten. He had already left one Mark in his room back at the Wargrave Estate and another at the Star Academy, leaving him with eight free Marks to use however he wished.

And Asher already knew exactly how he was going to use them.

The next moment, six daggers appeared before him, each floating effortlessly in the air as he suspended them with Astra energy. Virelass appeared in his hand as he began marking each dagger with the Position Marker, a smile slowly spreading across his face.

Asher was fully prepared to become the Purple Flash of this world. He was essentially stealing the combat style of a certain fictional character from Earth.

With six daggers now bearing Position Markers, Asher still had two Marks remaining, which he planned to use strategically. As for how, he already had a clear plan in mind. After he finished, he sheathed Virelass before throwing the six daggers in six different directions. The moment all six daggers embedded themselves into the ground, tree trunks, and surrounding terrain, Asher immediately activated the ability.

He teleported six times in less than a second. The movement was so fast and seamless that it appeared as though he had never moved through the first five daggers at all, but had simply vanished from where he stood before instantly appearing at the sixth Position Marker.

Asher couldn’t help but smile at how incredibly smooth everything felt. The teleportation sequence seemed astonishingly fast, even swifter than every previous teleportation he had performed using the Position Marker. However, Asher wasn’t sure whether his sharpened senses were simply making it feel that way or whether the upgraded ability had genuinely become faster.

For now, he decided to ignore the question and continue testing.

Inside Asher’s storage system were well over five thousand identical short daggers, every single one sharing the exact same size, design, balance, and appearance. Only an idiot would throw just six daggers at an enemy, making the attack pattern predictable. Asher could simply throw a hundred daggers at once, with perhaps only one of them actually carrying a Position Marker. Sometimes he could mix in two marked daggers, other times six, constantly changing the number of marked blades and making it impossible for opponents to predict his movements.

FatelessPen had been the one who created those daggers under Asher’s request before leaving the Separate Space.

With that completed, Asher decided to test his own Position Marker ability. He walked toward a nearby tree and placed his palm against it. A Mark appeared before instantly vanishing, visible only to him during the brief moment it manifested. He then walked toward another tree and repeated the process, bringing the total to two Marks. His goal was to determine whether his personal Marks counted toward the ten allocated to Virelass.

With the second Mark completed, he touched a third tree, and to his surprise, a third Mark appeared.

The moment it materialized, a wide smile spread across Asher’s face before widening into a full grin. However, he still wasn’t completely convinced. He immediately checked whether all ten Marks allocated to Virelass were still available or whether one had automatically disappeared to make room for his own third Mark.

Establishing his connection with every Position Marker, he instantly sensed all eight Marks he had already placed through Virelass. At the same time, he could clearly feel that Virelass still possessed two completely unused Marks. The smile on his face finally blossomed into a delighted grin. He now had undeniable confirmation that he and Virelass did not share the same Position Marker limit.

‘This couldn’t be any more fantastic,’ Asher mused to himself as he walked toward another tree and reached out to place yet another Mark.

But to his disappointment, nothing appeared. He had reached his own personal limit.

‘Sigh… Virelass has ten Marks, while I’m limited to only three,’ he thought to himself with another sigh. ‘It seems I inherited Virelass’ previous limitation, and even a nerfed version at that, since I have to remain completely immobile for a second.’

The greedy side of him immediately surfaced.

Asher simply shook his head before deciding to stop being greedy and thoroughly test the ability instead.

Although the limitation stated that he had to remain immobile, what exactly qualified as immobile?

If his lips moved while speaking, would the teleportation activation be canceled? If he moved a single finger, would the teleportation fail? What if he blinked? What if he moved only one hand?

He had to test everything and fully understand what immobility truly meant in relation to the ability rather than relying on the surface definition of the word.

Standing beside the third Mark, Asher willed himself to teleport back to the first Mark while speaking aloud.

“Hey, System, give me another gift,” he stated, his words not actually directed at the System.

The moment those words left his lips, he vanished from where he stood, appearing beside the first Mark in less than an instant. Asher smiled to himself as he began testing every possibility that came to mind.

He moved his hands, he turned his head, he deliberately shifted every part of his body, hemade exaggerated gestures, he even continued speaking while waiting. Yet every single time, he still teleported the very moment one second elapsed.

However, the teleportation immediately failed the instant Asher took a single step. Not satisfied, he pushed the limitation even further by flying through the air before attempting to activate the ability once more.

It failed again.

After several more minutes of careful experimentation, Asher finally reached a conclusion. As long as he remained rooted to one location, he could teleport successfully regardless of almost every other movement he made.

The limitation wasn’t absolute stillness.

Rather, it resembled how plants were considered immobile because they remained rooted in one location despite being capable of bending, swaying, and moving with the wind.

That was the true principle governing Asher’s Position Marker.

And Asher was extremely satisfied with that discovery.

It removed countless unnecessary restrictions he would have unknowingly imposed upon himself had he accepted the wording of the limitation at face value instead of personally testing every possibility.

______

AUTHOR’S NOTE: There were no chapters yesterday as I couldn’t get my friend’s phone to type on.

Also, if you notice, these two chapters were a bit longer, so I hope you enjoyed them.

And, as you also noticed, I keep mentioning that the possibility of Asher and the rest being attacked wasn’t certain, as they might just get home without any scratch or action. So don’t come for my head saying I built tension and made Asher train for nothing if nothing ends up happening.

And lastly, more chapters might come if I can get my hands on my friend’s phone. As for how many, I don’t know until I have his phone in my hands.