The Almighty Ring

“You’ve been transported to a planet guarded by the Celestial Guardians. Your mission is to locate and acquire one of the Primordial Weapons. There are only thirteen weapons available and those who successfully obtain them will win. The others will gather at the altar of the weapons and await the next mission.”

“You may start now,” said Alston, finishing his mission briefing.

“Let’s go.”

“Follow me.”

“I’ll lead the way.”

Here and there, trainees quickly formed a team of their own. Most of them gathered based on their own class while some gathered based on how close they were as friends. While the rest were gathered in groups, Jiang Fei was the only one that was left and alone.

Being a “transfer student” with an existence that everyone knew of but never talked about, Jiang Fei had unintentionally raised the red flag on his own, prompting the rest to avoid him out of enmity or some form of jealousy. There were some who wanted to join him. They were the few that had eyes like Ottogackt; that could recognize talent and raw strength, but they dared not disobey the leader of their teams.

Plantio, one of Ottogackt’s strongest trainees had nothing but resentment for Jiang Fei. For as long as he could remember, he had always been taken care of by Ottogackt for he had always survived and risen as the best in every trial Ottogackt had put everyone through. With graduation day looming, a petite little Terran appeared out of the blue, barging into their training grounds. Having only over 500,000 combat level, a level only so average amongst those in Ottogackt’s class, he had managed to court Ottogackt away from him.

Plantio had no respect for Jiang Fei. He was confident that Jiang Fei had only managed to catch Ottogackt’s attention with his background. Plantio could never recognize Jiang Fei’s strength, or rather, he would not admit that he was strong. Nevertheless, this graduation trial would be the best way to test Jiang Fei; to show that he was only all talk and no action. In contrast, Plantio’s true talent would shine, and Ottogackt and the great Commander Alexis won’t be able to look away from his performance.

“Ouph… Cold treatment huh?” said Jiang Fei, as he shrugged nonchalantly. Being alone had its perks. Instead of him having to work together with other weaklings, alone, he would have no one holding him back! Even though he could not use Omnisurge or the 10th Dimension, the Blackhole Core had provided him with a boost of 3,000,000 combat level. No one among all the trainees in this simulated world could fight him as no one had over 1,000,000 combat level. Even combined, Jiang Fei could still defeat them.

“Well then, let’s take the road less travelled!” he said as he chose a route that no team had chosen to venture to.

“This boy is too naive…” said Alexis as he watched the event from outside the simulation room.

“It is inevitable. Jiang Fei is new. A fresh blood without doubt. It has only been days since I’ve taken him under my wing. Instead of tossing him with the rest, I have been arranging private training sessions for him alone. It is only normal for him to reject cooperating with others,” Ottogackt commented.

“So it seems…” Alexis hummed. He had faith in Jiang Fei’s strength as he could see a bit of a reflection of himself in him. A simulated field was nothing on him. Be it as if may, Alexis only wanted to know what Jiang Fei had learned from Ottogackt in such a short amount of time.

“What a weird planet… Where are the so-called guardians?” Jiang Fei murmured to himself as he wandered around. He had already left the desert region for quite some time but there was no sign of life anywhere. All around him was either a sea of sand or a hard, cracking, dry ground that could never birth even the most resilient plant. If even plants could not survive in such a harsh environment, beasts would not stand a chance.

Just then, the ground beneath Jiang Fei’s feet cracked opened. A humongous tremor was felt before a rocky fist, as large as a sperm whale, made an appearance from the sun-baked ground.

“Mama mia!” Jiang Fei cried. With speed, he ran down the side of the fist made of rock and leaped about ten meters away.

The gargantuan pillar shaped like a clenched fist was not stopping. In no time, with massive quake in its wake, a huge golem came out from the ground, revealing itself to Jiang Fei.

Stone Golem

Combat Level: 550,000

Note: Basic life form with minimal intelligence. Common in dying planets and abandoned worlds.

“Now that’s a real golem!” said Jiang Fei, amazed. Such a monster was nothing but a fly for him to defeat. Nevertheless, he was still in awe of the life forms found in space. For someone as ignorant and oblivious to the outside world, Terrans or Humans in general could never reach for the stars unless they were willing to forsake the concept of national borders and live as a united species.

To be fair, Jiang Fei himself had been ignorant about certain facts on alien life. Although he was not well-read, he knew about the Kepler Space Mission and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), and thought only planets with similar environment to Earth could host life. He did not expect to see life thriving even on the most barren planet.

The golem took note of Jiang Fei’s position and with a speed slower than even a 6-year-old with a tricycle, it hurled its fist toward him.

With almost no effort at all, Jiang Fei intercepted the incoming fist with his own. A blast of silvery light, condensed into a beam-like projectile immediately destroyed the golem’s arm. The golem took the hit and after a short moment, its entire body cracked and crumbled into a pile of small rocks.

“Not bad,” said Alexis, his interest piqued. Despite not being able to directly measure Jiang Fei’s combat level from where he was, he had crossed fists with him before and knew that he had not yet activated his ability.

Jiang Fei could reach a high 3,000,000 combat level since Alexis had managed to push him there before. However, without his mysterious ability, he had only a weak 60,000 combat level. That was the reason why he had been sent to the training academy.

Right then, Jiang Fei, with only his raw strength, had defeated a 500,000 combat level golem with a single punch. Something told Alexis that he had become overwhelmingly stronger as compared to when he first laid eyes on him.

“That must be the result of your training,” said Alexis to Ottogackt.

“Not quite,” Ottogackt confessed immediately. Although he would like to take credit for the success of his own trainees, for Jiang Fei’s case, it was all him.

“The boy’s talent for combat is beyond anything I have seen. I knew that the moment I saw him. That is why I arranged a personal training module for him. In less than two weeks, he had managed to double his combat level from a mere 60,000 to 120,000. An impressive feat I must say. After the end of the training session, he had requested to use the training room with 30 times chronal acceleration. As to how he is as strong as he is right now… I do not know.”

Alexis nodded and turned his head back to the monitor. He had decided that he would question Jiang Fei once everything was over.

After the Stone Golem, Jiang Fei continued on and came to a valley. There, he faced a few more golems hiding on the side of the cliffs, which were all dealt in the same, quick and easy manner. While everything was smooth sailing for Jiang Fei, the other groups did not have it as easy. The enemies they faced were not as strong as Jiang Fei’s but they still had a tough time defeating Trents, Swamp Beast, and other basic life forms that were only 300,000 or 400,000 combat level each. If they had gone off on their own, they would have perished a long time ago.

“Sheesh… Where are the **** weapons!” Jiang Fei grunted, bored of destroying golems.

“Oh?!” he gasped when he noticed a barrier-like object from the deepest part of the valley. With haste, he sped through the valley and arrived at a brightly lit altar. The altar was huge and resembled a Japanese hexagonal sealing altar. There were even large ropes that hung from each of the six pillars that were each as wide as the Empire State Building. In the center of the altar was a group of statues carved out of stone and marble.