GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

The gates are stored on the bones of the spine. The better the formation of the gate, the lesser the number of bones it will occupy but the more the stress on the individual bones. In summary, the body will be strained no matter how refined the gate is. Because until the gate is harvested and removed, one's body will feel heavy and sluggish.

The body will actually slow down coupled with the fact that the gate will continue to absorb the momentum of the body. Only when the empowerment phase of the technique is achieved will he be able to get a steady stream of power without harvesting it. He will also be able to supply the gate with external momentum from outside the body.

The formation of the gate made him feel an itchy feeling between his shoulder blades but he ignored the craving of his body to scratch it. Then the feeling became a hot sensation as if something was branding him. The pain became searing hot but he remained still and endured it. This stage is delicate because a failure will lead to a damaged spine.

He would heal but he will remain paralyzed for the time that it takes to heal. But he wasn't nervous, he was confident and he believed that as long as he follows the procedure exactly nothing will go wrong.

The instructions are to create an anchor for the gate with a bone. Create artificial muscles attached to that anchor using vitality. Wound and weave the muscle taunt using the potential energy siphoned from the body. Do not interfere with the network of nerves and make sure to keep the grip on the artificial muscles. To refine the gate, the artificial muscles must be condensed and woven tightly, like the knot of a rope. The pattern and the complexity of the weave will determine its capacity. If the process is halted halfway, then the stored potential energy will explode.

Apart from the density and the pattern of the weave, another important aspect is the synchronicity of the gate with the body. It will affect the energy siphoning rate and the conversation rate of potential energy. The siphoning rate means how much the gate absorbs from the total momentum of the body. The conversion rate determines how much of the siphoned energy is actually stored and not wasted during the process. These two factors are very important because they determine how much of a burden the gate will be on the body. A high siphoning rate will leave the body debilitated and unable to move. A low conversation rate will make the sacrifice and the burden useless.

Soverick took his time to create an impeccable gate. It had a very high capacity but was also accompanied by a high siphoning rate. The good news is that he was already able to achieve a conversation rate of 1% as soon as the gate began to function.

"I did it at last." He said.

Then he looked around. But there was no one around him. He knew he had been at it for more than 4 weeks now so it was not a wonder that SQUARESKULL was gone. He tried to stand up but was failing terribly at it. His body felt heavy and unresponsive. All he achieved was to flail about on the ground. SQUARESKULL walked in and began to laugh.

Soverick ignored him and chose to put all his mental and physical capabilities into figuring out how to perform the benign act of standing up. The more he struggled, the higher SQUARESKULL laughed. It took a whole 10 minutes before he got himself standing. He smiled and he felt profoundly proud of himself for not asking for help. He took his first step, or he tried to take the first step but he fell face first into the ground. His arms couldn't get in front of him quickly enough. So his nose smashed into the ground.

'Well, at least I am not on my back this time.'

He groaned and tried to stand back up. Which was clumsy and slow.

"Congratulations. You have built your first gate. You took more time than I expected but that's probably due to the fact that the technique is not meant for your body. I can infer from your fumbling around that you either have a high-capacity gate or you made a shoddy gate."

Soverick finally stood back up. "What's next?"

"Honestly, you are ready to challenge the ranking battles. Your basic foundation is set. All you need is experience. I'm sure you're going to do well as soon as you get back up to speed. But even then you will not be able to defeat those in the 500th ranks and above because your fighting proficiency with the spear is still lacking. You will learn quickly, sure. Actual experience from fighting will improve your proficiency with the spear But I have a better alternative."

"Fighting proficiency is something acquired through fighting and it is the key to achieving the first step of spear mastery. It is usually during actual fighting that others can gain the experience needed for the fusion of instincts and technique. You have the fusion but you lack the experience. I will give you experience by fighting you myself. You can refuse and choose to fight in the arena. That's what others do. They only come to spar with me occasionally for lessons. But if you stick with me, you will acquire the first step faster. What do you think?"

Soverick felt it was better to fight someone of SQUARESKULL's Caliber. It will make him learn faster rather than fight some other people with lesser or a little more skill with the spear than him. Fighting with vitality core stage refiners like him will feel like fighting children. A transcendent on the other hand will offer him better opportunities to learn but also comes with its own disadvantage which Soverick made sure to voice out.

"But won't you just pummel me? You outclass me in physique, technique, and skill. You're stronger, faster, and better at me with the spear."

SQUARESKULL smiled, "I know right? And I am looking forward to it. But I'll give you a chance. I can't make my physical capabilities equal to yours. But I'll limit it to be just a little higher than yours. That means I'll be just a little faster and stronger than you. I will improve as you improve."

Soverick suspected that the training won't be pleasant but he was no stranger to pain. He was also less suspicious of SQUARESKULL's motive since he was openly expressing the fact that he is looking forward to beating him up.

He tried to shrug but he fell down again. He signed and said. "Sure, let's do that."

"If you want to regain your strength quickly you should perform the spear dance. It will increase your synchronization faster. We will fight when you're done." SQUARESKULL advised as he watched Soverick struggle to stand up.

Soverick performed the spear dance, just the basic moves without the circles. It was slow going and widely comical. What had taken a single hour to execute the first time took him six hours to do this time. He noticed that his body eased up a little but the difference was minuscule. Still, it was visible progress.

Then he fought SQUARESKULL. They were like two snails fighting for supremacy. Soverick was slow so SQUARESKULL was also slow. The major problem that Soverick faced was stumbling. While SQUARESKULL was moving slowly on his own, Soverick couldn't even keep his balance sometimes. The good thing about the slow fighting is that it pushed Soverick to optimize his movement. Every single action of his body was geared towards achieving a single goal.

For a thrust, he would pull back the spear, adjust his footing, and simply tilt forward. The shift in his center of balance will make him unstable and he will fall forward. Then he will thrust in tandem with the gravity-assisted motion.

These subtle movements affected a lot more than the power of the thrust. An inexperienced person will watch the spear and his arm but might ignore his shift in position. A thrust that seems bound to fail because of the distance between them will suddenly be within the reach of the opponent and catch them off guard.

After Soverick has fought for hours and cannot move his body again, only then will they stop. The fighting might be slow but it is still exhausting. He is still using that heavy spear and he has to use more energy to move it because of the gate he built.

SQUARESKULL will then show him recordings of people fighting with the spear. Either it is two spear fighters or one against another weapon user. But the fighters are geniuses that have achieved one with the spear at the vitality core stage. Soverick got to see what is possible and what marks these people as having reached the first step of spear mastery.