Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis went out of the forest, still thinking about the whole thing. Logically, he knew that he couldn't have changed anything about the situation. He had to keep up his disguise, and he also needed power. Her willingness to die actually only had positives from a result-oriented standpoint. Yet, logic and feelings rarely agreed with each other. Even though he knew, logically, that he couldn't do anything about it, his feelings were still screaming at him.

As Gravis continued walking, he looked up into the sky through the leaves of the trees. "Is this the only way to acquire strength and freedom?" he asked himself. "Am I required to act like this to become truly free? Do I want to crush the hopes and dreams of countless other people just so I can realize mine?"

Gravis knew that he had already killed many people and that he already crushed a lot of dreams. Yet, enemies were enemies, and companions were companions. If someone tried to kill you, you wouldn't feel as bad about killing them as if you killed a companion. The emotions would grow distant, and one wouldn't think much about what they had done. Yet, the current situation was gnawing at him. To him, it felt like he had betrayed someone to gain more power, even though he knew that that wasn't true.

After a while, Gravis met the three guards, and when they saw him coming out of the forest, they sighed. The fact that Gravis was casually walking out of the woods meant that his mission was complete. They felt bad for their junior sister, but there was nothing they could do.

"Let's go," said Gravis to them, and one of them turned around to lead the way, while the other two went inside the forest to retrieve the body. The guard and Gravis quickly reached the guild again, and Gravis stopped in front of its gates. Initially, he had intended to stay here for a while so Skye could talk more with its parent, but with Wendy's father being a Vice-Guild Master and with this whole emotional situation, his mood changed.

Gravis looked at the gigantic tree where the two birds currently stood and whistled. Skye turned its head to him and then back to its parent. The parent looked a little sad for a second, but then roughly shoved Skye away with a serious caw. Skye gave one last rub to its parent, which promptly shoved it again.

Skye said its goodbyes, picked up Gravis, and then flew away into the horizon. There was no sense in saying goodbye to the Wind Guild. It was not Gravis' home, and even though he liked it here, he couldn't remain. Short goodbyes were easier for everyone.

Skye flew for a couple of days, and Gravis used the time to think more about his eventual, reckless plan. It was incredibly dangerous, but if it worked, he could get a unique advantage. This might be the only chance he would have to actually become strong enough to damage Heaven, later down the line. He had to prepare early for his eventual showdown with this lower Heaven.

Gravis took out the jade token that Wendy had handed him and thought about the whole situation. 'I have no karmic luck, and Heaven doesn't grant me any opportunities or special chances, but father told me that we can steal the karmic luck of others. Let them get their chances and then just take them away. Although this couldn't be considered stealing, Wendy getting her inheritance was probably due to karmic luck. So, all in all, I benefited from the luck of others.'

Yet, it took all of Wendy's power to meet him. She wanted to hand over her karmic luck, and she still had to work hard to meet him. If others didn't want to give up their luck, then it would be difficult for Gravis to get it since Heaven was constantly up in his business.

Gravis put the jade token away and changed his focus to cultivation while Skye continued flying into the direction of the Heaven Sect. Like this, a couple of days passed.

Some days later.

Aion looked through the bag and counted the Energy Stones. When he finished, he nodded. "Looks good. Well done," he said as he put the bag away. He then looked at the jade token, which had the Formation Array that could imprison anyone in the Energy Gathering Realm and threw it back at Gravis.

Gravis' eyes widened in surprise, and he caught it. "You can keep it," said Aion as he stretched himself. "Everyone in the Heaven Sect has at least one. I just forgot yours."

Gravis smiled bitterly and put the jade token away, but didn't leave. Aion noticed and furrowed his brows. "What's up?" he asked.

'Well, let's see if this works. This sounds incredibly stupid, but it should work,' thought Gravis as he readied himself for the following conversation.

"So," he started. "We can't exchange Magic-Stones for Mission Points, right?" he asked.

Aion lifted a brow. "Yes?" he confirmed, not sure what Gravis' goal was.

"But we also have a job where someone has to exchange the gold for Magic-Stones, right?" asked Gravis.

"Yeees?" confirmed Aion.

"Could you tell me, how many Mission Points does the exchange of one Magic-Stone give in that mission?"

Aion scratched the side of his head, trying to think about what Gravis was up to. "One exchanged Magic-Stone is ten Mission Points," Aion said.

Now, it was finally time for Gravis to get to the point. "So, when I switch jobs for a minute and then exchange my Magic-Stones for our gold, I can get Mission Points, right?" Gravis asked.

Aion's hand froze, and his brain started going wild. The more he thought about the situation, the stupider it seemed. It was impossible to exchange Energy Stones for Mission Points, but it was possible to exchange Energy Stones for Mission Points and gold? What's even the sense in that?

Then, Aion started scratching his chin in thought. "Man, I really screwed up when creating this system," he mumbled while thinking. "Though, exchanging it for gold would make it easier on our storage. Man, the more I think about it, the stupider all this seems."

While Aion continued thinking, Gravis hoped that his choice was correct. Wendy had given Gravis a lot of Energy Stones, and he could break through multiple levels with those. Those stones could make him nearly invincible in the Middle-Continent, yet, with wealth came decisions.

He could sharply raise his Realm, and that would save time, but is saving time good? Not always. In this case, Gravis would skip several levels, and he would also skip possible tempering experiences on those levels. Yet, on the other hand, his chances of survival would be way higher.

Wasn't surviving the most important? Honestly, in Gravis' opinion, it wasn't. His goal was more important than his life, and everything had to be perfect to reach the peak. Gravis' Will-Aura might be strong enough to still be outstanding in the Spirit Forming Realm, but what about the realms in the middle world or higher world?

If he decided to use the stones for cultivation, he would sacrifice relative battle strength for a sharp rise in actual strength. Yet, in comparison to now, his relative strength against people in the same Realm would be weaker than now.

The foundation was most important to Gravis, and even if Gravis could skip straight to the Unity Realm, he wouldn't. He might be able to damage Heaven and return, but then what? He would have immense problems in the middle world. This was basically killing the chicken to get the egg.

So, in the end, Gravis decided to exchange his Energy Stones for pills to increase his body's strength. This would increase his relative battle strength. With the Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique, it was easy to find resources to increase his Realm, but it wasn't easy to find resources to increase his relative battle strength. Gravis couldn't ignore the future to make his current situation easier. If he died due to his decision, so be it!

"Alright, I decided," said Aion as he turned to Gravis.