Lightning Is the Only Way

WACK!

A cane hit Gravis' head, breaking him out of his concentration.

"Stop wasting all the good Balzar!" Old Man Lightning shouted with anger at Gravis.

Gravis stopped punching as he rubbed his head in annoyance. He looked at Old Man Lightning, but before he could complain, he noticed all the "stones" in his vicinity. The stones all came in different shapes and sizes. Some of them were pyramids, while others were squares. There were even more complex shapes like dodecahedrons.

Gravis even noticed some disciples of the Lightning Sect looking at some of the stones in appreciation. By now, the disciples only took away the ugly, useless stones but left the beautiful ones lying around. Gravis even saw an elder looking at the stones in appreciation as he happily combed his beard.

Many of the stones were even placed in multiple lines, according to their forms. The stones at the start of each line had the rough outline of the final shape, while the last one showed the best example of this form. Apparently, the disciples had created a "path of progression", showing Gravis' progress in controlling his physical power.

What shocked Gravis was the sheer amount of stones. There were so many that it was hard to count. "How long have I been punching?"

WACK!

Another hit with the cane. "You've been at this for three full days! Look at all the Balzar you wasted!"

Gravis rubbed his head in annoyance. 'This old brick wall is back. Man, I had so much fun!'

Nevertheless, Gravis didn't show his annoyance. If he did, only more beatings would follow. Instead, he evenly looked at Old Man Lightning. "I think I have enough control over my physical power now. Could you answer-"

WACK!

Another hit with the cane. "I don't care about your control! Rebuild my fucking house!" Old Man Lightning shouted.

'Oh yeah… that…' Gravis thought as he remembered the initial reason why he started doing this. "Alright, I'll rebuild your house, but after that, I want to talk with you."

Old Man Lightning looked at Gravis like he wanted to hit him again but stopped. Instead, he just turned around and left. Meanwhile, the one elder, who had been watching and listening, started talking to Gravis.

"Hey, do you mind if we take the stones? This shows a good path of progression for some of our disciples, who don't have such fine control yet," he asked politely.

Gravis quickly shook his head. "No, no, it's alright! It's your ore in the first place."

The elder smiled and nodded politely. "Thank you." Then he turned to the others. "You heard him! Take them away! You know where to put them!" he shouted.

The stones started vanishing one by one as they were put inside their Spirit Spaces. Then, the disciples started running back into the Sect. One shouldn't forget that Old Man Lightning's "home" was outside the Sect and not inside. Gravis looked with interest as the disciples moved in unison.

WACK!

A cane appeared out of nowhere, hitting Gravis' head and then vanishing. "Rebuild my fucking house!" came a shout inside Gravis' head. Gravis gritted his teeth in anger but started punching more boulders. As soon as he finished rebuilding the house, he would get some answers. He still didn't know what actually happened after he went unconscious.

Gravis felt his emotions rising as he remembered Byron, but he quickly suppressed them and concentrated on the stones again. There was no reason to get angry right now. He could save that all for when he was powerful enough to kill that bastard.

BANG!

Gravis punched one big boulder, which perfectly fell apart into many identical bricks. When Gravis saw that, he nodded with a smirk. 'That's some good progress.'

Like this, he continued punching enough boulders to rebuild the house. It only took a couple of hours. As soon as he had enough bricks, he started stacking them in the shape of a house. After he created a rough outline, he infused his lightning into the stones, making them harden and fuse. Not every house had a completely fused exterior since that required a lot of lightning.

Gravis easily had enough lightning to completely fuse the house in a matter of hours due to his unique Destruction Lightning and his huge storage. Yet, Gravis still needed to refill his storage a couple of times. The stones required way more lightning than he thought. All in all, it took him about a day to finish the exterior of the house.

After the day, Gravis rubbed his forehead and looked at his finished work. The house had two floors with some windows. However, he didn't create any rooms. After all, he had no idea about the interior of the previous house. Who knew what kind of rooms the old man wanted.

After he was finished, he tried to contact Old Man Lightning, but there was an issue. He couldn't feel the Spirit of Old Man Lightning, which made it impossible for Gravis to contact him.

"Old man, I'm done!" Gravis shouted into the surroundings. Yet, no answer came. Though there also came no flying cane, which probably meant that the old man was happy with the house. Gravis was sure that the old man heard him since he always diligently watched Gravis to distribute beatings.

"So, can we talk now?" Gravis shouted after a while. And again, no answer came.

Gravis grew annoyed and started searching through every person inside the Sect with his Spirit, but he couldn't find the old man. 'I'm sure that old brick wall is inside the Sect! He can probably hide from the sight of my Spirit with his cultivation. Well, then I have to find another way.'

Gravis looked over at the entrance of the Lightning Sect, where two guards currently stood. 'Well, if I'm here already, I might as well look around. I also need a new saber. I hope they accept gold since I don't have anything else.' After thinking that, Gravis walked over to the entrance.

CLANK!

"Halt!" said one of the guards as they stopped his way forward with their spears. "You're not part of the Lightning Sect. Why are you visiting?"

Gravis was a little surprised at first but then realized that they were right. He wasn't part of the Lightning Sect. It was okay for him to walk around outside the Sect, but the inside was probably not so easy for him to reach.

"I would like to exchange for a Spirit Weapon with gold. Is that possible?" Gravis asked.

The two guards looked at each other and then nodded. One of the guards retrieved some kind of badge and threw it towards Gravis. "This is a visitor's badge for merchants. You are only allowed to walk to the plaza and then into the Exchange Hall. If you go anywhere else, we'll throw you out."

Gravis took the badge and pinned it to his black shirt. He was no longer wearing the grey cloak due to the whole thing with Byron. Right now, he was wearing his black shirt and black cloth pants again. After he pinned the badge onto his shirt, the guards retrieved their spears and let him pass.

Like this, Gravis took his first step into the Lightning Sect.