Desire: A LitRPG Adventure (Volume 3), page 12
Because the training techniques that Ace acquired from Grom were passed down to earth for free, humanity grew stronger much more quickly. Just based on skill alone, earth’s battle prowess was quickly reaching the level of the universe. This was all because of Grom!
Dragon and Sasha eventually had a stat reach 500. They followed in Ace and Vincent’s footsteps and became mercenaries. A few years after them, the other experts of earth followed their lead. Howard, Victor, Gale, Peter, Natalie, Anderson, Troy, Elizabeth, Carter, Clarice, Susan, Guts, Moggul, and Goran. Just to be safe, all of them signed contracts that decreed that they never reveal that they were from earth, or the location of earth.
Time continued to pass in this manner, and eventually, 50 years had gone by. The universe had already existed for billions of years. From the perspective of it, a million years was nothing, much less a few decades. During this time, however, earth had been completely transformed.
Chapter 129
The universe contained billions upon billions of galaxies. Of those, a significant number of them had no life whatsoever. Life itself was so rare that even a galaxy with hundreds of billions of stars contained nothing within it. Even with no life, galaxies still contained valuable resources, such as the legendary six metals. Unfortunately, even with faster than light travel, the distance between each galaxy was vast. So vast that it would take years for spaceships with faster than light travel to make their way between two galaxies.
Thankfully, there was a solution to this. A warpgate constructed between two points allowed for near instantaneous travel. The larger the warpgate, the farther away it could teleport something. With the invention of the warpgate, an extensive network of millions of warp gates were spread across the federation territories.
Not long after, another invention was created. This was called a teleportation nexus, and was what allowed Ace and Vincent to teleport from their galaxy to Reken’s galaxy without any warp gates. Unlike warp gates, a teleportation nexus was one way only. It could only summon people, and only people with a tattoo. Both a warp gate and a teleportation nexus were expensive, so expensive that only an organization as large as the federation could afford it.
Among the myriad galaxies, one of them was known as the milky way galaxy. It was recently added to the system of the tattoo, forever changing the destiny of its residents. In one of the spiral arms of the milky way galaxy, there was a solar system with eight planets and a single star. Surrounding the entire solar system was something called the Oort cloud. It was made up of large icy comets.
Hiding within the Oort cloud itself were inconspicuous probes. They were no bigger than a two story house, and were littered throughout the Oort cloud. They only served one purpose: scanning for hostiles. This was humanities first line of defence.
Long black barrels could be seen protruding out of some comets. The comets with these barrels had been retrofitted for war. Their insides had been hollowed out to make room for a space cannon. Together with the probes, they could lock onto anything approaching the solar system, and anything already inside the solar system. These cannons were humanities second line of defense.
Inside the solar system, space stations the size of a skyscraper could been seen orbiting some of the planets. One of the planets they were orbiting was beautiful. The land was entirely green. Upon closer look, plants and trees took up the entire surface of the planet. Gray circular cities could be seen on its surface, making it a stark contrast from the green land. This wasn’t earth, but mars!
Thanks to Connor’s hard work in these past few decades, he terraformed the planet, successfully creating an atmosphere which could sustain life. The planet he was currently working on was Venus. The terraforming of this planet was going by much faster compared to mars, and this was only due to one reason. Connor was significantly stronger than before! With a wave of his hand, thousands of plants blossomed as far as the eye could see. Whenever this happened, Connor smiled gently, full of respect for nature. On Venus, cities were already under construction. Although nobody inhabited Venus yet, they soon would.
Thousands of small spaceships constantly traveled between earth, mars, and venus. In the past, it took a few days to reach the moon with a spaceship, but now that distance could be traveled in a matter of minutes. It only took an hour to reach mars and venus from earth, so people would sometimes spend one day on mars, and the next day on earth.
Earth was largely the same, except for one continent: Africa. What used to be largely barren was now filled with green plants. Almost the entire continent was dedicated to producing food. This process was overseen by the orcs, giving them a vast amount of income. Not only were the orc’s food delicious, but they were infused with qi.
When the orcs settled in on earth, they combed through their clan’s records and found something startling. Growing food with qi! When food was grown with qi, it changed its fundamental nature. When this food was eaten, it gradually improved the stats of whoever consumed it. When Ace and Vincent heard of this, they purchased information related to this method and learned something shocking.
The technique to grow food with qi was a legendary farming technique that only the best civilizations knew of. The spreading of this technique was forbidden. This only further showed how powerful Grom’s civilization used to be. Due to this, the humans and orcs gradually grew stronger just from eating food!
Qipji
A sweet fruit in the shape of an oval. When consumed, has a chance to raise a random stat. This effect is diminished the higher your stats are.
For five decades, humanity and orcs trained in Grom’s training methods while eating qi-food. A random human or orc of today could easily beat Ace before he became a mercenary. As the humans and orcs grew stronger, so did their ability to gain points, and therefore spend points. Because of this, Ace’s income only grew higher… and higher… and higher.
Far, far away from earth, thousands of space ships explored the milky way galaxy. Their mission was to discover sentient life. They weren’t equipped for battle, only for speed. In addition, no humanoids were onboard. They were spaceships controlled by A.I.
What human would want to spend countless years exploring empty planet after empty planet? That would be terribly boring. Instead, just let an A.I do it! This was how most exploration in the universe was done, and for good reason.
These spaceships had been exploring the milky way galaxy for a little under five decades now. They discovered some life, but it was merely bacteria and microbes. No sentient life. In these past five decades, the spaceships have explored a little over half of the milky way galaxy. Unfortunately, they weren’t equipped with the ability to detect minerals. Equipment to scan entire planets was far too expensive. That was a job left for later.
One day, the artificial intelligence on a spaceship detected something on the radar. An asteroid? It changed the direction of the spaceship to take a look. A high pitched alarm suddenly rang through the spaceship. This only signified one thing. Something locked onto the spaceship!
The A.I. sent a message back to earth, “Hostile target fo-”
A beam of light pierced through the spaceship, destroying it in its entirety. The message was cut off, and only two words were sent back to earth. When the human who was in charge of parsing through the scouting spaceships messages read ‘Hostile target fo-’ he stood up in shock, spilling his drink all over himself.
His eyes locked onto a red button next to his desk. Without hesitation, he smashed it with his fist. A message swept through the higher echelons of the military. It said.... sentient life found!
Chapter 130
A man with long, vibrant red hair exited a famous building. This building sold techniques to mercenaries. Reken knew that the type of people he attracted to his organization were lone wolfs or people who were from poor civilizations. What were they lacking most? A heritage! Techniques! Training!
To solve this issue, he created a store which sold techniques to mercenaries. The techniques were supplied by Reken himself and there were requirements for purchasing these techniques. You might need to reach a certain mercenary grade or have done a certain amount of missions.
Vincent had just exited such a building. He was now piss poor, with almost no points to his name. In his hand was a white crystal. This crystal contained a technique that Vincent had been wanting for decades. It cost a shocking 100 billion points, and the buyer had to be a C grade mercenary.
Excitement filled him as he rushed to a room he rented out on Typhen. He giggled with glee as he thought, “I spent years trying to learn how to combine my soul and lifeforce together, but I made no headway. What a waste of time! I learned Reken actually sold the method to mercenaries, but the cost was expensive. It took me thousands of missions to eventually get enough money. Today… I finally got it!”
He sat down and calmed his excitement. He had to be completely tranquil for this to work. He held the white crystal in his hand and brought it to his forehead. Mysteriously, the crystal dispersed into light and entered his body. The light wanted to enter his soul. Vincent was informed prior to this, so he knew this was normal. Allowing the light access, it entered his soul and formed into a complicated brand.
The brand grew roots and burrowed itself into his soul, becoming one with it. This process continued for a few days. During this time, Vincent’s eyes grew clearer and clearer. As the brand was integrating with his soul, it was also giving him knowledge. On the fourth day, his eyes snapped open. He stood up and laughed, “Haha, I understand now! No wonder, no wonder. When I tried to combine my soul and lifeforce, I was trying to fit a block into a circle. Of course it didn’t work.”
He sat back down and calmed his emotions. He now understood the method to combine his soul and lifeforce. If he tried to figure this method out on his own, it might have taken him thousands of years!
What left Vincent even more pleased was that he learned how to split his soul into pieces. This was one of the requirements for combining his soul and lifeforce. The first step was to split your soul into thousands of pieces, and naturally, the white crystal included a method to do just that. This was an unexpected boon.
Back when Vincent was training under Grom, he had tried to split his soul in half, but it resulted in terrible pain. Now he realized that his method back then was too rough. It was like how a talented doctor from a technological civilization could cut through a person’s skin, avoiding all of the nerves in the process. The person being cut into could watch with shock as they were cut into pieces without feeling any pain.
It took Vincent a day to split his soul into the required pieces. Fortunately, he reached the required amount before his soul grew too weak. A more powerful soul could split into more pieces before it would collapse from instability. His soul was much more powerful compared to a few decades ago, so he could complete the first step of this technique.
The technique itself was called, ‘Life Soul Fusion’, and was split into 5 stages.
The first stage allowed one’s lifeforce and soulforce to begin the fusion process. This process allowed both lifeforce and soulforce to bolster each other and allow for 130% more power from each.
The second stage more deeply fused lifeforce and soulforce, allowing for 160% more power from each.
The third stage allowed for 200% more power from each.
The fourth stage allowed for a shocking 250% more power from each.
The fifth stage… was unprecedented… and also nigh impossible to reach. This stage didn’t increase the power, but actually caused a fundamental change. At this stage, the fusion between lifeforce and soulforce was complete. The two became indistinguishable from each other, and became a new type of power entirely. It was called… Lifesoul essence.
Vincent immediately began the fusion process, slowly combining his lifeforce and soul. As each one began to fuse, his power slowly increased. After a week he completed the first stage. After three months he completed the second stage. As Vincent felt the vast power flowing through his body, he felt even more connected to his blood than before. Don’t forget, he had lifeblood essence, not just life force!
All of his blood techniques reached an unfathomably powerful level. Not only that, he felt that the universe and him were more connected than before. His soul had grown much more powerful, giving him a boost to all his senses. Filled with anticipation, he began the third stage of the Life Soul Fusion technique.
Just as he began to deepen the fusion process, his face drained of blood. He coughed out a mouthful of blood from the backlash. Vincent was confused, but after a moment of thought, he realized that he had reached his limit. This technique was ultimately about fusing lifeforce and soulforce to reach a higher grade of energy. Right now, Vincent’s soul and lifeforce were too impure. It was impossible for him to continue training in this technique for now.
Just as he was about to stand up, his eyes flickered. He remembered that the Life Soul Fusion technique also included a way to dismantle the fusion and undo the process. This didn’t only apply to his own fusion, but others as well. Of course, who would willingly allow this process to happen… unless they were already dead?
Vincent waved his hand, summoning multiple containers of blood. Inside was the klexi blood he acquired so long ago from his first mercenary mission. His soul combed through the warrior and hopper blood. His face lit up with realization. The warrior and hopper blood was only at the first stage of fusion! Their blood was too impure compared to his, so absorbing it would only weaken him, not strengthen him.
He focused on the leviathan blood. It had actually reached a level higher than him, reaching the third stage of fusion! Growing excited, he began the process of dismantling the fusion. The remnant soul of the leviathan didn’t let this happen willingly. It fought back, but was powerless before the current Vincent. He successfully undid the fusion and destroyed the soul. He couldn’t absorb souls, only blood.
When he absorbed the lifeforce contained within the leviathan blood, his stats rose dramatically. What took him a few months worth of work was accomplished within a matter of minutes. He licked his lips as he looked at the containers, but realized he was out of blood. He had to get more, but the only way was to go to the front lines. Was the risk worth it?
Shaking his head, he discarded the thought for now. He looked down at his hand and smiled, “With this technique, I finally caught up to Ace.”
Suddenly, he received a telepathic message from Ace. What a coincidence, he was just thinking about him. Vincent’s happiness from growing stronger disappeared in an instant when he heard Ace’s message.
Ace’s voice was anxious, “Humanity found a foreign civilization in the milky way galaxy. They destroyed our scouting ship!”
Chapter 131
In the milky way galaxy, another spaceship approached the destroyed scout sent by humanity. This spaceship was as black as the void of space itself. It was smooth and triangular in shape. Running along its surface were bright red lines. They seemed to be alive as they squirmed alongside the spaceships body. When this spaceship approached the wreckage, some of the lines detached from the surface of the ship and reached out into space. It was a thin tentacle.
The tentacle touched the destroyed spaceship. That was when something strange happened. The spaceship was made out of one of the hardest metals in the universe, and yet the tentacle disappeared inside of it. It was like the metal didn’t even exist. Inside of the destroyed spaceship were various computer components, including the the pieces that made up the A.I. that controlled the ship.
The A.I. was destroyed, it had long since been unable to function. The tentacle emerged from the wall of the spaceship and detected the computer components. The tentacle approached the components and touched it. That was when tiny, thin lines grew along the surface of the component. They were red and squirmed just like the tentacle.
The information contained within the A.I. wasn’t much. It mainly stored data about all of the planets it found along its travels. At the start of its journey, it recorded a particular solar system with eight planets. The tentacle froze. After a few seconds, it dragged the destroyed computer components out of the wreckage and into its own spaceship. After that, the spaceship turned around and flew off into the blackness of space.
A week later, that very same spaceship reached a planet. The light from the local star illuminated the planet’s surface, and yet all that could be seen was black and red. The red lines were much larger here compared to the spaceship.
The spaceship slowed to a stop just before it reached the surface of the planet. The red lines of the spaceships and the red lines of the planet reached out to each other. In the tentacle of the spaceship was the destroyed computer component that housed the A.I. After the transfer, the red lines from the planet dragged the component to its surface. The component seemed to ignore the laws of reality as it sunk below the ground. It headed deeper and deeper into the planet until it eventually reached the center.
