The Dao of Magic

36 - Control

A white smile, surrounded by red splatters. A row of teeth that contain endless amounts of savagery. That is the first thing Tess sees when she finally enters the dungeon. She is suddenly paralysed by fear, some instinct deep inside of her screaming to stop, don't move or it will see her.

A hand wiping across the face suddenly frees her. She hears the man in question say something about increased strength, but it does not enter her ears. Only the gist of the last sentence said lingers, something about using minimum force necessary for lethal injuries.

Tess looks at the face again, now wiped clean of any dirt or blood. The savage smile somehow turned into one of true joy, a row of pearly whites filled with satisfaction. She decides to shudder for a bit, letting the tension drain out of her. The sudden flash of blue lines everywhere snaps her out of it completely.

She hears the man ask another question and a sudden wave of lukewarm wetness splashes across her face. Swivelling her head to the source, she sees the blue-haired girl standing in a ring free of gore, looking down at her feet. Water is blood, blood is water, Tess has learned something new today. She decides to just ignore everything happening around her, the continued shocks a little much for the still shaken girl. She wants to smile, but the droplet of blood running over her lips stops her from opening her mouth. She just decides to walk forwards.

It is a good thing she stepped out of the way too, the biggest of their group rushes forwards and starts turning softhounds into mush. With his fist. The weird guy pulls a glimmering bar of metal from somewhere. Qi lines appear around the bar before they flash out of existence, the small cubes the bar turns into the only evidence they were ever there.

Her mind is blown again when she realises that Bord's behind may be a better blunt damage weapon than the most exquisite club. She looks at her own ass and decides to leave sitting on enemies to Bord. Finally fully exasperated, she pulls a small black dagger from her waist and throws it forwards. She can barely make it out as it spins in the gloom, but she doesn't need much light for her next move.

The dagger clatters to the floor after colliding handle first with a softhound's nose. The dog sniffs it a bit before he gets blown away by a small fist that suddenly appeared with a dark flash. Her smile returns in full at the sight of the previous unconquerable enemy smacking against the cave wall. She catches Bord's eyes, and they grin at each other in the middle of piles of minced meat. Maybe that blood splattered look isn't so bad as she first thought?

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Spatial rings are impossible. Looking at the black ring around my finger with the lens of science brings forth a paradox. I know of no theory that could explain the phenomenon. In the past, I spent loads of thinking power trying to figure it out. There are no traces of wormholes, black holes or multiple dimension when I use the ring's spatial functions. All this wasted effort did allow me to realise that using science in combination with a strong mental image or will power up the scientific effects by a lot.

In hindsight, it only makes sense. Science is a product of the human brain. Using the product and the producer in tandem is bound to create interesting effects. Using them both in combination with forces that take Newton and his laws out back and beat him to death, works even better.

It was common sense that spatial rings can only be made by foundation realm cultivators. I would agree with those people, if not for the pendant around my neck and my braincore. Making a spatial ring is done with the same process I used to create my Tree. Just shove so much stuff and energy into a physical place that it starts to spill out into another dimension.

Being a mental cultivator is a cheat sometimes, I have never come across a ring with a bigger capacity than my own. The creation took a lot of effort and required some very specific circumstances, so I will have to improvise with the ones I am creating now.