Neo grinned, gripping the 'World Split blade' tighter. 'Okay, next.'
Through his bond with the relic, he understood its functions intuitively. To activate an ability, he simply needed to will it. The blade would draw the required energy directly from his core.
He focused on the first technique: 'World Split.'
The katana thrummed in his hand, draining a significant portion of his spiritual energy. Instantly, the world drained of color, fading into stark black and white. In that monochrome silence, he slashed diagonally at a thick tree, his intent clear: to cut it completely in two.
Color rushed back the moment the slash was complete. Neo exhaled, releasing the tension from the sudden sensory shift, his breath coming a little faster. He looked at the tree, puzzled. It stood, seemingly untouched.
"Did I fail? What's wron—"
He took five quick steps back just as the entire upper portion of the tree slid cleanly off its base with a soft, groaning sigh. It had taken a full three seconds to fall.
"That… was so cool." His eyes were wide. Watching action scenes was nothing compared to the real, visceral feeling of wielding such power.
Eagerly, he turned to the next ability: "World Step".
He activated it. Again, the world snapped into grayscale. This time, his perception expanded. Every point within a ten-meter radius glowed like a soft star in his mind's eye. He picked a location behind the felled tree. The moment the intention solidified, he was there with a single step he took. No high-speed transition—just there. The world regained its color as he landed.
"World Step, huh? Heh." A giddy laugh escaped him.
He activated it again, staying in the black-and-white vision. This time, he refused to pick a destination. He wanted to test the limit. After three seconds of holding the energy, his vision normalized, and the substantial chunk of energy he'd drawn was simply gone from his core.
"So, not using the ability doesn't mean the energy wasn't used. Interesting."
For the next ten minutes, he practiced, testing the limits of the blade's basic functions. Finally, he checked his core. He had barely a quarter of his energy left. A sobering calculation formed: in a real fight at his current level, he'd be running on fumes after twenty minutes if he used these abilities freely.
'Tsk. Being weak sucks,' he muttered.
A voice piped up beside him in his storage world. "It should suck because you're playing with that piece of firewood. Come on, put it away. I have better things to tell you."
He could feel Pandora's palpable pride, even through their link. He didn't argue; he was about to stop training anyway. He sheathed the blade and willed himself into the Forge.
Pandora's avatar was already there, waiting with her hands on her hips. "Okay, I'll be honest. There are gaps in my memory, but I think I'm starting to understand my true nature."
Neo kept his expectations firmly in check. This was Pandora, after all.
"Okay. I'm not sure what type of Forge I was, but I'm sure a lot has changed. First, there were no multiple spaces. It was just the Forge…
Am I sure?
Yes, I'm sure!" She nodded to herself, her explanation punctuated by her own internal doubts.
"Ahem!"
She pointed dramatically at the central altar. "This here is called a Forge Altar." Neo nodded.
"Every Creation Relic is unique, but they all possess one thing: a Forge Altar. It's the heart."
"Also, every Creation Relic has a specific specialty. Mine," she said, her tiny face taking on a momentarily sinister gleam, "is the manipulation of souls."
She coughed as she calmed down, returning to her lecture. "The Soul Altar is the foundation. The five altars you see are the pillars. They signify the… the 'grade' of a Creation Relic.
Her proud expression then soured into frustration. "The annoying part is I can't remember if 'five' pillars are strong or not… Ugh! I don't know, and it's annoying!"
Neo shook his head, amused by the proud fairy's distress over not knowing her own ranking.
"But," he offered, a faint smile on his face, "I'm sure nothing that comes from the Overlord Relic Pandora could ever be weak, right?"
Pandora perked up instantly, puffing out her chest. "Ah! The dumb creator might still have some hope after all!"
"Anyway, I'll show you how to use the Forge now," Pandora announced.
She closed her eyes. In the space between them, a dense, intricate sphere of spiritual energy began to form. Neo watched, fascinated. Before, he would have only seen a blur of blue light. Now, with his awakened senses, he could perceive the complex latticework of energy, the delicate threads of spiritual energy woven into its form—the true shape of a thought-transmission spiritual energy manipulation technique.
Pandora held the construct steady for a full minute, perfecting it, then let it float gently toward Neo's forehead. He closed his eyes as it touched his skin.
Information, vast and systematic, flooded his mind. He remained still, eyes shut, for three long minutes as his consciousness sorted and settled the new knowledge.
When he opened his eyes, understanding dawned within them as he processed the information he received.
Relics were lifeforms. They possessed a core, but unlike an Ascendant's spirit core, a relic's core was forged from 'Creation Energy'.
The Forge Altar was his conduit. It would allow him to fuse Creation Energy, Spiritual Energy, and Elemental Energy to craft relics.
But Pandora's specialty—souls—changed everything. It meant the relics he could forge weren't mere objects. They would be Relics with souls or maybe even the ability to use soul energy.
The transmitted knowledge covered the 'operation' of the Forge—the principles, the energy channels, the role of each altar. But the actual art of forging,… that was absent.
"I guess I have to figure that part out myself…" he murmured. Still, a fierce gleam lit his eyes. The sheer potential of Pandora's power was staggering.
Only one detail dampened his excitement. Relics were not made from pure energy alone. They required a base material—a physical vessel. And from the knowledge he'd gained, these materials were rare spiritual treasures, their value and potency scaling with the desired rank of the relic.
"Hah… I guess money is an inevitable part of any world. Earth or not," he sighed, the practical reality settling in.
"So?" Pandora asked, hovering before him. Her entire tiny form vibrated with barely contained pride. She wanted to hear him admit it.
Seeing her expectant look, Neo smiled wryly and played along. "Okay, I like it. You're definitely an Overlord Relic."
"Hmph! I told you so!" she beamed, glowing with satisfaction. "Oh… wanna give it a try?" Her voice was suddenly eager, childlike.
"No," he said, gently dousing her enthusiasm. "Not here, not now. We're still in the training room, remember?"
"Ugh. Fine." She zipped away in a mock huff, leaving him to his thoughts.
Neo didn't linger. He exited Pandora's dimension and sat back on the cool floor of the silent chamber. He began drawing in spiritual energy, replenishing his core, and turned his attention inward to adjust to his new state of being.
His body felt lighter, as if unburdened from a weight he never knew he carried. His vision was sharper, colors more vivid, details jumping out where before there were none. His reflexes hummed with a latent quickness. Every sense was enhanced, tuned to a higher frequency.
A slow smile spread across his face as he sat in the quiet room assessing the changes in his body.