Raven closed his eyes and felt the pulse of his heart. He focused on the texture of the soft clothes against his skin and the solid ground beneath him. Then, he opened his eyes and willed with his mind—activating Blitz and tapping the start button on the communicator's screen.
The world seemed to thicken—the hum of the ventilation slowed, the light above stretched like syrup.
He began counting in his head, calm but focused.
"One… two… three… four… five… six…"
The moment he reached six, agony bloomed behind his eyes. His skull throbbed like it was splitting apart from the inside. Gritting his teeth, he tapped the stop button on the screen and deactivated his ability.
"Huf… huf… huf… that hurt like hell," he groaned, clutching his head.
He glanced at the screen of the communicator. The timer read: 3.15 seconds.
"So, six seconds for me… and three for the world," he thought, a faint smirk tugging at his lips.
Raven put his finger below his nose and muttered, "The duration's six seconds, and it consumes essence too. That means it's a body limitation. Strictly speaking, a human body can't enter a state where time slows—your brain would probably explode."
He exhaled slowly, straightening up. "So, training my body won't do. To get past this limit… I'll need to absorb Neula shards."
Everyone knew even a Rank 1 Stargazer's body could shrug off mundane bullets and explosions without a scratch. But for a Stargazer to strengthen their body and become more powerful, they had to absorb Neula shards. For Raven, this was a problem because to acquire the Neula shards in his situation, he had to pay money—which he had none—or reveal his appraisal and his first trial details, which he had already refused to reveal in the interview.
"Well, I should focus on getting familiar with my abilities instead of worrying about things I don't have. In the Singularity Realm, I could get a lot of shards by killing the orbit creatures," he thought, stretching his arms over his head.
Raven tried activating [Blitz] again, but to his surprise, a sharp pain went through his head. Clutching his head, he muttered, "It seems I can't use Blitz for another two or three minutes. I guess after the six-second duration, I have to rest a bit before activating it again—or just endure the pain."
He picked the sword off the ground and put it in the rack. He had an idea while walking back to the center of the room. "I wonder…"
He concentrated on his body and activated [Position Control]. Raven was trying to teleport his body to the left of him. [Position Control] activated, but nothing happened. He frowned. It should have worked since he had set his body as a target and tried to change its position to the left side, but it failed. Confused, he summoned the runes for his ability.
Innate Ability: [Position Control]
Innate Ability Description: You can manipulate one aspect of space itself. With a thought, you can lock a target's position within your line of sight, freezing it in place regardless of inertia or force. You can also instantly change a target's position, teleporting it to a new location.
"Change a target's position… Hmm. So I can't change or lock my own position," he thought, clearly disappointed.
Then he muttered, "Well, that's a bummer. Position Control can only be used on targets."
"Alright then… how about this."
Raven lifted his right leg up, focusing on the exact position of his shoe, and locked its position. He pressed his weight forward. His other foot left the ground—he was standing on his shoe. If someone saw him now, they would think he was floating in the air.
"Hehehe. This will really catch people by surprise," he thought, a grin on his face. Sensing the Neula essence draining from his core, with a thought, he deactivated [Position Control].
Tap. He landed on the ground, the sound echoing softly in the room.
"Using this in a battle will be hard," he said to himself. "Locking the position of a target requires a lot of concentration. Getting distracted in battle will get me killed quickly. But… with spatial awareness, it might be possible.""
Raven walked to the right corner of the room, where a power measurement machine was attached to the wall beside the weapons rack.
"If I'm understanding correctly, Blitz can also increase my speed… So if the world time is 1x speed, then when I activate Blitz, my body experiences time at 2x speed," he thought as he made a fist.
He rotated his hips and swung his fist, delivering a straight strike to the machine. The machine hummed, and the pad above showed a number: 12 PR.
"12, huh," he thought, clearly impressed. In this world, mundane professional fighters had about a power score of six or seven, depending on their build. But for an Orbiter, the average score was nine or ten.
Raven, with a thought, activated [Blitz]. The world thickened again—the hum of the ventilation slowed, and the light on the score pad seemed to flicker sluggishly. With the same force as before, he rotated his hips and delivered a straight strike, and with a thought, deactivated [Blitz].
The air burst as the strike landed; the armored wall trembled from the impact.
"Ahhhh!" he screamed in pain. He felt his whole arm up to his shoulder burn hot. As he took a step back, he looked at the score pad above the machine.
It showed a whopping score of 21 PR.
"Hehe." A wide grin spread across his face.
Raven looked at his fist, still grinning—the skin on his knuckles was peeled, with some bleeding.
"Heh. If I try really hard, I can probably punch a hole through this wall," he thought. But imagining how his arm would look after doing that—and the consequences that would follow—he didn't go through with the thought.
He walked to the meditation area of the room as the burning feeling in his arm went down. He grabbed the med-kit box and sat down on the soft floor. Opening the kit, he started patching up his right hand.
He muttered, "Even though during the appraisal my body went through a rebirth, my body still can't handle my ability well. I guess I still have to train my body—to not get broken bones if I punch someone with Blitz on."
He came to this conclusion because of the burning-hot feeling in his arm, which was his muscles tearing apart. With [Blitz] activated, any movement Raven made would be twice as fast.
"With this, I can disguise my ability really well—as a stealth or enhancement-type ability," he thought, finishing the bandage around his hand.
Leaning back slightly, Raven's gaze softened as his thoughts drifted to his first trial.
"Constellation of Infinity, huh."