Chapter 1847. Void Sword Saint
Jack still had the common sword Elder Maniac gave him. He was now holding this sword as he got into a ready stance.
"Are you ready?" Jack asked.
"I'm always ready. Anytime you like," Elder Maniac replied.
Jack lunged forward and slashed. He was doing a normal slash. The same as before, he sensed no impact from his slash.
"You are still doing the same thing. Perhaps you haven't learned enough?" Elder Maniac said with a disappointed tone.
Jack didn't respond to the elder's criticism. He was contemplating. He expected his slash to fail. He was doing it to understand the true nature of Elder Maniac's defense mechanism. After being aware of the existence of the hyperspace inside this trial, he could sense what was truly going on during his slash.
To confirm a theory, he made another attack. It was a thrust now instead of a slash. The tip of his sword headed to Elder Maniac's chest. He was just a bit over a meter apart from the elder. If he extended his arm, the length of his sword should pierce the elder's body and go out the back. Yet, the tip of his sword never touched the elder's body. It remained an inch away from the elder's body, even after he had fully extended his arm.
What the elder did was reverse what Jack had done earlier to the hyperspace. While Jack shrunk the hyperspace to cover the distance between him and the elder maniac, the elder expanded the space and made the distance between him and Jack's sword farther than it actually was.
No matter how many times Jack slashed, his swords would never touch Elder Maniac. This was because there was a vast expanse of parallel space separating him and the elder.
"You are manipulating the space around you," Jack said.
Elder Maniac grinned after hearing Jack's words. "Good. Now, what are you going to do about it?" He asked.
Jack didn't answer. He took a step back and closed his eyes. As he did, his mana spread out into the hyperspace. He could sense the elder also had his mana over this hyperspace. Their mana vied for dominance over the parallel space.
This went on for some time. If someone saw the two, they would just see two people staying still like statues. But behind the scenes, a mental war was raging between the two inside the hyperspace.
The elder's mana was immense, but Jack's was no pushover. His diligent training had brought his mana manipulation to an extreme height. He was also backed by his mana affinity talent. Combined with his technique of camouflaging mana, he slowly overpowered the elder's mana and exerted dominance over the hyperspace.
He made his slash.
He was not even close to the elder when he did the slash. His sword was physically away from Elder Maniac. But when he completed his slash, a clear cut appeared in the elder's tunic. Behind the cut tunic, a red line was seen on Elder Maniac's skin.
Jack opened his eyes then.
Elder Maniac was looking at him with a smile. "Very good, my successor. I'm glad someone as talented as you is the one who bears my legacy. From now on, you will be the next Void Sword Saint."
At the same time, Jack heard a notification, "Congratulations on passing the trial. Your Brave Swordsmaster class has changed to Void Sword Saint."
"Success!" Jack clenched his fist and made a victory pose.
He then noticed the Elder Maniac was still there, looking at him with a weird expression.
"Ehehe, I was just getting excited," Jack said awkwardly.
"Anyway, my task here is done. When you wish to leave, you can use the void space to leave."
"The void space?" Jack asked.
"It's the other space we did battle earlier," Elder Maniac answered.
'Oh, the hyperspace, Jack thought.
"I will take my leave. Congratulations again for passing the trial."
"Wait! Does this void space exist outside?" Jack asked before the elder disappeared.
"No, void space only existed in this trial space to help the successor of Void Sword Saint understand the fundamentals of space."
"I see." Jack was disappointed but not surprised. If the hyperspace existed, he would have sensed its existence at one point in time. This meant he couldn't use it to cover vast distances or stop attacks as the elder did. It would be cool if he could, but also game-breaking. He understood why Chris only limited the hyperspace in this trial.
"If there is nothing more, I will leave now," Elder Maniac said.
Jack gave the elder a polite bow. "Thank you, elder, for your trial and guidance. I will not disrespect your legacy."
Elder Maniac nodded. He then vanished. Jack was all alone now in this pitch-black trial space.
He closed his eyes and sent his attention into the hyperspace again. There was now a kind of gate at the center of the hyperspace. He supposed that would be the exit. But before he exited this space, he wanted to check his new class first.
It was a pity that he lost the Brave Swordsmaster class. He was rather fond of its skills. He could no longer use Brave Slash, Swords of the Brave, Dances of the Brave, and Realms of the Sword God. There was still one more skill for this class when he reached level 90. He guessed he would never find out now.
He opened his status page and went to the class section. He also lost all the passive skills from Brave Swordsmaster but received new ones from Void Sword Saint. As a first-class special class, Brave Swordsmaster gave four passive skills. The Void Sword Saint gave Jack five passive skills.
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Strength, Dexterity, Reflex +20%.
Damage, attack speed, critical chance, and critical damage using sword +20%.
5% chance for attacks using swords to ignore 50% defense.
2% chance for attacks using swords to bypass protective skills or spells.
The range of all sword skills +25%