Chapter 278: sublimation 2

Clark was once again shocked speechless. He was left standing rigidly like a tree, gawking at this scene in disbelief as the thought that he was going mad started rearing its ugly head.

If it was not madness, then how on earth did his ancestral home that is still peacefully sitting in the Spartan republic materialize here?

“Am I high? Did I drink too much? How the hell am I even standing when I was just eaten by a dinosaur?”

He inclined his head to look at the air suspiciously. “Master, is this another prank? Is this an illusion? Let me tell you, it’s not affecting me at all”.

Despite his many attempts to blame what was happening to his master, he already saw a lot of evidence that said otherwise. This only made him feel more shocked, uneasy, and afraid.

“Or is this a dream?” His eyes gleamed in understanding.

“I once read in a novel that if you’re in a dream that you don’t like, to get out you just have to hit your head against something hard enough. So easy, I’m a genius”.

Bonk! Ouch!

He rubbed his head painfully as the impact of his head hitting the house’s wall made him dizzy a bit. This did not make him happy, it only left him more hopeless and stranded.

“Please, don’t do this to me. I’m not even married yet. Hell, I’m still a virgin, please!”

Taking the poor vulnerable fellow route but still not getting any response, he finally suppressed his trepidation, knocked on the door twice before opening it softly.

He was now too lazy and hopeless to be overly cautious, he poked his head inside the house as soon as the door unlocked easily.

“Nothing happened?”

Taking this as a good sign, he took the first step into the house. In just one look at the sitting room, he confirmed that he was right, this was his ancestral home.

Everything was the same, the only difference was that an old man was currently sitting cross-legged on the floor in the middle of the sitting room with his eyes tightly shut close.

Gulp!

Seeing this, Clark rapidly gulped down mouthfuls of saliva silently as his thoughts started roaming about.

“What did this mean? Should I run? His eyes are closed, there’s a high chance that he has not noticed me yet. I think this is the best time to escape!”

He retracted immediately. Extremely carefully, he tip-toed silently back to the door, then a voice stopped him in his tracks.

“Clark Pendragon!”

“Oh boy!”

Turning reluctantly, he clasped his hands before his chest, bowed his head slightly before shooting out words at the pace of a machine gun.

“I’m sorry sir, it was not my intention to barge into your home. I was foolish to think that it was my ancestral home, have mercy on a poor soul. Please forgive my intrusion, I will be gone before you blink your eyes”.

“Just take me as the wind that has no direction”.

Clark turned before increasing his pace to leave the house, he was too shocked to even think about how this grizzled old man knew his name.

“This is your ancestral home!”

“What?”

This time, after stopping in his tracks due to what the old man just said, Clark didn’t know what to think again. Was he really going mad? Is this how madmen’s dreams are?

Bowing weakly, he asked again. “Sorry for my rudeness sir, but please what do you mean?” This was when he noticed that the old man still had his eyes tightly shut closed.

Hearing his question, the old man finally opened his eyes, wisdom emanating from them tangibly that Clark was stunned again.

“I didn’t mistake my words, chosen one. This is your ancestral home, everything that you’re seeing in this world was extracted from your memories”.

“When you were young, you always loved watching dinosaur movies. And you once had a yearning to visit a bamboo forest, you even had the dream of spending your honeymoon there with your future wife”.

Clark blushed a bit. “How did you know all these? Where is this?”

The old man didn’t answer his question, he looked outside the window. “The sublimation has begun!”

Everything finally clicked. Clark was shocked beyond words, a lot of things started going through his mind as he looked at the old man with only amazement reflecting in his eyes.

“This is the sublimation?”

The old man finally stood up. “The sublimation is not a thing; it is a process. The process is done in your mind, and everything here is extracted from your mind with only a few exceptions”.

Seeing his still questioning eyes, the old man waved his hand. “Don’t bother yourself with knowing it all. Even if I explain everything to you today, you will still not understand them all”.

“If you survive the process, you will understand everything later in the future when you grow a few more ranks”.

“The process has started already; you only have a year to complete the sublimation. I know that you don’t want to squander your time, so you better be up and moving”.

“Wait!” Clark stopped the old man.

“Yes”.

“What happens if I fail? I mean what happens if I fail the sublimation process? Does anything happen to me, anything detrimental?”

“Yes, you die”. The old man stated matter-of-factly.

Gulp!



Clark was not given any time to question or absorb the new circumstances before being thrown into a new schedule, which was surprisingly studying a book.

According to the old man, he was just a random consciousness that was created to facilitate the sublimation process.

Of course, Clark asked who created him but the old man said that he didn’t know, making him even more clueless about his situation.

The old man didn’t care though, he went inside the house, straight to his parent’s room which prompted an uncomfortable shift from Clark before he returned with a book. A very big book.

The old man stated imperiously after coming back. “Read this book, comprehend what it entails and create a self-created technique from its boundless knowledge in a year”.

“If you don’t have a basic mastery of it in a year, you will die!”

Clark was like. “What the hell? Creating a self-created technique relies a lot on luck, inspiration, enlightenment, you don’t expect me to be lucky all the time right?”

“That’s why you have this book, it’s for inspiration”.

“But…”

“Your time starts now”.

Clark felt a little bummed on being talked down so casually, he wanted to protest but he held himself back in the end.

He still didn’t understand this world and the so-called sublimation process yet. If he had the choice, he would learn no shit but the problem was that he didn’t want to die.

Reining his impulses in and suppressing his frustration, he devoted all his attention to understanding the knowledge recorded in the book.

>The Deity>

This was the title of the book. Its cover was extremely hard, Clark guessed that it was made from an exotic metal, making him gasp at such lascivious spending of money.

“Well, maybe this is not even real, the old geezer said everything here is made from my consciousness”.

He didn’t care much about these questions though; he was determined to understand the book’s contents and if possible, get inspiration to create a new self-created technique.

After he finally accepted his circumstances, he discovered that this process was even to his benefit.

If he created a new self-created technique, he would become stronger which was a great boon to himself.

Dragon breaks the ranks- which is still his only self-created technique already saved his life on more than a dozen occasions, creating a new one would only do him good and not bad.

As he read the book, he didn’t know how but he felt that his comprehension speed increased a lot compared to before. He guessed that this was another benefit of his fusion with the bean quadrant enhancer.

Despite his vastly increased comprehension speed, to his dismay, he spent a whole month here without being able to comprehend half of the book’s content.

“Is this a prank? How can an inspiration source to create a self-created technique be so complicated? The last time, I created it just by watching an animated movie”.

Another month later, he already finished reading the book but he was still in the process of comprehending everything that was inside it.

After reading it for so long, he had to admit that the author of the book was a genius. The book not only incorporated medical theories, but technological, martial art theories, and even mythical theories.

The combination of so many theories brought together a terrifying combination that despite just comprehending a part of it, he felt that he could wield a world-destroying power by creating something from it.

By now, he no longer needed the old man’s encouragement, his spirit was ignited as he tried his best to come up with something tangible from this new knowledge that he just learned.

For the next month, apart from going out to eat, have his bath, and other minor things, he never left the book.

He no longer even spoke with the old man, he directed all his attention to deciphering the secrets that were hidden in this mysterious book.

In the 4th month since he started reading the book, he finally experienced a change. He felt like he just understood something that has been trying to evade him for the past few months.

His heart was filled with joy on this discovery. With his eyes tightly closed, he contemplated what he just comprehended in silence, trying different scenarios in his head.

An hour later, when his eyes finally opened, they gleamed with a wisdom that was not present there before.

As soon as his eyes focused, he saw the old man before him.

“Congratulations, you have successfully crossed the comprehension stage. Your comprehension time is average, you have less than 8 months to complete the last 2 processes”.

“Now, you have entered the experience stage. Get yourself prepared; the second stage will start in 30 minutes”.

Clark nodded absentmindedly, still engrossed in the joyful feeling that he experienced on comprehending all the knowledge stored in the book.

To his dismay, 30 minutes later, he was rudely drawn out of his joyful mood and dragged directly into the fire.

“From your memory, I already detected the self-created technique that you are in the process of creating. Now, I will use the completed technique on you till you are familiar with it. Get ready”.

“Wait…”

Bam!

A fist flew at Clark at a mind-blowing speed. Before he could react, his head was hammered with force as he flew to the back of the sitting room.

His head hurt like hell; pain erupted all over his body but he was not allowed to rest. The old man appeared before him again the next moment, the devilish fist flying at him again.

His eyes gleamed slightly, he knew that this was the self-created technique that he envisioned, but having to suffer from it still left him uncomfortable.

He tried to retaliate but…

Bam!

“I will punch you!” Bam!

“I will kill you!” bam!

“Ahh!!!” Bam! Bam! Bam!

For one month straight, he was subjected to this hellish treatment. He only had breaks to eat, the rest time was him being a punching bag for a technique that he envisioned creating.

He didn’t even know how he was still alive; he was practically being crushed to meat paste every second of his life.

At the end of the 5th month, he heard something that made him cry tears of joy and relief.

“Congratulations, you have successfully crossed the experience stage. You have experienced the feeling of your technique, now all you have to do for the sublimation to be complete is to use it in a battle”.

“You have entered the implementation stage!”