Chapter 148 The Home Universe's Zero Gate
Anyway, it would take around 42 hours to complete all the techniques given that the AIs were creating a total of 50,000, with about 1000 of different types for each category from both worlds.
That meant 1000 Meditation techniques, 1000 Knight Breathing, 1000 Internal Art, 1000 External Arts, and so on. In this case, even if the protagonist chosen by Dante is a picky fellow, he would definitely be inundated with choices.
In fact, this even allowed Dante to invest in more than one possible protagonist. A whole faction did not need so many techniques. Even the Celestial Arcanists with a 9th Rank Mage had only about fewer than a hundred meditation techniques.
Anyway, there was no rush to grow the protagonist in question so quickly. He could begin after he had checked to see if his home universe had a Zero Gate and made plans in that regard.
There were 2 days and 10 hours to go, and he could use this time to either practice the Primal Ape technique and bring it near completion or do the same for the Raging Blood Halberd Technique.
In truth, Dante was quite satisfied not only with his current progress but also with his future prospects and his current powers. However, Dante felt that something was missing, and that feeling began to grow even more.
He had the Inferno Ascension technique, which at each level of its practice, granted a new ability that formed a superpower of its own.
The first level granted basic fire manipulation,
The second level granted spirit sense,
The third level granted mental damage while ignoring physical defense,
The fourth level granted literal devouring power where he could even bestow 'devoured' essence to others,
The fifth level granted alternate dantians for multiple internal force quantities,
The sixth level granted a free and near-permanent berserk with no downsides,
The seventh level allowed him to enslave foes into his demon thralls,
The eighth level allowed him to passively cultivate as well as granted near-infinite internal force during combat,
The ninth level allowed him to deceive people with illusions or even create a permanent clone to act as him,
And the tenth level allowed him to coalesce his internal force into True Qi, which had the same miraculous effects as spirit energy.
His Void Speaker Chant allowed him to climb the 10 levels and 9 ranks of mages with no limit except his talent, and each level of the mage granted immense power and utility. Spells didn't need to be for combat only; they could also be for support or even miscellaneous tasks.
Even if he decided to change his mind and stop specializing in the space element to increase his power multiplier, he would still gain so many elements to use from the 3rd Rank and above that elemental superpower holders like Humphrey might not hold a candle to him.
Slessor, for example, could not match him with her superpower of Spatial Folding as Dante could achieve something similar himself with just a first-rank spell. If he learned the second space spells, he might even be able to fold the arrogant lamia woman into a spatial cube.
In truth, whether it was these two methods, plus Quantum Entanglement, which was the foundation for all, Dante seemed to have all his sections covered. However, at the end of the day, Dante was nothing more than a human.
And any human, once given a single yard, would want a mile. Dante began to crave more, but he had already spoken with Beatrice and she could not offer any worlds more convenient and easy to initiate himself than the two worlds he had already entered.
All other worlds could theoretically grant him power, but some could not be practiced in the real world and could only be done in the quantum worlds; some powers were incompatible with the laws of the real world and would likely not work, among other reasons.
Dante sighed. In the end, he could only go back to practicing the Primal Ape Technique because it was the one that was lagging behind between the two techniques, and he preferred to break through them back to back.
Maybe once he maxed out all his current techniques, or maybe if he raised Quantum Entanglement to a higher level, he could acquire something that might allow him to step further.
Whatever the case, 2 days and 10 hours translated to 58 hours, and Dante spent almost all of them either training or recharging. 1 hour spent training the Primal Ape technique and 6 hours spent charging meant that Dante went through 8 cycles of training and 8 cycles of sleeping.
This meant that there were only two hours from the destination, so Dante stopped here and glanced at his progress so far.
?Physical Powers: Primal Ape Technique (Level 2: Beginner Knight, 73%).?
Hah, just imagine how the faces of knights in the Magus World would look when they found out that someone took about 2 or so days to almost cross the full threshold of Beginner Knight.
Dante only felt amused for a bit before he switched on his vice admiral's exosuit and armed himself with two dark matter pistols and one psion rifle. Despite the protests of his lovely android guardians, he returned to the ship alone and decided to wait the remaining two hours.
"It is good to have you back, Master Dante. I have calculated that we are 118 minutes away from our destination," Solaris greeted him immediately.
"Mmm. Is there anything I need to take note of regarding coming out of hyperspace?" Dante asked prudently.
"Not when you're on the Solaris Horizon E7! Lower model ships might yield some turbulence when exiting hyperspace, causing shaking, instability, and even a mild chance of vomiting. However, this ship can claim to be incapable of such mistakes and will provide you with the smoothest service throughout your cosmic journeys," Solaris boasted, a hint of arrogance in its tone.
Dante smiled with amusement. The AI was definitely boasting but not bragging, especially since it really was one of the best models in the eternal universe.
If a Bugatti bragged that it was the fastest car in the world, you could not make fun of it because that was true, and it had the right to be arrogant. Same with the Solaris ship.
Dante settled in and used this remaining time to go over his plans and thoughts. He was previously thinking about powers he lacked, but he had a feeling and not a solid idea, so he wanted to think about it.
(Un)fortunately for him, by the time he arrived, he still had not gotten what he wanted mentally. Still, he was pleased to open his eyes as Solaris announced that they were now exiting hyperspace.
With a familiar cracking visual, as if someone had punched space open, they entered the 'normal' universe and hovered in space slightly. Dante rose to his feet in shock, as what was before him was something he had never seen before.
What did one expect to feel when faced with one of the universe's greatest wonders? The one that humans had dreamed about possessing and controlling, the one that instilled fear and worry, and the one that even spawned the majority of fictional archetypes to this day?
The almighty black hole?
Only, Dante could tell it was not a black hole, even with Solaris having to scan the area. As someone with two spatial spiritual cores, he had at least that level of cognizance. Rather, it was just? a gigantic black spot in the background of the universe, from which nearly visible black energy seemed to leak.
Even here, zillions of kilometers away, more than a million light-years away from it, Dante could not see the top or bottom of this gaping maw. All the nearby space debris, like small asteroids and some tiny planets, were completely coated black, thoroughly contaminated by the Zero Energy leaking from the Zero Gate.
If Dante were a betting man, he would say that those asteroids were similar to black lands of a sort. While he stood there in awe and amazement, the Solaris AI reported something that caused his heart to sink.
"Master Dante, I have completed a quantum scan of the nearby space sector. I have detected no planets with life capabilities, but millions of lifeforms inhabit this sector, specifically around that bizarre black hole."
"What do you mean? How are these lifeforms existing if they are not on planets capable of sustaining life?" Dante asked with a frown.
"From my detections, it seems that they have a special device similar to your exosuit but extremely inferior that allows them to survive in the void of space. The variety of species numbers in the millions, and there are hardly any two entities of the same species," Solaris answered.
"They are spread out across the various asteroids or planets surrounding this black gate, seated in a seemingly meditation-like posture as they absorb waves of the leaking energy at various intensities," Solaris revealed, causing Dante's expression to change greatly.
Read 𝓁at𝙚st chapters at (f)re𝒆we(b)novel.com Only