Chapter 1635: Wall of Blocks

Adam completed the first part of the training more quickly and easily than Tron had expected. That was good news overall, but Adam didn’t know that Tron would now be setting increasingly difficult trials.

Either way, if Adam wanted to move forward and get stronger, he had to pass all the trials, and at this point, he hadn’t even gotten to the Dark Energy part yet.

"WHAT?!" Adam exclaimed, staring at the seventy steel blocks. "Are you kidding me? How do you expect me to destroy them all with a single punch!?"

Adam wasn’t sure he could do it, even if it were ordinary steel, let alone steel imbued with the Gray Sky’s energy. Its strength was on par with the objects in the Primal Lands.

In response, Tron shrugged.

"That’s not my problem. Besides, you don’t need to turn all these blocks to dust with your punch. You just need to damage them, and that’s it. If you can’t do it using the Ancient Energy, well... that means you’ll keep trying until you can. You have no other choice."

Adam frowned, turning over his shoulder.

"And what are you going to do?"

Tron pulled his phone out of his pocket.

"I’ll watch a TV show. Anything would be more interesting than watching your attempts and whining."

Twitch. Twitch. Twitch.

Adam’s eyebrow twitched. Right now, he wanted to punch Tron’s face, not steel blocks.

"Tsk, fine, I’ll do it. I’m sure it’ll be just as easy as the first trial!"

Tron smirked, heading toward the table. "Don’t count on it. Last time you exceeded my expectations because you’d already learned to compress your energy to the limit during the battles. Now, you won’t be able to get through this training part with just one trick."

Adam muttered something under his breath, but Tron couldn’t hear him anymore.

’Alright, Silvana isn’t here, and Tron won’t help me until I’m close to victory. But... How am I supposed to do this?’

Before, Adam would have definitely struck a few times without thinking about a plan, but now he decided not to rush.

Tap.

He sat cross-legged and rested his head on his fist with a pensive look.

’Hmm... The essence of the Ancient Energy lies in its explosive power. I can channel a massive amount of star energy into my punch and just a tiny fraction of the ancient energy and get two different results. Tron is right. I’m unlikely to be able to destroy them all — I need to damage them. Does that mean a simple scratch or even a small hole will suffice?’

A few minutes later, Adam stood up, which caught Tron’s attention. He looked up from his phone to glance at Adam.

’Does he already have a plan? Huh, faster than I thought. It seems that since our last meeting, he’s not only gotten stronger but also more mature.’

Tap.

Adam placed his palm against the first steel block and, without using any energy, delivered a precise, swift strike.

BAM!

A tremor ran through the steel block as a deep dent remained at the point of impact. Whether it had been an ordinary stone wall or even plain steel, Adam would have destroyed the block in front of him. Now, all he had managed was this.

He wasn’t upset. He just nodded and lowered his gaze.

The purple energy flowed from his fingertips, condensing into a tiny star that hovered between his palms.

"Even water under enough pressure can cut through steel, yet you can use paper cups to drink from. It all depends on its form and density. What’s stopping me from doing the same thing right now?’

Ripple. Ripple. Ripple.

A tremor rippled through the space as the purple star rose and fell.

"Alright, seventy blocks, right? I can do this."

He nodded and clenched the star in his right hand. His palm glowed brightly, filling with energy, as he took a step back and struck the first steel block with all his might.

Adam’s eyes flashed as all the energy burst forth into a dense laser, no thicker than a human finger.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

One block after another, the laser pierced every obstacle in its path.

A satisfied smirk appeared on Adam’s face. He couldn’t see it, but he heard every crack, so he knew his laser had already pierced thirty blocks, forty remained.

’Come on, I used so much energy that it should have been enough for at least a hundred steel walls!’

Perhaps, if these had actually been just walls, Adam would have been right, but...

BAM! BAM! Bam...!

Suddenly, a final crack was heard as Adam’s ears perked up and his eyes widened in disbelief.

If he heard correctly, his laser had passed through fifty-one blocks.

Whoooooooosh.

To make sure, Adam ran forward.

"SHIT!" Adam punched the nearest block, looking at the 52nd. It was intact, unlike the 51st.

Tron glanced at his side.

’Not bad, not bad at all. I knew that, given who he is, fifty blocks wouldn’t be enough. He would have passed my trial again, not through technique but through pure power.’

He looked at the hollow left by the laser.

’If his energy control had been just one level higher, he would have destroyed all seventy blocks. All he needed to do was compress the laser to the thickness of a needle. Well... Even I’m barely capable of that.’

It was a good attempt, but now Adam had to realize that he needed to come up with something else if he wanted to pass this trial.

...

Tap.

At the same time, his Operator was preparing for her trial. Like Adam, she had come here of her own free will.

The only difference was that while Adam’s obstacle was massive steel blocks, Silvana was about to face Riska in the heat of cooking.

"Alright, Silvana, let’s start with the basics for making an apple pie."

She took a knife and plunged it into the center of the cutting board.

"We need to slice the apples as thinly as possible, our goal is laser-thin."

Silvana nodded confidently.

"I’m ready."