Dante, Slessor, and Humphrey were led into the rather deceptively spacious cabin. It was furnished quite well and had everything they would need to survive here for an extended period of time.
The rooms were marked by number so Dante obviously walked to the one labeled '1' which made the eyes of Humphrey and Slessor flash with unwillingness. Xue Bing and Slyphia smiled when they saw these looks and did nothing to deter them.
ραndαsnοvεl.cοm Dante entered the room and saw that there was a bed to the side of the room along with a desk as well as a praying mat in the center with small vents around. When his AI chip connected to the facilities, he realized that the vents contained various scents and incenses he could freely use at any time in order to help him focus.
Dante directly sat on the praying mat and crossed his legs. He felt natural in this pose, and he couldn't help but remember his breathing training in the virtual world. As such, he subconsciously began breathing properly just like that.
When he was about to enter a daze, Xue Bing entered his room and removed the chair from the desk, and sat on it casually. She glanced at the startled Dante who had been broken out of his breathing routine with a smile.
"Well, my dear number 1 student, it's time for your teacher to do her job. Let's explain a few things for you so you understand what you're doing."
"Firstly, the Black Land. This area formed before we discovered the Zero Gate and has been here for as long as we have been here. It covers around 300 miles around the entrance to the Zero Gate in all directions."
"The soil itself has no special properties. We have tried transplanting it to see whether we can recreate its energy production ability, but it doesn't work. On top of that, the energy that you require to advance your superpower doesn't come from the ground or the air, but precisely from the gateway to the world behind the Zero Gate."
Xue Bing leaned back into her seat slightly. "Don't ask about the world behind the Zero Gate, it's not part of today's info dump and you will slowly learn more about it as you go on during the year."
"Secondly, superpower ranks. How do we rank superpowers based on their own ability? We have three different criteria or categories. The first is the potency or the actual power of your superpower. This one is easy enough to track as everyone starts at the F Rank regardless of how awesome your superpower is."
"As long as you haven't absorbed the energy in the Black Land or Zero Gate to advance your superpower, you will always be at the F Rank. The second is talent. This is basically your recorded starting point for your power, which we use to loosely gauge the end point of your specific superpower."
"The talent rating is what has divided you all up like different factions during the warring states period. The final category is the potential, and we are going to find out about this today."
"Potential is gauged simply by how effective your absorption of the energy is and how quickly you are able to raise your superpower to the E Rank. From that, we can extrapolate your highest limit within the timeframe granted by the school within your 5-year stay."
Xue Bing smiled, but her smile was not very encouraging. "Today, your rankings will shift a bit after we discover your relative potential. So those who were suppressed beneath you might rise up to surpass you after today. How does it feel, are you dissatisfied that your position is being challenged just after a few days of enjoying it?"
Dante was silent for a short while and nodded. "Not too pleased, but it's not up to me."
Xue Bing nodded sympathetically. "That's right, and you're smart for realizing that faster than the half-breed snake. Your goal today is to make sure that your potential rating is as high as possible to keep your position."
"Back to what I was saying, the third thing to know is about the energy itself. We call it Zero Energy, and it's only found here in the entire universe. You cannot collect it, you cannot store it, you cannot replicate it."
"We have spent centuries and quadrillions of Etrans trying to study it, but we understand as much about it as we did when we first found it. Do not bother trying to understand it either, just absorb it for your own purposes and move on."
Xue Bing crossed her legs casually. "Finally, about superpowers ranking up. When you first absorb this energy, you will feel it entering your body but you will not be able to tell where it has gone or how to control it. At your level, you can only absorb mindlessly."
"You will know all this when you break through because you will release an energy fluctuation that only those with superpowers can sense, and you will unlock your soul space, which is where your superpower resides."
Xue Bing got up and dusted her butt. "As for what the soul space is, that is too early in your syllabus for you to know. Start absorbing and let's see how long it takes you to reach E-Rank. If you want to get an EX Rank in this regard, you need to only take a few minutes. Good luck."
She opened a portal that led to Slessor's room and then walked in without even looking back. When the portal closed, Dante lowered his head and became pensive. He quickly digested all the information he received and then settled down to absorb the energy he needed.
He was on a timer to prove his potential, so each second counted. He did not use any incense or scents and just followed the description Xue Bing gave him back when they were on their way here.
Soon, he sensed the strange energy again, this Zero Energy, and began to consider absorbing it. The moment it moved into his body, Dante felt a strange sensation all over his skin. It was like being thrust into a breezy room with a powerful fan blowing on your skin.
As the energy coursed through his body and rushed to his head, he also felt like his body was cooling down after a hot day at the gym. It was an extremely comfortable and pleasant feeling that one could get lost in, and you could be sure that Dante folded immediately.
He entered a sort of daydream-like daze where he was partially conscious and partially unconscious. He could feel the time passing, but each hour felt like a second had passed by, and he only woke when he felt his mind explode.
A pain lanced through his head that caused him to gasp and grab his forehead before he was dragged into a black space. When he looked around, he saw that he was floating in a starry sky like area that was devoid of anything else.
However when he turned to look behind and then upwards, his heart clenched. He saw a huge circular gateway that showed his living room on Earth on the other side. Dante could even see the finer details of the room, and even switch it to his bedroom at his true home or the bedroom of his apartment.
These were places he had been in and used his superpower to travel to and fro from the two universes. He instinctively knew that he could now choose any destination to 'fast travel' to, which consisted of his own universe or within the Eternal Universe.
It involved Dante forming a Quantum Tunnel to travel between places he had marked with his Quantum Marker. The actual name of the upgraded ability was called Quantum Teleportation, which meant that to some extent, Dante now had the ability to teleport.
The huge circular gateway above him was for cross-universal teleportation. If he was teleporting within the same universe, he only needed to use a single thought to move.
However, that was not all. The Quantum Teleportation ability was an upgrade of the basic utility of his Quantum Entanglement. He had unlocked another new major ability after climbing to the E-Rank, and when he received its details, he was thoroughly shocked.
It was called Quantum Transposition, and its effect was actually frighteningly simple. It allowed Dante to enter the Quantum Realm with his real body and soul!
This meant that Dante could now enter the Etraverse worlds himself! This was not very beneficial given that he would be entering with his real body, and most worlds required the user to go through life-and-death scenarios for training.
After all, the main value of virtual reality was to experience reality or things in reality without the consequences reflecting on your physical body or mind. If Dante entered a quantum world and died, he would die forever and ever.
However, if you considered worlds like the Apocalypse World where a free superpower was given, there was a thunderous implication behind this new ability!
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