Within a dome of glass sat a cross-legged figure, even breaths akin to those of a slumbering dragon echoing off the ice-colored walls. The figure's eyelids fluttered slightly, then opened to reveal a pair of blood red irises from which boundless pressure escaped. Kashi took a deep breath and the pressure significantly reduced as he released his breath. His gaze remained cold, but the suffocating presence had receded to its depths.

Kashi rose from the floor, tired bones creaking in protest from the move. He rotated his arms and neck and kicked forward to put those complaints to rest then walked to the door. He placed a palm on the door and it willingly pulled open to reveal someone at the other end who had been patiently awaiting his arrival.

Kashi bitterly smiled at the faint feeling of disappointment that arose within him. Was it because of Jade's last words to Suzuki?

Zeing Ashqoj (Zain Ash-koy) caught the brief expression that fleeted across the daeben's face. He grinned as he pushed off the wall he had been resting on, "Sorry to disappoint you."

Kashi resolutely kept a poker face, refusing to fall for the obvious trap. "Nothing of the sort. I am in fact delighted to meet you." Kashi held out his hand. "After everything I've done, I think it is fair to give me the next piece right?"

Zeing's eyes flashed. "When did you realize?"

Kashi shrugged. "Since we fought. There are extremely few beings that can possess the power you have." Pointing at the dwarf's forehead, he continued, " Plus there's the mark on your forehead. Though my thoughts were only confirmed through your nonchalant reaction to Aygor."

"HAHAHAHA!" Zeing threw his head back and laughed animatedly. "So I gave myself away! Good, Good!" With an air of over-familiarity, his left arm clasped round the daeben's neck and dragged him up the flight of stairs at the end of the corridor. "Like you said, you do deserve the next piece, but I'll only hand it over on one condition."

Kashi frowned. He hated ultimatums, even if they were given by a being a thousand times more powerful than he was. "What conditions?"

Zeing's right hand waved three fingers in front of the daeben. "For the next three months, devote three hours every day to me."

Kashi's brow rose. "Why?"

"Your martial art is terrible!" Zeing flatly stated.

"That's bullshit," Kashi confidently retorted. Although he would not go as far as to call Suzuki and Razznik the strongest martial artists in their respective worlds, the two of them had learned from various masters, and fought multiple practitioners. Kashi had absorbed the styles of these two and even improved on them, so much so, the game system had created a brand new martial art as a result.

Zeing did not react to the daeben's tone, choosing only to continue with a smirk, "Heh, I don't know who your teachers are or were. I will admit that they must be a couple of capable bastards to have taught someone like you to such a degree. If I were to liken your teachers to a couple exquisite paintings, you would be a rubbish mishmash drawing by an amateur who thinks that by haphazardly combining several original paintings, he can suddenly produce a masterpiece." Zeing stroked his beard, pleased with his genius in using the painting analogy. "As you now, you surely have a lot of skills and are definitely a genius in combining them to suit your needs... but you lack an identity of your own."

"Identity?"

"Yes, Identity." The two men were so absorbed in their discussion they did not pay attention to the dwarves they passed on their seemingly aimless walk. "A man's method of fighting speaks to his identity. It is a reinforcement of his ideals, one on which he can always call on in the midst of battle. Tell me, what are your ideals? Are you a shield, protecting your allies from harm? A spear blinded by rage who seeks to destroy the enemy without regard to your own life? Do you fight to live, or live to fight? All these answers can be found within your fists." Zeing pointed ahead of them. "Look up."

Kashi realized he had been led to the surface. The world was illuminated by the pale moonlight, hundreds of erected lanterns bathing swathes of red earth in a fiery glow as humming dwarves went about creating a new homes on the surface from scratch.

Zeing pointed at the earth. "You are like this land. Although you have erected sturdy walls to protect yourself from harm, you still lack an identity of your own. This land, like you, will only truly possess an identity when it has been filled with people and buildings. The arrangement of these buildings and the caliber of people are what will decide if it ends up as a behemoth, a giant turtle, or a great waste of space." A strange looking piece of wood resembling a dead branch appeared in his outstretched hand. He handed it over to the daeben, then returned to the palace leaving behind the words, "Have you decided what you will fill your fists with?"

"What are my fists filled with?" Kashi muttered in a low voice, brows furrowed. Looking back, it was exactly as Zeing said. Suzuki's fists were filled with the desire to get stronger and live. This was why he sought stronger enemies, but preferred to dodge and counterattacks rather than block or preemptively launch attacks. Razznik's on the other hand, was filled with the desire to vent outrage on his surroundings without care for his own well-being.

But what about Kashi? His love for fighting was inherited from Suzuki, and yes, he did use a bow, but his fights lacked an identity. There was nothing he could point to confidently and say that was the way he fought. One moment, he was an artillery shell launched into his enemies, the next, a slimy snake meandering around a battlefield, and another a stealthy archer. In some cases, these attributes would be praised a sign of his versatility. But Kashi knew this was only in the case when the fighter willingly and consciously made a choice to be versatile. In his case, he just happened to be an amalgamation of a mad, vanguard warrior and a cold, careful specialist and as such carried those attributes in him.

Kashi the daeben was yet to have an identity of his own...

Unfortunately, any further pondering on the subject was interrupted by bubbles of warm yellow light akin to miniature suns that coalesced around the branch on Kashi's hand, gently lifting it so it hovered in front of him.

The other branch in Kashi's inventory appeared next to the other, wrapped in an a similarly yellow blanket of light. The branches were blocked from view as the lights surrounding them turned opaque and formed a pair of large seeds.

An enormous aura exploded from these seeds, forcing Kashi to shield his eyes from the sharp winds as he took several steps back. The suffocating aura was so large, it pierced through the ground and alarmed every being for several kilometers. Unconcerned by the commotion caused by them, the eggs slowly approached each other.

A giant pillar of light erupted to the heavens, piercing through the skies the moment the seeds touched, announcing the birth of a Primordial weapon of the gods. Once again several powers around Destia cast fervent gazes towards the east where the pillar burned brightly against the rising sun as if to challenge its brilliance.

If there were those unsure of what the [God's Apparition] meant, almost everyone understood the pillar of light represented the birth of a transcendental power or treasure. Regardless of which, numerous experts' eyes turned red as they made up their minds to travel east and find the sources of these back-to-back phenomena.

Kashi had read enough light novels, Chinese Xianxia, and American comics to imagine the thoughts running through the experts' heads at that moment. However, rather than fear or hesitation, there remained only a slight smile on his face. He did not fear challenges. In fact he only feared the lack of challenges. Zeing's parting words still lingered at the back of the daeben's mind after all. He guessed he might find his own identity in the midst of fighting.

Kashi raised his right hand as the light pillar gently receded, leaving a beautiful wooden shortbow about a meter in length to drop onto his palm. The simple bow did not have much in the way of aesthetics save for leaf patterns gently etched onto its frame, and pair of quilin heads that seemed to swallow the handle at either end. The daeben winced in pain as a torrential force burst out of the bow and into his bloodstream through his palm the moment it made contact.

Kashi instinctively wrapped his fingers around the bow's handle even as the invading energy wrecked havoc on his insides. The mass crashed against his lungs, smashed his ribs apart, then attempted to barge into his heart with the aura of a general.

Sensing the rude intruder, the Dragon Soul asleep within the daeben's heart awoke with a raging roar. Scales suffused with red lightning grew across heart's walls, violently smashing the invading energy.

By this point, even Kashi as strong as he was, dropped to a knee, blood seeping through several pores around his body as the ancient powers fought for supremacy over his heart. Kashi did not know why, but he felt he should neither release the bow nor allow himself to lose consciousness. Unfortunately, although he could complete the first with willpower alone, the game system had begun to force the unconscious state upon him as it felt this was too much pain for him to bear.

(A/N: Note that this is separate from Out of Body Training Punishment. At that time, the game did not let him lose consciousness since it would not be much of a punishment if he slept through the whole thing.)

Kashi bit his lip in an attempt to force himself awake but he could not gather his scattering consciousness to focus on the pain. Severely weakened, the daeben could no longer hold himself up and fell towards the floor. Unexpectedly, rather than the expected hard ground, he collapsed into something soft.

"Why are you always covered in blood every time we meet?"

Kashi gazed up into the familiar pair of greenish-blue eyes but only managed a weak smile as Lunette sat on the floor and placed his head on her lap. She measured the unassuming bow around which his fingers maintained a death grip. "Are you not going to let that go? It seems to be hurting you." Kashi's stubborn gaze caused her to release a light sigh. "Fine. Who told me to fall for an idiot." Her resplendent smile capable of brightening the darkest of days was directed at the man on her lap as she resignedly began to sing a soft tune with a slightly quick tempo, not paying any attention to the curious dwarfs that had gathered around them. Luckily most of the Maggots were leveling by clearing out the monsters in the middle ring or else Kashi would have died from Taiga's relentless harassment.

Kashi suppressed a light moan as cool energy suffused through his veins, bringing along relief he could not put into words. Even the mass of energy smashing against his heart seemed to be affected by this energy, momentarily seizing its berserk nature.

It paused, hovering silently above the heart, constantly watched by the wary dragon soul. Before Kashi or the dragon could wrap their head around its sudden change in attitude, it burst into countless tiny orbs, resembling winter snow. This time, despite the dragon's desperate efforts, the orbs gently phased through the electricity and scales like they weren't there.

Within Kashi's soul space, the dragon soul snarled at the light orbs raining down around it, but strangely no longer attacked. This was because the berserk intent from the energies was gone, replaced with a somewhat nostalgic warmth. It did not take long before an ocean of orbs formed around the dragon soul which found the ocean weirdly comforting.

RRRumble!

The dragon soul tensed and shut its eyes as the orbs simultaneously exploded with blinding bright light. It opened its eyes a moment later to fight itself in a small meadow with a thirty meter tree at its center. Though it was confused about how the formless soul space suddenly had an earth and sky, it ambled towards the tree like it was the most natural thing in the world and lay beneath its far reaching branches, then closed its eyes as it entered a deep slumber.

"You look happy," Lunette commented, inwardly heaving a sigh of relief as Kashi rose from her lap. No matter how thick her skin was, she was still sufficiently embarrassed by the gazes cast in their direction.

"You could say that," Kashi chortled, unable to hide the excited gleam in his eyes. Sitting cross-legged, he inspected the bow which had started all this.

Kashi's grip tightened around the bow in shocked joy as he examined the options connected to the bow. This weapon was just too Over Powered! He could understand as it was a Unique Divine Level weapon, but still! With that attack power, he could confidently use this weapon till Level 150 and maybe even up to Lv.200 without an urgent need to swap weapons.

With a satisfied smile, Kashi tried to store it in his inventory, but the attempt was foiled by a prompt questioning if he wanted it stored in his soulspace or in his inventory. Kashi stored the bow in his soulspace, making a mental note to specify next time so as to avoid annoying pop-ups.

No sooner had the weapon disappeared from the daeben's hand, did a shadow loom over him, blocking the moonlight. Kashi looked up to see Anton Xafier clad in a simple robe, smiling at him.

"Kashi-dono is truly favored by the gods," Xafier commented with a laugh as he extended his right hand, voice containing slight traces of envy. More importantly however, Kashi noticed there was no trace of greed in his tone or eyes.

Envy was a natural human emotion to someone who had something you did not, so Kashi did not mind it at all. He accepted the dwarf's hand and rose to his feet, then turned and helped Lunette to hers before he joked, "With so much luck in such a short period of time, I fear I will be in for plenty of bad luck in the future."

Xafier snorted, "In your case, I feel bad for whoever it is that is placed in charge of giving you bad luck. I fear he or she would only lament to the gods of your capabilities."

Lunette lightly shook her head as she watched these two grown men banter so childishly. "I will leave you two to your toys."

Kashi's heart jumped ever so slightly. Without even knowing why, he called out, "Wait, um—"

Lunette noticed the hesitation in his eyes and chuckled. "I am not going far. I am only assisting the dwarfs—"

Kashi's brow rose in confusion.

Xafier, realizing the misunderstanding, quickly moved to dispel it. "Ms. Falsetto's songs have a rejuvenating effect stronger than any potion we have. The workers usually take swap breaks to revel in her performances and regain their energy."

"Hey, no fair Xafier-san," Lunette pouted. She raised her right hand and flexed her non-existent muscles. Patting it with an indignant expression, she complained, "I do carry a block or two you, know? I am quite strong." Without waiting for Kashi's stunned expression to relax, she turned to the dwarfs who had gathered because of the pillar of light. "Okay, let's go back to work shall we?" She walked down the steps, calling out to the daeben as she neared the bottom. "When you boys are done, you can come lend a hand too."

Xafier chuckled, "We will keep that in mind Ms." Casting a gaze at Kashi, he smirked, "Kashi-dono is truly blessed by the gods."

Slightly embarrassed, Kashi quickly changed the topic. "Was there a reason you came to find me?"

Xafier's smile stiffened, his eyes growing cold. "There is someone I think you would like to meet."

Kashi, intrigued by the sudden change in the dwarf's aura, questioned, "Who?"

"The traitor of our people and chief researcher under Froy. He is called Jerxas."

********

A/N: Hey Guys... This chapter's a bit on the short side (by my standards) but please bear with me. Just about managed to squeeze this one in during a rare break i gave myself over the weekend. Exams end on Wednesday, so I'm keeping my focus 100 so I can ace my courses, and in turn be allowed to post more of these... hehehe..

Back to the story now: This chapter ends what was a hybrid of a 'reactionary/upgrade arc', where everyone reacts to some event that happened a few chapters ago, slash powering up the crew for some next level battle. From next chapter onwards, the pacing is gonna speed up a lot... we've got a buncha major fights coming up, some minor battles, strategic conquest advancement and minor character developments coming up... all climaxing to a major reveal I've had in my head since this volume started.

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and story in general. I'll work hard this holiday to increase my uploads. There are approximately, 20--25chapters left. Lets see if I can shave off at least half that number before New Years.. 

Good Luck to those in the trenches of Examination!!! (Though you probably shouldn't be reading this.... teehee :))