Way of the Knights

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"Whoa! I got a beard and mustache now. Gotta shave that off…"

Inside the crown space, Raven could be found relaxing inside a tub of warm water. At first he was silent since he was incredibly exhausted from all of the intense training he's been doing but once he saw his reflection on the water, he noticed that he already grew a thin beard and mustache.

Raven's focus had been incredibly on point that he had completely neglected his physical appearance - not that he was paying much attention to it anyways, this normally happens whenever he's in seclusion, he wasn't new to this sensation. 

Nevertheless, he had to make sure that he's cleanly shaved before he exits. He even has to make sure that he cuts his own hair to an appropriate length before going out. 

Although he's been here for nearly six months, only one day has passed in the real world. Imagine what his teammates would think he suddenly came out of his room in this current appearance? Wouldn't that be the same as admitting to them that he has outrageous secret? Just for that reason alone, he had no choice but to place extra attention to these minor details. 

Nearly six months has passed since he entered this place and Raven had definitely improved upon many areas. 

First and foremost, he's now able to use Spacetime Laws more comfortably than before. While he still can't open a rend large enough for him to use in the Spacetime Void, he could now at least make sure that the rend he created is stable enough to last for at least one minute. Additionally, he had also improved on the additional skills he just picked up. 

Another point of improvement to him is his physical attributes. Due to the steady and constant strengthening of his body thanks to Cosmic Energy, the monstrous strength he possess was steadily rising each passing day. Right now, a serious punch of his laced with killing intent could produce an astonishing force that could destroy a whole city or two. Mixed that up with his destruction laws and his ferocity will be dialed up to eleven. 

His raw speed is just as insane as his strength. Raven had no troubles running at the speed of sound for quite sometime and his precise with his speed too. He could accurately change course or avoid things even at that speed, meaning that he's perfectly aware of his surroundings even though he's going fast. If things go hairy, he could dial up his speed to break through the sound barrier, doubling or quite possible tripling his speed for sometime. However this is for emergency only, and Raven's still needs more practice. 

Raven's raw strength is just absurdly ridiculous right now. But that's not all, there's still a lot of things to him that could truly bring his opponents down on their knees. There's still his techniques, skills, laws, equipment, and intellect. All of which are enough to make any of his opponents cry in unfairness, it could be said that Raven's on his way to the path of invincibility. 

However, even with all of this in mind, Raven still thinks that he's still lacking. And considering the goal that he had set up for himself, in addition to all of the windfalls he experienced along the way, in a sense he's right. 

Raven had no intentions of being a hypocrite. He knows that his road so far had been smooth sailing. Aside from a few hiccups here and there, he had never really been in a situation where he felt hopeless - at least not in this current life of his. 

While most of this could be blamed on his careful and calculating personality, it's still debatable whether this is a good thing or not. And it's not like Raven could deliberately slack off just because he wanted to experience a setback, it doesn't work that way and his pride won't let him do that. 

Nevertheless, Raven never ceased moving forward while keeping in mind to remain grounded, careful and still calculating. He could never allow himself to be complacent or lazy, he knows what kind of opponents are waiting for him and if he stumbled or get careless, it could very well mean the end of his road, and he refuse to experience the same loneliness and despair that he felt during his previous life. That's why he can't afford to make any big mistakes. 

Had this been a perfect world, then he would've loved for it to not have any kind of changes. It would be for the best if the timeline from his previous life would play out exactly the way as it did but that's not possible. Additionally, that would mean that he'll lose everyone once again and that's something that he wouldn't want to happen at all. 

Nevertheless, although his improvements during this six months aren't really that much for his standards, knowing that he could enter seclusion once again shortly really comforts him. He really didn't have to worry about going into bursts of seclusion since he's used to it by now, and even though time doesn't stop for him and his body, Raven has evolved to a point where he's not necessarily going to look physically older. 

Not quite an eternal youth, but still close enough. Plus, he no longer needs to spend his longevity to cast techniques now so it's all good. 

Raven laid on his warm bath and relaxed for some more time. He has less than two days before he's forcefully ejected from this place. By now, he's not really doing any last minute crunches since he's already satisfied for now. He just want to spend his time laying back and relaxing, possibly unwinding from all of the hectic training he just went through. 

He wanted to look refreshed and relaxed once he go outside once again since he that's the only way where no one would suspect him. 

'Ah that's right. We did have a plan to visit the Hall of Enlightenment and spend the ticket stubs we had. Well, there's also the Missions we picked up, someone has to do them as soon as possible. Should I participate? Hmm…'

Raven recalled the meetings they had and is now wondering what to do. At first, before knowing that he could stay within the crown space for a longer period of time, he planned on participating on the patrol mission. However, he's obviously hesitating.

'Hmm, I already received the promised Merit Points. Right now, I have about 26,620 Merit Points. Killing an Imp gives me 100 Merit Points, apparently I slayed 260 of them so that's 26,000. The excess were from the Disciple Exams.'

'With this amount, I can buy all necessary ingredients for me to cultivate the [Myriad Incarnations Scripture] on it's 4th stage, that would give me 18 more Avatars. Adding the nine I already have, I'll have a total of 27 Avatars. That would make my life much easier. The only problem is that I'll be weakened for at least two days, which sucks but shouldn't really be a problem.'

'I think I'll pass for now.' Raven thought to himself, 'The others need more experience on dealing with those devils, more specifically the weaker ones. Sending Floyd and Jason along with two weaker unit members should be fine, I don't need to go.'

'Ah! Wouldn't that be a problem? They won't have any scouts with the group! Ugh. What should I do.' Raven frowned as he thought about this. 

'But it shouldn't be a problem if they picked up stray imps right? I mean, they might get injured and all but they should be fine. Floyd's strong, they should be able to come back in one piece.'

'Mn! I should be more confident about them. They needed experience, this should help them.'

'Ugh, who am I kidding?' Raven groaned, 'The truth is that I just wanted to do my own thing but I can't possibly say that their faces specially in front of that violet haired witch. Although the team's mostly fine, our bond is still finicky. It won't be good if ruined the somewhat okay start.'

'I guess I'll just go with the flow. If I get nominated, then I'll go. With me there it would be quick anyway, and if I go now, then I won't need to go for the next Unit Mission since we decided to do it in rotation. If I don't get nominated, then I'll purchase the ingredients for the Avatars and do some personal missions while the rest are out. Either way, I won't be wasting time.'

Raven's thoughts went silent for a bit, he tried to recall everything that happened before he entered seclusion in order to refresh himself on the sect matters. 

'Oh, I just remembered!' Raven's eyes snapped open, 'That thing…what was it called again? Aha! Cleansers, yeah that!'

'I was interested in that. When we visited the Cleansing Chapel, I was initially confused. Apparently, there is a unique occupation here which is called Cleansers. We didn't really had the chance to know more since it's has restricted access. But I could remember seeing that they are accepting Trainees...'

'Should I enroll? Hmm…'