After a couple of minutes, Gravis stood up again. Then, he looked up at the ceiling with a smirk.
"This has been your best opportunity to kill me, Heaven," Gravis said with a chuckle. "I was at my weakest at the start of this Heaven's Trial. From here on out, I will only become stronger. On top of that, you have already sent the perfect counter. You might be able to send another priest, but that one won't counter me as well as the previous one. On top of that, my Will-Aura has also become more powerful."
This was precisely the reason why Heaven had been so frustrated. The most powerful thing that it could send at him was a priest, and the last one had already been the one that had had the best chances of killing Gravis. Any other priest would have even less of a chance of winning. It had missed its best opportunity.
Of course, Heaven didn't answer Gravis, but Gravis didn't need an answer to guess what Heaven was thinking. Gravis was also sure that Heaven had another scheme cooked up to kill him. A priest might've been the most powerful thing it could send, but there were more things that it could do. A straight-up battle was not the only way to stop or kill Gravis.
He was sure that something special was waiting for him later on. Yet, Gravis wasn't afraid or nervous. He was confident enough in his smarts and will to get through everything that Heaven could throw at him. In his mind, the only dangerous thing to him was a powerful enemy.
As for his Will-Aura…
"4% compression. Not bad," Gravis said. "Though, still not a level three Unity Will."
Gravis also checked the spear and saw that it was a peak-grade Spirit Weapon. Materials capable of forging something at the Unity level just weren't present in this lower world. Therefore, peak-grade Spirit Weapons were the best weapons that anyone could have.
Gravis' saber was also a peak-grade Spirit Weapon. The only thing that made it special was the fact that the Formation Arrays on it were different. Old Man Lightning had specifically created those for Gravis. Of course, the area on a saber was limited, so to make space for these new Formation Arrays, some old ones had to be cut. This made it impossible to preload the conventional loaded attacks.
But that didn't matter. Why would Gravis want to load a conventional loaded attack when he could load it with a Lightning Crescent? After all, a Lightning Crescent was many times more powerful.
"Speaking of Spirit Weapons," Gravis said to himself as he got that thought. "I should learn to forge when I get back to my homeworld. If I didn't have this specially crafted saber, I would be wasting a peak-grade Spirit Weapon every single time I used my Lightning Crescent. I should find a way around that."
Gravis sighed. "Well, right now, I can't change anything about it." Then, he looked at the still-closed door to the next trial. "I just have to wait for the next trial to begin. Though, that might take a while. Joyce said that the second trial opens simultaneously for everyone. This means I have to wait for every other group to either die or succeed."
Gravis rubbed his chin. "Together with the fact that this whole Heaven's Trial is supposed to go on for multiple years probably means that there are some trials that take longer. Maybe something like being thrown into a huge-ass forest and having to kill 100 beast or something. Maybe a survival trial, where the groups have to survive for a couple of months in changing environments."
Gravis sighed again. "I might as well make myself comfortable. I probably have to wait for a couple of months."
Even though Gravis had expected that he still waited near the nearly-destroyed door to the second trial for a couple of hours. There was a big crater in the door, but the door was thicker than a meter. As the time ticked by, Gravis realized that he had been right. This would probably take a while.
'Though, my new combined Lightning Crescent is probably able to destroy that door. But what then?' Gravis thought. 'Heaven has probably already planned around that. After all, it can change this Heaven's Trial however it wants. Another priest could be waiting for me directly behind that door, and when I used all my lightning and Spirit, I would be basically defenseless. It could also have made this door hundreds of meters thick.'
Gravis rubbed his chin in thought. 'Bursting through might be troublesome. I think waiting is the best option. Maybe this is also part of Heaven's plan? It knows that I am very impatient when it comes to tempering and my cultivation. Maybe the first trials will take longer than usual just to bore me to death?'
Gravis shrugged. 'Well, who cares. I don't like to just wait, but I can adapt. I should find something to occupy myself.'
Whoop!
Gravis appeared inside his Spirit Space and looked at the Growth. "So, what can you do?" he asked it, and therefore himself, out loud. "The Spirit Seed allowed me to play Dodgeball. Maybe you can do something similar?"
BANG!
Gravis punched it away, and just like the Spirit Seed, it bumped around the Spirit Space. Gravis evaded the Growth for a while, but he soon got bored. After stopping it, he sighed again. "I've done this for a whole year. I am already pretty good at that. There should be something else I can do with you."
Gravis willed the Growth to move, and it followed his thoughts. "Hmm," Gravis harrumphed in thought. "Lemme try something."
BANG! BANG!
A thick lightning bolt shot out of the Growth and hit the membrane. The lightning quickly traveled along the membrane until it was above the Growth, and then it shot back into the Growth. "Hmm."
Gravis willed for more lightning to leave it, and the process repeated. Then, he willed that the lightning would only come out of the many tips of the Growth. That also worked. "Spin!" Gravis shouted.
After that, the Growth started spinning in the middle of his Spirit Space. "Shoot out of the tips!" he shouted, and the same thing happened again, but with the added spin, the lightning came out of a spot that he hadn't expected. "Interesting," Gravis said as he rubbed his chin.
'I wonder how fast it can spin,' Gravis thought. Then, he willed it to spin faster and faster. The more he willed it to spin, the faster it got. After around a minute, it had reached such an incredibly high speed that Gravis couldn't even follow it anymore.
"Wait a second," Gravis said, and the Growth immediately stopped. "I can rotate the core, but I wonder if I can also rotate the roots, too?" he asked himself.
As soon as he thought that, the roots started pulsing. Some retreated, while others grew. With some more willpower, Gravis also managed to make the growths move around. By now, the Growth looked like a pulsing, wriggling, and living abomination. "Fuck, you're really disgusting," Gravis commented.
"Now, spin," he said, and it started spinning again. The wild growing still happened. The roots were also traveling around the spinning core. "Good! Now, let's add some randomness to that," he said.
And with this, the Growth started spinning and growing all around the place. Gravis' Spirit was not powerful enough to keep up with it at all. It was just too random and fast. When he saw that, Gravis smirked. "Now, shoot some lightning!"
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Lots of lightning bolts came out of the Growth from completely random places. One of the lightning bolts even hit him.
Clap!
"Perfect!" Gravis shouted with a clap. "Dodgeball became a little too predictable. After all, I know how much force I use for my kicks and how it would bounce off the walls, but I sure as hell can't predict that. This will occupy me for many months!"
And with that, Gravis started spending his time evading random lightning bolts. At some point, he would also kick the Growth to make the lightning even more random.
When he got bored of doing that, he left his Spirit Space and used the arena's walls as training dummies. He might not be able to increase his physical power by much, but he could analyze his attacks and streamline them. Gravis was sure that his physical power wasn't powerful enough to break the saber, even if he hit something harder than it.
Like this, Gravis trained for several months.
