Way of the Knights

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It's been two weeks since the approval of the reform.

In the middle of the night, inside Raven's room, he suddenly appeared out of thin air. His face was pale and he was taking in several deep breaths to calm down his racing heart. 

His clothes were badly damaged, it was like he just escaped from a life and death battle. He had several bruises and cuts on his body, he couldn't even open his left eye since the eyelid was wounded as well. 

Raven dragged his wounded body towards the medicinal bath that's always available in his house. He didn't even bother taking off his clothes nor his shoes for that matter, all he wanted was to rest after that chaotic battle.

As soon as his wounds hits the medicine bath, he inhaled sharply and gritted his teeth, nevertheless he endured the stinging pain and soaked his body in. After a couple of minutes, he felt the wounds on his body already closing and scabbing away, the stinging pain was replaced by a comfortable feeling and his complexion was getting better as well. 

"It took me fifteen tries to kill that son of a bitch." Raven murmured while his eyes were closed. "It's just a pity that I still haven't been enlightened into any Laws. If I did, then that battle would've been easier."

Raven just got out from the crown space after tackling the fifth pocket dimension. For the first time ever since he got the crown and tackled the pocket dimensions, he experienced death under the hand of the person he faced on the fifth one.

The challenge of the Fifth Pocket Dimension is to kill the person trapped in there. Raven didn't know who that was since as soon as he arrived, the person attacked. It was a middle-aged man who wielded a sword. And that guy has a very good foundation towards Wind Laws. 

During the first time, he didn't even last a single bout from that guy. One swipe of his sword, powered by Wind Laws and his head was separated from his shoulders. Thankfully, he was practically immortal inside the crown space so he just woke up outside of the pocket dimension, but the sensation of pain is something that lingered on his mind longer than he wanted it to be.

Wind Laws allows one to carry the same properties of the Wind. If one's understanding was enough, they could borrow the tiniest gusts of winds to create a devastating tornado. They are also lithe on their feet, tracking their movements would've been impossible if it weren't for his ocular technique. It also didn't help that his enemy could practically attack anywhere he pleases so long as there was air. 

Raven was beheaded twice before he could even fight back. On his subsequent tries, he managed to adjust to the tempo of battle and give the guy a decent fight before he was killed. On his attempts, Raven managed to learn more about his Crystal Sky Eye.

Aside from giving him a complete 360° vision and the ability to focus on the structure of things. His Crystal Sky Eye could also detect negative intentions as soon as it manifested. If one showed him an ill intent while his eyes were active, the silhouette of that person would darken. It was like a cloud of dark smoke was surrounding their bodies. And depending on the intensity of ill intent, that dark aura would change as well, so much so that it will start to form a face similar to them that expressed their true intentions.

Also, as long as Raven placed enough Chaos Force on his eyes, he found out that his surroundings will start to ever so slightly slow down, while his own body was unaffected. This allowed him to dodge attacks that would claim his life. 

Through that hectic and dangerous battle, Raven was able to iron out some flaws on his hammer techniques. He was able to progress much faster in these situations unlike from some regular spars he had with his friends. 

Raven took down that person after his 15th attempt, he wasn't proud of the way he defeated him but a pass is a pass. That guy won't just stop and he was clearly stronger than him even though he couldn't gauge what his cultivation was. Raven had to resort into some tricks to land a deadly blow to him which took his life.

Needless to say, he didn't come out unscathed from that fight, as shown by how bad he came out of the crown space. After many nights of dealing with that guy, at least he was through with him. 

And because of his exhaustion and relief, Raven passed out while soaking in the medicine bath just like back in the days at the Inner Court when he was still a part of the genius class. 

Raven woke up the next day, feeling light and refreshed. He smiled as he did some light exercise. He felt energetic and stronger. When he inspected his cultivation, he was surprised to find out that he actually broke through. He's in mid-stage Veteran Realm right now. 

This surprised made him genuinely happy, at least he was still advancing with relative speed even without actively attempting a breakthrough. But he suppressed this happiness as there are other matters he had to attend today. 

But before he could do any of them, he had to go at the Royal Palace first.

***

"The preparations are complete. We only need to wait until high noon and the activation should start." Raven reported. 

His words received a couple of excited nods on the people present at the King's office. The same people who attended the meeting before was here. And undoubtedly, they are anticipating the results of their collective effort during the past month. 

The activation of the Skynet Array. 

Currently, everyone was just waiting for the high noon to happen. That was the last requirement for the array to activate.

The Skynet Array is composed of twenty totemic markers, which were erected and buried by the brave and capable Lair Hunters according to Raven's suggestions in order to keep them safe from beast and the Diamond Dust. These markers traced the edges of the Yellow Zone around the kingdom. And since the array would be powered by natural sunlight and moonlight, it had been storing energy for quite sometime now, they only needed the sun to reach its peak and the activation will start.

All of them are anxiously staring at the board made out of white jade. The reason being is that when the array is activated, the overhead imaging of the Kingdom would be revealed in this jade board.

"It's coming…" Raven said solemnly as he felt the sun slowly edging at its peak. Everyone was gripped with anticipation. It was then that...

*Swoosh!*

A large energy fluctuation was felt by everyone in the kingdom. All of them subconsciously raised their heads to look at the sky and saw several crisscrossing lines overarching their kingdom. With the sun at its peak, it looked like it was the reason behind this strange phenomenon but in truth, these lines are connections from one totem marker towards another. Some people panicked but after a feeling that nothing else happened, they were left confused by this scenario.

The situation inside the King's office is different however. 

Everyone stared unblinkingly at the jade board, some even forgot how the breathe properly as they saw a miracle unfold in front of their eyes.

"Ahhh…" Carol couldn't help but to cry out as she stared at the jade board like it was some sort of treasure.

"Beautiful." Bruce also commented, his eyes shining with pride knowing that he was a part of the creation of such beauty.

The Jade Board shown the overhead imaging of the kingdom, not only that but everything inside the Yellow Zone as well. Patches of forest, bodies of water, cliffs, mountains, hills and other possible landmarks. Not only that, they could also see mineral lodes, resource deposits and treasure bowls, lairs of beasts, and etc. It was a miraculous sight.

Raven stepped forward with a smile in his face and went beside the jade board, making sure that he wasn't blocking anyone's sight, he started explaining how to use the Skynet Array.

"Everyone please watch carefully, we will begin testing the functions of the Skynet Array." Raven then pointed a finger on the side of the jade board and said: "In this corner, we could monitor how much energy the array gathered so far. Right now it's just a little on the low side since it hasn't been long since the array was activated."

"You will also see the Marker Legends enlisted here. These legends will allow you to easily search for the things that you wanted to see. If you want to highlight them on the map, just press on the legend and it shall display what you wanted."

Raven pressed the legend for Mineral Lodes and every mineral lodes on the array shone with an obvious light. He then removed his hand and the highlight was gone. 

"Do remember that every time you do this, it drains some stored energy and-eh?"

Everyone became alarmed when they saw Raven suddenly staring at a certain spot in the map.

"What's wrong Avi?" Luna asked worryingly.

Raven was silent for a bit before replying, "I think we forgot to place one more marker…"