Dimensional Hunter System

Ch 12: Phantom Steps

╠ Profound Star Sect ╣

_A remote courtyard_

Before the sky brightened, Dylan had already woken up and started cultivating. He clenched his fists and punched the black metal plate in front of him one after another.

"Crack! Crack! Crack!"

With every punch, the metal plate would be caved in with a fist mark. It is not because Dylan managed to cultivate, the metal plate was caved in because Dylan was experimenting with using mana. He wanted to see what will happen if he wrapped the mana around his fist and then attack.

The result was surprising.

Dylan was not afraid of disturbing others because he was the only one living there. In such a remote area, no one would care even if he turned the place upside down.

In the morning, the sun was shining down, warming the body.

Dylan walked in the direction of the Martial Skill Pavilion. On the way, he saw those who knew him look at him with interest and all of them whispered to each other.

Dylan did not care about the discussions around him, he was already used to them. Soon, he arrived at the Martial Skill Pavilion.

There was a rule that only those disciples who have cultivated to at least the Fourth Layer of the Body Tempering Stage could enter the Martial Skill Pavilion.

Although Dylan has yet to cultivate, his strength has already far surpassed any Fourth Layer Body Tempering Stage martial warrior.

"I can finally enter." Dylan took a deep breath, and under the confused gazes of many people, he walked towards the Martial Skill Pavilion.

There was a huge boulder in front of the Martial Arts Pavilion where disciples could attack with all their strength, and it will reveal which stage the force they erupted with belong to.

Dylan ignored the surrounding disciples' muttering and punched at the huge boulder. This was what he was practicing for in his courtyard in the morning.

Immediately, the boulder showed a few texts that revealed his attack belonged to a Fifth Layer of Body Tempering Stage martial warrior.

Although Dylan was a Level 1 Magic Master, the improvement in his physique was not much. So this result was normal.

However, he could now at least enter the Martial Arts Pavilion.

It is just that other people who witnessed this scene were shocked. They could not even imagine how Dylan's strength increased so much!

Entering the Martial Arts Pavilion, Dylan threw the sounds of discussions outside to the back of his mind, and after that, he started looking for a suitable martial arts skill that he needed right now.

What he was lacking was a movement skill, so Dylan decided to choose a movement skill and leave the Martial Arts Pavilion.

After looking around for a long time, Dylan found a book with a grey cover.

"This is?"

Dylan raised his eyelids, and the grey book lay quietly in the most remote corner. It was covered in a thick layer of dust, indicating that no one had moved it in a long time.

Dylan gently picked it up and blew at it. Immediately, dust flew everywhere and a line of indistinct words appeared.

"Phantom Steps!"

"What a sharp name!" Dylan's interest was piqued. Since it was a movement skill and he found it interesting, his eyes immediately lit up and he had the urge to cultivate it.

"You have your eyes on this skill?"

The indifferent voice had a hint of hoarseness to it that had experienced many years. Dylan raised his head to look and saw a wrinkled old man with turbid eyes looking at him in surprise.

"Greetings, Elder Rafe!"

Seeing the old man who suddenly appeared, Dylan was shocked. He immediately greeted Elder Rafe. Although he had never met the other party, he knew that there was only one elder named Rafe who could appear in the Martial Skill Pavilion since he is the elder guarding the Martial Skill Pavilion.

"No need to be so polite." Elder Rafe waved his hand slightly and spoke. After that, some surprise gushed out of his cloudy eyes. He asked: "You are Dylan?"

"Yes, I'm Dylan!"

"Umm? I can't see through your strength for some reason. It looks like you don't have any cultivation base. But I also witnessed you punching the Force Testing Boulder. Looks like you have cultivated a skill that hides one's cultivation. Not bad!" Elder Rafe softly muttered.

Dylan lowered his head slightly and did not say much. 

Elder Rafe was merely a little shocked. He pointed at the small grey book in his hand and said, "You want to learn this movement skill?"

"Yes." Dylan answered honestly, "Elder, is there any problem with this Phantom Steps?"

"Problem? Yes, there should be one! This movement skill is rather special. It emphasized on doing as one pleased and not acting according to common sense. Training in this skill is extremely difficult."

Dylan frowned, and asked: "Has anyone practiced it before?"

"I think there are more than 100 people who have practiced it! I can't remember exactly, but there are only a few people who succeeded in their training."

"So that's how it is." Dylan suddenly realized, no wonder there was such a thick layer of dust on top of it. The difficulty of training and the lack of power was such that not many people would choose to cultivate it.

But at the same time, Dylan was puzzled. If this movement skill was not to be cultivated, then why was it placed here?

To fill number?

Of course not. The Profound Star Sect was huge, with tens of thousands of powerful martial skills, one more and one less would not matter.

Seemingly seeing through Dylan's confusion, Elder Rafe spoke, "The reason this <Phantom Steps> was placed here was because it was created by a genius of our sect back then. That genius was the youngest sect leader we ever had, so no matter what problems the movement skill itself has, it is impossible to throw it away."

Dylan held the grey booklet with both hands and pursed his lips. Then, with a determined look in his eyes, he said, "I'm just going to practice it."

"Oh? You really want to choose Phantom Steps?"

"En!" Dylan nodded his head in agreement.

Elder Rafe's wrinkled face trembled slightly when he saw this. He had noticed Dylan since the moment he had entered the Martial Skill Pavilion. The disciple that people called "trash" in front of him was truly a little hard to figure out.

However, from Elder Rafe's perspective, Dylan would come back to change this skill sooner or later.

.....

That evening, under the moonlight, a half-naked youth was dripping with sweat.

He was constantly dancing with a strange movements. Sometimes, he would jump, and sometime he would only take normal steps. His movement was extremely strange and if someone saw him, they would find it bizarre and maybe even laugh at this youth for his strange movements.

After all, his movements didn't seem like anything that a human would make.

Dylan found it extremely difficult to practice the Phantom Steps. Maybe, it is because of the fact that he doesn't have any cultivation base, no matter how hard he was trying, he could not cultivate this movement skill at all.

Elder Rafe had not deceived him. This movement skill truly did have a great problem.

Or maybe, he has a big problem.

Dylan then realized that cultivating a martial arts skill with the help of mana is not possible. If he wants to cultivate this skill, he has to cultivate spiritual energy first.

Normally, he would be unable to absorb spirit energy for some reason. That's why people always called him useless trash.

However, now he has a shortcut. He could just hunt demonic beasts to increase his cultivation base. 

Dylan lay on the ground gloomily with both of his hands behind his head, not caring if the ground was dirty or not as he looked up at the sky filled with stars. The stars were bright and dazzling. Dylan felt like a lonely star that had been forgotten, dim and lifeless.

An entire day of intense training had tired him out physically and mentally. Unknowingly, a drowsy feeling overcame him and he closed his eyes.

When he woke up again, it was already the morning of the next day.

Now, there were only six days left before he could teleport to another world once again.

"Let's go and hunt demonic beasts first!"

Dylan soon decided what he has to do. He stood up and left the sect.

.....

In the lush and verdant forest that started at the foot of the mountain where Profound Star Sect was located, a nimble figure was moving back and forth between the trees.

"Hiss!"

A cold light flashed, and a poisonous snake that was coiled around a tree was hacked into two. Then, like a broken rubber band, it fell onto the ground made of fallen leaves.

"Swoosh!"

Then a figure holding an iron sword steadily landed on the ground. Looking at the two segments of the snake's torso on the ground, Dylan's mouth formed a faint smile.

"I'm sorry, it was you who ambushed me first."