GUARDIAN OF THE END

Jason already knew the initial plan in his mind when he raised his right hand. He immediately summoned a lightning bolt, something he had already done countless times.

The lightning energy ran wildly in the palm of his hand. Jason focused more lightning mana throughout the lightning bolt to fully charge.

Crackling sounds slowly emerged as the lightning bolt started getting more purple in Jason's hand. He held it this way for an entire minute before throwing it at one of the trees.

Jason was pleased to find out that the lightning bolt had also gotten faster. It impaled itself in the tree's truck.

The stored energy suddenly exploded throughout the tree. A two feet high explosion took place, making smoke cover the tree.

Once the sight clear up, Jason saw that his attack had separated the upper part of the tree from the trunk.

The upper portion was lying right beside the remaining trunk. Though it hadn't been a grand and flashy attack, Jason felt satisfied by this.

But when he looked down at his hand, he frowned. His palm had been burned off by the lightning bolt.

His hand looked messed up but due to being inside the dream world, Jason was able to revert it to its original condition.

'This means that I can't heal severe burns right now.' Jason observed. He had required the Dream world system's help to fix his hand, after all.

"That was expected," Hestia finally spoke up. "Since this was the first time you were trying that, I was expecting something to go wrong. However, you succeeded."

Hestia felt surprised to see that Jason had managed to execute his attack on the first attempt.

Though it couldn't be called successful since it had damaged his hand.

"Your charged attack its powerful but it has two major flaws. It takes too time to charge up and it wounds your hand as well. Just by looking at your hand, I can tell that its going to hurt you a lot when you use it in real life." Hestia explained.

Jason himself had observed these things and was trying to find a way to fix them. What he didn't know was that Hestia had already figured out the way to do this.

"Instead of charging a normal lightning bolt, why don't you try summoning a charged up lightning bolt?" Hestia asked curiously.

Jason opened his mouth and closed it. It was such a simple solution that skipped his mind.

"As for how to do that, try collecting the maximum number of lightning mana you can in your palm. Shape it into a lightning bolt and repeat the same process." Hestia informed.

The guardian stretched her body and turned into her wolf form. Hestia found her wolf form much more comfortable to sleep in rather than her normal one.

Flamey had also felt the same and both guardians had tried to explain this thing but that was a discussion for another day.

Jason simply followed what Hestia had said and tried to collect his lightning mana in one spot.

'Wait, doesn't this mean that my hand would still get burned since I am gathering lightning in my palm again?' Jason suddenly paused.

Jason needed a second opinion on this which meant that this was the perfect time to connect the system with the dream world system.

'Oi Tet, can you hear me?' Jason asked mentally.

He decided that asking the god of games to connect the two systems directly would be much quicker and efficient.

'Ugh, what do you want now?' Tet replied in an annoyed tone.

'Can you link both of my systems together so that I can talk to my normal system inside the dream world?'

'Done. Don't ask me anything for the next decade.'

'Thank you.' Jason felt his connection with the system being restored.

[ So this what your dream world looks like now. ] The system said in an amazed voice.

It could see the entire dream world in a similar way to Jason. Having being linked with the dream world system, it could also look over the new features present in the realm.

Jason let the system explore the new surroundings before explaining the current problem to it.

[ So you have to prevent your hand from burning huh. ]

'Exactly.'

[ Use the move again. I want to see it how you do it. ]

Jason raised his right arm and tried using the alternative method for creating a charged lightning bolt.

He gathered the lightning mana directly in his palm. He held this mana for a small amount of time before letting it take the shape of a lightning bolt.

Crackling sounds followed the appearance of a charged lightning bolt. Jason aimed the lightning bolt at another tree and threw it with full force.

The system observed this in suspense. It had already expected an explosion but when the tree was split in half, the system couldn't help but feel amazed.

[ You are definitely a natural at this. ] It commented. [ But I am sorry to tell you that the only way to prevent your hand from taking any damage is to keep using the skill and mastering the tiny things. ]

Jason felt disappointed after hearing the system's reply. His hopes for getting a shortcut were cut short.

'Everything doesn't have a shortcut.' He reminded himself.

Jason fixed his burnt hand once again. He took a deep breath, his eyes aiming carefully at the tree.

'After trying it a few more times, I will surely learn something.'

Jason summoned another charged lightning bolt and threw it. His hand was still burnt but he didn't care.

He continued to heal himself and raised his hand again. Numerous trees were destroyed by his training.

Jason kept on shifting targets as well to improve his aiming skills.

After countless tries, Jason finally realized something. If he spread the gather energy the moment he started collecting it, the damage dealt to his hand could be removed slightly.

[ Keep going… ] The system thought to itself. It wanted to help Jason too. However, the determination Jason was feeling prevented the system from doing so.

It had realized that Jason was trying to figure things himself. Who was it to ruin his determination?

'He surely knows how to work hard.' Hestia, who was seemingly asleep, smiled.

She had secretly been seeing how Jason was trying to perfect his new skill. He had already used the charged lightning bolt a hundred times.

His mana was soon about to reach below twenty percent but there was no worry. His mana recovery rate was working hand in hand with Hestia's mana.

Jason could produce an infinite amount of charged lightning bolts inside the dream world and he would feel nothing.

Hestia smiled at this and continued to watch Jason train.

'This is working.' Jason silently observed while summoning another charged lightning bolt.

If he summoned the lightning bolt perfectly and threw it in the next five seconds, his light element was able to heal the wound.

Jason called this the prototype version of the charged lightning bolt.

'Well, it did take quite some amount of lightning bolts.' Jason sighed.

[ It took exactly six hundred and nine lightning bolts for your body to slowly develop a resistance against the backlash. That and the spreading of lightning mana helped you achieve this. ] The system provided the detailed analysis.

'I see…' Jason stretched his body.

Even though he hadn't been feeling tired both physically and mentally, there was a sudden restless energy inside him.

[ This is happening because you aren't really sleeping. The part of your brain responsible for keeping your vital organs working is focused here too. ]

'What does that have to do with anything if I am doing things inside a dream?' Jason frowned.

[ Well, I checked some files of the other system and it turns out that a small part of your brain is still required for you to do anything inside the dream world and your mana core is active as well. ]

'I guess Tet thought that there was no need to explain that to me.' Jason commented before looking at the sky in the dream world.

Since he could control it at will, the sun was currently shining brightly.

'What will happen if I sleep inside here?' Jason curiously asked.

[ Then you will exit the dream world and enter real sleep. That restless feeling will vanish as well. However, you will wake up in the real world. ] The system explained.

'I see…' Jason stretched his body before changing the dream world's appearance to night time.

He created a bed too and laid on top of it. Jason felt weird sleeping inside a dream but five minutes of lying on the bed, he had fallen asleep.

'Rest well, Jason.' Hestia silently thought, her eyes fixed on Jason's body. 'Things in the real world are going to get more difficult for you.'

***

AN: Guys, I am going to mass release 7 chapters on 1st August! Another tier will be added to privilege. Thank you for your support!