MMORPG: The Almighty Ring

"Oh no!"

All the girls heard 0541 then. It was like hammering a nail to their hearts. 0541's words were not the nail but the hammer that struck. All of them could see the oddity around Jiang Fei. The glow of ascension had already started to fade out, as if the ascension process was being halted by something.

"Think of something! 0541!" Ariel cried.

"I know!"

Instead of wasting time to explain what was happening, 0541 started to redirect all the power supply in the ship into powering Jiang Fei. The more energy 0541 pumped into Jiang Fei, the brighter the light of ascension glowed. Even so, all the energy that was being poured into Jiang Fei was not directed toward him but was sucked in by the Core of Will. The fused Core was like a black hole, consuming every ounce of energy without showing any signs of slowing down.

Half an hour later, Jiang Fei's ascension was still on hold. The Core of Will inside Jiang Fei was still taking all the energy that was meant for him and at this point, 0541 had already dumped 10% of the total energy storage in the ship yet the Core was still sucking in all the energy without slowing down.

"What is this? Is this the result of fusing two Cores of Will?!" 0541 thought to himself. He had no idea what was going on as he was pouring as much energy as the ship's energy bandwidth was allowing. As a precaution against energy depletion, 0541 started the ship and moved Braveheart out of the moon's orbit and headed closer to the sun. Once the ship was in Mercury's orbit, the energy depot started. Teleportation cores were fired up to collect as much energy as they could from the sun's solar energy. Even though the speed at which the Teleportation cores were collecting energy was but a fraction of Jiang Fei's absorption speed, at the very least, 0541 did not have to worry about running out of power.

An hour later, the Core of Will showed signs of slowing down. At last, Jiang Fei himself was beginning to absorb some of the power that was not going into the Core of Will. At that moment, the glow of ascension went violently bright. When it reached its peak brightness, 0541 immediately increased the energy influx to match Jiang Fei's consumption and even more to force a power surge.

"GAHH!" Jiang Fei bellowed as his eyelids flung open. His eyes glowed like the sun itself, burning brightly.

WHOOSH!

A powerful surge of energy followed by a sudden outburst flung everyone around Jiang Fei back. If Nina was even a second late in deploying a barrier, the entire bridge of Braveheart might have been detached from the ship.

"Hah… Hah…"

The silence of the room was quickly broken by Jiang Fei's labored breathing. The restraining bolts and cuffs around his wrists and legs were destroyed by his forceful prying. Those were Namekian's amalgamated metal. A metal so strong that no one except Level 5s could even make a dent.

"Hey guys… I've ascended. Hehehe…" said Jiang Fei in between his pants. As he came to, the Core of Will ceased to take in anymore energy.

"Thank god…" 0541 sighed with relief. Jiang Fei might have taken only an hour to ascend into Level 5 but during that time, the Core of Will had swallowed 30% of the energy stored in Braveheart. Those were energy crystals that had been collected for thousands of years! 0541 could not understand such a phenomenon, what more the girls and Jiang Fei.

"Captain, how are you feeling?" 0541 asked.

"Good. Like I've never been!" said Jiang Fei happily. Although he was slightly tired, he could not help but smile brightly. He was filled with so much happiness that he could not stop smiling. He had been stuck at Level 4 for so long and now, after many trials and obstacles, he had finally entered the realm of Level 5.

"Could you please check the Core of Will? See if it has any changes," 0541 asked. He was still worried about the Core as nothing in his record had ever mentioned of an event—a black hole-like Core, capable of swallowing so much energy in such a short span of time.

"Alright then…"

Jiang Fei proceeded to do what was asked of him. He had no reason to doubt 0541. He lied back on the seat and started concentrating into his mind. After five minutes, he woke up and greeted 0541 with a surprised smile.

"The Core of Will is recharged! I can use its powers again!"

The Core of Will was brimming with energy. This was an auspicious event as he could now make use of the Core's power to enter the 10th Dimension once more.

With this power, Jiang Fei was filled with confidence. He could now put on a fight with the second wave of attack. At least, if the enemy only sent in a few strong opponents, Jiang Fei was sure he could do something about it. However, things would be majorly different if the Valsalrians sent in a fleet. He had almost depleted all of the Core's power when he dragged Braveheart into the 10th Dimension. That was just a ship, imagine an entire fleet!

"Calm down. From what I know about them, they would not deploy a fleet, not even to attack a planet," said 0541.

"Why is that?"

"The Valsalrians are a prideful race. They pride themselves with their superior combat power. They might not reject using any advancement of technology but they would not use it as a base for their combat strength. On a side note, they would not destroy a planet as they would usually capture the planet as a whole and sell it to the highest bidder. Their modus operandi would be to send in a few strong fighters after the initial attack."

"I see…"

Balsris was just a scout and that had already made Isabella fight for seven days. Now, according to their own M.O., they would be dispatching a few stronger fighters! How would the battle go…

"F*ck it. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," said Jiang Fei. He now had the power of the 10th Dimension in his hands. There was no reason to fear them, at the moment.

"Let's head back," Ariel said. They were all still near the sun from Mercury's orbit.

Jiang Fei let 0541 steer the ship and fly back to the moon base. As they docked, Jiang Fei stood up and turned to the girls.

"I'll be right back."

He needed to visit the 10th Dimension again to fetch the Core of Time.

Before the girls could even ask, Jiang Fei opened up a rift in the middle of the bridge and disappeared. 0541 had yet to disable the spacetime node seal, but that didn't affect Jiang Fei at all.

"What kind of ability did the captain just use?" 0541 asked. He was oblivious to Jiang Fei's ability to enter the 10th Dimension since Jiang Fei himself had not informed anyone about his power yet. It was, after all, his newly found trump card. Everyone in the bridge could only shake their heads when 0541 inquired about it. Jiang Fei did not inform them and they did not bother to ask. If it was something important, he would have told them about it. And since he did not…

…

In the 10th Dimension, where everything was shining, shimmering, and splendid, Jiang Fei could not sense the presence of the Core of Time.