I Can Only Cultivate In A Game

For the next three hours, Victor ran himself through every technique he could execute physically in the real world:

Frost Bloom Palm: He slammed his open hand into the mana pillar, coating it in an icy sheen. With every strike, he tried to replicate the slowing qi effect. In-game, it would cripple circulation. Here? The impact left a frost dent but didn't cause any real disruption.

He was hoping it would make mana harder to channel or something.

Shadow Crescent Strike: He slashed in an arc, trying to call forth the black phantom crescent that could phase through solids. The air vibrated faintly, the shadow formed, but it fizzled.

Phantom Mirage Step: His footwork blurred, trailing afterimages, but only three copies formed. "Still not fast enough," he muttered. In Ascendant Realms, he could make ten.

---

Victor stopped and fell onto his back with bis chest heaving.

Even though he couldn't use magic, he could still fight like a monster thanks to the physical side-effects of training in the game world. His reflexes were unmatched, speed enhanced, and his strikes lethal to any normal human.

But for the legacy weapon... he still couldn't activate its hidden perks.

He grabbed it again and whispered to himself, "How do I activate you?"

The dark blade tinged slightly at his touch.

Victor furrowed his brows. "Did you just… respond?"

He held the blade up and recalled how it felt when he first pulled the weapon out of the altar.

That moment at the Awakened Screening when it had attuned with his heartbeat. Perhaps… it wasn't about force or technique. Perhaps it required intention.

His hand tightened around the hilt of his legacy sword as dark lightning quietly slithered along its base like a sleeping dragon curled around its hoard.

He exhaled slowly and resumed swinging again.

However, no matter what technique he fused with the sword, or how much qi he poured into it, the weapon remained just a little distant.

It accepted him and amplified his attacks without fail but the mysterious perk that came with every legacy weapon still eluded him.

With a snarl, he took a wide stance and spun while channeling his Dragon Breathing Arts.

"Skyfire Spiral."

He exhaled a tight vortex of flames shaped like a spinning wheel. The fire roared out in a spiraling arc, laced with a faint dragon-like growl, and then smashed into the boulder he had been using as a target.

The rock didn't just explode.... it disintegrated in a flash of searing heat and howling wind.

Victor narrowed his eyes.

"My abilities have become almost twice as effective as they used to be in the real world…" he muttered. "The sword's amplifying everything I use. But still…"

He lowered the weapon and sat cross-legged, letting it rest on his lap.

The upcoming Outland Excursion was less than two weeks away.

He closed his eyes as thoughts swarm in his mind.

That place… the Outlands were once overrun by Drakenars...

The same monsters who overran his city months back. A knot of rage twisted in his gut...

"…Father."

The name slipped from his lips like a prayer and a curse.

And in that moment, the legacy sword throbbed.

It emitted a faint glow that Victor didn't notice.

Because the moment he uttered the word "Father," his vision shifted.

The world faded into darkness and then light appeared.

But he wasn't in the training domain anymore.

He wasn't even in his body.

He was seeing through someone else's eyes.

The scene before him was peaceful.

A figure stood in a sun-kissed meadow, wearing simple robes with their arms raised into the air.

Laughter echoed all around.

And the, he saw her...

A little green-skinned girl who was completely hairless, floated briefly in the air before being caught safely by masculine hands.

She squealed and shouted between fits of giggles, "Dad! Again! Again!!"

The man laughed deeply and threw her up again before catching her.

Victor's froze briefly... the voice felt…

So familiar.

This wasn't just a vision. It was a memory but this memory didn't belong to him so... where did it come from?

"The sword?" Victor whispered in disbelief.

He could feel strange emotions pouring into him...

Whoever this man was… the sword remembered him.

The little girl hugged the man's face tightly, wrapping her tiny hands around his neck. "I love you, Dad."

He chuckled. "I love you too, sparkbug."

Suddenly, the skies darkened as the light vanished.

Victor snapped back to reality, gasping with his heart pounding in his chest.

The sword… was buzzing.

The dark lightning was now mixed with a faint blue glow running through its hilt.

Victor stared at it.

"…Did you just show me a memory?" he whispered.

There was no answer, but deep inside, Victor could feel it... the sword had responded to the word father.

He stared out across the horizon with a strange unease twisting in his stomach.

That child. That man. That memory.

It couldn't be random.

"…Was that… you?" he whispered. "Or someone you belonged to?"

A part of him already knew the answer but he needed confirmation.

...

...

Days Later, Victor walked alone on the grounds of the academy with his breath misting slightly in the cool night air.

The artificial stars above flickered faintly, confirming that it was indeed night time.

Two full batches had departed earlier that day for their Outlands Excursion, leaving the grounds quieter than usual.

Victor had just left the eastern wing's library, a place he frequented often these days.

His routine these days had mostly been early morning training with the legacy sword, afternoons split between logging into Ascendant Realms or practicing with Selene, and quiet evenings lost in dusty tomes and historical volumes at the library.

His progress with the legacy sword was better now but he still hadn't unlocked its hidden perks.

As Victor turned a corner near one of the quieter paths leading to D ranked dorms, a faint flickering light drew his attention.

Up ahead, in a narrow environment just between the dormitory buildings, a pale red glow shimmered.

He narrowed his eyes and instinctively stepped in that direction.

The closer he got, the louder the murmuring voices became.

"…transfer the credits now."

Victor's brows furrowed.

Peeking around the edge of a pillar, he spotted three students.

One of them was a short-haired male with a pale face who stood inside a glowing magical circle etched onto the ground in intricate symbols.

His eyes were blank and glassy while his body was stiff.

Floating holographic windows hovered before him, displaying credit balances transferring from his account.

The two others stood just outside the circle, laughing quietly with their arms folded.

One of them, a tall dude with a cocky grin and a hood half drawn over his face, chuckled. "With this much? I'm getting a fucking plasma arc launcher. You?"

"Forget that. I'm finally getting that hybrid cloak," the other one said while slicking his hair back. "No one will touch us in class duels again."

Victor stepped out into the vicinity with a calm stride.

"What the hell do you two think you're doing?"

The laughter died instantly.

The two froze while turning slowly as the magical circle flickered under the force of Victor's presence.

The guy flinched. "Shit, there's someone there…"

Victor eyes locked on theirs with a predatory gaze.

"Shit," the tall slim one muttered while already considering escape.

Victor's voice was cold as ice. "Hypnotizing your fellow students and robbing them blind?"

He recalled hearing about students getting robbed of their credits some time back but didn't pay it much heed.

Now that he was witnessing it in person, he finally understood how they had been pulling it off.

The enchanted student in the circle remained still as the credit logs kept processing.

Victor's gaze shifted briefly to him. The runes shimmered with hypnotic energy, clearly from a spell construct. He didn't even know that students could unlock this type of spell... It was quite the shocker.

The tall one held up his hands. "It's not what it looks like."

"Really?" Victor questioned while slowly stepping closer. "Because it looks like you're leeching credits from someone too dazed to stop you."

"We're just… borrowing! He agreed to it!" the guy insisted with a slightly shaky voice.

Victor reached out with his void qi and pushed the victim out of the circle without needing to step any closer.

The symbols blinked out and the dazed boy stumbled backward while blinking rapidly and clutching his head.

He looked up at Victor in confusion. "What happened…?"

"Leave," Victor simply stated before ignoring him.

The student turned out with a still dazed expression and walked away.

'Shit, if he had stepped any closer, I could have activated another hypnotic spell...' The shorter one of the two cursed internally.

"You two." Victor's voice dropped an octave. "The gig is up."

Seeing as there was really no verbal way out of this, the thieve decided to attack.

The tall one with thin jittery fingers and a few tattoos along his arms instantly activated:

[ Elemental Manipulation ]