Solo Cultivating in Superhero Academy
Chapter 137: Useful Martial Skill

Chapter 137: Useful Martial Skill

The deeper they went, the more twisted the dungeon became.

What once resembled a laboratory with reinforced steel walls and flickering lights had evolved into a hybrid battlefield—half-mechanical, half-demonic.

Flame-spewing vents roared like beastly mouths.

Overhead pipes dripped molten metal instead of water, and monstrous constructs, fused with burning cores and industrial frames, roamed every corridor like sentinels from hell.

Elius walked at the front, his expression cold and serene.

Keith followed behind, limping slightly but not complaining.

He was covered in bruises and soot, but his eyes were sharper than ever, more determined.

He kept glancing at Elius, as if trying to engrave every motion into memory.

FWOOSH!

Suddenly, a fire jet burst out from the left corridor—an ambush trap.

CLANG!

Elius didn’t even look. One of his floating swords spun sideways and deflected the fire blast, dispersing it like a breeze brushing away smoke.

Then came the real threat.

Five fire-bots emerged from the walls, crawling like centipedes.

They clung to the ceilings and floors with mechanical limbs, their bodies glowing with heat signatures and pulse cores.

They struck in perfect sync—one aiming for Keith.

Elius’s fingers moved slightly.

In an instant, four of the five swords shot forward like bullets.

BOOM—BOOM—CRACK—SSSKRRK!

Four of the robots were shredded before they could react. The last one closed in on Keith.

"I’ve got this—!" Keith raised his arm to block.

But before impact, a shadow sliced between them. Elius’s fifth sword hovered an inch from Keith’s face, steam rising from its blade after carving through the last fire-bot.

Keith exhaled. "...Right. Still not fast enough."

Elius glanced at him. "You hesitated."

"I thought I had it—"

"You didn’t." Elius turned away. "Confidence without reason is weakness in disguise."

Keith gritted his teeth but nodded.

They moved on.

And then—

Ding!

---

[Fragment of Martial Skill found!]

Martial Skill: Unknown

Type: Thunder type.

Fragments: 4 / 5.

Effect: Fragment only.

Collect remaining pieces to unlock full skill.

---

Elius’s gaze flickered to the screen that only he could see. "So close."

They advanced again, and wave after wave of enemies emerged.

Some were new—flame-legged beasts shaped like lions, covered in copper plating, each breath of theirs a furnace blast.

Others were bipedal juggernauts, lumbering but unnaturally fast, leaving cracks in the floor with every step.

BOOM!

Elius sent his swords spinning in wide arcs, drawing circles of silver light in the air.

One sword stabbed straight through a lion beast’s core.

Another severed a juggernaut’s legs. He didn’t waste motion. Each attack was deliberate, each kill precise.

Behind him, Keith attempted to support, throwing weighted explosives from his belt, launching a magnetic shiv into the neck joint of a beast. He landed a clean hit—but couldn’t finish the job.

Elius did it for him, without a word.

Then—

Ding!

—

[Fragment of Martial Skill found!]

Martial Skill: Unknown

Type: Psychic type.

Fragments: 2 / 5.

Effect: Fragment only.

Collect remaining pieces to unlock full skill.

---

"Psychic again," Elius muttered. "Interesting."

They continued. Elius killed. Keith observed, helped when he could, but the gulf was still wide.

Then another wave came.

And another.

The dungeon had no end, only hallways that twisted like intestines, choking with heat and tension.

Soon, they encountered another horde—flame scorpions this time, moving with brutal agility.

Their tails launched searing plasma bolts, and their claws cracked walls.

Elius moved like a god among machines.

He leapt over plasma shots, redirected bolts with his swords, and beheaded scorpions mid-spin.

One of them tried to get behind him.

CLINK!

A sword curved back like a whip and split it in two.

Ding!

---

[Fragment of Martial Skill found!]

Martial Skill: Unknown

Type: Psychic type.

Fragments: 3 / 5.

Effect: Fragment only.

Collect remaining pieces to unlock full skill.

---

Keith saw Elius pause slightly and tilted his head. "Something up?"

Elius didn’t answer. Instead, he turned and slashed through another group.

A massive centaur-like machine roared into the chamber—a true miniboss. It swung a blade-tail and howled like a banshee, covered in interlocking plates of blacksteel, its eyes glowing purple.

Elius faced it head-on.

WHOOSH!

The beast charged.

Elius raised two fingers.

All five of his swords shot forward like meteors. One attacked the knee joint. Another sliced the tail. The third struck the side of the head, cracking the visual sensor. The fourth and fifth spun around its body, forming a cyclone of silver flashes.

The beast collapsed, its scream dying out in static.

Ding!

---

[Fragment of Martial Skill found!]

Martial Skill: Unknown

Type: Psychic type.

Fragments: 4 / 5.

Effect: Fragment only.

Collect remaining pieces to unlock full skill.

---

Keith wiped sweat from his brow. "That thing looked stronger than before."

Elius only nodded.

Soon after, in the next corridor...

A strange silence fell.

No enemies. No fire. Only the humming of ancient machinery.

Then one last creature emerged—a massive, levitating drone, cloaked in a shimmering psychic barrier, spinning orbs around it.

Its body flickered, teleporting in short bursts. It was faster than the rest. Smarter. It dodged Elius’s first sword strike.

The second barely grazed it.

Elius smiled slightly. "Finally."

He moved with purpose, forming a triangle with his swords mid-air.

The drone zipped left—only to be caught between the points of the triangle. A sudden convergence of the three blades skewered it in a perfect formation.

ZZZRRRT—BOOM!

The drone exploded into light.

Ding!

---

[Fragment of Martial Skill found!]

Martial Skill: Unknown

Type: Psychic type.

Fragments: 5 / 5.

Effect: Full skill unlocked.

New Martial Skill Learned: [Astral Clone Swap – Lv.1]

---

Elius stopped walking.

A new screen expanded before him.

Martial Skill Unlocked: Astral Clone Swap

Type: Psychic

Effect:

Instantly create a semi-real clone with 60% of the user’s durability and strength. However if the user already has clone ability, the clone would be strengthened and would be as strong as the user.

Can swap places with it at any time.

Cooldown: 15 seconds. Clone won’t vanish if it received lethal damage, it would only vanish if the damage is enough to kill the original body.

—

Elius’s lips parted slightly. "...Now that’s useful."

He ran the possibilities in his mind: bait tactics, sudden repositioning, decoys, reversal strikes. A skill like this was an assassin’s dream—or a swordsman’s ace.

It was far more valuable than he expected from a fire-themed dungeon.

Keith noticed him pausing. "Older brother? Something wrong?"

Elius turned slightly. "Nothing. Let’s keep going."

"You sure? You were just kinda staring into space."

"Just thinking of paths," Elius said with a rare smirk. "And how many enemies I can slice using them."

Keith didn’t fully understand, but he trusted his brother.

They moved forward again.

The corridor widened, forming a vast chamber with dark walls and hanging machines—likely a miniboss arena.

But Elius didn’t enter right away.

He stood at the entrance, eyes narrowing.

In the back of his mind, one thought circled: Three more Martial Skills remain. He didn’t know what types they would be—maybe fire, thunder, earth, light. But after what he just unlocked, he wanted to find out.

Because if one skill gave him such an overwhelming utility—

Then what about the rest?

Elius flexed his fingers slightly as his swords hovered higher behind him, shining with faint spiritual light.

"I’m getting them all," he muttered.

And with that, he stepped into the next chamber, the steel doors closing behind them.