Chapter 24
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 24: Crushed by the Disaster I Brought Upon Myself (4)
"It's been at most 3 months, but somehow you grew a lot?"
"Is that so?"
"Did you get some fortuitous encounter here?"
"No, not particularly?"
"Then there's only one. You grew while fighting warlocks, I guess."
.....Is that so?
Since Master is a person on the verge of becoming a Master even if he looks like this, saying it confidently made it somewhat persuasive.
"I grew up like that too. If you make holes in a few guys' heads, the realm grows on its own."
I knew it.
It was my fault for hoping for a commonsensical judgment.
Still, perhaps the words that my skills improved weren't a lie; the intensity of training done after a long time became noticeably tougher than before.
Exercising with weights attached was basic, and there were all sorts of things like maintaining Aura in a weapon to the limit without bursting it, or performing one movement over 10 minutes.
How difficult were these things? To the extent that the Saintess, who came to the training ground in the morning, got interested in my training appearance, tried it briefly, and stretched out immediately?
"Heueua...! This isn't something a human should do...!"
"Huu....Huu.... Certainly.... It's burdensome...!"
"Keuhek... Losing strength...!"
Even Kairin and Asel were in danger of retiring while following along.
Of course, I wasn't much different.
Whether he researched more vicious training methods during the few months I wasn't there, things that were originally tough to follow became twice as difficult.
Eventually, Asel who was following the training spread out first, and when Kairin collapsed after holding out, my strength also loosened before long.
Master squatted in front of me and poked me with the spear.
"Skills increased, but stamina is somehow totally..."
You crazy person, you increased the intensity!
I wanted to protest like that, but since I didn't even have the strength to speak, I decided to just lie down like this.
Perhaps losing interest as there was no reaction, Master stopped poking me and rose from his seat.
"Today's training ends. Don't forget doing it once more in the afternoon."
".....Yes."
"Then I'm going to do some work."
"Go safely..."
Master left the spot like that, and we, who lay there for about 10 minutes more, barely raised our bodies.
"E... Ethan, what is this intensity...?"
"Have you always been doing this kind of training?"
"Mr. Ethan... You had a reason for being strong?"
Three people looking at me with pitying eyes.
Strange? I don't know about the Saintess, but shouldn't those two people not look at me like this?
Asel, Kairin. If you react like that, I become too pitiful...
Just what kind of master am I serving.
Somehow I became sorrowful.
Even after this, the three people received the training I received together.
Master also seemed to like the three people training diligently voluntarily during the school closure period, so he rolled them actively, and whether to say thanks to that, time flowed quickly.
Before we knew it, 2 weeks had passed since the school closure started, and it was time to return to studies.
During the 2 weeks, the academy faced diverse changes.
First, they received support of mages from the Imperial Family and Magic Towers to reinforce barriers and started organizing the personal information of residents inside the academy thoroughly.
Quite a few new professors from outside were also added.
As my master came recklessly holding a professor invitation letter, the academy side, getting an idea from this, invited several strong people as professors.
Since midterm exams had already proceeded, the academy created Pass/Fail type lectures and announced them during the school closure period to recruit students.
Although they couldn't reflect the students' timetable circumstances, since generally cases like my master came, the mindset was like planning classes fitting their own disciples' timetables and if the rest of the students come, good, if not, whatever.
Right now it's okay because it doesn't affect grades much and they opened lectures hard to hear anywhere else, but even just by next semester, the academy will have to find a way to respond to favoritism controversies.
Although it was a radical policy expected to have various side effects, for the academy, they probably had no choice but to choose this basic method to prepare for warlocks who might invade anytime, anywhere.
Well, that's not something for me to worry about, so there was no need to think complicatedly.
In my case, naturally, I applied for the lecture my master created during the school closure period.
Since the timetable was also made fitting my schedule for me to listen in the first place, course registration succeeded naturally.
The lecture name was Practical Spearmanship.
If it's Master, I thought he would make it like 'History of Spear Learned with Body', but it was an unexpectedly ordinary name.
The number of students was about 30, more than expected, and names of people who use spears a bit in the academy were also seen a lot.
Master's first lecture.
I wondered if this person could teach students well, but unexpectedly, Master showed a commonsensical appearance and finished the education excellently.
Furthermore, students listening to the lecture were also absorbed in the lecture with shining eyes as if they met a role model, so the quality of the class could absolutely not be seen as low.
After the lecture ended, while cleaning up under Master's instruction, I asked.
"No, did you also know how to do this?"
"What?"
"If I knew you could teach like this, why didn't you do that for me too?"
"Tsk tsk. If I taught like that, you would only be an Aura User now."
Master hitting my head with the spear shaft as if saying I'm speaking full-bellied words.
Clearly it looked like a light hit, but I don't know why my head hurts this much.
I clutched the crown of my head.
"Exaggerating."
"Master needs the ability to objectify your own realm."
Just in the Baran Kingdom right now, there is only one Master-class skilled person, the Kingdom's Knight Commander.
Even the Empire possessing territory two or three times the size of the Kingdom has only 3, and combining all Master-class skilled people in the continent wouldn't even reach 10.
In other words, simply counting by numbers, my master is a strong person ranking within the top teens in the continent.
There was no way a light hit from such a person would be light to the person receiving it.
Master couldn't be unaware of that, so that attitude was just him wanting to hit me once more.
"Master, cleanup is finished."
"Uh, really? Come here for a moment."
Before leaving the lecture room after finishing cleanup, Master suddenly called me.
He brought a box that was in the corner of the lecture room and took out the contents one by one.
They were objects looking somewhat like guards but...
Kung-!
Kung-!
Every time Master dropped an object, it made a sound as if the desk would break.
"What is this?"
"What do you mean what. Weights."
"....You mean wear them?"
"You know well, wear this and live for the time being. Recently stamina increase is quite unsatisfactory, right?"
Damnably, Master's insight was never wrong.
As he said, my stamina hadn't been changing much recently, so sighing inwardly, I moved my hands to the weights.
I attached a total of 4 weights, one on each arm and leg.
Since it was a form like a guard, it didn't catch while moving, but since I was also a superhuman for now, the weight had to be absurdly large to give load to the body.
I tried moving my limbs slowly.
Since resistance occurred just by lifting limbs, moving was more uncomfortable than thought.
"Except when sleeping or sparring, live wearing them until I say it's done."
"Understood."
Although the quality of life would drop absurdly for the time being, since he said he would let me take them off when sleeping, I decided to be satisfied with that much.
From after the lecture that day, the difficulty of my life increased by a level.
Wherever I went, whatever training I did, weights accompanied me.
The moments this was liberated were only about sparring and sleeping time.
Even after being rolled terribly by Master, since I couldn't take this off, trying to get up after collapsing once using all strength felt as if nails were driven into my limbs.
The Saintess, who teased me seeing my appearance at first but tried to live wearing the same weights I wore out of curiosity, ran away not even lasting a day, and Asel also had an expression saying this is a bit too much.
However, Kairin handling a greatsword perhaps felt interest in this training; she went to find my master and requested the same training.
Anyway, perhaps because the Saintess becomes strong too easily, she lacks tenacity.
Should I see this as a problem of efficiency?
Unlike me who has to twist my whole body to grow, she grows if she clicks the Holy Sword and clicks divine power, so there is indeed no need to do such hard work.
Furthermore, didn't she say she is also taking Holy Magic classes realizing the necessity of Holy Magic after the last terror?
Becoming stronger if the Holy Sword grows, becoming stronger if she prays, becoming stronger if she polishes swordsmanship... Just how much does she intend to grow.
I had the confidence not to be surprised even if the Saintess reached the Expert stage in terms of a knight when finishing the 1st year.
Has it been about two weeks continuing this arduous training?
Humans are animals of adaptation; the weights that constricted my limbs began to feel familiar.
The time this part was felt most was right after finishing training.
Feeling only limbs being pressured while strength is drained from the whole body was really hard, but now I got a bit used to it and even mastered the method to get up comfortably.
I also felt the effect of training.
originally if you take off something heavy you were holding, doesn't the body feel lighter than usual?
Since the body became noticeably lighter every time I took off the weights for sparring, the first few times I had to pay attention to controlling speed.
But repeating this a few times, it rather felt like the body was extending straight out, so I could proceed with sparring more pleasantly than usual.
Like that, I was growing little by little climbing the stairs to overcome the wall one step at a time.
"Mr. Ethan, look at this!"
"What is this?"
"The Holy Sword grew by one stage!"
....Ah, this scratched me a bit.