Chapter 297
Chapter 297
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 297
Chapter Title: A Different Dimension of Training
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***
—Meditation.
Clear your mind of idle thoughts. Mental training, or deep contemplation—that was my typical understanding of how to practice meditation.
However.
“...”
My lips parted for a moment. I couldn't believe what I'd just heard.
“Wait, hold on. Leonhardt, what did you just say?”
“I'll explain it again.”
He replied softly, looking completely unfazed.
It was as if he was at ease, not at all surprised by my reaction.
“First, you have to erase the thoughts in your mind as much as possible. Completely emptying it is probably impossible. Clear your mind as best you can, then paint it entirely black. In that blackness, you must recall the concepts of your power one by one, as if drawing them with pure white light.”
...As I listened, I was struck by how strange words could be.
It's easy to say something, but understanding it can be a completely different matter.
“...Right.”
“Do you understand?”
“To some extent.”
“Then it's on to the next step. You must manifest each concept you've engraved in your mind, one by one, within your mind's eye. Just as if you were unleashing that power in reality.”
His next words felt like they didn't just climb one or two steps, but dozens.
“Wait, is that... even possible?”
Manifesting power within one's mind.
So, he was telling me to envision myself manifesting my power within my mind's eye while in a meditative state...
Just hearing it made my head spin.
“It's entirely possible. To use myself as an example, you could call it the concept of the Sword of the Azure Sky. The blue radiance imbued in the sword—I endlessly imagined and desired to manifest it with my mana's nature. But that alone was ridiculously insufficient. So I wished to continuously manifest in my mind's eye what was impossible in reality."
Leonhardt's explanation only grew more and more incredible.
In short, he was saying he had managed to achieve a level of training within his mind that was impossible in the real world.
‘His very way of thinking is on another level.’
I, too, had desperately imagined and wished for things.
In fact, one of those wishes became the key to a skill that brought me great power. But he was telling me he could turn the 'impossible' into the 'possible' within his mind.
That wasn't just a miracle... it was something more.
He had mastered and realized something I couldn't even conceive of.
“So that's how you changed your mana's nature during our duel a few days ago.”
“That's right. Although I haven't reached the complete Sword of the Azure Sky, you could say I've manifested its aura in my own way.”
Even as I listened to his detailed explanation, his perspective suddenly struck me as strange.
‘How could he have believed that was possible?’
It wasn't just that he wished for it desperately; he put it into practice... That didn't seem like an ordinary level of faith.
From my perspective, it was already in the 'realm of creation.'
He had taken what should have been an absurd act... and manifested it in reality.
“Han Cheon-seong. Thinking about it now, it seems pretty daunting, doesn't it?”
I just stared blankly and nodded as he asked with a faint smile.
“...Yeah. It's incredibly daunting.”
*As expected,* I thought while replying.
The realm of a genius was different, right down to their way of thinking.
If an ordinary person could follow his training methods, he wouldn't be a genius. His methods were on a celestial level.
Even the first concept was hard to say I fully understood; painting my mind black and then engraving a concept in light didn't seem easy at all.
Honestly, even if I understood the concept of a power, organizing it in my head felt like a separate challenge.
“Haa….”
I sighed, looked at him, and decided to stop thinking about it for now.
I wondered if Leonhardt was exaggerating a little, but his eyes looked completely sincere.
“I don't expect you to succeed right away, but if I had to choose between 'you can' or 'you can't,' I'd say this. The Han Cheon-seong I know... you can definitely do it. I'm certain now that you possess a talent that surpasses my own.”
“What's with all that certainty... I don't know what you see in me, but to be honest, I don't think I'm the genius you expect me to be."
“You won't know until you try. I felt daunted at first, too. I only reached this point after trying thousands of times internally. If you put in the time, you'll definitely be able to do it.”
A calm voice.
But his voice seemed to hold a deep conviction, and his claim of trying thousands of times stuck with me.
“...Alright, I'll give it a shot. Thanks for explaining it in such detail.”
“It's nothing. The stronger you get, the higher my own goal becomes, so I truly hope you achieve it.”
I met his gaze for a moment, seeing his pure encouragement, and nodded.
The effort he'd put into regaining his strength wasn't obvious on the surface. In reality, it far surpassed the efforts of any ordinary person.
His claim of trying thousands of times was surely no exaggeration.
It must have been born from that desperation, from challenging himself countless times despite failure—that was the 'power of the mind's eye' he possessed.
A training method he created for himself to stand back up after his spirit had been broken.
‘It's ridiculous for me to think I could just get it for free.’
I straightened my resolve and took a slow, deep breath.
*Rustle.*
I gently turned my body back and, just as Leonhardt had, attempted to sit in a meditative posture on my bed.
And then I closed my eyes.
“......”
The first step of meditation. I started by trying to clear away my stray thoughts.
And even that... not even a few minutes into my meditation, I realized it wasn't easy.
All sorts of thoughts flooded my mind. My training with Sir Isabel today or tomorrow, or Kalli, Adelia, Karite, Glacia... and so on.
The emotional exchanges I'd had with so many people I'd met recently naturally came to mind.
All of it flashed by and then vanished, and with each thought, my mind wavered slightly.
The mind that should have been settling down was instead rippling with other thoughts.
“...”
I slowly opened my eyes, my brow furrowed.
‘Was I always this bad at concentrating?’
When it came to physical training with a spear, I'd always considered myself quite focused. I would immerse myself in it daily, to the point of losing all track of time.
But this mental training... it was on a completely different level from physical training.
I glanced beside me and saw Leonhardt, motionless, as if he had once again sunk into meditation.
Watching him, I steeled my resolve once more.
‘I have to keep trying.’
Expecting to succeed on the first try was pure arrogance.
Even a genius like him had to put in so much effort to make it possible. Then I, at the very least, had to put in an equal amount of effort before judging the outcome.
Whether it would work or not was a question for later.
…….
My mind is black.
The first step, finally reached.
Just as he'd said, I couldn't completely erase my thoughts. I simply painted my mind an even deeper black, overwriting the thoughts themselves.
Accepting that, I began to recall the concepts of my powers one by one.
-The spiral current.
-The change in mana's nature.
-The principles of the Asura Spiral Spear.
-The application of Spearmanship Level 5…….
“...”
My mouth fell open on its own, and my head instantly grew dizzy.
The concepts of power themselves came to mind one by one, but when I tried to engrave them concretely in my mind, my head throbbed as if it would shatter.
My eyes narrowed instinctively as I shook my head.
‘This isn't it.’
I felt it instinctively.
I shouldn't be trying to recall so many different concepts like this.
Leonhardt's specific training method was correct, but I felt that recalling so many complex concepts at once wasn't the way.
Engraving multiple concepts would only scatter my mental energy.
So, I felt that focusing on 'one' was key.
In that case, what should I focus on? What would be the most efficient and helpful for me right now?
As my thoughts continued, one concept naturally loomed larger than the others.
‘The Asura Spiral Spear.’
Among the concepts I'd thought of, it had the greatest potential for growth and was also a highly destructive technique.
—The power of a skill.
I can only use the first form of the Asura Spiral Spear now, but if I could master the second and third forms, it would be a completely different story.
I could manifest diverse powers with a single skill.
That in itself would change how I could respond to the apostles and any crises to come.
'Yes, the skill is the answer.'
Once my mind was made up, things moved quickly.
Within my blackened mind, I began to engrave the principles of the Asura Spiral Spear, one by one.
The principles I could recall. Even if they weren't complete concepts, the ideas of how to handle the power alone were enough to be endlessly engraved in my mind.
Imbuing the spear with the nature of the spiral, how much power to manifest to maintain the spiral's force, and even controlling the energy to command the spiral's power...
“......”
Then, my eyes suddenly flew open.
It felt like something was stabbing the side of my head, and my train of thought was completely severed.
"..."
As if my body had given up on thinking, I could only stare blankly at the scene in front of me.
I must have stared like that for about ten seconds.
“...Haa.”
I let out a faint sigh and buried my face in my hands.
‘This is truly insane.’
I could feel just how difficult and absurd this meditation training was.
At the edge of my thoughts, my mind didn't just warp, my head throbbed. I felt a pain, as if under a great strain.
"..."
I took a few shallow breaths, feeling a strange sense of displacement.
I felt like I had somehow managed to climb to the entrance, but the problem was that as soon as I stepped inside, I was lost in a maze of thousands of rooms.
Moreover, the mental fatigue from crossing each room was so significant that I couldn't just enter any room I pleased.
"Haa."
Lost in thought, I suddenly flopped onto the bed, spreading my limbs out.
My spirit felt drained, and I couldn't muster any motivation.
*Glance.*
Then I checked the internal clock, and another sigh escaped me.
‘Only an hour…?’
I had tried to follow the training method Leonhardt taught me, and after just over an hour of meditation, all I could do was let out a hollow laugh.
That alone was enough to bottom out my mental energy.
I had absolutely no desire to continue.
'How can this be?'
When facing the apostles, I never lost my will to fight, no matter the pain. If it was just my life on the line, I had the kill-or-be-killed mentality to take down the apostle even if it meant my death.
And in physical training, even when my body reached its limit, I pushed myself harshly to see beyond it.
I never thought my limits were particularly low or average.
If they were, I never would have achieved this level of growth.
'I thought that when it came to mental fortitude, I was abnormally strong….'
That's what I believed.
But this mental training felt like a completely separate trial.
"..."
But this...
...I felt it was something I had to do, step by step. It was a training method devised by the protagonist of this world, so turning away from it was not an option.