Amazing He Can Even Write His Name (2)

Back in my room, I brushed off Hana's suggestion that we go to dinner—no appetite, I told her, and I wasn't feeling well—and burrowed into bed.

Food wasn't the problem. I needed to find out just how many Daily Quests I had missed.

Hands trembling, I checked the translucent windows one by one. Most of the quests offered only feeble rewards: a pleasant mood, a hair more strength, a shade more speed, a little fatigue eased away. But if thousands of those had piled up, that was another matter entirely.

Why was this guy so ridiculously diligent about his dailies?

Working my way down and claiming the quests Seo Hoon had never received, I spotted one reward among the countless others that shone with a brilliance all its own.

"......"

With a trembling hand, I signed my name to that reward.

"Huuup..."

I drew a deep breath. The root of my tongue went cold enough to freeze, and the chill I had inhaled began to heat as it passed down my throat. By the time it reached my heart, my chest burned as if I had swallowed a shard of hot stone.

It resembled the aura cultivation method described in the novel, though the ability settled a little differently in each person. The protagonist was said to have felt his throat harden, as if dragon scales were sprouting inside it, and it had been much the same when Seo Hoon learned the method from him. I, however, had not learned this from the protagonist at all.

Seo Hoon must have cleared his Daily Quests by instinct, and among them steadily finished the ones tied to the aura cultivation method until the qualification was his. He simply could not write his name, so the reward had stayed unclaimed.

Seo Hoon... just what are you...

Diligent enough not to miss a single daily quest, and hiding a genius's talent underneath it all. A cheat character, through and through.

Before I signed my name on the reward I took for the aura cultivation method and claimed it, there had been something I needed to lock down. I gave Hana firm orders that no one was to come in until I opened the door myself.

In exchange, she told me to eat the snack she had brought in place of dinner, so I had no choice but to show her the sight of me with it stuffed in my mouth, chewing.

Once my stomach was empty, I perched on the edge of the bed and drew a breath to perform the aura cultivation method I had just received.

How full will it get...

I did not expect to form an Aura Heart from the very start, of course. Growing familiar enough with the method to stand out at the academy would be plenty. Simply being able to use the aura cultivation method at will would put me in the upper ranks by graduation—even the famous fourth son of the Cheonryong Sword Family only formed his Aura Heart right before he graduated. The protagonist's older sister, the fifth daughter, was called a genius of the century for nothing more than completing hers during her school years.

"Ssuuup..."

I could taste the air. A cool prickle touched the tip of my tongue, and as I drew it in, a crisp sensation teased the back of my throat—only to freeze so bitterly inside my neck that I could barely stand it. The moment I swallowed it whole and melted it into my heart, though, burning energy poured out like cold natural gas fed into a furnace, flooding heat through ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my entire body.

This is fun.

Who knew breathing could be this entertaining?

Every inhale repeated the cycle. At first thirty seconds, then a minute, and once it stretched past five, searing heat was steadily gathering in my body. I had thought this much would be enough, but feeling that hot energy pool near my heart whenever I held my breath, greed began to stir.

At this rate, I might actually be able to do it.

At first I had thought the obvious thing: don't you die if you stop breathing? Yet whether the cultivation method was keeping my body alive or not, the longer I went, the longer I could endure. This body, besides, ought to have been the worst possible vessel for it. Sit still and do nothing but breathe, and stray thoughts should have crowded in to ruin the work—breath running short, something I needed to do, some worry nagging at me. Seo Hoon's head, though, was truly and cleanly empty, and he had no particular worries to speak of. It was the optimal state for training the method.

The result of surrendering myself to a trance of no-mind and simply breathing, over and over, was this: I gathered coal-hot energy in my chest, and even without deliberately moving my aura to clump it in place, I could make it stay.

"Huuuu..."

The moment I began to ease the aura loose, though, the heat held in my heart started to unravel.

If I could catch this and fix it in place... would that be awakening an Aura Heart?

The slightest gap in the cultivation, and the heat slipped away.

Right. No way this would be ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that easy.

Even the protagonist, genius that he was, had only barely completed his Aura Heart after the first semester ended, just before summer break. Of course, that was partly because it took time for Aura Heart awakening to come to him as a Daily Quest mission, and partly because one incident after another left him no time to form one.

I inhaled, gathered the burning heat in my chest, and felt vitality rise through my whole body, my senses turning sharp.

The Awakener Academy. Now that skilled fighters could be raised through training in aura cultivation and the mana assimilation arts, it was an institution built to cultivate outstanding swordsmen from their school years onward. Where the world had once depended blindly on Awakeners who simply happened to possess powerful abilities, even those whose gifts were weak—or who never awakened at all—could now be educated to stand against monsters and dungeons.

And Cheonryong Academy. A place that took its name from the Cheonryong Sword Family, the world's strongest prestigious sword clan. Cheon Gyu-seong, family head two generations prior, had secured pledges of investment from nations across the world in his youth, and the previous head, Cheon Ho-gang, had built the academy itself. Cheon Ho-gang added the family's basic aura cultivation method to the curriculum and made the secret art public. It fell short of the clan's hidden method, but even so, this was the world's finest institution for educating Awakeners, and what it taught was a tremendous secret in its own right.

Cheon Jin-myeong, the current head of the Cheonryong Sword Family, was a graduate of the academy's first class, and all six of his children had promised to enroll there rather than go anywhere else. The first son, the second son, and the third daughter had each graduated at the top of their class as student council president and were active in the field. This year, the fourth son and the fifth daughter would enter together. Two years after that, when the youngest—the sixth son, Cheon So-hyeong—enrolled, the story of The Academy's Youngest Bastard Awakened as an SSS-Rank Scoundrel would begin.

Still a little more than two years before the protagonist, who had been living in hiding within the Cheonryong Sword Family, makes his appearance.

For now, ahead of the entrance ceremony, I had come to the dormitory early with the triplets. The official reason was that we meant to clean and remodel the room I would be staying in from tomorrow on. In truth, contractors and retainers from the other great families were already cleaning the other special rooms in advance, and the triplets were hard at work cleaning and remodeling mine as well.

"Young Master, please wait outside for a moment."

By the original plan, they should have come ahead to prepare for my arrival, and I only needed to rest at home until the ceremony. I could have shown up just in time for it. The real reason I had come today was something else: to find one of the treasures hidden in Cheonryong Academy. Put simply, a fortuitous encounter.

It was originally meant for the protagonist, Cheon So-hyeong, but some of these things do not wear out just because you use them. I could make good use of it for two years and put it back where it belonged.

I roughly know where it is. Slip away when I get the chance, and that should do it.

This particular encounter was not especially hidden, nor did it come with any real trial, so for someone who knew its location it was something I could find quickly. Use it in secret, put it back later with no sign of wear, and the protagonist would be none the worse for it.

While the triplets were absorbed in their cleaning, I slipped out, threw on a jacket a contractor working on another room had left behind, pulled the cap I had prepared down over my face, and left the dormitory.

A place people rarely go, wasn't it?

Cheonryong Academy's grounds were enormous, and so there were corners that went relatively unmanaged. I had brought the interior layout pamphlet issued to the triplets, so I knew where I was headed, and I made for it while keeping clear of other eyes.

"This the place?"

What I found was a stone statue, carved decades ago and poorly kept, of a nameless swordsman of the Cheonryong Sword Family. It was not modeled on Cheon Gyu-seong, who had pushed for the academy's founding, nor on Cheon Ho-gang, who had actually established it. Not a boast of himself, and not of the Cheon clan—rather, a nameless swordsman who could have been anyone, standing in for the family as a whole. Or so you would have to read it.

His son, Cheon Ho-gang, had of course wanted a truer likeness of his great father, and had shown his filial devotion in his own way by raising a massive statue that depicted the man outright.

Cheon Ho-gang himself, the man who actually founded Cheonryong Academy, probably never knew. Never knew that Cheon Gyu-seong's dream was sealed inside this statue of the family's nameless swordsman.

Gyu-seong had hoped that someday some unknown student of the academy—someone who was not of the Cheonryong Sword Family—would be the one to find this encounter.

But because of Cheon Ho-gang's unintended gesture of filial piety, the encounter ended up passing to a descendant of the family after all: Cheon So-hyeong.

"Considering I'm not a member of the Cheonryong Sword Family... does this actually match what Cheon Gyu-seong wanted?"

Not that I meant to keep it. I would borrow it for a while and return it to his descendant.

Rrrrrk. Careful not to damage the stone, I took hold of the statue's base.

"Turn it slowly to the right... or do I pull it out?"

After the entrance ceremony, the protagonist, Cheon So-hyeong, would be beaten by his fourth brother, Cheon ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Dae-seong. Only just awakened to the System, protecting his own body was the best he could manage, so he gave up on fighting back and took the hits—until a blow from the frenzied Cheon Dae-seong split the statue. Dae-seong never noticed, but So-hyeong, aided by the System, felt energy seeping from the crack. He knocked the rampaging Dae-seong unconscious, smashed the statue, and claimed the encounter...

I'm only borrowing it. Careful as I can be. Not a scratch.

Grk... grk! I steadied my breath, invoked the aura cultivation method, and tried again. It was hard going, but I could move the heavy statue.

Kriiiik—! Thud! I lifted the upper body just slightly and wrenched it around, and it pulled free so the waist could come apart.

"Whew."

If I were simply going to smash it, I could have taken what I wanted in a second. Opening it without damage was considerably more work. I set down the nameless swordsman's torso, split at the waist, and drew out the plum-sized black orb embedded in the lower abdomen—the spot you might call the dantian.

The next family head, Cheon Ho-gang, had probably turned the clan upside down in his own search for the thief, but he could never have found it. It was not some outsider. The previous head, Cheon Gyu-seong—already dead by then—was the one who had taken it. There was no finding a thing like that. And the timing of the theft was immediately after he had seen his son, Cheon Ho-gang, complete the Cheonryong Simju, which meant that in practice the orb had been sleeping inside this statue for decades.

Fortunately, working from records Gyu-seong had left behind, the family built an aura cultivation chamber of its own to replace the effect. The trouble was that the chamber matched the structure but had no power source, so it burned through large numbers of magic crystals to produce something similar. Because of that, it was opened only on a limited basis, to the family head or the direct-line heirs—and the scorned protagonist never received its benefits at all. Magic crystals, they said, were too precious to waste on him.

With this Black Dragon Yeouiju, he would not only overturn the cultivation he lacked beside his siblings, but pull ahead of them. A treasure among treasures, you might say.

Of course, once an Aura Heart starts to grow, it stops having any effect.

For now, I would complete my Aura Heart, reassemble the statue, fit it back the way it had been, and return it to Cheon So-hyeong. Or I could form an Aura Heart for Duna, who was learning the cultivation method, and put it back after that... Come to think of it, why not just break through Aura Hearts for every trustworthy person around me?

"Not like it wears out if I use it."

If I could use it, I was going to use it for all it was worth.