Chapter 37
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: Secluded Training
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As he was leaving the mansion, a stubborn-looking little boy blocked his path.
“Brother.”
“The title.”
“…My respected King Emperor Majesty Older Brother.”
“What is it?”
“Please duel me.”
Chris stared blankly at TERN.
His gaze was distinctly different from before.
He realized TERN had reached a new level.
‘2-Star Middle, is it? He’s fast.’
TERN was thirteen years old.
No matter how exceptional the descendants of noble houses were, reaching 2-Star at thirteen was fast.
And not just Lower, but Middle, which signified a mature level. It was a speed that would qualify him as a prodigy even within the Dark Magic House.
“We’ll duel after my training is over.”
“…It will be different from last time. Be prepared.”
“Alright, if that’s what you want, I’ll beat you to your heart’s content.”
“Brother!”
“The title.”
“…My respected King Emperor Majesty Older Brother.”
Chris chuckled and held out his fist.
TERN huffed and bumped fists with him.
Their fists met, and Chris began his secluded training.
* * *
Fifteen days.
That was the time Chris was practically given.
An absurdly short amount of time to achieve anything significant.
But time is relative.
For Chris, it was by no means an insufficient amount of time to reach a new level of achievement.
‘First, I’ll reduce my sleep.’
Chris employed a secret technique.
He had been a master of medicine in his past life.
He had also learned many mysterious secret arts of medicine.
Among them was a secret art that allowed him to gain maximum fatigue recovery with minimal sleep.
It couldn't be sustained for long, as it would eventually strain the body, but for the next fifteen days, he would be able to maintain his stamina with less than two hours of sleep.
‘Time to take the Black Dan.’
Chris took out the Black Dan he had smuggled.
A brilliant, jet-black color, as if holding the night sky, shimmered.
‘But how should I guide the energy?’
Chris pondered for a moment.
Each elixir had a specific guidance method to absorb its energy with maximum efficiency.
If one didn't follow the proper method, not only would the energy be wasted, but in the worst-case scenario, one could suffer from qi deviation.
The problem was that this Black Dan was a secret elixir of the Dark Magic House’s main family, so its guidance method was not known to outsiders.
Normally, an elder from the main house would have to assist with the guidance.
But Chris spoke nonchalantly.
“I’ll just do it my way. The basic principles of guidance methods are all pretty much the same.”
It wasn't his first time taking an elixir.
He’d had many opportunities to encounter various treasures while traveling with the Hero's party.
He had even taken elixirs on par with the Black Dan before.
‘In the end, the principle of a guidance method is just to lead the essence to the core and absorb it, while expelling any bad essence from the body.’
Anyone else who heard this would have rebuked him for such an ignorant statement.
The process of absorbing an elixir's essence involves much more complex principles.
But if you stripped away all the processes, Chris was right.
Absorbing the essence.
If one could perfectly control the elixir's essence, a guidance method wouldn't be necessary.
Guidance methods are necessary because it’s impossible to control an elixir's essence as it rampages uncontrollably within the body.
‘But I… can do it.’
Chris lay down on the bed in the training ground.
Lotus position?
Why bother?
A comfortable posture was the best.
He swallowed the Black Dan, and it soon dissolved and was absorbed into his body.
Whoosh.
The energy of darkness began to rampage inside his body like an untethered colt.
And it wasn't just one colt.
To his head.
To his abdominal organs.
To his arms and legs.
The dark energy spread uncontrollably throughout his entire body.
Now, he had to gather all this energy and guide it into his blood vessels.
‘This is more intense than I thought.’
With his eyes closed, Chris frowned slightly.
Most notably, a heterogeneous energy was rampaging alongside the dark energy.
It was the essence of light.
‘Was the energy of light also included in the Black Dan?’
Chris recalled the process of how the Black Dan was made.
It was created when a Karazov sacrificed its life for its master in a state of ecstasy.
Although it was forced through Demonic Training, it seemed that some light energy was mixed in during the process of overcoming the terror of Gehenna through loyalty and sacrifice.
‘I see why they say absorbing the Black Dan is difficult.’
He had heard that the risk of qi deviation from the Black Dan was so high that at least three elders from the main house had to assist in its absorption.
With light energy mixed in, of course it was dangerous.
For Majin, the energy of light was a completely incompatible power they could never handle.
But Chris was different.
On the contrary, the energy of light was a familiar power to him.
‘First, the dark energy.’
Chris exerted his control.
The magi control method of the Dark Magic House he learned from Count Cazar.
It was different from what the main family’s direct line learned. The version permitted for the branch families was a degraded one with lower magi control efficiency.
But it was fine.
Because depending on whose hand it’s in, even an old sword can surpass the sharpness of a treasured blade.
The wildly rampaging dark essence began to calm down, one by one.
He guided it straight into his blood vessels.
‘And the light energy at the same time.’
Normally, the light energy in the Black Dan was an ‘impurity’ that had to be expelled from the body.
But Chris shook his head.
‘Why throw away something this precious?’
He intended to absorb both the dark energy and the light energy completely.
Chris manipulated the dark energy while simultaneously moving the light energy.
The control method of the Dark Magic House.
The control method of a renowned swordsmanship house unfolded within his body at the same time.
He was accomplishing something theoretically impossible.
The astonishing feat didn't end there.
The energies of darkness and light traveled together along a single blood vessel.
The two energies were like water and fire, so a major disaster should have occurred the moment they touched, but surprisingly, they remained calm.
Chris was perfectly controlling the two energies, preventing them from mixing like oil and water.
It was a feat where the slightest waver would result in horrific internal injuries, but Chris made no mistakes.
With extreme concentration, he thoroughly dominated the two energies that galloped through his blood vessels like wild horses.
‘I need to use the elixir’s energy to strengthen my blood vessels.’
Simply absorbing the energy into the core was a poor strategy that didn't make full use of the elixir.
By having the elixir’s energy rush violently through the blood vessels, he could achieve the effect of strengthening them.
The problem, of course, was the danger.
If he lost control, he would instead suffer severe internal damage to his blood vessels.
Especially since Chris had to move two opposing energies at once.
Perhaps it would have been wiser to forgo strengthening the blood vessels and just quietly absorb the energy into his core.
But Chris attempted the gamble.
‘I can do it.’
The dark and light energies circulated violently through his blood vessels.
From the lower dantian core to the heart.
From the heart, to the neck, to the head.
Outward to the arms and legs.
Then back to the core, repeating the same process.
Countless dizzying moments repeated.
At every twist and turn where the blood vessels bent and branched, the dark and light energies fluctuated, trying to mix.
A crisis where if even a single drop mixed, a catastrophic chain reaction would occur.
But he didn't panic.
Chris calmly dominated the two energies.
Soon, the two energies, which had been jostling against each other, intertwined into a spiral as if becoming one and raced forward.
An unbelievable feat, keeping them stuck together as one without the slightest bit of mixing.
The blood vessels were stimulated and strengthened by both the dark and light energies, and after a certain point, an unexpected miracle began to happen in Chris's body.
Crack, pop.
It went beyond strengthening his blood vessels; his body itself began to change!
Impurities were discharged, and his skeletal structure changed minutely.
‘Bone Metamorphosis?’
Chris’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.
No, it was similar, but it wasn't Bone Metamorphosis.
This was his constitution changing as his blood vessels, stimulated by both dark and light energies, were strengthened to an extreme degree.
His muscles and bones, already in optimal condition after his previous Bone Metamorphosis, became even more exceptional.
Now his blood vessels would become channels capable of moving magi and mana more powerfully, and his body had become like a treasured sword forged by a master craftsman.
‘Time to finish up.’
The frantically racing dark and light energies entered the core.
Pain surged from the impact, but he clenched his jaw and endured, guiding the dark energy to the core’s outer core and the light energy to its inner core.
And then.
“Haa.”
Chris let out a deep sigh and opened his eyes.
His eyes were a level deeper than before.
‘In terms of the amount of magi, am I at about the 3-Star level?’
3-Star!
It was an astonishing result.
Chris's current level was 2-Star.
But the magi he possessed was insufficient even for a 2-Star.
Strictly speaking, you could say the amount of his magi hadn't even surpassed 1-Star.
He had raised his star level quickly thanks to his outstanding talent, but he lacked the absolute time needed to accumulate magi.
Yet, with a single elixir, he had accumulated enough magi to leap over two levels.
‘That’s not all. The mana for the Alliance's Starlight path has also reached the 3-Star level.’
The amount of mana, the energy of light, had been lacking as well.
He had achieved the 3-Star rank long ago, but his mana reserves were embarrassingly low for that level. Now, that problem was solved.
‘I think my face got more handsome, too.’
Chris looked at his reflection in the mirror.
A handsome young nobleman with an infuriatingly smug look stared back from the other side of the mirror.
Thanks to undergoing something akin to Bone Metamorphosis again, he seemed to have become even more handsome, and his expression even more irritating.
‘I can’t be satisfied with this.’
Taking the Black Dan was only the beginning of his secluded training.
The goal was to raise his star level.
Chris planned to achieve an even higher level than his current one.
The idea of raising his star level in less than fifteen days was something others would laugh at in disbelief.
For reference, Chris’s current level was 2-Star Lower.
He had only just reached 2-Star.
Normally, it takes over five years to go from 2-Star to 3-Star.
Even going from 2-Star Lower to Middle takes at least a year, no matter how fast one is.
Even TERN, who was called a prodigy, took a year and a half to go from 2-Star Lower to Middle. If he hadn't been stimulated by Chris, it might have taken even longer.
But.
‘I have to reach 2-Star Upper before the Sacred Black Ceremony.’
A level just shy of 3-Star.
A process that would take even an outstanding prodigy two years.
Possible in fifteen days?
You’ll see.
‘Let’s begin.’
Fwoosh!
Magi boiled up from Chris’s body, and his real training began.
* * *
Time flew by in an instant.
The day Chris was to end his training approached.
“……”
The stubborn-looking boy was standing guard in front of the training ground.
‘I don’t like it.’
TERN scowled as he waited for Chris to finish his training.
‘That annoying brother.’
Originally, TERN had despised Chris.
Naturally.
The old Chris had been a worthless scoundrel deserving of contempt.
But at some point, Chris had changed completely.
He had become a completely new person and had shown unbelievable, incredible sides of himself.
TERN found his brother’s transformation… irritating.
‘If you could change, why didn’t you do it sooner? Why? You acted like a fool until Mother died.’
TERN clenched his fists.
He wasn't really sure what he was feeling right now.
He was just angry.
He wanted to take him down a peg.
‘I can definitely win.’