Chapter 13 - Starting Line
Starting Line
Translator : Elizabeth
Chapter 13. Starting Line
It felt like my vision was burning.
The sight forcibly opened by 'Ahisha's Eye' transcended human senses far beyond.
The flat word 'seeing' was woefully insufficient.
It was like looking into a giant microcosm harbored within a human named Arisa.
My talent, 'Trace,' instinctively began to chase that flow madly.
The decisive processes where Arisa accepted the spiritual power of the Cold Blue Stone Fungus and expanded her dantian and 'Aura Road.'
The direction and angle at which mana rotates, and even the minute waves generated when energy condenses.
I took tens of thousands of high-definition photos of it and forcibly hammered them into every single brain cell.
In that process, 'Trace' made me instinctively realize how to apply them to my body.
A piercing headache as if my brain was burning from overload rushed in, but I did not stop.
The desperate powerlessness and desire for revenge I felt when I saw Leorel Piace's vertical slash 10 years ago.
That was the sole driving force supporting me at this moment.
I clenched my teeth tight enough to crush my molars.
Hot blood flow gathered around my eyes, transmitting pressure as if my eyeballs would burst, but I didn't blink even for a single moment.
No, I couldn't close them. No matter how much I thought about it, a better opportunity than this would not come again.
If I miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance, it was clear that revenge would become an impossible dream.
Contrary to such a fierce resolution, the mana flowing through Arisa's body was like a blue milky way, so beautiful and dazzlingly shining.
The stream of mana starting from the deep place called the dantian soared powerfully to the crown of the head like an ascending dragon riding the spine, then swept through the acupuncture points of the whole body densely and quickly like a spiderweb.
In some sections, it poured down violently like a waterfall, and in some minute vascular nodes, it subsided thinly and softly like breathing.
That precise control of pace was indeed the secret technique the Ashuhalt family had guarded like life for hundreds of years.
A supreme Aura cultivation method whose name wasn't even known.
'Beautiful….'
An exclamation burst out unknowingly.
Had exactly one hour passed?
The mysterious blue light emitted by Ahisha's bead gradually faded.
I blinked my eyes, enduring the terrible dryness and stiff pain.
Tears flowed down, but a satisfied smile hung on my lips.
I observed, simulated, and verified Arisa's internal circulation over hundreds of times.
Now, my structural understanding of this cultivation method might be deeper than the Ashuhalt family members, the original creators, as an outsider.
It was then.
"Hoooo… Puha—!!!"
Arisa, who was sitting cross-legged, vomited out the turbid energy pulled up from the depths and opened her eyes wide.
Vwooom—!
Instantly, the air in the room was pushed away centering on her.
Windows rattled and curtains fluttered.
Around her body, a deep and vivid blue energy, incomparable to before, was shimmering like heat haze.
It was a momentum reaching the stage of 'Ascendant,' just before materializing Aura, beyond the wall of Novice.
To think it's this much with just one mushroom, it reminded me of a plumber from a certain game.
Apart from that, the Ashuhalt bloodline was indeed amazing.
Arisa opened and closed her palm, muttering as if in disbelief.
"This… This is incredible! Mana inside my body… is raging like a storm!!"
Her voice was still bright, but somehow a heavy weight was carried in it.
Arisa jumped up from her seat, strode towards me, and gripped my shoulder crushingly tight.
"Danel! You are my benefactor. Really!"
"Kuh, it hurts though… Lady."
"Oops! Sorry! I can't control it well right now!"
Her eyes sparkled with pure gratitude and admiration.
"With this amount… I can surprise even my brothers."
I said with sincerity.
"Congratulations, Lady."
Arisa looked at me with eyes warmer than anything else.
"Danel, while you stay at Ashuhalt from now on, if you have any difficulties, tell me unconditionally. I'll handle most things for you!!"
"Thank you even just for the words, Lady. You show too great consideration for a fair trade."
"How can you speak so prettily too? No, meeting you today is the greatest luck of my life! Do you really not want to be my vassal?"
I chuckled.
Saying this meeting is the greatest luck was rather what I should say.
"I believe that discussion is already over."
"Tch, breaking the mood…. Fine! I won't ask anymore!"
Arisa grinned and looked at her hand once more.
"Sorry, Danel, but I think we have to end the meal here. I feel like I'm going crazy wanting to use this power right now! My body is itching! Since you don't have Aura… it's a pity, but let's duel again next time. I'll beat you even without Aura then!"
"I might really lose next time? Please go easy on me then."
"Hahaha! Of course! Power is overflowing, overflowing!"
Arisa laughed cheerfully and ran out of the room like a storm.
From the end of the hallway, sounds of servants shouting 'Lady! You mustn't run like that!' could be heard.
Watching her energetic back, I quietly left the room.
I also had no reason to stay here anymore.
Because I was dying to check the new energy wriggling inside my chest.
As soon as I returned to my quarters, I locked the door.
I didn't forget to block the doorknob with a chair in preparation for any intrusion.
Sitting cross-legged in the center of the floor, I slowly closed my eyes.
"Phew…."
In the pitch-black darkness, I began to contemplate the deepest part of my inner self.
Memories of my past life flashed by like a revolving lantern.
The pathetic life in Korea, living day by day without will or meaning.
And the 10 years of surviving like a cockroach wandering the blood-smelling battlefields after crossing over to this damn world.
'I was always the one being trampled.'
Even when my parents were killed, even when Captain Barkas and comrades became lumps of meat and washed away in blood.
I was just a trivial weed helplessly watching, peeping for a chance to take the next breath.
But now I caught a chance to change.
I consciously began to gather the mana scattered inside my body.
To ordinary people, mana is like unfelt air, but to me, who had already experienced it through Arisa and witnessed the essence of mana with 'Ahisha's Eye,' it was different.
I snatched the faint clusters of light floating inside with intense will and began to forcibly condense them in the dantian through Ashuhalt style breathing.
'It's moving!!'
I felt the first mana particle firmly clumping and generating in my dantian.
'A little more!'
Stitch by stitch.
I swelled the dust-sized mana to the size of a millet seed like that.
Now the size was sufficient.
Next was the stage of moving this.
The moment the millet-sized mana escaped the dantian and penetrated the blood vessel, intense pain as if stabbed by sharp needles wrapped around my whole body.
'Kuh-euk!!'
It was the pain of opening the 'Aura Road' for the first time in my life.
If I open my mouth here, the painstakingly gathered mana will scatter.
I clenched my teeth enough to break them without even letting out a groan.
And I tried to forcibly twist and circulate that small but intense energy along the path Arisa showed.
But it was then.
'!!!!'
Mana began to move in a direction different from my will.
'Damn it, not there!!'
But mana didn't change its path despite my intense will.
No, rather, it seemed to be saying this.
'This way is better.'
At that moment, I had an illusion as if lightning struck my head.
My 'Trace' not only analyzes and copies all of the opponent's muscles but unconsciously informs me of the direction of 'better' movement.
All techniques I use were movements with optimal muscle efficiency like that.
If that applies to Aura operation methods too?
Goosebumps rose on my spine.
If getting caught stealing the Duke's Aura cultivation method, it's a death sentence.
But if I change the operation method as Trace guides, this doesn't become the Duke's Aura operation method.
Meaning it's not a crime even if caught.
But I was also worried at the same time.
Because I heard that if the cultivation method leads mana to the wrong path, one could fall into 'mana backflow' and die or become a cripple.
However, I didn't think my instinct and unconsciousness would push me to death.
'Let's go!!'
There is no turning back anyway.
I began to move mana to the path Trace guided.
Finishing one grand circulation, I cheered.
'Done!!'
It was relief confirming that the Aura Road guided by Trace was not a road to death.
Like that, I continued the grand circulation.
Twice, three times….
Every time the energy circulated, my muscles screamed, and bone joints made bizarre sounds as if being crushed.
It was as if a war broke out inside my body.
But I didn't stop.
I decided to think of this pain as a ritual washing away my past powerlessness.
How long did I move mana like that.
Suddenly, a giant vortex began to swirl deep in my inner dantian.
It was different in nature from the blue mana symbolizing Ashuhalt that Arisa had.
My Aura emitted pure white light as if to wash away all the killing intent accumulated on the battlefield for 10 years, the venom endured while being trampled like a weed, and the hatred toward the enemy.
Kwaaaaaang—!
A roar was heard in my head.
As if an invisible dam collapsed, the wall firmly surrounding the dantian crumbled.
And there, a drop of condensed energy formed brilliantly.
That was Aura, refined mana.
Woom—
"Phew…."
I gathered my energy and opened my eyes.
"Ugh… the smell…."
Impurities spewed from every pore of my body were soaking the floor wet.
My senses became sensitive enough to hear even the footsteps of an ant passing outside the room.
Furthermore, a sense of omnipotence filling every corner of my body.
Surely Arisa must have felt this just moments ago too.
I slowly raised my body.
And opened my hand.
Flare—
Then, a brilliantly blooming white flame.
Pure white as if expressing my emotion of revenge that cannot be dyed by anything else.
A smile revealing my teeth formed automatically.
"This is… my… Aura…!"
This white energy flowing along my fingertips was the very beginning of the revenge I had waited 10 years for.
"……Finally."
It felt like I finally stood on a proper starting line.
I clenched my fist tight.
Phat—
The small white flame scattered and extinguished.
I, Mercenary Danel.
It was the moment I finally held a real weapon in my hand to stand shoulder to shoulder with the protagonists of this world.