Ch.39Chapter 39: Training and More Training

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Thud, thud

Click, clack

The footsteps of the superhuman elites—pride of the Cradle, regardless of gender—echoed chaotically throughout the hall.

Those were the footsteps of my classmates and juniors who, after watching my sword techniques performed in front of Shizu for quite some time, finally realized there wasn’t much special about me and returned to their own training spots.

While the attention wasn’t particularly burdensome, it goes without saying that training under the gaze of someone who truly sees you is far better than feeling the eyes of an unspecified crowd.

“Now I can finally swing without feeling self-conscious.”

After expressing this simple sentiment, I quickly prepared to resume my training as my break ended.

“Thanks. That was refreshing.”

I emptied the cup of water Shizu had handed me earlier and politely returned it to her.

I noticed a faint blush appearing on Shizu’s face as she took the cup from me.

Not only the blush, but I could also easily detect the pleased twitch at the corners of her eyes and mouth.

‘Does that make her so happy?’

I found it somewhat puzzling that she couldn’t hide her delight at such a simple gesture of gratitude.

‘Come to think of it, around this time before my regression, I wasn’t by your side to do even this much for you.’

My puzzlement was soon overlaid with guilt as I recalled events from the timeline that only I remembered.

‘I need to do better, you idiot.’

I don’t know what miracle caused all this to happen.

But if I’ve been given this second chance, isn’t it only natural that I should make you happy by doing the things I couldn’t do before?

And I must diligently work to protect that happiness.

“I’ll start again now.”

That was all there was to it—spending each day productively, preparing for what’s to come, and strengthening my body and everything else to a degree incomparable to before my regression.

Time to resume training.

First, I bent down to grasp the training sword shaped like a bastard sword that I had placed gently on the floor, then tried to lift it…

“Ugh!”

…or at least I tried to, but no matter how hard I strained with just my right hand, the training sword cruelly rejected my efforts, rising only to around my knees and preventing me from straightening my slightly hunched posture.

“How presumptuous.”

I had developed an unfounded confidence that I could freely wield this sword after swinging it a few times with the weight-increasing enchantment deliberately cast on it.

‘I still have plenty of this lingering in a corner of my mind.’

Childish thoughts of petty revenge against the presumed evil dragon that had lured me into the fog and toyed with me were still lightly stirring my heart.

‘I’m far from ready. So far.’

I smiled bitterly, realizing that the sticky, dark emotions I had partially shed from my sword when confronting Mein, who had turned his back on the Blood Pentagram to protect Shizu two days ago, had not yet been completely purged.

Quickly acknowledging my mistake, I added my left hand to the right on the sword handle, and finally the bastard sword followed my grasp, rising adequately enough for me to straighten my back.

“Phew…”

I exhaled the heat building in my lungs as I lifted the sword with its terrifying weight, and by the time the slowly raised sword reached my waist—

“Upper stance.”

Shizu’s voice, imbued with a firmness quite different from when she laughed cheerfully, rang out.

“Hup!”

With a short burst of energy, I immediately moved into the upper stance that would allow me to deploy my sword techniques according to her command.

Compared to when I first cast the weight-increasing enchantment on this sword an hour ago and tried to assume a stance, it was still difficult.

But the trajectory drawn by the sword as it rose above my head was quite impressive.

The upper stance was thus completed.

“Phew… How was that? Much faster than the first time, right?”

While maintaining the stance, I asked Shizu about the time it took me to move from gripping the sword to assuming the upper stance.

“Yes. About 3 seconds faster than before.”

Though Shizu still looked at me with concern for overexerting myself,

She had apparently observed my movements carefully even while continuing her own training, as she reported the exact same time reduction that I had sensed.

“You may not be fully accustomed to the sword’s weight yet, but I can see you’re gradually adapting your body to it, so keep it up.”

At Shizu’s calm yet affectionate words, I nodded and continued to maintain the upper stance.

Despite my efforts to adapt, this weight that seemed to test the limits of my strength was still putting considerable strain on my body.

Tremble, tremble

Starting from my hands that barely maintained the stance, through my wrists and arms, my entire body shook slightly.

“Haaah…”

As I maintained the stance with the incredibly heavy sword balanced at its center of gravity, rough breaths naturally escaped from my nose and mouth to release the heat building in my lungs.

If not for the thunderous sound I had made earlier when placing the sword on the floor, people would have wondered why I was struggling so much with a training weapon designed to be wielded with one hand, even with a weight-increasing enchantment. But because of that unintended display, the occasional gazes still directed at me from afar contained surprise and admiration rather than judgment.

‘It wasn’t intentional, but the reaction is more interesting than I expected.’

Despite my physical strain, I maintained a firm grip on the sword with both arms, satisfied that my ki-sense had sharpened enough to accurately perceive the various forms of attention directed at me.

My arms still trembled slightly due to the massive weight testing the limits of my strength, but I was satisfied that it was delivering exactly the heaviness I had intended.

‘I made it much heavier than the greatsword I wielded this morning.’

When I arrived at the dedicated training hall and activated the weight-increasing enchantment by tearing the scroll, I set this sword’s weight to about twice that of the greatsword I had used in the morning.

Even that morning’s sword would cause tremendous muscle strain if handled carelessly, so why make this one so heavy?

There’s a good reason.

It’s quite crude, but it’s for a special muscle training method that only I can do, based on the super-regeneration ability I gained two days ago.

The materials needed are simple:

A practice bastard sword with its weight brutally increased through an enchantment.

And the super-regeneration ability I received two days ago as my personal special talent.

Using these two things, I can much more quickly develop the high-quality physique that took a long time of crude training to compensate for my inability to properly utilize fighting energy before my regression.

Handling a heavy sword has a difficulty level far different from lifting exercise equipment like dumbbells for muscle training.

Unlike exercise equipment designed to be easily gripped despite their weight, or designed to easily balance the body just by holding them,

With a sword, no matter how well-balanced the weapon itself is, the wielder must adapt to the sword to minimize bodily strain while establishing a proper sword form as the foundation for swordsmanship.

And this training sword, which outwardly takes the form of a bastard sword, was now painfully transmitting to me an overwhelming weight that couldn’t be perceived from its appearance.

Honestly, it’s really difficult.

Not just maintaining the upper stance like now.

Beyond this, when I perform sword-related movements like the simple cutting motions I’ll execute shortly, my muscle tissues will certainly rupture to varying degrees from the impact of swinging such a heavy object.

Martial artists who use their bodies as weapons and are therefore more serious about physical training than weapon-wielding martial artists would surely criticize this as foolishly overworking the muscles.

Not just ordinary people, but even those who have awakened special talents and gained superhuman physical abilities have merely higher strength limits—if they exceed those limits, they would immediately put tremendous strain on their muscle tissues, joints, and nerves.

And only after resting immediately to allow the ruptured muscle tissues to regenerate into stronger tissues capable of handling greater strength, along with the recovery of joints and nerves able to withstand this, would they resume training.

The recovery time varies by individual, but for someone at the threshold of superhuman status without being an awakened one, it would take about a day.

For those who have reached superhuman status, they can maximize their body’s recovery ability using fighting energy, so simple muscle pain and ruptures like these could be healed in just a few minutes at the fastest.

What about me?

“Now, from top to bottom.”

Following Shizu’s command, I brought the sword down from the upper stance.

Whoosh

An absurdly powerful cutting sound erupted, incongruous with the sword’s heaviness.

Crack

The training hall floor touched by the wind from my sword quickly developed fine sword marks, but they were instantly restored.

And then…

Crack, crack, crack

This time, distinct rupturing sounds came from both shoulders and biceps.

“…!!”

Shizu, startled by the rupturing sounds, tried to quickly rush to my side, but I shook my head to stop her.

“I’m fine.”

I said in a voice tinged with serenity.

Hearing my voice and realizing I was unharmed, Shizu returned to her original position.

An ordinary person would have dropped the sword and writhed in pain the moment they heard such rupturing sounds.

But I’m perfectly fine right now.

Before the intense pain from the rupture could travel through my nerves to my brain, my super-regeneration ability quickly regenerated my body, creating better muscle tissues, nerve connections, and joints.

‘This works.’

Before my regression, even when I poured in regeneration potions bought with money painstakingly scraped together from mercenary work, the effects were mediocre. But now, the super-regeneration ability has become a mechanism that maximizes the efficiency of training that anyone would call foolish.

‘It’s working.’

The sensation of muscle tissues instantly regenerated into a better form feels pleasantly noticeable.

Since this was training done with my bare body without deliberately utilizing fighting energy, the muscle tissues ruptured more quickly and finely, and at that moment, the muscle tissues regenerated through my super-regeneration ability gained higher muscle density, further enhancing my physical completion.

‘One week should do it.’

At this rate, the physical training prioritized for utilizing fighting energy should be completed within a week.

‘What remains is to carve my mark on this floor.’

To leave destructive power that exceeds the restoration capability on the floor of this special training hall for awakened talents, which instantly repairs minor damage.

With movements that don’t contain fighting energy.

‘At least before my first death, I was able to do this much.’

I need to quickly rebuild the body that could rightfully be called superhuman in terms of physical ability, even if I couldn’t utilize fighting energy.

Everything begins from there.

The perfection of breathing techniques to maximize fighting energy utilization.

The final confrontation with the unidentified being presumed to be the evil dragon that suddenly abducted and toyed with me.

Developing the skills to firmly withstand the coming future calamities.

It’s busy, difficult, and full of challenges, but…

“Now, from left to right!”

As I thought about being here with Shizu, who was watching over me,

Whoosh

The pain that imminent trials would bring me didn’t matter at all.

Because I believed that the greater this pain, the less suffering you would experience in the future.