Ch.40Chapter 40: Preparations Are Complete

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After the first day, when I was satisfied just to be able to adjust my posture and swing a sword, the training continued repeatedly until today, the seventh day of my goal.

I was still immersed in my final training session at Shizu’s dedicated spot in the corner of the training ground.

“Haaah…”

As I expelled the heat built up inside me through my breath after repeated movements.

“Ninety-nine!”

Shizu continued her commands from across me, her expression more solemn than her usual cheerfulness.

Whoosh

My arms, under a weight-increasing spell, swung the training sword—which had been difficult even to lift on the first day—drawing a clean trajectory from top to bottom in sync with Shizu’s command.

Swoosh

As the sword traced its path, the floor of the training ground suffered minor damage from the air pressure I generated, but it was instantly restored before I could fully register it with my eyes.

Compared to the first day when I was satisfied just to avoid having the sword swing me rather than me swinging the sword, the blade was now moving remarkably according to my intentions.

This alone was quite a satisfying achievement.

Not only could I not use sword qi, but even without strengthening my body through breathing techniques, I had reached the point where I could exert physical force on my surroundings just by swinging the sword.

This was the level I had barely reached before facing my first death.

It was a path I had walked alone, without anyone’s help, to overcome the critical handicap of being unable to use qi—the most important element in becoming superhuman.

It was a state I had achieved while buried in self-loathing and inferiority from being unable to become a shining star, crawling through the murky depths, and regretting watching a certain star in the distance gradually losing its brilliance because of this wretched person.

It was a body built through brutally training my physique and just as brutally recovering from the damage.

It was a body I had barely managed to create by repeatedly drinking regeneration potions made from refined troll blood that maximized physical recovery, purchased with money I had desperately saved, only to vomit them back up when my body couldn’t handle it.

‘Thinking about it suddenly makes me feel sick.’

It wasn’t something I could even jokingly describe in terms of taste.

If that was the only thing to drink in the cupboard and there were only monsters outside, it was the kind of taste that would make you want to fight those monsters just to buy something else to eat at the market district.

But as I continued with these old thoughts, one idea gradually solidified.

‘This super-regeneration ability is amazing.’

I could only marvel again at the effectiveness of this special ability I had gained upon my regression.

In just a week, I had been able to perfectly attain the peak physical condition that existed in my memories without any external injuries.

How was it before my regression, you ask?

It was a body I had barely completed by repeating the process I mentioned earlier for about a year, prepared to die if necessary.

Even with regeneration potions, wounds that didn’t heal properly left scars all over my body and face, forcing me to wear a mask to hide them. Compared to that, now…

‘This is not the time.’

Since the most important goal had not yet been achieved during my ongoing training, I put aside old thoughts and prepared for the final movement toward my last objective.

‘One more to go.’

Of my goal of one hundred swings, only one remained.

‘And with this one swing, I will carve a permanent sword mark on the training ground floor.’

I was about to achieve a feat that only the most brilliant talents among the countless stars who had passed through this cradle had accomplished.

“Heup.”

After organizing my thoughts, I raised the sword above my head again, taking an upper stance.

A week ago, when I first repeated this movement, my muscle tissue would tear and burst while simultaneously regenerating, but now my strength had grown enough to withstand this without such damage.

Becoming stronger meant that this heavy sword no longer put a burden on my body when lifted.

It also meant that the precision of the trajectory my arm drew when wielding the sword had increased immeasurably.

On the first day, I was barely able to endure the weight of the sword while continuing the cutting motion, struggling with all my might just to keep the tip from touching the ground.

But after repeating this day after day for a week.

At the end of this training, pushed forward relentlessly with only my super-regeneration ability to rely on.

“One hundred!”

I would now swing the sword by pushing the muscle strength accumulated during this training to its limit.

“Haaaa!”

With a shout that seemed to trigger all the latent power within my body, I executed the final cutting motion.

Whoosh

The sound of cutting wind produced by this movement, performed with deliberate balance and maximum force, was different from the sounds of the previous ninety-nine repetitions.

Crack

The result carved into the training ground floor was different as well.

With a bursting sound, a large sword mark was engraved in a corner of the training ground floor not far in front of me.

This wasn’t like the marks that had appeared and disappeared without a trace during the repeated training when I first started.

This was a real sword mark created by destructive power that exceeded the restorative capabilities of the restoration spell built into the training ground floor.

Just to be sure, I observed the floor’s condition carefully without completing the cutting motion.

I wanted to confirm whether the sword mark on the floor would eventually restore itself or not.

Contrary to my concerns, the mark I had carved into the floor remained clearly visible even after some time had passed, without disappearing.

‘I did it.’

The training I had repeated based on a vague idea had successfully concluded.

Though I thought it wouldn’t be much, the feeling of accomplishment and fulfillment that rose in both body and mind heated me up with tremendous warmth.

“Haaah…”

With the sword tip still pointing toward the floor, I closed my eyes and calmly exhaled the heat filled with elation, clearing away any lingering thoughts.

During this process, what I heard was:

Thump-thump

The sound of my accelerated heartbeat mixed with various emotions, and:

“You… you did it!”

Shizu’s voice, somehow even more excited than mine.

-That guy really did it.

-Let me see… Wow. He actually pulled it off.

-That’s amazing, truly amazing.

Soon after, I could hear the admiring voices of classmates and juniors who had been pretending to be indifferent while secretly glancing at my training from afar, which started to boost my self-esteem a bit, but then:

-Hey, didn’t Professor Grace warn that anyone who leaves marks on the training ground floor should be prepared for consequences?

-About a month ago, Excel scratched the floor pretty good and got beaten so badly by Professor Grace that the dust was knocked out of him.

…hearing these voices revealing extremely troubling facts made goosebumps rise instead of self-esteem.

‘Ah… now that I think about it.’

I just remembered.

The floor of this special training ground for awakened individuals with special abilities—renowned for its mystery—had a spell cast on it by Professor Grace Rabin that instantly restored any minor damage.

‘…I think I need to get out of here quickly.’

Suddenly, I felt a chill down my spine.

“Hmm… Another student who damaged the floor in less than a month?”

“…”

…It wasn’t just a feeling.

It seems I’m really in big trouble.

In the split second that followed, after wracking my brain and carefully considering various options:

My instincts were sounding an alarm louder than when I faced Maein with her back to the Blood Pentagram after my regression.

The warning was simple:

If I turn around unprepared right now, I should be ready to get at least one bump on my forehead—a simple but very specific form of warning.

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“Since you’re just a rookie who’s only been here for a week, I’ll let it slide this time. It’s more my fault for not telling you about the precautions at all.”

“I’m sorry nonetheless.”

“No, no. You didn’t know, so it’s fine.”

…I survived.

To understand what happened, we need to rewind the situation a bit.

…

The moment I felt Professor Grace’s intense presence behind me:

My mind squeezed out every possible excuse to get through this situation, despite being sluggish from the hard training.

In that split second, after considering all sorts of elaborate approaches, my conclusion was very simple:

Prostrate myself and beg for forgiveness unconditionally.

Having regressed, there was no way I would choose to act rashly against a great hero who had endured a thousand years, so:

Without hesitation, I turned around with a respectful posture.

At the same time, I could face Professor Grace, who emanated a presence that made my whole body shrink, but:

Contrary to my expectations, as soon as Professor Grace confirmed it was me who had left an irreparable mark on the training ground floor, she withdrew her intimidating presence.

I could finally breathe a sigh of relief when I saw her pupils change from the dragon race’s characteristic vertical slits to a circular shape as she withdrew her presence.

“Ah…”

The first word from the professor’s mouth upon seeing me was a sigh.

A sigh infused with an incomparable concentration of regret.

At first, I didn’t understand why the professor showed such regret upon seeing me, but:

“I’ve been so busy lately that I didn’t get to tell you the precautions since you just arrived here, and you ended up causing exactly the kind of accident those precautions were about,” she said with a hollow laugh.

Only after hearing her lament mixed with that dejected laughter did I understand.

“Scolding only makes sense when someone ignores my warnings, not when they break rules that aren’t written anywhere, that wouldn’t be right.”

“Phew… I see.”

Only then did relief wash over me, and I could feel a light sigh escaping from my lips without realizing it.

…

“Since my mistake was greater this time, I’ll pretend I didn’t see anything, but be careful next time.”

With that, Professor Grace disappeared from the training ground in an instant, her voice as languid and cheerful as usual.

It was a movement more sophisticated than simple spatial teleportation (… though it’s funny to call that “simple”), with no detectable flow of mana, but I didn’t want to dwell on that right now.

“Haah…”

It was truly over.

As the tension drained away, my whole body felt limp.

“Suddenly facing an unexpected situation made me tense up, and now I feel even more tired.”

Though I wasn’t actually tired enough to really want to sleep.

Despite the little incident, all the preparations I could make through training were now complete.

All that remained was the revenge match against the presumed evil dragon that had dragged me to that nameless place filled with fog and toyed with me.

‘Just you wait.’

The sweet moment of revenge against the opponent who had thrown me with a slam was not far off.

But for revenge, I first needed to prepare my body and mind perfectly.

“Shizu, thank you for staying with me until the end.”

“Hehe. Helping my fiancé train is no big deal. You worked hard too, Kal.”

I expressed my immense gratitude to Shizu, who had put her own training aside to devote time to me.

“By the way, Shizu.”

“What?”

“I’m about to head back to my room.”

“We can just go like this.”

“Everyone here is staring at us right now.”

“…?? What’s the problem? Us being together like this as an engaged couple.”

I needed to detach Shizu from my body—she had been slowly approaching me as the training ended, and as soon as Professor Grace left, she had wrapped both her arms around my right arm.

The indescribably soft sensation transmitted through my right arm did bring warm comfort to my mind, exhausted from a week of hard training, but if I just stayed like this, enjoying it:

-….

-….

-….

-….

I didn’t have the capacity to endure the unusually heavy silence of my classmates and juniors today.