Growth

I woke up from a long sleep. The reason I know it was a long sleep is because the time I spent picking up the marbles was longer than before.

When I opened my eyes, I saw the ceiling of the hospital room, which I was now used to.

I raised my upper body and immediately felt the changes in my body.

My physical fatigue was completely gone, to the point where saying I was in good condition wasn’t enough. My body felt very light, as if I had suddenly lost a lot of weight.

I got out of bed, stretched lightly, and then thought of the most reliable way to objectively confirm my growth.

I used the Ring of the Covenant to check my changes.

As expected, I had grown. Even to a higher level of growth than I had expected.

First of all, my stamina had almost doubled. Last time I checked, my stamina was 2.7, but now it had changed to 4.9. Strength increased from 2.1 to 4.1, and endurance and agility each rose to 4.

I didn’t expect to be able to achieve such remarkable growth in such a short period of time. Of course, if there hadn’t been Combat Continuation, I wouldn’t have been able to withstand the pain and would have died.

I had actually experienced the penalty of Combat Continuation, so it was a method that only I could have done.

I’m satisfied that my body has grown so much, but on the other hand, I felt a bit bitter.

Compared to the time I spent investing in physical training every day… I couldn’t help but feel a sense of regret.

Catching up to the achievements I had made after months of hard work in just a few days made me feel bitter.

Compared to elixirs, opportunities, secret arts, and talent, effort consumes too much time and is inefficient.

The reason why a child from a good family who receives constant support has a much higher chance of entering the Transcendence Academy than a hard-working commoner proves that.

I shook my head vigorously to shake off my disappointment. I just happened to get the Formless Breathing Technique. It just happened to work out well and led to great growth, but I have no intention of relying on such luck again.

The sweat I shed every day was not in vain. I was able to grow through effort, and that’s how I got the breathing technique.

There’s no need to belittle my efforts. Now I can just be happy about the growth.

While I was doing light stretches, a strange man opened the door to the hospital room. The man with the big, frizzy hair recognized me.

,Oh, Ross. You’re awake.”

It was my first time meeting him, but I bowed politely because he was an older adult than me.

,Hello.”

,Yes, is there anything wrong with your body? When you were admitted, there were no major problems with your body. That’s why I’m more worried. The fact that you slept for five days without any problems with your body means that there must be a problem somewhere, right?”

I couldn’t explain the penalty of Combat Continuation, so I skillfully looked for something to twist the direction of the conversation.

The white coat the man was wearing was the same one that Professor Joy, who was in charge of the hospital room, always wore. This is it.

,You’re wearing the same clothes as Professor Joy.”

The man looked embarrassed at my question.

,Ah, that’s right. I didn’t introduce myself. Sorry, sorry. I’m Professor Finn. I’m originally a 4th year professor in charge of ancient writing. Professor Joy is on summer vacation, so I’m temporarily in charge of the hospital room.”

Then I understood the situation. After a brief self-introduction, Professor Finn smiled kindly, saying that he had cheered for me in the duel, and recommended that I get a professional examination.

I was grateful for his concern, but as I knew the reason why I hadn’t woken up for five days, a professional examination was unnecessary. I nodded vaguely and was able to leave the hospital room with the words that I would do so when I had time.

When I checked the time, it was 5 p.m. I hadn’t eaten anything, but I wasn’t hungry. Maybe the nutritional supplements I received while I was asleep are still working.

To let him know that I had woken up and to thank him for the growth. I moved to the faculty office where Lykan was.

As I was about to open the door to the faculty office, someone grabbed my shoulder from behind. I could tell whose hand it was without looking back, thanks to the heavy weight on my shoulder.

,You’re awake.”

I turned around and looked at Lykan and said.

,Yes. There’s nothing wrong with my body. No, my body is too good. Thank you.”

,What, you’re the one who suffered.”

Lykan nodded and smiled slyly before asking.

,So, don’t you want to check? Whether you’ve learned the breathing technique properly.”

Lykan’s muscles twitched with anticipation. I smiled and nodded. I wanted to see my growth for myself.

,Yes.”

Lykan nodded vigorously, as if pleased with my answer without hesitation.

,You’re just like my disciple!”

***

We moved to the training ground and faced each other, keeping our distance.

Lykan was wearing a crude gauntlet that looked like a lump of iron.

Like the gauntlet of the famous purple-chinned villain in the movie, it doesn’t have any gems with amazing abilities embedded in it.

It was a gauntlet engraved with special runes to withstand Lykan’s magic.

,This is your first sparring match with you. When I first saw you, I never thought this would happen… You never know what will happen in life.”

Lykan, who was reminiscing about the past, swung his gauntlet threateningly in the air with a ferocious smile.

,I’d be very disappointed if you fell down at once like in the first class.”

I smiled. Yes, that happened. I wanted to show Lykan how much I had grown, not with words, but with skills.

I took out the Spear of Destruction from the space warehouse. As I grabbed the spear shaft and took a stance, a strange sense of excitement tickled my chest.

There was no need to say anything about the start of the sparring match. Lykan, who had kicked off the ground in an instant, swung his gauntlet with the intention of blowing my head off.

Kwaang-!

The gauntlet and the spear collided. The gauntlet, filled with magic, was heavy and fierce, but I blocked it.

As if waiting for it, Lykan immediately swung his other fist, but I had already kicked off the ground and moved my body back.

At the same time as dodging the fist, I recognized the spatial coordinates. As soon as I regained my balance, I stabbed the spear into the entrance to the dimension.

But Lykan skillfully knocked away the spear that was stabbing in from behind without even looking. Did he read the trajectory of the spear and react? Then I shouldn’t give him any time to rest.

I created several dimensional exits around Lykan. Just that made Lykan feel flustered by the attacks that might pop out from somewhere like whack-a-mole.

And around that time, I couldn’t help but smile. I don’t know what kind of synergistic effect the body enhanced through surgery had, but using space magic became faster than before.

In just a few seconds, I poured dozens of consecutive attacks at Lykan. If it had been before, I would have had to be careful with my attacks due to lack of stamina. But my current physical condition will quickly recover from the stamina consumption caused by the consecutive attacks.

But Lykan skillfully dodged, parried, and relentlessly narrowed the distance with me. A beast-like reaction. The moment the spear tip comes out of the dimensional exit as if his arm is lengthening, it is blocked by Lykan’s gauntlet.

The distance was already narrowed. Rather, I took a step forward and charged towards Lykan. There wasn’t enough distance to stab the spear, but I didn’t stop charging.

Lykan’s gauntlet flew towards my face with a fierce momentum as I intended. At the same time, Lykan’s arm was sucked into the dimensional exit that was created in an instant.

And Lykan got punched in the jaw by his own fist with momentum. Lykan, who unexpectedly punched himself in the jaw, staggered from the shock and couldn’t regain his balance.

I judged that it was enough to put in a sure follow-up attack. I quickly took two steps back in one breath to create a distance that could maximize the spear’s attack power, and stabbed the spear with momentum.

I set it up so that the spear tip would reach behind his back, where his vision was blocked, by twisting the attack one more time so that Lykan could never avoid it.

Watching the spear being sucked into the entrance to the dimension, I was convinced that I had landed a finishing blow.

That’s why I couldn’t help but be shocked when Lykan instantly crouched his huge body to avoid the spear, took a step forward as if falling, and charged straight ahead.

It was a perfectly timed charge that was made without being able to recover the spear. It was a posture that could not respond to Lykan’s charge, as if Lykan had intended this.

I rolled on the floor several times with the tremendous impact of being pushed out of my whole body. Before I could regain my posture, Lykan was already in front of me. I was kicked in the chest. Fortunately, I crossed my arms to cushion the impact, but that simple kick alone made me feel like the bones in my left arm were broken.

I stepped back and used space magic to retrieve the spear that was rolling on the floor. My left arm is numb. I think I can force myself to use my arm at least once.

At that moment, Lykan, who was closing the distance, shouted like a beast.

,Use the breathing technique!”

With Lykan’s skills, it would have been easy to knock me down. But this is not a fight, but a sparring match. At Lykan’s advice, I operated the magic as I had learned without hesitation.

In an instant, I felt like my whole body was contracting into my heart. And the moment I inhaled, I experienced the world slowing down.

I could see the fist that Lykan swung. I avoided the attack just by shifting the center of my body by putting strength into my left thigh, and then I put my weight on it and stabbed the spear as I fell to the floor.

The spear was sucked into the entrance to the dimension that was created before the spear touched the floor, and the spear blade grazed Lykan’s shoulder.

I got up from the floor and exhaled. At the same time, the feeling of contraction that I felt all over my body disappeared, and the world that had suddenly slowed down regained its speed.

While I couldn’t regain my balance due to the strong feeling of weakness, I had no choice but to reflexively close my eyes at the gauntlet that was already filling my vision.

I lost consciousness as it was with the intense pain I felt on my face.