Chapter 631: Passive Body Strengthening
’When it comes to the human body, the first step towards a meaningful reconstruction is destruction!’
While it was true that Leo started using the shadow threads to tear away at his muscles, he was careful enough to create only the smallest of micro tears.
’It’s not even painful.’
Though the damage was quite minimal, Leo expected to feel a sting or two, but as the circulating Enigma passed by and started working on the wounds immediately, Leo didn’t feel a single beep!
’No wonder Aurora was brought to the brink without noticing.’
The anesthesia effect was something that Leo was naturally aware of, but once again, he wasn’t sure if it was a by-product of Enigma Circulation or if it was just another branch of Aurora’s Ability.
Now that he experienced it for himself, Leo knew the kind of danger this Ability posed. However...
’Unlike her, I can do proper internal inspections.’
Shadow Mastery was simply that special. Anything that Leo’s shadows sensed could be collectively transferred to him.
If he suspected any form of internal damage, Leo could immediately check it within seconds.
Better yet, since his experiment seemed to be working, the very same threads he put in place to destroy his muscles would be the ones to report any accidental internal damage!
’As expected, passive muscle training is really possible.’
Whether it was weight lifting, calisthenics, or other forms of bodybuilding exercises, the path to obtaining muscles was pretty straightforward.
Lift something heavy enough for a respective number of times up to the point where the muscles almost fail to withstand the pressure and start tearing up within reason.
As the body adapts to that experience, it uses healing as an opportunity to build a stronger muscle that wouldn’t tear from the same level of exercise, and so on and so forth.
Yet, with the combination of Shadow Domination as well as Enigma Circulation, no form of exercise was necessary.
Without doing anything externally, Leo’s body was constantly being torn apart and rebuilt in real time, achieving a passive cycle of continuous Body Strengthening!
’It wouldn’t make me into some sort of physical abnormality in a week or two, but over time...’
Even if the damage had to be minimized to eliminate any negative effect on usual bodily movement, the virtuous cycle of destroying and rebuilding to no end was bound to boost Leo’s gains by two times at the bare minimum.
Considering the limited time he had before the finale, Leo wasn’t sure if this would help him complete the main quest, but he was still grateful nonetheless.
Since the shadow threads could be made to perform their job automatically and the Enigma Circulation removed all forms of pain, it wouldn’t even interfere with Leo’s everyday life.
If such an Ability could be brought back to reality...
’Ah.’
[ Book 3 ]
Name: Cassian (Leo Lock)
Age: 28 (18)
Role: Reader...
__________________
Personal Abilities:
-----------------
- ’Shadow Mastery’ - Law - 5/5
= ’Shadow Movement’ - Law
= ’Shadow Domination’ - Peak
= ’Shadow Armament’ - Peak
= ’Shadow Nightmare’ - Peak
= ’Shadow Copy’ - Peak
= ’Shadow Pocket’ - Advanced
= ’Shadow Repair’ - Advanced
= ’Shadow...’
= ...
__________________
The moment Leo recognized the infinite value of Enigma Circulation, the Personal Book was flipped open, revealing the addition of one more branch ability.
’Shadow Repair... How apt.’
It was most definitely an accurate description of the effect of Enigma Circulation. Unlike the strict skill partition, just the effect was enough to register within Leo’s Personal Skill.
’Well, once again, I should focus on dealing with the task at hand first.’
As excited as Leo was to receive one more pie from the sky, and a pretty large one at that, needless to say, it would all end up being meaningless if he were to fail the Main Quest.
{ You have arrived at the Main Encroachment Frontier. }
Once Leo redirected his attention to his surroundings, the neutral voice immediately started its narration.
This was something that Leo was already aware of from the novel.
Back then, Aurora fainted immediately after coming out of the Multiversal Arena of Ascension, and in the same way, the voice didn’t interact with her until she came to her senses 10 minutes later.
{ The Final Trial, the Trial of Defense is being initiated... }
At that point, the voice told her that the trial had actually started ten minutes ago, meaning that it had started exactly when she arrived.
Though...
{ Time until Initiation, 1698 seconds. }
Later, it was revealed that arriving didn’t actually start the Trial. Rather, it was a static timer of 1 hour that started the moment the Trial of Ascension was attempted.
’For a protagonist, Aurora’s plot armor was always rusty.’
Just like the instance of her unfortunate ending, where she obtained power but not the capacity to maintain it, Aurora’s plot armor got her to arrive just in time, but it didn’t save her from the fainting that followed.
’This much should be sufficient.’
In Leo’s case, however, even with the time he spent testing his most recent gain, he still had as much as 28 minutes left to the start of the Trial, providing him with ample time to prepare.
Before the Trial was actually initiated, the space he was transferred to was just endlessly stretching barren land.
The only impressionable part of it was a faint line of light at the front.
’First of all...’
Disappearing and reappearing dozens of meters ahead, Leo opened his Shadow Pocket, dumping out half of the Enigma Crystals that he had accumulated over the last year.
The threat he was to face wasn’t as terrifying as the one he faced last time, but the scope was completely different.
As such...
’Go.’
Looking at the red dividing line in front of him, a blob of glowing shadow separated from his own, sticking into the line and molding itself into a line just as thick to cover a portion of it.
’Just like that.’
After Leo gave an example, many more shadow circles separated from his shadow on their own, automatically applying what they saw as the middle part of the line was completely covered.
’This is just the start.’
Even then, more and more shadow circles were still being produced.