Chapter 28 : Chapter 28
Volume 1
Chapter 28 : Initial Growth
“One hundred and eighty-fifth time!”
Muen stared at the clock on the wall with bloodshot eyes.
A trace of joy appeared on his exhausted face despite himself.
“I finally managed to last more than thirty seconds against the assassin!”
No matter what, that was still a warrior at least in the third rank, while Muen was only a late first-rank rookie who had been piled up there through brute force and money.
The gap between their levels was simply too great.
For him to hold out back and forth for thirty seconds already meant that he had endured hardships ordinary people could hardly imagine.
At the very least, those nearly two hundred experiences of death had all been incomparably real.
“Looks like I can’t keep training without limits like this in the future.”
Muen rubbed his temples, trying to ease the stabbing pain in his head brought on by pushing his mind to the absolute limit.
“Otherwise, I’ll collapse before I ever get stronger.”
“So using the black book really doesn’t come without a price. I won’t truly die, but the strain it puts on my mind is far too great.”
“Still, all of this has been worth it!”
Muen excitedly pulled out the black book.
Sure enough, in the section that recorded his own information, two new entries had appeared that had not been there before.
【Dagger Combat LV2】
【Shadow Step LV1】
“I finally got the basics down.”
Nearly two hundred deaths had finally allowed Muen to cross the enormous gulf between levels, glimpse the assassin’s methods, and turn them into something he could use amidst the terror of life and death.
“Although this is only a beginning, and I’m still nowhere near that assassin, once I’ve taken the first step, everything afterward will be much easier.”
As long as he had enough time, Muen was completely confident that he could turn every single one of that assassin’s techniques into his own power!
“Heh, I can’t wait. Let me test the results first.”
Muen got out of bed, moved aside the table and chairs to clear enough space, then rubbed his hands together nervously.
Although he had already used it many times while fighting the assassin, that had been inside the space constructed by the black book.
He could not be sure that he would still be able to use it so smoothly under real conditions.
“Whatever. Whether it works or not, I’ll know once I try.”
Muen steadied his breathing.
Then, just as he had learned through those two hundred battles, he focused all of his attention on the soles of his feet, his heels, and his ankles.
He felt a thread of warmth gather beneath his feet, as though something were about to erupt in the next instant.
Now!
A sharp light flashed through Muen’s eyes.
All the power gathered in his legs exploded at that moment like a volcano.
In an instant—
The scenery in Muen’s vision changed at blinding speed.
The table that had been seven or eight meters away appeared right in front of him in a single moment.
He had succeeded!
“I did it...”
At first, Muen muttered in disbelief.
Then the excitement in his eyes erupted like a volcano as well.
“I did it!”
He was so happy that he could barely contain himself.
He had been dragged without warning into this dangerous world of magic, and on top of that, he had become this useless yellow-haired villain who could die at any moment.
Muen had always felt deeply uneasy.
Especially now that the plot had completely diverged from the original novel and his status as a transmigrator had lost its usefulness, he had at times become so anxious that it bordered on terror.
But thankfully, everything had not yet been set in stone.
With the black book in hand, even a wastrel like him could grow stronger through his own effort!
This was only the beginning!
Muen could not help clenching his fists in excitement.
“As long as I work hard enough, even fate can be changed!”
...
...
“But my feet can’t...”
“It hurts so much... damn it, nobody told me this move would make my feet hurt like this.”
Only a few seconds after making his bold declaration, Muen had already collapsed onto the floor and was on the verge of tears.
He had never expected Shadow Step to have such a huge drawback.
Just using it once had made his feet feel as though they were broken.
“No, that probably isn’t a side effect.”
“There’s no way it would hurt this much and even an assassin who has killed countless people could just ignore it with a blank face.”
Muen reacted immediately.
“My level is too low. This was never something a first-rank warrior should be learning. It should be the kind of martial skill that can only be used freely with battle aura!”
The first rank of a warrior was also called Body Tempering. Just as the name implied, it was the stage of constantly training one’s body in pursuit of becoming stronger.
Because of that, the threshold for this stage was extremely low—practically nonexistent.
Rich nobles could easily reach the peak through precious medicinal materials and proper training.
Ordinary people could lift iron, do push-ups, eat meat, and still steadily grow stronger at this stage.
The real dividing line was the second rank.
Once Body Tempering reached its peak, a kind of energy called battle aura would be born within the body.
Learning how to purify, temper, and use battle aura was the second rank of a warrior: Aura Refinement.
If the battle aura was wrapped around a weapon, it increased its power. If it was contained within the body, it could drastically strengthen the body’s durability.
For a warrior, whether one had battle aura or not was the difference between heaven and earth.
“Simply put, Shadow Step is about gathering all of your strength into your feet and releasing it in an instant, so it’s no surprise that it places an enormous burden on them.”
“I have to rely on battle aura to strengthen my body before I can withstand that burden.”
“Back in the dark space, it was only my consciousness, so I didn’t need to worry about it. But once it’s in reality, the strength of my physical body becomes extremely important.”
“As expected, I’m still far too weak.”
Muen let out a somewhat dejected sigh.
This time, however, he did not stay downhearted for long.
Although he had once again confirmed just how weak he was, this was still a good beginning.
At the very least, it proved that what he learned through tempering himself in the black book could truly be reflected in reality.
“Time to redraw my plan!”
Once his feet stopped hurting so much, Muen staggered back to his feet and walked to the desk.
He pulled out the “overall outline” he had only recently written from the drawer.
After thinking for a moment, he held it over the candle flame and burned it away.
“There’s no point thinking about things that are too far off. It only creates needless worry. Right now, I need to focus on what’s in front of me.”
Muen took out a fresh sheet of paper and began formulating a new route and a new plan based on his current situation.
“First of all, I need a teacher.”
Muen picked up the quill and wrote on the page:
1.Teacher.
Those nearly two hundred battles with the assassin had not only made Muen understand his own weakness, but had also made him realize the limitations of this kind of one-sided abuse disguised as training.
This kind of practical combat had indeed helped him improve rapidly in many areas, but the one thing he most wanted to learn—Shadow Step—had shown no progress at all until he was finally able to see through the assassin’s movements.
If he had a teacher who could guide him hand in hand, perhaps he would not need to go through so much pain at all.
“Come to think of it, Saint Maria Academy should be starting soon.”
Muen suddenly remembered this important matter.
The thing Saint Maria Academy lacked the least was outstanding teachers of every kind.
But only a few seconds later, he kicked the thought right out of his head.
“Why would I go to school? Isn’t it better to stay at home like a shut-in?”
“The current me doesn’t want to run into the protagonist!”
“Not to mention that Selicia is there too.”
Besides, when it came to a martial arts teacher, did he not already have an even better choice right here?
Muen gave an evil, charming smile, then added a name behind the word “teacher.”
Lorne Campbell.
His bargain-bin father.