The Regressed Heir of Ravencrest

Anna and Sepharina continued to run, on the very brink of collapse, yet Ethan let them continue a few more minutes, their whole bodies enervated, yet they kept moving forward.

"Stop..." Ethan said finally, stepping calmly in front of them. Their heartbeats pounded so loudly he could hear them from several steps away. The sisters looked up at him with foggy, blurred vision, on the verge of slumping onto the floor. Their minds were too hazy to even register when he had entered the training grounds, yet neither of them said a word.

Without a sound, Ethan quickly withdrew two recovery potions from his Inventory and handed one to each of them.

"Drink it."

The girls brought the vials to their mouths with trembling hands.

The moment the liquid touched their lips, a gentle warmth flooded through their bodies, rapidly restoring their depleted stamina and washing away the crushing fatigue that had paralyzed their muscles.

"Now... run again," Ethan said, looking into their eyes before either could fully process what had just happened. For a moment, they thought their ears were playing tricks on them, they’d already been running constantly for hours straight. But looking into his unwavering, serious eyes as he gestured for them to begin, they swallowed their words, gritted their teeth, and set off again once more.

Ethan settled quietly into the center of the secluded training chamber, closed his eyes, and drew in a slow, deliberate breath. He focused inward, circulating the breathing technique of the Northern Heaven War Art, and began feeding the unknown energy both his aura and raw mana. The process continued for several hours, until he finally paused, sensing the girls’ renewed exhaustion pulling at the edges of his awareness.

It had been quite a few days now since he’d acquired the unknown energy, or ever since it invaded his body, and he’d been feeding it consistently, several hours every day without fail. It wasn’t that he found the process particularly interesting, or that the warm, comforting sensation it produced held any special appeal; he simply wanted to verify a few things about its nature. From the very beginning, any aura or mana he fed into it had transformed into that same unknown energy, that much had never changed.

At first, that transformation had caused the sphere itself to grow larger with each feeding, expanding steadily until it reached at least a dozen times its original size.

But once it reached that size, the growth simply stopped. The sphere’s size hadn’t diminished, but it hadn’t continued expanding either. The excess energy he fed it now was rapidly compressing inside the sphere, packing itself denser and denser within the sphere.

Ethan noticed that it wasn’t simply a growing mass anymore. It was beginning to function like a second core entirely. The one persistent weakness holding back his combat output was his limited aura reserves. It was a gap he currently had to bridge through raw physical strength and combat experience alone, since his Warrior Core remained only partially awakened.

So he was testing, patiently, whether it could serve as a genuine replacement once his aura ran dry mid-battle, at least until his Awakening Ceremony, or whether it possessed any real utility at all, beyond radiating that same warm sensation each time he fed it, devouring everything offered like some spoiled, insatiable child.

If it truly could bridge that gap, even partially, it would remove one of the last real weaknesses standing between him and facing threats several realms above his own, without needing to gamble everything on Intent alone, which would drain him far too quickly to sustain.

For the past several days, he’d been consumed with one new responsibility after another, leaving him little time to dedicate to the energy properly. But now that Iron Wolf had taken over training the mercenaries, one burden had lifted from his shoulders, freeing him to work on this alongside building Anna and Sepharina’s foundation simultaneously.

He opened his eyes and rose to his feet, looking again at the girls’ exhausted bodies, and repeated the same process, handing them another round of recovery potions, then settling back down to continue feeding the unknown energy.

The cycle repeated itself again and again: their strength restored instantly, leaving them staring at the empty vials in quiet astonishment each time, even feeling their minds clear somewhat with every repetition. Sepharina, more curious than her sister, asked once what exactly he was doing while they ran, but Ethan simply told her to focus on her own training first.

This continued for the next two days, Ethan cycling them through various exercises one after another. Unknowingly, with each round, they managed to run a little longer than the last before needing another potion, their minds sharpening bit by bit as the process wore on. Ethan remained immersed in his own work throughout, only rising when he sensed they truly couldn’t push forward any further.

The reason behind all of it was simple: removing the accumulated toxins built up inside their bodies and mana pathways. Noble children, who typically began learning cultivation arts from a young age, kept their pathways naturally clear through early physical conditioning and consistent mana circulation.

Commoners, by contrast, even when physically capable, often found their pathways gradually clogged with accumulated toxins, having never learned the breathing and circulation arts needed to clear them naturally, a hidden bottleneck that could take months, sometimes years, of dedicated effort to properly resolve later in life, one that disproportionately held back anyone without access to proper early training.

To address this, Ethan had quietly imbued the recovery potions with a handful of specific herbs meant to clear their pathways, even if only partially, so they’d actually be able to perceive what he intended to teach them next.

---

Meanwhile, in the next training grounds...

CRASH!

Stone’s massive frame flew backward through the air, crashing hard against the dirt track and skidding several feet before coming to a halt. His battle axe clattered uselessly beside him.

Iron Wolf’s booming voice echoed across the yard. "Get up!"

Stone groaned, rubbing his bruised chest as he hauled himself back onto his feet, his face red with sweat and dust.

Surrounding Iron Wolf in a wide circle were Vera, Finch, Corvus, and the rest of the mercenary squad. All of them were panting heavily, their clothes torn, bruised, and thoroughly exhausted. They’d been trying to execute the initial defensive rotation of the Iron Fang Formation Art for the past few hours, but Iron Wolf had dismantled every single attempt.

Whenever Finch tried to dart forward for a quick strike, Iron Wolf swatted him away like a fly using the flat of his broadsword. Whenever Corvus tried to cover the flank, Iron Wolf exploited the gap in their coordination, driving a heavy boot into his chest and sending him tumbling.

"Again!" Iron Wolf roared, holding his heavy spiked claymore in one hand, his aura suppressed just enough that they could withstand his attacks without taking real damage, yet still heavy enough to feel like a mountain crushing down on their shoulders. "Form the vanguard! Vera on the left pivot, Stone in the center, Corvus on the right! Finch, stay in the shadow of the vanguard until the gap opens!"

Vera gritted her teeth, wiping blood from her split lip. "You heard him! Line up!"

The mercenaries scrambled into position. Despite their bruises and sheer physical fatigue, a subtle shift had occurred over the past few days.

At first, they’d assumed Iron Wolf was simply beating them senseless for the sake of it. But as the beatings continued, they began to notice a pattern echoing something from Ethan’s own earlier training: every strike landed precisely on their weak points in their stances.

Correcting those weaknesses to avoid getting hit again meant their movements were naturally becoming smoother, faster, and remarkably synchronized without any of them fully realizing it was happening. They hadn’t consciously registered the pattern during Ethan’s sessions, too overwhelmed at the time to notice, but Iron Wolf struck at exactly the same points Ethan once had, and their bodies had already begun instinctively flinching away from them.

Stone stepped forward, raising his battle-axe with his feet firmly planted. Vera flanked his left, her twin short swords lowered and ready to strike the moment an enemy’s balance broke, while Corvus locked his broad sword over Stone’s shoulder.

When Iron Wolf lunged forward this time, bringing his claymore down in a heavy arc, Stone held his ground. The impact rattled Stone’s bones straight through his boots, but Vera instantly pivoted around the left flank, her blade flashing toward Iron Wolf’s exposed wrist, while Corvus’s broadsword swept in for his chest in perfect co-ordination.

Clang! Clang!

Iron Wolf deflected both strikes with a quick flick of his claymore and a step back, but a wide, fierce grin spread across his face.

"Not bad!" Iron Wolf let out a booming laugh. "You’re finally starting to use it properly! Again!"

Even with the entire mercenary squad working against him in formation, their combined attacks were already brushing against the threshold of Peak Knight Commander. Iron Wolf continued sharpening his own technique through every exchange, his keen observation and talent allowing him to extract real growth even while defending against them. Had this same coordinated attack come earlier, before he’d fully understood the formation’s rhythm, he might have found himself genuinely overwhelmed. Instead, both sides were gaining something real from every exchange.