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Chapter 121: Extre Situation (1)
A training ground so vast that the term “personal training area” hardly fits.
I stood alone in the center of the wide training ground, placing my hand over my chest.
A mana bullet, smaller than a grain of sand, forms in my bloodstream.
The mana bullet, carried by my blood flow, enters my heart and explodes inside it.
Thud.
The sound of my heart being crushed.
A dull sensation, as if a blunt object struck my chest, and the pain spreads throughout my body.
My vision flickers into darkness, and strength leaves my body.
But only for a mont.
Wooooooong!
My Stigma emits light, and my shattered heart regenerates back to its original form.
Haa.
A breath escapes my lips, mixed with ash.
“Blaze.”
With a low incantation, my entire body is engulfed in a faint fla.
Ash-gray smoke billows from my pores, covering the surroundings.
Ignition.
A technique that triggers the primordial fla through my "death," allowing to gain imnse power temporarily.
“Haa.”
Breathing out a sigh mixed with ashes, I grip my sword.
Whoosh!
Ashen Flas coil around the blade, burning fiercely.
Only a few seconds had passed since I had ignited the Ashen Flas, yet I could already feel the mana inside the stigma rapidly depleting.
I gripped the sword tightly and swung it violently into the air.
Ashen Fla Sword, First Form.
Ashen Severance.
The sword, enveloped in Ashen Flas, fiercely slashed through the air.
Boom!
The entire training ground trembled from the re shockwave created by the swing.
“Next…”
Letting the sword hang down, I conjured a mana blade in the air.
To be precise, it was not a mana ‘bullet,’ but a blade made of pure mana.
Whoosh!
Ashen Flas surrounded the mana blade as it burned.
Ashen Fla Sword, Second Form.
Fla Blade.
The mana blade, wrapped in Ashen Flas, swept through the surroundings with ferocity.
Snap.
With a light snap of my fingers, the mana blade floating in the air dispersed.
“And now, the last one.”
It’s a technique I’ve learned recently, and I’m still not very skilled at it.
Whoosh!
The Ashen Flas that had been coiling around the sword gathered at the tip of the blade.
As the Ashen Flas concentrated at the tip, they absorbed the surrounding ash particles, growing in size.
The Ashen Fla at the tip of the sword burned fiercely as if it would devour everything around it.
Ashen Fla Sword, Third Form.
Inferno Spear.
Just before the concentrated Ashen Fla could be unleashed.
Beep! Beep!
[Warning.]
[An anomaly has been detected in the shock absorption barrier.]
A loud alarm rang out, and the inside of the training ground flashed red.
‘And I haven’t even fired it yet.’
I frowned and dispersed the concentrated Ashen Flas at the tip of the sword.
“Phew.”
I slowly exhaled and returned my sword to its sheath.
Checking the mana within the stigma, I saw it was almost depleted.
‘These techniques certainly consu a lot of mana.’
Both Ashen Severance and Fla Blade require a significant amount of mana, but the new technique I’ve been practicing, Inferno Spear, consus even more.
Ssszzzz!
The sound of burning flesh accompanied the rapid recovery of my depleted mana.
‘In the ignition state, mana keeps regenerating, so it's sowhat usable, but in normal circumstances, it’s hard to maintain.’
I frowned as I looked down at my body, enveloped in a faint fla.
‘Not enough.’
I recalled the mory of facing the Archbishop of Madness just a few days ago.
A suffocating pressure that made it hard to breathe just by looking at him.
Although I hadn’t actually fought him, I knew for certain that even with the Ignition state, he was a difficult opponent.
“To fight that brat…”
Closing my eyes tightly, I traced back further into the past.
To the ti when I fought the Archbishop of Illusions, Astaroth, during the Sealing Festival.
-Do you have no sense of restraint?! How is this even remotely fair?!
Flas fiercely coiling around .
Infinite mana surging without end.
For the first ti, I could freely unleash all my techniques without the shackles of "mana," and with just a wave of my hand, everything around turned into a sea of fire.
‘Indeed, I need the Avatar state.’
Just rembering the ti when the primordial fla engulfed my entire body and granted infinite mana sent shivers down my spine.
If I could control that power freely, I could easily trample the Archbishop of Madness.
“The problem is, I have no idea how to enter that state.”
I sighed, frowning.
I had tried countless thods to re-enter the Avatar state, but nothing had worked.
‘Simply dying multiple tis didn’t trigger it.’
It had been confird through nurous trials that the primordial fla responds to my ‘death.’
Even though I kept creating mana bullets to blow up my heart, the primordial fla didn’t engulf my entire body as it did back then.
“There must be so condition besides just dying…”
I narrowed my eyes, lost in thought.
Looking back at the situation from that ti, there was only one plausible hypothesis.
“…It was an extre situation.”
The tension that made my heart feel like it would explode.
The desperation that felt like it was choking .
The hostile pressure that weighed heavily on , and the agony that made every cell in my body feel crushed.
‘It’s true; you can’t feel those emotions by repeatedly dying alone in a room.’
Even though it's the sa stimulus, the sensation differs between massaging your own shoulders and having soone else do it for you.
Likewise, even if it’s the sa "death," the feeling changes dramatically depending on who is experiencing it.
"In other words... I need to experience a proper 'death' to recreate a similar situation to back then..."
The problem was that I'd beco too strong recently, so dying had beco nearly impossible.
Of course, if I really wanted to, I could ask soone to kill , but that wouldn’t be much different from taking my own life.
“Sigh.”
In the end, it ant that I’d have to throw myself into so extre situation, like jumping into a fire while carrying oil on my back.
‘That’s easier said than done.’
If extre situations were that easy to create, they wouldn’t be called "extre."
And the thing about extre situations is that what qualifies as one varies from person to person.
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For one person, encountering a stray dog while walking down the street might feel like an extre situation.
For another, a bug bite might seem like an extre event.
Or soone else might think it’s an extre situation when their mom barges into their room while they're comforting themselves late at night.
‘I think I’d feel that was extre too, to be honest.’
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a mom who’d barge into my room at night.
Anyway.
With my immortal body, it was hard for to feel anything was extre unless it was a truly dangerous situation.
"There is a way, though."
As I slowly combed through mories of my past life, I frowned.
There was indeed a thod to push myself into an "extre" situation, but it was a risky gamble.
‘Still, do I have any other choice?’
With a deep sigh, I stepped out of the training hall.
Just like you need chips to gamble, there was sothing I needed in order to carry out the plan forming in my mind.
* * *
“…You’re asking for a leave permit?”
Inside Professor Lucas’s office.
Professor Lucas, who looked utterly exhausted from staying up all night grading final exams, frowned at .
"Don’t you know candidates aren’t allowed to leave during the final evaluation period?"
"That’s why I’m asking if you could do sothing about that."
To go off-campus during finals week, I needed a leave permit from the professor in charge.
"Didn’t Professor Elisha already finish grading our party’s evaluations?"
"Still, rules are rules. I can’t issue a leave permit during the final evaluation period."
Professor Lucas shook his head firmly.
"How about sothing Professor Bianca might like...?"
"No way. I said no."
"Tsk."
Clicking my tongue at his unyielding attitude, I sighed.
There was always the option of sneaking out of the academy since there were no more classes.
‘But if I get caught, it’ll be straight to disciplinary action.’
I’d gone through the trouble of getting first place in the finals, and I didn’t want to blow it with a punishnt.
‘Maybe I should just go later.’
There was no guarantee that even if I went, I’d find any clues about the Avatar state.
It wasn’t worth forcing my way out for sothing so uncertain, so I was about to give up when—
Click.
The office door opened, and a sleek woman in a black suit walked in.
“Interesting conversation you’re having.”
Hearing our exchange, Professor Elisha strode in with a glint in her eye.
“…What brings you here?”
Professor Lucas scowled at her intrusion.
She chuckled, tapping the stack of graded papers on Lucas’s desk.
“I’ve finished my work, and I heard my adorable junior has been burning the midnight oil grading exams, so I thought I’d lend a hand.”
“Oh! In that case, could you grade Class B’s…”
“On second thought, I’ve changed my mind.”
“What?”
Professor Lucas stared blankly.
Professor Elisha glanced my way before continuing.
“I overheard that Cadet Dale was asking for a leave permit.”
“Ah, yes. But as per the rules, cadets aren’t allowed to leave during the finals.”
“Hmm. That’s strange…”
She stroked her chin, a smirk playing at the corner of her lips.
“As far as I rember, there was a cadet who snuck out during finals week to buy a gift for a female cadet he liked.”
“……!”
Professor Lucas froze.
“Now, what was his na again…”
“S-Senior!”
Bang!
Professor Lucas slamd the table and shot to his feet.
Professor Elisha smiled slyly, turning to him.
“You can issue the leave permit, right?”
“Grr…”
With a groan, Lucas lowered his head and opened a drawer, scribbling out a leave permit and throwing it to .
“As expected, Lucas is a good junior who listens to his seniors.”
Elisha smiled in satisfaction and glanced at .
“Does this work for you, Cadet Dale?”
“Thank you.”
Surprised by her unexpected help, I grabbed the leave permit with a slightly dazed expression.
I thought I could now carry out my plan without any worries when—
“But… it wouldn’t be fair to give special treatnt to just one cadet, would it?”
She crossed her arms and stroked her chin thoughtfully.
“Hmm. I’ve got a good idea.”
“…A good idea?”
“If you leave under the pretext of helping a professor with an external task, it won’t cause any issues, will it?”
Her eyes glead with a hint of excitent.
“In that sense, Cadet Dale.”
She lightly tugged at my tie, running her tongue over her lips as if savoring the idea.
“Why don’t you accompany ?”
[Translator - Night]
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