Chapter 140: Training

Three months later...

In the training grounds, three children were practicing on their own.

Spending the last few months training together without even taking a step outside the mansion, a routine had already been formed.

They behaved as if they were the only one in the whole place, not even sparing each other as much as a glance.

In a certain area of the training grounds where wooden dummies with iron armor were present, a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes slashed at a dummy in a relentless manner.

However, it could also be noticed that his slashes seemed to follow a certain trajectory that was both smooth and sudden.

The young swordsman who was moving in a graceful manner was none other than Killian.

’Having lightning affinity is the ability that enables my aura to take the form of lightning along with its powers.’

’However, that’s only a shallow interpretation of an affinity’s meaning.’

Killian thought to himself serenely without letting it affect the flow of his movements as he slashed at the dummy with utmost accuracy.

’Having an affinity for an element means that your existence itself is closely compatible with that element.’

’My existence itself is lightning. I don’t need to always use aura. In order for me to become stronger, I must tap into the power of lightning by myself...’

Killian chanted inside his mind as his focus reached its extremity.

Whoosh— Whush— Wuz—!!

His wooden sword produced a sound as it cut through the air.

However, if one paid attention, they would also be able to hear the sound of a faint static like that of a rampaging lightning.

Faint charred areas could also be seen on Killian’s wooden sword.

Nevertheless, he seemed to be in a different world as he didn’t care about what was happening around him.

Aura arts were made by talented people and were passed down through generations.

In this process, the aura arts would face either of the two things: they would be refined and become even stronger or they would weaken.

Still, it wouldn’t change the fact that the people who made said aura arts were monsters in terms of sheer talent.

It was precisely what Killian was going through right at this moment.

Not the refinement of an aura art...

Not the learning of a weaker aura art...

But the process of a powerful aura art’s creation.

***

On the other area of the training grounds...

A black haired girl with ruby red eyes was currently holding a book in her hands.

It was none other than Pandora.

Upon a closer look, a large mountain of books that was about two meters in height could also be seen beside her.

The strange thing was the fact that only a small percentage of the books were normal type magic grimoires.

The rest of it were books that contained information about the fundamentals of magic.

’So that’s how mana and aura are different, huh? Interesting. Mana and aura have very similar fundamentals, though there’s a clear boundary between the two of them.’

Pandora thought to herself as she read the book in her hand quietly.

That was right, even though Pandora’s gift made it so that she could just copy other people’s magic spell, she decided that learning magic itself would benefit her.

The path of mana consisted of professions like mages, enchanters, arcanists, alchemists, and the like.

However, it could be said that pursuing the path of mana needed more guidance than when pursuing the path of aura.

The reason for this is the fact that the path of mana was closely related to knowledge.

And knowledge could never be abundant right at the start as it would need to grow and be refined through time.

In short, having a teacher was necessary if one were to pursue the path of mana.

And of course, Killian was able to find some reputable mages who were at the early and middle stages of the Two Star Realm.

However, no mage could even last three days teaching Pandora without giving up.

The reason for this being because of the fact that Pandora was able to grasp whatever topic it was the first time they explained it...

...but wouldn’t this behavior make teachers feel proud of their students?

Of course it would.

If it weren’t for the fact that Pandora’s seemingly endless questions didn’t make her teachers question their own knowledge.

In the process of pursuing the path of mana, one’s interpretation of the world– their knowledge– was something that should be solid.

After all, just like how a mage’s magic spell wouldn’t work when they were not in the right state of mind, they would also not be able to grow if their belief in their knowledge weakens.

However, Pandora seemed to not care about any of this as she asked unorthodox questions with pure curiosity without any regards to her teachers’ feelings.

Still, this event allowed her to discover her raw talent when it came to the path of mana.

She then informed Killian not to recruit any mages and just provide her enough books for her to study on her own.

At this moment, as Pandora learned the fundamentals of mana, she was also researching something bizarre.

’Hmmm, this book shows the clear boundary between aura and mana, but it’s still vague.’

She propped her chin up her hand as she whispered to herself, "I have already read hundreds of books, yet all of them only explained that aura and mana were different without stating the clear concept..."

’...this might mean that my plan of developing a way for mages to use aura arts isn’t entirely impossible.’

That was right, Pandora’s gift wasn’t Mana Copy nor Magic Spell Copy.

It was Perfect Copy.

The ability to copy everything was the memory she had of her gift.

Upon having this realization, Pandora felt a little greedy and decided to embark on an unknown path on her own.

Currently, there were two mountain-like piles of books beside her: the one on the left were books she had yet to read while those on her right were what she already read.

Her eyes brightened as she grabbed one of the books on her right and flipped its pages until she saw what she was looking for.

Its title was "The Fool’s Interpretation of Mana".

As its title suggests, it was a book that people all over the world that pursues mana treated it like garbage.

However, Pandora’s eyes brightened as she looked at a certain passage.

...Mana is just like aura. Aura is the power that comes from a living being’s life energy. However, the world we’re living in is a living being too. So won’t it be possible for us mages to use aura arts as well by building a connection with the world and utilizing the mana as our aura...

It was a book that seemed to only contain nonsense, but Pandora was somehow hooked as she felt her heart beating wildly when she first read the passage.

’A magic spell that can build a connection between me and the world...’

Pandora’s eyes shined.

***

Last but certainly not the least...

While Killian was sweating as he trained with his sword and Pandora was frowning as she read her books...

A boy with white hair and blood red eyes was currently sitting in a cross-legged position at the center of the training grounds.

He sat quietly in between the two from earlier.

The boy was none other than Regis who currently had a peaceful expression on his face.

Unlike the two’s training that could be seen, Regis’s was a kind of training that was invisible to the naked eye.

’It seems like I’m right...’

He thought to himself without even a change in his expression.

In the past few months, he decided to take a break from actively developing his stars and chose to "get to know himself" first.

His Perfect Adaptation made it so that his body wouldn’t need to adapt after a breakthrough.

However, by having three different kinds of energies within his body, Regis felt that it was difficult to train.

After all, he couldn’t just blindly learn aura arts and magic spells since it would only be detrimental for him in the long run.

Using his time and energy in threading both the paths of aura and mana would only let him become a jack of all trades.

Learning many things, but being a master of none was something he didn’t want.

Therefore, Regis decided to halt the overall development of his stars and focused on building his own path for the future.

And currently, he seemed to have succeeded in creating the said path as a subtle smile crawled its way over to his lips.

In the next second, Regis’s eyes opened.

’My Perfect Adaptation did indeed adapt to the additional one hundred and twelve hundred souls living inside my body by creating a dimension...’

’...that was very similar to the world we’re living in, meaning that it essentially created a world in my consciousness to accommodate the souls of the children of the suicide squad.’

If one looked closely, they could notice that deep inside the pair of blood red...

...a universe seemed to be hidden within.