Chapter 246

Class Advancement (1)

Two days had passed since I began undergoing various forms of training, including learning how to judge distance.

Under normal circumstances, we should have resumed exploring, but Ludwig advised me against it.

He told me to avoid exploring whenever possible until I had learned not only how to judge distance, but also how to properly control my power.

Undergoing Rebirth and acquiring an Aura Blade were both good things, but if I couldn’t wield them properly, they would only become liabilities.

I agreed with him to a certain extent, so I trained relentlessly until I could adjust to my new abilities.

My aura had taken on a clear and defined shape rather than resembling a heat haze, so judging its reach wasn’t particularly difficult.

"$#@%%"

[He says that aside from judging distance, you should start by mastering the fundamentals.]

"But I’m already learning the fundamentals."

Regardless, Ludwig advised me to increase the amount of time I invested in the basics.

When I questioned him about it, he gave an answer that sounded excellent even to me.

"#%@@#%."

[Being able to produce fifty units of power with one hundred percent certainty is far more important than having a fifty percent chance of producing one hundred and fifty.]

"@@$%%."

[Unless your life hangs in the balance, do not gamble. That is excellent advice.]

Just as Cain had praised him for, Ludwig gave me advice that would become flesh and blood—lessons that would truly benefit me.

Calling my current growth rate abnormal would be an understatement.

It might not have mattered before, but now that I had acquired an Aura Blade, learning to control my strength was essential.

Obtaining an Aura Blade didn’t merely increase one’s destructive power. It meant entering the realm of superhumans.

Of course, since I should have undergone Rebirth long ago, there wasn’t much of an overall difference in my case.

My height and overall physique had grown slightly. The Aura Blade was the only truly significant change.

But that one change alone made mastering the fundamentals absolutely necessary.

"#@%#@??"

[To put it bluntly, what do you think would happen if a gorilla with a brain tumor started swinging around an Aura Blade?]

"Are you saying I’m a gorilla with a brain tumor?"

At the mention of a gorilla, Kkobong, who had been standing nearby, looked over at us.

Apparently, he thought we had called him.

Ludwig stared intently at Kkobong before saying something to me.

"#%M$."

[Even that white gorilla has excellent fundamentals. You, on the other hand...]

"That’s seriously too harsh. Still, I understand what you mean."

In terms of martial skill—or martial arts alone—I was indeed at a far lower level than Kkobong.

If we competed using nothing but pure fundamentals, I would probably be the weakest person here.

’Still, calling me a gorilla with a brain tumor was going too far.’

In any case, my lack of proficiency was a serious problem.

If I made a mistake, there was a high chance I could attack one of my companions. That was why controlling my power was essential.

I especially needed to become skilled enough to freely adjust my aura whenever an unexpected situation arose.

Any martial artist who had followed the normal path would already be capable of that as a matter of course.

But I wasn’t normal.

I had skipped all those steps and obtained an Aura Blade outright, so I needed to work even harder than everyone else.

After all, it had only been a month since I first acquired mana.

Even Ludwig hadn’t anticipated this.

’He said he trained a Hero before, and damn, he really knows how to explain things.’

The more I learned from Ludwig, the more I realized what an outstanding teacher he was.

The Heavenly Demon and SwordMaster were also excellent teachers, but since Ludwig was teaching me in person, I couldn’t help comparing them.

Just how powerful was Asella, the Hero trained by someone like him?

She constantly acted like an idiot in the Gallery, but she was probably completely different in real life.

’He said it should feel similar to holding a weapon with a comfortable grip, right?’

Following Ludwig’s teachings, I practiced controlling my aura.

According to him, the ideal amount was one that made me feel as though I was actively "using" the aura.

Unless someone possessed an abnormal weapon like the Mithricon Sword, the aura would generally only be large enough to envelop the blade.

That was assuming the wielder was a "normal" person, of course.

Hummm!

"That’s enormous."

"It really is."

I was different.

As I had seen before, my aura was absurdly thick and magnificent, like a giant club.

It was long, too.

It was roughly as long as two of the Heavenly Demon’s swords joined end to end.

I had suspected it back when my aura still resembled a heat haze, but in terms of sheer quantity, mine was overwhelming.

And considering that the Forest of Four Seasons suppressed mana, its true scale must have been beyond imagination.

"I feel like something terrible will happen if I swing this wrong."

"..."

Apparently agreeing with me, Ludwig nodded gravely.

Due to the forest’s terrain, open spaces were exceedingly rare.

There would always be at least a few trees nearby, and cutting all of them down would only create obstacles.

’First, I need to find out how powerful it is.’

Keeping my aura corn dog—no, my aura club—active, I stood in front of a tree.

A heat haze was one thing, but an Aura Blade was a vicious weapon in and of itself.

It dramatically increased a weapon’s durability and cutting power, and its strength rose as its color deepened.

’This thing looks like a club. Will it even cut?’

There was only one way to find out.

I carefully pressed the aura against the tree.

Since there was a chance the Heavenly Demon’s sword itself might slice through it, I focused on the side consisting solely of aura.

Then I took a deep breath and slowly moved the sword.

Shhk—

"..."

It cut through.

And the cut was exceptionally clean.

The problem was that the section matching the thickness of the club-like aura had been completely carved out of the tree.

The entire portion that had come into contact with the aura had simply vanished.

Crrrack!

With its middle section gone, the tree toppled helplessly.

As it fell, I walked backward and secured a safe distance.

Once the tree had completely collapsed, I stared at the aura club.

’You’re telling me this entire thick section is a blade?’

The section touched by the aura had been severed cleanly.

I might have understood if the wood had been crushed, but the fact that it had been cleanly sliced apart was absurd.

Curious, I cautiously placed my index finger against the aura.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!"

It cut me instantly.

I hurriedly pulled my hand away and shook it before examining my index finger.

Tiny beads of blood began forming on it.

It was fortunate that I had pulled away immediately. Otherwise, it could have been dangerous.

Was this truly the power of an Aura Blade?

I couldn’t help but marvel.

"Mister, this is normally how it works, right?"

"...Mister?"

Apparently, Ludwig didn’t think so.

He stared at me with a grave expression, as though what had happened had completely defied his expectations.

We had spent all this time practicing distance judgment and aura control, so what exactly was wrong?

I carefully deactivated my aura and waited for him to speak.

"...#%%"%?"

[He’s asking whether you really did exactly as he instructed.]

"Yes, I did."

What in the world was the problem?

When I looked at him questioningly, Ludwig glanced around.

Then he retrieved the Mithricon Sword hanging near the cave entrance.

Hummm—

A faint Aura Blade formed around the Mithricon Sword.

Under normal circumstances, it should have been larger than this, but this was the best Ludwig could manage due to the Forest of Four Seasons’ peculiar suppression of mana.

But did that mean its power had been halved?

Not at all.

This was Ludwig, after all. He should have been able to cut through a tree with ease.

He walked over to the tree I had cut and pressed his blade against it.

"Huh?"

I had been mistaken.

Unlike mine, Ludwig’s sword did not glide smoothly through the tree.

It jolted to a stop midway, as though it had caught on something.

Slice!

Of course, that was only because he hadn’t applied any force.

The moment Ludwig exerted a little more strength, the tree was sliced apart as easily as paper.

Still, the difference between his result and mine was so drastic that I wasn’t sure what to say.

"#%$%&.#$^&."

[Even with the same aura, its power varies depending on the wielder’s proficiency and the amount used. At present, I can access roughly thirty percent of my aura.]

"That’s more than I expected."

"#$%M&."

[He says that when he first entered this forest, he struggled to access even ten percent.]

It was probably because he had eaten the golden acorn jelly.

That was only my guess, though.

In any case, Ludwig’s point was simple.

Just as the sheer quantity of my aura was abnormal, so was its cutting power.

Although cutting power was supposed to increase in proportion to the amount of aura used, mine had reached a bizarre level.

"Isn’t that a good thing?"

"We’ll die."

"Me?"

"All of us."

"Oh."

This was the same warning he had given me earlier.

One wrong move could cause a massive disaster.

I had cut through the tree so easily that it was easy to overlook, but wood was normally quite hard.

If my aura could slice through a tree with the slightest touch, imagine what it could do to an animal.

On top of that, the Heavenly Demon’s Sword was extraordinarily powerful in its own right, making it practically a demonic sword.

"#%%%@#."

[He says your very existence is a demonic sword.]

"Then what am I supposed to do? It’s not like I can simply stop using aura."

In response to my complaint, Ludwig made a suggestion.

Why not reduce the amount of aura I used?

He said I needed to start by reducing its absurd size.

That way, we could at least lessen the scale of the disaster whenever I swung my sword.

It might have been a different story if I had possessed exceptional fundamentals, but in Ludwig’s eyes, mine were apparently worse than those of a gorilla with a brain tumor.

"Is this the smallest you can make it?"

"Yes."

"You can’t reduce it any further?"

"No."

The problem was that even after reducing it, it was still as thick as a club.

Its color had merely become paler. Its size remained unchanged.

Even I had no idea how to control that.

This appeared to be Ludwig’s first time encountering such a situation because he simply stood there blankly with his mouth open.

Even someone who had trained countless paladins and a Hero seemed to find me difficult to handle.

"...For now, try to reduce it. Keep practicing."

"Okay."

But what else could I do?

If I couldn’t reduce it, there was a high chance I would cause a massive disaster.

I could try first, and if it didn’t work, we could look for another method.

’Let’s make it as small as possible.’

I gathered every ounce of concentration I possessed and tried to reduce the Aura Blade’s size as much as possible.

It was difficult at first, but as I recalled SwordMaster’s advice, I gradually began to get the hang of it.

The problem was that I felt strangely uneasy, as though I were forcibly compressing it.

It felt like cramming something extremely elastic into a box and forcing the lid shut.

Hummm—

Still, after enough effort, I managed to reduce it by half.

Its length was now roughly one and a half times that of the Heavenly Demon’s Sword, and it had also become considerably thinner.

"Mister, shouldn’t this be small enough—"

I was about to show Ludwig the greatly diminished aura.

Perhaps it happened because I had stopped paying attention to its control.

Or perhaps I had pushed it all the way to its limit.

HUUUUUMMM!

The Heavenly Demon’s Sword suddenly began to tremble.

FWOOSH!

The aura erupted like a jack-in-the-box.

If it had merely surged upward, I wouldn’t have described it that way.

Fwip! Fwip! Fwoosh!

The problem was that the erupting aura sprayed in every direction.

Fragments of aura separated from the Heavenly Demon’s Sword and began shooting everywhere.

Fortunately, they were small and faint in color.

But there was one major problem.

"Aaaaargh!"

"Kyuuaaargh!"

"Piiii! Piik!"

"Uoooooh!"

BOOM! KABOOM! KRA-BOOM!

I couldn’t control it.

The Heavenly Demon’s Sword shuddered violently while aura scattered in every direction.

The shelter rapidly descended into chaos from the aftereffects.

Caught in the sudden disaster, my animal companions scrambled desperately for cover.

Afraid something even worse would happen, I released the Heavenly Demon’s Sword.

Hummmmmmmm!

That only made matters worse.

The sword began spinning like a top and spraying aura everywhere.

In the end, I had no choice but to grab it again.

The instant I took hold of the sword, I hurriedly ran into the forest.

I had to get away from the shelter if I wanted to prevent a catastrophe.

Even as I ran through the forest, aura continued flying in every direction.

"Aaaargh! Fuck! What the hell am I supposed to do about this?!"

The innocent trees bore the brunt of the damage.

"What the hell am I even doing right now?"

Only after rampaging around the forest like a madman for quite some time did the sword finally settle down.

"I’m sorry!"

The moment I returned to the shelter, I apologized.

’Getting stronger... No, just becoming functional is really hard.’

I realized that strength and functionality were two entirely separate things.

As Ludwig surveyed the devastated shelter, he felt more dumbfounded than dismayed.

The equipment he had painstakingly arranged had been knocked over, and several structures had sustained considerable damage.

Fortunately, none of their companions had been injured.

They had swiftly taken refuge inside the brick house and the cave.

The aura scattered from Grylls’s sword hadn’t been powerful enough to cut through stone.

’I have never seen anything like this in all my life.’

Having trained countless knights, Ludwig was prepared for all manner of unexpected incidents.

Had there occasionally been accidents caused by people who couldn’t control their aura, like Grylls?

They weren’t entirely unheard of.

But compressed aura had never exploded and scattered in every direction like Grylls’s had.

Fortunately, he had only compressed a relatively small amount.

If he had compressed any more than that...

Ludwig didn’t even want to imagine it.

’What if he could learn to control it?’

Stroking his chin, Ludwig turned his head.

Grylls, the cause of this entire catastrophe, was silently rebuilding the shelter.

’I must make certain that he does.’

Ludwig resolved to approach his training with even greater enthusiasm.

’Otherwise, my own life will be in danger.’

After all, it had always been said that the enemy within was the most terrifying.

Though the expression was being used a little differently in this case.

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