Penumbra (6) - 33

Did you notice anything different?

Well, you see, this time, I had a page of the tome open in front of me.

"Why?" You might ask, well, it was because this was the page of the tome that explained the "Fusion Technique".

Now, I really don't think that I need to explain this to you, right?

Anyways, I got back into a lotus position and started.

This time, instead of breathing in a certain way, I instead focused my senses on the air around me.

Luckily for me, this space, "The Library of Karmic Records", held an extremely dense concentration of mana, as if the air itself was purely mana and nothing else, so, it was extremely easy for me to "see" the mana after a little while.

But now, the hard part came up.

After all, although I could "see" the mana now, even achieving this feat at a prodigious speed, I couldn't manipulate it at all.

And, according to the noble study books that I had read, all they said on this topic was to "move" it, as it should come naturally to a noble.

But evidently, it didn't come naturally to me.

Of course, this was probably why I was known as a trash in the novel, only relying on his skill to battle.

Even this body's mana channeling was trash.

I mean, I could practically tell that I wouldn't be able to feel mana in the real world in my current state, and I could only do so here due to the astronomical amounts of mana in this space.

So, I would practice, after all, I had all the time in the world.

...

"Fwoooooossshhhhhhh!"

A weird sound resounded in the space as the mana in my mana veins erupted, flowing around with the regular mana in my bloodstream in my body.

You see, I had successfully integrated my mana veins with my real veins in this space, something that supposedly, only mythical rank masters were able to do.

Yet, I had been able to accomplish the exact same feat, albeit, taking an extra 40,000 years more than the normal mythical rank master.

But, it had all been worth it, as I had succeeded in using the "Fusion Technique" to combine the "Genesis Breathing Technique" with the "Reverse Mana Absorption Technique", a technique that had been created pretty recently actually, but had been forgotten due to the only user of it dying and not passing it on to their disciple.

Essentially, the technique made it so that one was absorbing mana at all times, until their mana heart, a second heart hidden inside a person's brain that absorbed mana, was full, before starting to slowly absorb mana in a controlled way so that it widened the mana veins and increased the capacity of the mana heart.

It was also an extremely broken technique, as it made a person's potential infinite, as long as they didn't die early that is.

With this technique, I was now basically both an infinite mage and an infinite aura user.

And, I also had infinite stamina now, because, as long as I used the "Genesis Breathing Technique", I would keep regaining my stamina now matter what happened.

I was now a monster.

Actually, I had even created a new technique, combining the "Genesis Breathing Technique" with the "Reverse Mana Technique". It had already been recorded in the tome, and it was named, "...", well, I had to give it a name.

"How about I name it, "Reverse Genesis Inclusive Technique"?"

And, right after I stated this, right in front of my eyes, the tome updated, and "Reverse Genesis Inclusive Technique" was plastered on the last page.

'Shit, that was just an idea...'

Well, there nothing I could do about it, and I had already spent too much time in this space, so I decided it was time to leave.

"I thank you for all you have shown me, I will now leave "The Library of Karmic Records"."

[Skill Cooldown: 364 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds...]

'Welp, I guess I can only come here every year."

Anyways, I was back in my bed, Gwen standing there next to me, looking at me worriedly.

"Exactly for how many seconds have I been like this?" I asked her, bringing her out of her thoughts.

"Young Master, what happened?"

"I just tried out my new skill, now, how many seconds has it been?" I asked, repeating my question.

"You have been in a state of unmoving for 203 seconds." She finally answered.

I whistled, and immediately thought, "Damn, 203,000 years? It's a wonder I didn't go crazy. My concentration skills must be some type of broken shit."

"..."

'Oops, did I say that out loud?'

Looking at Gwen's bewildered face, it seemed that I had accidentally spilled the beans.

"Oh, my skill is a space where 1,000 years there is 1 second here, so I just spent some time training." I said, shrugging it off.

"O-over t-t-two h-hundred thousand years of training? Are you even human?" She asked, her shock apparent on her face.

After all, she had regressed once already, and I bet she was feeling the heavy burden it was putting on her mental state.

"It wasn't that bad, I think I got stronger."

"You think? I bet you're stronger than me now!"

"No, I just focused on a breathing technique, took me long enough to perfect it..."

"Wait, that's all you did?"

Now, she was incredulous, reevaluating me again, as I obviously had a really sucky talent if that was true.

"I mean, I made it to the Purgative stage, so..."

Hearing this, she just shook her head and muttered under her breath,

"If I had been there, I could have at least gotten past 8 of the stages in one go..."

Hearing her perfectly, I retorted, "Wouldn't you have gone crazy though?"

"..."

Yep, I got her.

"Also, why are you talking to me like we're friends on the street?"

"..."

Twice.

Smiling, I rested my case and finally laid down and closed my eyes.

Today had definitely been a long day, and that was an under-exaggeration, so I really needed some rest for school tomorrow.

After all, I was pretty sure that we would be doing spars tomorrow, and as Vasilie's new partner, well, I needed to at least be able to withstand 4 swings before falling.

You see, in the fight before, we hadn't used any mana at all, using purely our physical strengths, but the spars tomorrow would definitely involve mana.

And then there was me, a complete greeny who had awakened just a day before.

Yep, I was definitely screwed.

---

Welp, if y'all missed the second update on the status of OTR, then I'll summarize it here instead of making you guys go all the way to THWO.

I decided on the name, and it'll be, "Return of the Shattered Ranker".

Anyways, for the new news, I've decided to submit RSR to Reaperscans before doing anything else.

But, if you want to read the chapters 3 weeks early or whatever, then you can read them as I publish them on my discord, link in the novel and my profile descriptions.