Forsaken Skin, Void Rune

In the days that followed, Gilgamesh and Vittoria were rather busy.

The very first time that him and Vittoria sparred, she gave him a huge wake-up call.

As Gilgamesh readied himself, unarmed, to face Vittoria with her new sword in hand, he felt an unnatural energy approaching him. It altered the very state of the wind, causing it to become an oppressive force that immediately confronted him.

Caught off guard, Gilgamesh had no choice but to try his utmost to resist with his body. What that resulted in was him being blown away into a tree with great force, unable to move and seeing stars.

Vittoria had never come so close to laughing in all the time that Gilgamesh knew her.

"What the fuck was that!?" Once he was able to stand and walk again, Gilgamesh immediately tried to understand what had happened to him.

"Nothing much," Vittoria snickered, "I just released a bit of my aura."

Devasted by the fact that he was much too weak, Gilgamesh could only bite his lips and request a sparring match without the use of aura.

In such a match where Vittoria was entirely holding back, he was able to just barely keep up. At first, though his wealth of experience enabled him to accurately read her moves, his body was unable to perform at the level he needed it to.

Eventually, as he went through more and more simulated battles with her, he was able to come into his own a lot more. His rapid acclimatization shocked Vittoria, who had expended to mop the floor with him.

During the process, Gilgamesh once again got the refreshing feeling of being one with his inner self again. His body was on its way to growing into something that could properly communicate with his soul.

However, just sparring wasn't enough.

After a few sessions, Gilgamesh was also able to gather some information about Vittoria.

The first was that she possessed an Ability called 'All-Adapt,' which basically granted her the ability to almost effortlessly adapt to certain situations.

However, she mentioned the fact that the ability was still limited by her physical capabilities, and also that the ability was only in an embryonic stage. As she grew, soo too would it.

Secondly, Gilgamesh learned that Vittoria was also a Qi Refiner. She told him that after the First Realm of Qi Refining, the Qi Gathering Realm, came the Spirit Spring Realm.

She was in the process of nurturing her fifth spirit spring, which was an impressive feat for someone her age- 18.

Gilgamesh, of course, did not miss the opportunity to be wowed by her age. He remarked that she looked at least 65, to which Vittoria released some of her aura and sent him flying again.

When he asked her whether or not it was common for a person to walk two or more paths of cultivation, she told him that three was the most she had ever heard of.

Even Scarlet, the First Demon King, only took her first steps on the third path in the latter days of her life.

Thinking about what the Idea wanted him to do- walk all four paths- gave him a serious migraine.

One day, when Gilgamesh came out of the cabin to meet Vittoria for their morning exercise, he decided to speak to her more about the cultivation methods he had received.

"Aside from the names, I have enough information on them to at least start cultivating- or trying to." He explained.

"The Forsaken Body Mantra seems to be consisted of some initial layers, the first of which is the cultivation of Forsaken Skin. As for the Qi of the Void Path, it seems like I have to... stare at a picture of something called a Void Rune?"

At that point, Gilgamesh seemed to be questioning his own mind.

Vittoria shrugged, "That's not unheard of. A lot of Qi Refining techniques first require you to increase your mental fortitude so you can actually endure the strain of the refining process. Staring at symbols and paintings are all pretty common."

"I see," Gilgamesh said, shutting his eyes and envisioning the image.

In his head, it looked like a bunch of scribbled lines and nonsense words, all contained within a circular symbol that had numerous tiny wings. He had no idea what it was supposed to mean, but he could see it in his mind clear as day.

This was the Void Rune, and he needed to do something with it.

"So am I just supposed to keep thinking about it?" He asked without opening his eyes.

Vittoria was about to answer, but she faltered and ended up holding her tongue. "Actually... there's likely never been a case like yours before. I think you might have to do something else if just thinking about it doesn't have an effect."

"Something else?" Gilgamesh opened his eyes, already looking fed up with cultivating. "Something else like what?"

Vittoria bit down on her fingernails, chewing through them as they were much too brittle. Eventually, she seemed to realize something and stopped pondering so seriously. "I don't know. Maybe you should try figuring some stuff out on your own."

After that, she scoffed and turned away from him, going back to her own meditation.

Gilgamesh laughed wryly and went about trying to figure out what he was supposed to do. As he was doing that, he started absentmindedly drawing on the soil. At some point, he started trying to draw the image in his head, and felt a sharp pain followed by a bizarre sensation.

"Huh?" As the pain subsided, Gilgamesh realized that his nose was bleeding. "No way."

Vittoria glanced over at him. "What?"

Looking both excited and deeply wronged, Gilgamesh sat straighter on the ground and tried to draw the image again. This time, he fought through the first wave of pain and ended up experiencing a second bout that was enough to almost blind him.

This kind of mental pain was the worst.

Falling onto his back, Gilgamesh tried to stave off the lingering effects of the pain while answering Vittoria's question. "I found out... what I need to do."

Vittoria crawled over to him and saw the beginnings of a drawing on the soil in front of him, then instantly surmised what he was doing. "Drawing, huh? That's new."

Gilgamesh sighed, then sat up with some difficulty. Leaning over to start drawing again, he placed a hand on his nose to collect the still-dripping blood.

Vittoria watched closely as he started, but before he could so much as finish the first line, his eyes were rolling up into his head and he was falling over.

Seeing this, Vittoria laughed for the first time. She laughed from the pit of her stomach, unable to come back to her senses or even hold it in. She laughed with her entire heart, until tears fell from her eyes and her cheeks hurt.

The slight bit of red in her complexion was most odd, since she was usually devoid of such color.

Gilgamesh did not have the energy to get annoyed, and instead decided to put his drawing on hold.

Giving his nose a final wipe to see that the bleeding had stopped, he wiped off his hands and switched to the Forsaken Body Mantra.

"Apparently, in order to cultivate the Forsaken Skin, I first need to procure enough beast blood to fill a tub, then soak in that while trying to absorb the blood essence through my pores." Gilgamesh said while massaging his temples.

Vittoria, who had only just stopped laughing, wiped her eyes and caught her breath. "What kind- heh- what kind of beast?"

"I don't think it needs to be a specific type of beast. All I know aside from what I told you is the Forsaken Body Mantra's unique method of absorbing blood essence." Gilgamesh said, looking defeated.

"I guess once you do that, the rest of the information will come to you," Victoria deduced, standing up and dusting off both herself and the wrapped-up skeleton.

Gilgamesh followed suit while sighing. "Where the hell am I gonna get enough beast blood to fill a tub?"

Vittoria blinked at him, giving him the look that he had come to recognize as the 'I know you're not an idiot, but right now you're acting like one' look.

Stopping to think, he quickly realized that he had forgotten all about Mariam and the Felis Clan. He had his own cheat, which was a relationship with them.

"I guess I'm gonna have to make a trip back there," He looked around, nodding as he thought about the immediate future.

Vittoria waved him off as she walked toward the road, "I'm gonna go take a look at the young talents of Conceala. If there's anyone promising among them, I might play with them a little."

Seeing her off, Gilgamesh eventually went to get his horse before leaving for the Felis Clan.