I’m Back

"I'm finally back…"

Zen muttered to himself as he looked around the familiar interior of the dilapidated building.

It had already been a long time since he went inside the game, enough time for him to miss his "constitution training" with Arthur.

"Is that what I think it is…?" His mouth watered at the sight of the bread and milk on the table.

He hurriedly went and took a bite of bread as he gulped the milk.

"Ahhh! This really is the best!!!"

Creak—

The door to the room suddenly opened as Arthur stared at Zen speechlessly.

"What—"

"Oh, Teacher!"

"Thank you for the food!" Zen said as he waved the bread while drinking milk.

Just as he felt his anger rising within his heart, Arthur managed to calm himself down by taking deep breaths.

Zen found it weird, but he just enjoyed "his" food silently.

After a couple of deep breaths, Arthur opened his eyes, "What took you so long?"

"I just dealt with some matters in my homeworld. After all, my situation there isn't really that peaceful…"

Zen responded as he kept eating his fill.

"Oh?" Arthur felt a little interested, he didn't know much about Zen, after all.

However, he knew better than to probe about his homeworld. Besides, he believed that Zen would take the initiative if ever he wanted to share something.

Thus, Arthur changed the topic, "Then, how long will you be here?"

Gulping his bread, Zen looked up for a moment before replying, "About a day… I still have matters to take care of in my homeworld."

Arthur nodded, "Good, you'll have plenty of time to train, then."

"Oh, speaking of training. Teacher, can I learn some magic?" 

Surprised at his sudden request, Arthur replied, "Oh, why? You should know that magic is much more complicated than other skills. But… Sure, if you managed to reach Adept Proficiency in [Fire Weapon Art]."

Hearing this, Zen's eyes sparkled with excitement, "Really!? Then let's go!"

"However…"

Just as Zen was about to leave the room and go to the training grounds, he heard Arthur's trembling voice.

He turned his head and saw his teacher's twitching lips.

"Teacher, what's the matte—"

Pow!

"Ow! Why did you hit m—"

Smack!!!

"It's time for a little constitution training as a warm up." Arthur said in an expressionless voice as he kept beating him up.

***

A few minutes later…

Zen was currently standing on the training grounds, holding his twin wooden swords.

Arthur stood on the side, "Show me how strong you have gotten."

Nodding his head, Zen silently tightened his grip on his twin swords. Since he was only practicing, he decided to use wooden weapons.

Besides, he really didn't have a weapon of his own.

'Let's do this.'

Zen thought to himself as he readied himself.

Soon enough, bright flames covered one of his twin swords.

Woosh— Woov!!!

He slashed his sword randomly without a specific stance as a wave of flame shot out from it.

However, one could see that the wave of flames was weak and only reached about 10 meters before disappearing.

Arthur was surprised as he saw this, 'To think that he would've already picked up the technique…' (A/N: To avoid confusion, you can refer to chapter 91)

What Zen was performing right now wasn't the skill known as [Fire Weapon Art], but only an imitation of Arthur's skill.

As stated in the earlier chapters, before a technique becomes a skill, it would need to receive the system's support.

The system's support would give the technique overall enhancement and stability, thereby making it drastically more powerful.

(A/N: Chapter 50 for detailed explanation.)

Therefore, Zen still needed to go through the process of repetitive training just like how the humans of the ancestral era gained their first skill. 

(A/N: Please read Chapter 19 for more details.)

'If only he had a skill book…' Zen clicked his tongue as he thought of this. Originally, with the use of a skill book, he could've bypassed the long process of training.

After all, a skill book could instantly grant a skill to the user, making them learn a skill that was supported by the system.

Nevertheless, Zen didn't slack off despite him complaining in his mind.

[Ding!]

[Detected that the player is trying to learn a Mythical Skill through practice!]

[Current progress: 29%]

[Please keep working hard!]

Seeing the system notifications floating in front of him, a smirk rose from Zen's lips.

'Seems like I'm not doing anything wrong… Now, let's cheat a bit…'

[Absolute Apathy]

(A/N: The sub skill Apathetic State will be changed to Absolute Apathy. Changes have been made on chapters 80 and 84 accordingly.)

Just as Zen activated his skill, Arthur's eyes constricted.

'What did he do? Is it a skill?' He thought as he observed his student, sensing a bad feeling coming from him.

On the outside, Zen didn't change. His physical body was still the same as before.

However, Arthur was able to sense his student's change in demeanor, 'Most importantly, the look in his eyes.'

He could sense how cold Zen's eyes were from where he was.

Still, Arthur didn't do anything and just chose to observe, 'I believe that he knows what he is doing. Besides, aside from the change in demeanor, I can sense something more profound within him.'

'Let's see if my monster of a student is still more monstrous than he shows…' Interest sparked in his eyes as he watched his student.

Meanwhile, Zen had his eyes closed as he analyzed the circulation of mana in his body.

'Let's see…'

He thought as he once again manipulated the mana in his body in the path that Arthur had once thought him.

This time, with the use of his [Heart of Stone]'s [Absolute Apathy] sub skill, his mind worked way faster.

After a few seconds, bright flames covered one of his twin swords once again.

Slash—

Woosh— Woov!!!

This time, the flames were stronger and travelled more compared to the one earlier.

[Ding!]

[Mythical Skill Acquisition Progress: 38%]

'Yes!'

Zen screamed in happiness internally, yet his face showed no emotion whatsoever.