5 years

After obtaining Mumud's talent, I began to slowly absorb his magical knowledge. It took me nearly two years to take in just 20% of it, and now his knowledge is becoming increasingly difficult to process, placing a burden on both my soul and body.

I decided to close his grimoire and started to digest all the knowledge I had gained from him.

The first thing I did with this newfound knowledge was to refine my breathing technique. Using his magical insights and unique magic, I developed my breathing to near perfection.

Instead of forcibly draining mana from the atmosphere, I now go with the flow, accepting the world and letting it accept me in return. This led to my breakthrough to the Yellow Rank.

It felt like an enlightenment that came out of nowhere, and now I am the most powerful mage in our family.

After that, I let my body adapt to the new core and exercised every day. Not to mention, with the Three Echo Cut skill book, I learned intermediate swordsmanship.

Using the skill book, I went from not even a novice to an intermediate-ranked swordsman, which is the advantage of skill books as they feed you knowledge directly.

Now, I am also training in swordsmanship as it hones both my body and senses.

Lith and Trion are also training with me. Lith saw how much I sweat and believed it helps to develop one's senses, while Trion seems to like swords a lot.

I am considering awakening Trion too. Thanks to Mumud's knowledge, I can safely awaken him, but the problem is what if he tells everything? To prevent that, I am not going to awaken him yet, though this doesn't stop me from teaching him magic.

As we began training together, I slowly started to teach him magic, and it turned out he has a talent for it.

Within a week, he was able to use higher-ranked magic than chore magic, creating a festive atmosphere in the home.

Elina was so happy she cooked all the meat we hunted that day.

As for Raaz, he was smiling from ear to ear.

Perhaps the only person who wasn't happy was Orpal. He clenched his teeth as he ate bread and vegetable soup since neither Lith nor I wished to share our hunted meat with him.

As for Rena and Tista, they didn't see him as a brother anymore after he once suggested getting rid of Tista.

Because of that, Raaz beat him so badly that he didn't leave bed for a whole week, and even now he limps a little.

Both Lith and I could have healed him, but why should we? Assholes need to be taught a lesson.

After that, both Lith and I began to devise ways to cure Tista.

This time, I found her cure relatively easy, as there was a problem with her lungs, leading to a shortage of oxygen in her whole body, making her sick.

Using invigoration (a technique to check the whole body like an X-ray or even better), I located all the filth filling her lungs and began to extract it.

I took small amounts, ensuring it didn't reach her mana core so that I wouldn't accidentally awaken her.

Sooner or later, she will awaken because of me removing impurities from her system.

This might lead to her death if sufficient impurities are not present. Every breakthrough releases a vast amount of mana, and it's the impurities that act as shock absorbers, absorbing excess mana while allowing the minimum required amount to flow through.

So, I am thinking of awakening her but after slowly removing the impurities. By the fifth session, I triggered her awakening early. With a lower-ranked core, it is relatively easy to awaken, and awakening at a lower rank provides more benefits.

As I began to awaken her, she started convulsing and crying.

"Brother… It hurts, arghhh," she screamed, causing both Elina and Lith to rush into the bathroom.

Elina was about to rush to us, but Lith stopped her. "Mom, stop, look, she is coughing up black goo."

Lith pointed out, and then Elina calmed down and looked at Tista and me.

Seeing me sweating heavily while trying to help Tista, she stopped herself. She didn't know about healing, but seeing me like this, she probably understood I was at a delicate moment.

After some time, Tista stopped coughing up black goo and then after a moment of rest, she stood up, feeling so much better that she began to jump, exposing her whole body.

"Mom, I am feeling better, I can walk, I can jump… Wahhhhh!" She jumped and then rushed to Elina, beginning to cry out of joy this time.

Elina hugged her back while Lith reached me and helped me with light magic.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

I nodded and then stood up from the black water tub. Cleaning myself, I approached Tista and checked her. "Hmm, her impurities level is now at my level, so it means during her next awakening she won't need anyone's help to survive."

I thought and then told everyone the good news, "Tista is now fully healed."

Hearing me, Raaz's worried face broke into a smile, and tears formed as he picked up Tista and hugged her. Trion also smiled, and Rena hugged Tista too. Orpal, being Orpal, clicked his tongue and left the room.

Lith looked at this interaction and smiled for the first time.

He then told me to come with him.

Coming outside to the woods, he showed me the stone we picked two years ago from the hands of a Ry, a wolf-type magical beast, and said, "This stone can talk."

Hearing him, I raised my brows and said, "Talk? What do you mean talk?"

"Well, I'll show it," he said, and then held the stone in his hand.

"Hello Leon, my name is Solus, although it is not my original name as I have forgotten my true name. I was once a powerful artifact, but now I am a mere shell of it."

Hearing the voice, I nodded, and then my eyes flared up, sensing the killing intent Lith cursed his luck and thought, "Damn it, is he coveting the stone?"

His paranoia took the lead, causing even Solus to doubt Leon too.

"Your name is Solus, right? What makes you think I will buy this bullshit story? What if you have ulterior motives and are only using my brother?" I said while putting my killing intent on it.

"Huh!" Lith and Solus collectively thought.

Their brains stopped working for a moment hearing me.

"Fuck you, because of your paranoia even I doubted your brother, but look at him now. He thinks I am someone using him, solve the misunderstanding," Solus roared in Lith's mind.

Lith nodded and then said to me, "Stop, Leon. She is not someone bad."

"How are you so sure about it?" I asked.

"Well, our minds are linked so we can literally see each other's thoughts, meaning there is no chance of deception," Lith said.

Hearing him, I took back my killing intent and nodded. "I see, well if you put it like that, I will believe you."

Lith nodded and then he asked, pointing to my bracelet, "What about yours?"

He pointed at the core collector bracelet on my hand. As he picked it again, I also lied about how I found it near the stone.

"Well, it can't talk but it can do this," I said as I summoned my Life and Death sword.

Seeing the sword, Lith looked at it with curiosity. "It looks powerful."

"And it is," I said and then I pierced the nearby blinker, a hen equivalent in this world.

Lith watched as the blinker turned to dust.

"This is... dark magic," he said.

In response, I shook my head and told him to come closer. Then I placed my sword in his hand. Lith flinched but seeing no ill intent in my action, he allowed it.

He then began to feel himself brimming with life energy, the excess life energy empowering his body too.

"This is?" he asked.

"This sword can steal life and then bestow it to someone else," I said, causing his mouth to hang wide open.

"This is too powerful. With it, he is essentially immortal," Solus said in astonishment.

Lith nodded as he looked at his fully healed hand.

"Is it necessary to stab to use it?" he asked.

I nodded and then said, "Yes, I have to stab it, only then it works."

"What else can it do?" he asked.

"Well, it's very sharp and sturdy," I said as I cut the nearby boulder like a hot knife through butter.

"It's very good," he said, envy literally oozing out of him.

"I know. What else can your stone do aside from talking?" I said with a smug look on my face.

Seeing my face, Solus snorted and said, "If only I had my full power, that sword wouldn't even stand a chance against me."

Lith showed his stone's worth by storing in and out the cut-out boulder. "It can store stuff, and its capacity is still increasing."

I nodded. "That's a very good ability. It can be used as a moment of surprise," I said, to which he nodded.

While they were lost in thought, unknown to them, someone else was watching their interaction.

"So, it was those artifacts that made them so strong, huh," Orpal thought while hiding behind a tree, and a sinister plan began to brew in his mind.