"Wait a moment!"
Mitchell, who had been bowing repeatedly, stopped at Kayden's attempt to restrain him.
Then he looked at him as if asking why.
"I cannot decide on my own to take you in as my adopted son. As I said earlier, it must go through a Family council."
"Hmm……."
"Besides, do you not have a family of your own? This is not something you can decide by yourself."
"I'm the only one left in my family, though."
"What?"
"Ever since my parents passed away, it's just me."
It was not a lie.
Mitchell had abandoned the Kellion Family name and decided to carry on Wilson, his mother's surname.
And since his mother had said she had no relatives, Mitchell was the sole member of the Wilson Family.
"That is the first I have heard of this……."
"You never asked."
If that was true, then it was not entirely impossible.
Even so, Kayden could not casually give an answer on such an important matter.
He had to verify whether Mitchell's words were true, and it also had to go through a Family council.
"I understand what you are saying. In any case, I cannot give you a definite answer right away…… Right, we agreed you would see the storehouse. Let us do that first. A direct descendant is required to enter the Family's storehouse, so you can go with Grant."
"Yes, understood."
Mitchell did not press the issue.
Whether or not he became an adopted son of the Runei Family was not particularly important.
He had made a promise to Calian, so he had to show that he meant it.
'After I've gone this far, surely he won't refuse to teach me.'
Before long, Mitchell left the office with Grant, while Kayden remained alone and quietly reflected on what had just happened.
'Not bad.'
It was an even more certain method than taking him in as a disciple of the Family or making him a son-in-law who married into the Family.
The problem was how the people of the Family would accept it.
It was something worth considering more deeply.
After staring for a while at the door Mitchell had left through, Kayden called Edrick in.
The moment Edrick opened the door and entered, Kayden got straight to the point.
"Look into Mitchell in detail. According to him, he is the sole survivor of his family."
"Yes, I will verify it."
"Thank you. That aside…… Have you found Barke?"
Barke had been Cain Rapel's right-hand man.
Grant had said he dealt with him, yet by the time everything was over, Barke's corpse had disappeared.
"We found a potion bottle nearby. It seems one of his subordinates treated him and carried him away."
"Hmm. Did you not say the remnants of Rapel disappeared as well?"
"Yes. Barke is the only one who could serve as their rallying point, so he must have gathered them."
"That makes things troublesome."
"But…… would he not leave for somewhere else and establish himself there? Cain Rapel is dead, and now that he has lost his base, he will no longer be able to remain in the north."
Edrick spoke cautiously, but Kayden shook his head.
"This will not end here. He was receiving support from a central noble, so he knows full well that if he simply runs away like this, he is as good as dead."
"I see…… I will find him as quickly as possible."
"Please do. And since Grant was the one who defeated him, he may seek revenge."
"Understood. I will assign guards to the Eldest Young Master as well."
But contrary to their conversation, something quite different was being discussed where Barke was hiding.
"That bastard's name is Mitchell?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Mitchell…… He's the one. Everything ended up like this because of him."
Barke's sights were set on someone entirely different from the person they expected.
***
"Here it is."
Standing in front of the Family's storehouse, Grant placed his palm against the door. A magic formation activated, and the door began to open.
RUMBLE—
Soon, the doors of the storehouse opened wide.
The door alone was as thick as an adult man was tall.
Filled with anticipation, Mitchell kept looking around as he walked forward, but the farther he went, the more visibly his expression darkened.
"Isn't it way too empty for how big it is?"
[It used to be full…….]
Even though Mitchell had muttered as quietly as he could, Grant seemed to hear him and turned around.
Seeing Mitchell's expression and realizing what he was thinking, Grant gave a bitter smile.
"Pretty bare, right? Things have been difficult, so we sold a lot and used a lot too. There are still quite a few useful things left, though, so look around."
Mitchell nodded and walked through the storehouse.
As Grant said, there were some fairly decent things. There were weapons that looked quite good even at a glance, along with various elixirs, including highest-grade potions.
'The problem is that's all there is along this huge wall…….'
Weapon racks stood densely along the enormous wall, but only a little over ten were occupied.
The glass bottles that presumably contained potions and elixirs were just as scarce.
There was room for hundreds if they were lined up side by side, yet only around twenty sat there.
Of those, only three were highest-grade potions.
Seeing that made Mitchell realize all over again just how precious the highest-grade potion Kayden had given him was.
[They truly have gone completely broke.]
Mitchell unconsciously nodded at Calian's words.
Then he noticed quite a large pile of objects farther inside.
"Oh, at least that area is pretty full."
"Ah…… You don't need to bother looking over there."
Mitchell wondered what he meant, but once he went over and looked, he understood why.
Most of the objects were things whose purposes were impossible to tell at a glance, and none looked particularly valuable.
[That is enough. You have seen everything. Go back to where the elixirs are. You only need to take the black bottle.]
There was only one black bottle, so there was nothing to deliberate over.
Mitchell strode over and picked up the black bottle, and Calian lowered his voice.
[The moment we leave, your training will begin, so prepare yourself. It will not be easy.]
"Sounds great!"
"Huh? What did you say?"
"Ah, I said I've picked one."
Grant scratched his head at Mitchell's answer.
What Mitchell was holding right now was poison.
Grant had no idea why their ancestors had put that thing among the elixirs, but it had been stored in an expensive bottle enchanted with preservation magic, so they had simply left it where it was.
"That's poison……."
"What? Poison?"
Mitchell was surprised, but quickly recovered.
Calian would not have gone out of his way to send him into the storehouse just to make him take something useless.
"Are you really sure that's enough?"
"Yeah, it's enough."
"Hmm…… Well, if you say so."
"Let's get out of here!"
Mitchell walked off in high spirits.
He was finally going to learn properly!
He could not wait to see how the things Calian taught would differ from what he already knew.
***
The matter of entering the Family as an adopted son had to go through a Family council, so it was bound to take time.
Thus, instead of returning to Kayden, Mitchell headed straight for the training ground.
That was more urgent to begin with.
But someone got in his way.
"Mitchell, what happened with Heaven-Breaking Annihilation last time?"
"What about it?"
"You used it without any backlash."
"Oh, that?"
Mitchell wondered how to answer, then decided to put it off for later.
New martial arts were waiting right in front of him.
Grant's desperate curiosity did not reach Mitchell at all.
"I just did it right. I got lucky and succeeded."
"Tell me properly. Exactly how did you succeed?"
"I told you, I just did it right. I'll tell you when I'm sure."
"Are you really going to be like this?!"
"Yeah, I am. If you don't leave now, I won't tell you even after I'm sure."
Once Mitchell took a hard line, Grant finally backed down with a whimper.
"Fine. Tell me when you're sure. Oh, and I'll be busy with Family affairs for a while, so I don't think we'll be able to train together."
"Yeah, got it. Now hurry up and go."
"'Hurry up and go'……."
Grant looked dejected, but Mitchell merely waved him off.
Conversation was a luxury at a time this important.
After sending Grant away, Mitchell stood in place with an excited expression.
[As I told you last time, the Sword of Death utilizes souls. Through souls, you can enhance offense, defense, and even your physical abilities.]
"Wow……."
[There are many branches if one divides it further, but for now, let us refine what you can already do. Start by converting souls into dark Aura.]
As instructed, Mitchell began converting souls into dark Aura through his modified Soul Drain.
But only for a moment.
Calian stopped him.
[You said this was a spell you modified yourself, did you not? Hah…… Remarkable. The fundamental principles are all there. And to think it even draws in surrounding souls and converts them into dark Aura.]
"Hehe. I've spent years working on nothing but this."
[But everything else is a mess. This is the entire reason you nearly died last time. Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to indiscriminately accept souls and convert them into dark Aura?]
The criticism was sharp, but Mitchell was not particularly hurt.
He had not even known that the energy he possessed was dark Aura in the first place.
He could learn it properly from now on, one step at a time.
Mitchell listened even more closely to Calian's words.
[Dark Aura is death energy accumulated as Aura. That energy, however, is lethal to living beings. The role of an internal cultivation method is to remove its toxicity so that it can be accumulated safely and steadily.]
But the spell Mitchell had created was a method of accumulating it rapidly.
In other words, he had been taking in the toxicity as it was.
Thanks to his innate affinity with death energy, he had endured it well so far, but Calian said something serious would eventually happen if he continued like this.
The problem was that after Mitchell had undergone a partial Body Reformation last time, the flow of his energy had already changed to suit that method.
There was no longer any way to filter out the toxicity of the death energy.
[Fortunately, as your body changed, your resistance increased just as much. Under ordinary circumstances, you should not suffer a rampage. But if you go beyond even that limit, you will be as good as dead.]
"Then what do I do?"
[Absorb it the same way, but stabilize it as much as possible. I will now teach you Runei's basic internal cultivation method. Try again.]
At those words, as Mitchell began creating dark Aura, a faint energy moved ahead of his own.
It was the same intense energy he had felt when using Heaven-Breaking Annihilation last time.
It was Calian's energy.
That energy began moving along the path of his Aura, and Mitchell moved his dark Aura after it.
It started at the dantian, passed through the perineum and back, then through the philtrum and chest before returning to the dantian.
During that process, Mitchell felt a sense of stability he had never experienced before.
The dark Aura that had always seemed ready to burst out at any moment now remained quietly in his dantian.
'No, it's not just staying still. There's a pull.'
After completing several cycles of circulation, Mitchell's eyes snapped open.
"Master, this uses the same principles as Heaven-Breaking Annihilation, right?"
[You noticed that quickly. Correct. Both are based on absorption. For a while, accumulate dark Aura through circulation alone. That will stabilize the energy stored in your dantian.]
"Thank you, Master!"
[There is no need for thanks. Now, next is Heaven-Breaking Annihilation, but you have already grasped it yourself, so we will move on. Lastly, use the Incarnation Art.]
"The Incarnation Art?"
[……I am telling you to release your energy.]
"Ah."
Only then did Mitchell begin releasing the dark Aura that had been sitting quietly in his dantian.
A monster appeared and wrapped itself around Mitchell's body.
"But does the Incarnation Art always take the same form?"
[No. Its form differs with each user. The form that appears when the Incarnation Art is used is called an Incarnation. Mine was a Grim Reaper wielding a scythe. But yours…… is remarkably hideous.]
No matter how generously one looked at it, Mitchell's Incarnation was a monster.
A monster with souls clamoring to escape from all over its body.
[An Incarnation's abilities are determined to some degree by its form. Yours seems to specialize primarily in spiritual pressure. And it is powerful enough to affect even those at the same realm as you.]
Mitchell was pleased by that.
He had almost been hurt by being called hideous, but he liked the ability itself.
After all, it had already helped him survive several crises.
Feeling that his Aura Hole had already run dry, Mitchell hurriedly released the Incarnation Art.
Then he looked expectantly at Calian.
"So now it's time to learn something new?"
[What nonsense are you talking about? First, thoroughly master what I taught you today. I will give you one week. If you cannot use all of it proficiently by then, I will put you through hellish training.]
"If I finish within a week, you'll teach me new martial arts too, right?"
[Very well.]
Go ahead and try, if you can.
No matter how talented you are, that will be difficult.
Calian thought that at last he would finally have a chance to put this irritating brat through the wringer.