The energy he moved with his own will was incredibly beautiful and captivating.
When he was young—before the Mana Rampage—Mitchell had thought dark mana looked full of life whenever he watched it move as he cast magic.
But the movement that began at his Aura Hole, circulated throughout his entire body, and returned to its original place was far more dynamic and violent.
So much so that all the desperate struggling he had done to repair his Mana Circuits until now seemed pointless.
Mitchell set the bed back down, returned to the desk, and began speed-reading again from the beginning.
A considerable portion of the book dealt with theory and basic concepts.
Once he quickly skipped past those sections, he reached the basic methods of manipulating Aura.
‘You can infuse the Aura accumulated through circulation and breathing into anything—muscles, skin, bones, even objects?’
Mitchell turned the page and checked the contents.
Then he began moving the energy in his Aura Hole according to the instructions.
Perhaps because he had already done it once, infusing energy into his muscles came easily.
He infused it into his legs and tried jumping, then infused it into his waist and supported his body while leaning at an absurd angle.
Positions that would normally have been impossible became possible through the power of his strengthened muscles.
After that, he infused energy into his bones as well.
But he could not feel any particular change.
He probably would not notice much unless he was struck by a blunt weapon or suffered some powerful impact.
Next came his skin and sensory organs.
Sight, smell, hearing, taste, and even touch.
An entirely new world unfolded before him.
Mitchell followed a single speck of dust floating through the air with his eyes.
After spending quite some time absorbed in the strange phenomenon, he turned the page to read the next section.
“Huh?”
Mitchell frowned in confusion at what was written there.
<Up to this point covers the methods for directly manipulating the body. For those of ordinary talent, it may take a year before they can utilize every part of their body through Aura, while those without talent may never accomplish even this in their entire lives. Furthermore, sending Aura into objects afterward is even more difficult……>
A year?
Mitchell wondered whether he had somehow done it incorrectly and flipped back through the previous pages, but what he had done was no different from what the book described.
Just in case, Mitchell slowly moved the energy through his body again, step by step.
Yet the energy still flowed smoothly through his Aura Roads without the slightest obstruction.
“Maybe it’s because this is a cheap book…… I should buy a proper one if I get the chance later.”
It was a book mass-produced to spread knowledge to as many people as possible.
Mitchell casually said something that would have infuriated the book’s author had they heard it, then hummed to himself as he went to wash up.
***
Late at night, two men were hiding near the inn.
One was covered in a thick beard, while the other was gaunt and skinny.
They were criminals with a fairly notorious reputation in the surrounding area.
After watching the inn for quite some time, the hairy man looked at the skinny one.
“You’re sure he’s in there, right?”
“Yes, Boss. I heard him say with my own ears that he’d be staying for a month.”
“Hehehe. If he owns a mana vehicle, he must be the son of some rich family.”
They intended to kidnap Mitchell.
They could demand a ransom for him, or if that did not work, they could kill him and sell the mana vehicle alone for a large sum.
“Boss, what if he’s a noble?”
“What are you worried about? Nobles these days aren’t what nobles used to be.”
Many things had changed after the war between the Carseon Empire and the Holy Empire some forty years ago.
The entire empire had been engulfed in war, countless nobles had died, and as a result, most of their lands had reverted to the Imperial Family.
After the war ended, the Imperial Family bought up the remaining nobles’ fiefs and carried out sweeping reforms to the system.
Astronomical sums of money had been spent compensating them, but the Imperial Family replenished its depleted funds by selling the land back to the people.
As a result, the social status of nobility still existed, but there were no longer any nobles with fiefs.
The empire had shifted to a centralized system, with officials dispatched by the Imperial Family throughout the empire to govern the people.
Thanks to that, the power of the nobility had weakened considerably.
“And so what if he’s a noble? The moment he came out here alone, he became the same as anyone else. If he was fearless enough to come out by himself, shouldn’t he get a taste of how bitter the world can be?”
The hairy man gave a sinister grin and turned his gaze back toward the inn.
They planned to watch carefully and kidnap their target the moment he came outside.
However…….
A day passed.
Then a week.
Then nearly half a month.
Yet Mitchell did not take a single step outside the inn.
Forget leaving the inn—he rarely even left his room.
The only time he came out was early in the morning.
And all he did then was physical training.
Even the sight of that was bizarre.
He ran, walked while squatting, did handstands, and completed an enormous amount of training.
Watching him, the skinny man seemed to grow uneasy and looked at the hairy man with trembling eyes.
“Boss, there’s something strange about how he moves. Could he be an expert?”
“He’s no expert. Didn’t you see how he moved on the first day?”
He had been unable to even run properly before collapsing from exhaustion.
Yet seeing him move like this after only half a month, the hairy man figured he was probably using an Artifact.
It was common for rich young masters to make liberal use of Artifacts.
More importantly, there was another reason he was certain Mitchell was not an expert.
“Look at his stride. If he’d ever properly learned martial arts, his stride would be consistent.”
“Ah! You’re right.”
“More importantly, why the hell won’t that bastard come outside?”
“Maybe he’s hiding out just like us?”
That sounded fairly plausible.
If so, everything the boy had been doing made sense.
“Then this’ll be even easier. If we quietly cut him down, nobody will know, right?”
The hairy man stroked his thick beard as his eyes gleamed.
***
For an entire month, Mitchell devoted himself to training.
In the mornings, he performed physical conditioning in the empty lot behind the inn, and during the rest of the day, he swung his sword inside his room.
In the process, he discovered something.
His body was extraordinarily capable.
‘My body itself changed after that incident. Both its growth and its recovery.’
And not by a small amount.
There had been more than one occasion when excessive training caused problems with his bones and ligaments, only for him to be perfectly fine again the next day.
Moreover, something he found after reading through the books several more times turned his suspicion into certainty.
Thus, one could say that talent in swordsmanship ultimately comes down to relentless training.>
The Aura Hole and Aura Roads inside Mitchell’s body were as tough as whale sinew.
Considering that, it was perfectly understandable that his body had become like this.
Mitchell clenched his fist and stared with fascination at his forearm, which had grown incomparably thicker than it had been a month earlier.
Watching his body change brought a smile to his face without him even realizing it.
After examining his changed body for a moment, Mitchell stood again and picked up his sword.
Recently, he had been thinking about how best to make use of his abilities.
‘At my current level, I’m about a 2nd-rank Aura User, right?’
By forcibly opening his Aura Hole and Aura Roads, he had begun one step ahead of everyone else.
If he added his ability to convert souls into energy, he felt he could create a useful technique.
That was what he was about to attempt now.
SKREEEEEE-
As he broke down a soul, its scream rang out while his Aura Hole began filling with energy.
Mitchell immediately released that energy outside his body.
Releasing energy from the body was normally something only a 4th-rank Aura User could do, but Mitchell overcame that limitation by breaking down souls to supply the necessary energy.
Of course, an enormous amount of energy poured out of his Aura Hole in the process.
HMMMM-
A moment later, Mitchell felt as though something had been layered over his body.
It resembled the shape of a living monster made from souls.
Mitchell, who had been looking in the mirror, sucked in a startled breath.
The moment his concentration broke, the monster’s form vanished.
‘What was that……?’
It felt as though he had summoned something completely unexpected.
And it was not simply a form made of Aura.
Mitchell had clearly sensed another will within the monster.
He had seen something similar back at the family estate.
There had been an elder in the family skilled in summoning arts, and the spiritual entity that elder had once summoned had given Mitchell a sensation similar to the monster just now.
‘What is this……? The book never said anything like this would happen just from releasing energy outside the body…….’
Mitchell sighed as he recalled the contents of the book.
Not a single thing matched what it said.
He wanted to train more properly, but there was clearly a limit to how far he could get training by himself.
‘I should be able to move on now, right?’
To avoid showing himself, Mitchell had remained holed up in the inn and had not taken a single step outside until now.
It was about time to move somewhere farther away.
He intended to settle down properly and devote himself fully to training.
‘Where should I go?’
Mitchell took out the map he had purchased on his first day and looked over it.
The village he was currently staying in lay toward the eastern side of the empire’s western region.
After confirming his location, Mitchell surveyed the surrounding areas and considered where he should go.
‘The east is too far, and there are too many people in the central region.’
The eastern region, with its long coastline stretching endlessly onward, was not only far away but was also said to be suffering from repeated pirate incursions.
Mitchell wanted somewhere he could train in peace, so he preferred to avoid it.
Meanwhile, the central region contained the imperial capital and saw people from all across the empire constantly coming and going.
Worried that he might frequently encounter people from the west, Mitchell ruled out the central region as well.
‘That leaves the south and the north…….’
After considering it for a moment, Mitchell chose the north as his destination.
The northern region was relatively isolated compared to the other regions of the empire.
It was a suitable place for Mitchell to hide himself.
More importantly, was the north not the birthplace of martial clans and martial sects?
He thought he might be able to learn more proper martial arts there.
‘I need to stop by a major city first, so I should head to Ranga.’
After checking the location of Ranga, the central city of the northern region, Mitchell tucked the map inside his clothes.
Then he immediately began packing his belongings.
Now that he had chosen a destination, there was no reason to waste time.
Mitchell soon left the inn and asked the owner to open the storage shed.
“Come again!”
The innkeeper bowed deeply to Mitchell, who had provided him with a tidy profit during his stay.
Leaving the innkeeper’s farewell behind, Mitchell started the mana vehicle and pressed the accelerator.
The mana vehicle sped forward, quickly leaving the inn behind and heading out of the village.
Before long, he reached a fork in the road.
Going straight would lead directly north, while turning would take him onto a rough mountain road.
Mitchell took out his map with one hand, unfolded it, and checked the route.
‘I should take the most secluded road possible, right? Whew…… It’s really far.’
If he simply followed the main road, the trip would take ten days, but taking the long way around looked as though it would take a month.
Still, it could not be helped.
Since he was still in the western region, he had to avoid people as much as possible.
Once he reached the north, he would no longer need to worry about being pursued, so enduring a little hardship now was far better.
Just as Mitchell was about to turn the steering wheel—
CLOP-CLOP- CLOP-CLOP-
The urgent sound of hooves came from behind him.
Mitchell frowned.
Worried they might be pursuers from the family, he quickly started moving, but on the rough road, the mana vehicle could not outrun horses.
Eventually, the two horses overtook Mitchell’s mana vehicle and blocked the road ahead.
“Hey now. You can’t suddenly leave like this without even taking a look around the village. Do you know how long we’ve been waiting?”
Mitchell quickly examined the two men.
Since neither bore the family’s insignia, they did not seem to be pursuers.
Only then did Mitchell relax and get out of the vehicle.
He could not escape men on horseback like this anyway.
Mitchell took the sword from the seat beside him, looked at the two men, and spoke.
“You two tour guides or something?”
“What?”
“You chased me down because I didn’t look around the village.”
“Hehehe. Still got plenty of fight in that mouth, don’t you? Let’s see how long that lasts.”
The two men jumped down from their horses, drew their swords, and began approaching Mitchell.