CRUNCH... CRACK!
The mouth that had emerged from the Mark chewed up the High-Grade Elixir. Quite literally, the bottle shattered inside its mouth. Even the light trying to spill out from the Elixir became entangled in the Darkness and was gradually consumed.
“What the...?”
Wirn frowned as he watched the phenomenon. He even wondered whether he was seeing things.
‘I can smell it.’
But he wasn’t.
The scent of the High-Grade Elixir stung Wirn’s nose. Thanks to that, he realized this was reality.
THUMP!
“Urgh!”
At that moment, tremendous pain erupted from Wirn’s heart.
THUD!
His body convulsed.
All the strength drained completely from both his legs.
Eventually, Wirn’s body collapsed against the cold floor.
‘The power...!’
The Mark had devoured the High-Grade Elixir.
An enormous amount of energy radiated from it. More precisely, the power of the Elixir it had consumed was seeping into his heart.
‘This is on a completely different level from last time!’
Who could possibly have predicted this?
That the Mark would form a mouth and devour the Elixir.
And that it would even try to make that power ‘its own.’
Wirn could say with certainty that no one on the continent could have foreseen this.
That was how completely the situation before him defied everything he knew.
“Phew....”
Yet Wirn didn’t panic.
‘The Elixir’s energy has definitely become purer.’
Instead, he calmly assessed what the Mark had done.
‘And its power has been amplified too... Did the Mark deliberately strengthen the energy?’
Because of the Mark’s devouring, the Elixir’s energy and the properties contained within it had been strengthened.
But nothing else had changed.
‘I’ll make it mine.’
He would make the power devoured by the Mark his own.
Wirn’s goal had now shifted in that direction.
After all, the bastard had swallowed the Elixir in his place.
‘I have to control it.’
There was no way he could tolerate handing power over to some unidentified Mark.
He needed to use this opportunity to create a foundation that would allow him to advance further.
‘You think resisting me means you can take control?’
Right now, he was merely a nobody with a single Circle.
But in his previous life, Wirn had reached the Fifth Circle, a realm said to belong only to geniuses.
That experience was something no amount of gold could buy.
‘Open.’
Despite the Mark’s sudden behavior, Wirn didn’t shrink back in the slightest.
Instead, he boldly chanted a spell.
―Humm....
As Wirn recited the incantation, Darkness poured from his body.
Ssssh....
The Darkness spread in every direction until it seeped into the ceiling.
‘Gather.’
Wirn gave it an order.
Rustle!
The Darkness that had stretched throughout the room rapidly converged toward Wirn’s heart.
From the backs of his hands to his chest.
Every vein visible beneath his skin, from the smallest to the largest, turned the same color as the Darkness.
The sight of Darkness consuming his blood vessels resembled a wild beast charging at prey it had just discovered.
―HUMM!
At that moment, the Mark roared at Wirn.
A desire to devour Wirn’s heart right then and there.
The bastard revealed that emotion to him.
Grin.
Realizing it, the corners of Wirn’s lips rose high.
‘I won.’
He became certain that he would emerge victorious from this struggle.
Because he had sensed fear from the Mark.
Fear would only continue to grow, and the Darkness would feed on that emotion and become even stronger.
It was proof that the bastard could never match Wirn in a battle of wits.
―Humm....
After realizing that, Wirn rotated his Circle.
‘Devour it!’
And the moment he ordered the energy he had created to devour everything—
...CRACK!
The bones in Wirn’s legs twisted.
“Ghhhk!”
Blood dripped from Wirn’s mouth.
The shock caused by devouring the Mark’s energy slammed into his internal organs.
CRACK!
The sound of bones twisting echoed through Wirn’s room.
This time, it was both his arms.
His arms bent at ninety-degree angles, resembling toys that a child had handled too roughly.
Wirn could say with certainty that if the maid outside had seen him like this, she would have screamed.
“Hoo!”
But Wirn wasn’t afraid.
Instead, he smiled as he looked at his mangled arms.
This was actually better.
He knew that the greater the pain and the more drastically his form changed, the greater his growth would be.
‘...Change! Every last bit of it!’
So he ordered the thing inside his body to alter the shape of every remaining bone as well.
―HUUUMM!
At that moment, it responded powerfully to Wirn, as though acknowledging his command.
...Crk.
A brief silence followed.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
“Ghh...hk!”
A soundless scream burst from Wirn’s mouth.
GRIND!
Wirn clenched his jaw so tightly that his teeth ground against each other.
He couldn’t make a sound here.
If someone disturbed him at this very moment, everything would come to nothing.
No.
He would end up in an even worse state than if he had never attempted this at all.
“Ghhhk!”
So Wirn gritted his teeth and lowered his head.
At the same time, he watched the bones shifting throughout his body and raised the corners of his lips.
He was growing stronger faster than he had in his previous life.
That fact allowed Wirn to endure the horrific pain coursing through him.
“...Phew.”
A long time passed.
Before he knew it, night had ended and morning had arrived.
Rustle.
Wirn opened his eyes to the warm sunlight streaming through the window.
Then he unfolded his crossed legs, which he had kept in position all this time.
“...I’d better come up with an excuse.”
He looked around and clicked his tongue.
The room had been reduced to a complete wreck.
Not only had the bed been smashed apart, but impurities expelled from Wirn’s body had dried and hardened against the walls.
‘And it smells like hell.’
The nose-stinging stench filled the entire room as well.
Wirn was certain Kemen would give him an earful.
‘Still.’
Wirn didn’t regret what he had done.
A slightly ruined room was a small price to pay for what he had gained.
Tap!
After finishing his inspection of the room, Wirn rose from the floor.
He then walked toward the full-length mirror in the corner.
“Hmm.”
The reflection staring back at him was quite astonishing.
Only a few hours ago, his body had been so unimpressive that no one would have found it strange if some half-baked thug picked a fight with him on the street.
‘Not bad.’
But now, he had a physique that was difficult to believe belonged to a twelve-year-old.
Muscle had developed across his entire body, and even his height had increased.
In other words, Wirn now possessed a physique that normally couldn’t be achieved until at least the age of thirteen.
―HUMM!
On top of that, the pathways of the Circle inside his body had widened.
The amount of Mana flowing in and out was incomparable to before.
‘...A High-Grade Elixir shouldn’t have this much of an effect.’
That left Wirn bewildered.
No matter how excellent an Elixir was or how much of it someone drank, affecting a Circle directly was difficult.
If such a thing were possible, the Daylin Family would have had people dedicated solely to manufacturing Elixirs.
‘It must be because of that bastard.’
The Mark on the back of Wirn’s hand.
By devouring the Elixir, it had multiplied the benefits several times over.
‘Either way, I gained from it.’
The process left a slightly unpleasant aftertaste... but the result was undeniably positive.
Now that the pathways of his Circle had widened, he could cast magic much faster than before.
‘And if I add the remaining ingredient....’
As Wirn felt the magnitude of the change, the corners of his lips rose unconsciously.
‘This is going to get interesting.’
Because he knew perfectly well that this wasn’t the end.
There was one ingredient left.
The moment Wirn obtained it, he was certain he would be able to raise his realm once again.
‘They said the Hunting Ceremony is coming up.’
Until now, Wirn had been wondering where he should obtain that ingredient.
But there was no longer any need to worry.
Began’s mother had given Wirn an interesting piece of information.
“Right... the Hunting Ceremony.”
The Hunting Ceremony was one of the annual events held by the family.
Kemen had told him that only the successors from the main family and collateral branches were permitted to attend.
‘A place where they’re given the chance to demonstrate their strength through hunting.’
Many of the successors knew about the Hunting Ceremony.
But not all of them participated.
The Hunting Ceremony was a stage intended for the latecomers among the successors.
‘I’m still too young, though....’
Even the Hunting Ceremony was far too early for Wirn.
Most of its participants were around Began’s age.
That meant the fair course would be for Wirn to participate in the Hunting Ceremony held two years from now.
‘There’s no reason for me to care about something like that.’
But Wirn thought differently.
If anything, he was certain that in terms of fairness, the others were the ones at a disadvantage.
Unlike them, Wirn possessed all the power, knowledge, and experience of his previous life.
‘So I’m participating.’
Clench!
The moment Wirn reached his conclusion, he clenched his fist with all his strength.
Then, feeling the energy of the High-Grade Elixir flowing from his hand, he smiled brightly.
‘And....’
Still, he couldn’t simply celebrate.
He had realized how the thing on the back of his hand regarded him.
‘What if I hadn’t managed to control the energy?’
The bastard had tried to use the energy it devoured to consume Wirn.
Remembering that fact, Wirn frowned.
‘Today ended with my victory, but....’
Thanks to the Mark’s devouring, he had achieved greater results than expected.
However, there was no guarantee he would always be able to control it in the future.
That was why Wirn decided he needed to learn more about the Mark on the back of his hand.
‘I’ve got more things to do now.’
From the Hunting Ceremony to his revenge.
Wirn realized that quite a few trials had been placed before him.
But he had no complaints.
‘I’ll make every last one of them mine.’
After all, every one of them would become an opportunity for him.
***
One week.
That was how long it had been since Began challenged Wirn to a spar in the garden and was utterly crushed.
―Humm....
That incident had changed Began.
Whether it was a good change or a bad one, it was undoubtedly positive.
‘Wirn!’
Began still couldn’t forget what had happened that day.
His youngest brother, two years younger than him, had toyed with him as though mocking him.
Began was deeply ashamed that he had tried to use magic against someone like that.
‘I’m definitely going to beat him.’
At first, he had simply been embarrassed.
But as time passed, Began’s thoughts changed.
There would still be plenty of chances to repay this humiliation.
No.
More precisely, he wanted to prove something to Wirn.
That he could defeat him even without using magic.
So, aside from the time he spent eating, Began locked himself inside his private training ground and stubbornly devoted himself to practicing magic.
‘Wirn!’
Thinking back to that day, Began activated his magic.
A violent wind gathered behind him.
CRUNCH!
The training dummy in front of him was torn to shreds by the wind.
The mages watching from a distance let out quiet exclamations of admiration.
They hadn’t expected him to shred that dummy using nothing but wind.
That only strengthened their belief that the successors of the Daylin Family were simply born different.
“Phew....”
But Began didn’t think so.
He didn’t consider himself exceptional.
After all, he still hadn’t defeated Wirn, the one who had handed him that humiliating defeat in their spar.
‘That bastard will definitely show up at the Hunting Ceremony.’
A small event would soon be held by the Daylin Family.
It was a hunting event where participants hunted monsters in the forest.
‘The Family Head won’t be coming, though....’
Three years had already passed since Ganderf left.
There had still been no word that he was returning to the family, so he probably wouldn’t appear at this Hunting Ceremony.
‘It’ll still be enough to establish my position.’
Even so, if Began distinguished himself at the Hunting Ceremony, word of it would eventually reach the Family Head.
That was why Began absolutely had to participate.
‘Mother wants that too.’
Henesan.
Began’s mother.
She also wanted Began to distinguish himself at the Hunting Ceremony.
‘This is my chance to make up for what happened.’
That was important to Began.
If he stood out at this Hunting Ceremony, he might be able to cover up the blunder he had made with Wirn.
‘He’s definitely coming.’
What if Wirn didn’t attend?
Began had considered that possibility at first.
But the moment he remembered the last thing Wirn had said to him, he became certain.
‘That bastard even cleaned out what little secret money I had.’
There was no way the greed-filled Wirn would let an opportunity as good as the Hunting Ceremony pass him by.
‘I need to focus even more on training.’
Realizing that, Began bit his lip.
Then he stretched his right hand toward a newly prepared training dummy.
―WHOOSH!
A violent wind swept across the training ground.
The training dummies lying on the ground were lifted into the air before finally breaking apart and disappearing in midair.
“Wirn... this time will be different.”
Began stared at the powdered remains of the dummies and steeled his resolve.
.
.
.
About another week passed.
It was the night before the Hunting Ceremony.
“I oppose your participation in the Hunting Ceremony, Young Master.”
Kemen came to Wirn’s room.