A day passed.
As scheduled, the instructors gathered the trainees of each section and tested their memorization of the mana cultivation method.
Of course, the ones who had memorized all of it were extremely few.
“You damned bastards! Are you planning to smear ink across my face again?!”
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
“S, spare me! I was wrong! AAAAARGH!”
Under the thrashing of an instructor whose hands knew no mercy, the trainees curled up and screamed.
Bengle, the instructor in charge of Section 5.
Of the ten sections into which this place was divided, Section 5 always hovered near the very bottom.
Of course, there were a few with outstanding marks, Perka among them, but the overall level was lower than that of the trainees in the other sections.
Bengle raised the blood-stained iron pipe and pointed at the next trainee.
“You. Recite it.”
“Th, th, th, th, that's…….”
“You son of a bitch…… Get down on the floor too……!”
WHAM-WHAM-WHAM-WHAM-WHAM! WHAM-WHAM-WHAM! WHAM-WHAM!
Eventually, Bengle threw the iron pipe aside and began stomping on him with feet clad in hard military boots.
But none of the trainees could do anything, such as stopping him.
Most of the fifty trainees took a thrashing from Bengle.
Of course, amid it all, the ones who had memorized a fair amount were beaten a little less, but that did not mean the intensity was low.
“Hoo…… Are you the last one?”
Before long, Bengle stood in front of Theron, the last one remaining.
But upon seeing Theron's face, Bengle spat sharply into his palm and picked up the iron pipe.
“Idiot Theron? You bastard. You did not memorize it anyway, did you? Just get dow…….”
He had never once seen this moron of a bastard do a single thing properly.
As though there was no need to even ask, Bengle pointed at the floor with the iron pipe as he spoke.
But…….
“I memorized all of it.”
“……What?”
Before he could even finish speaking, Theron answered with a calm expression.
At that answer, Bengle's eyes wavered slightly.
The kids who had been sprawled on the floor also raised their heads to look at Theron.
Every one of their gazes was full of surprise.
But Theron firmly lifted his head and slowly began to recite the formula of the mana cultivation method.
“The core of this Darkfin Mana Cultivation Method is to absorb the mana of the atmosphere and condense it in the dantian. After being dropped from the dantian to the perineum, it is drawn up along the mana circuit of the spine to the First Meridian, passes through both shoulders, and is spread throughout the entire body by way of the Heart Meridian.”
At Theron's words, which flowed out without a single hitch, Bengle's eyes wavered slightly.
Because the boy did not seem to be simply reciting the mana cultivation method, but rather to fully understand its meaning and practice it.
“And it is important to then gather the mana spread in that way into the fingertips again and refine it. If the flow of mana is unstable, it is readjusted at the fingertips and then moved again. And…….”
“Enough. That is sufficient.”
Bengle cut Theron off.
His words, flowing out without the slightest hitch, were so perfect there was no need to hear any more.
Bengle turned his head and thought.
‘A brat who was hopeless until just a few days ago…….’
Had he come to his senses from taking too many beatings?
Soon, tilting his head, he looked at the trainees.
“I will give you one more day. Any bastards who cannot memorize it properly by then had better brace themselves. And…….”
Bengle's eyes glared fiercely at the trainees like those of a beast of prey.
“The upcoming midterm test. If you finish dead last again this time…… I will make certain to kill a few of you wretches myself.”
At Bengle's threat, the color drained from the trainees' faces until they turned white.
It could not be helped, for how many had they seen die from the instructors' thrashings?
In an instant, fear settled onto the shoulders of the Section 5 trainees.
Except for just one.
STEP, STEP.
Returning to the room, Theron sat down.
That moment.
“Hey, hey!”
“What's with you? Did you really memorize that whole book?”
Perka asked. At that, Renil, who was behind him, made a fuss and said.
“F*ck! Does this make any sense? Idiot Theron's the only one who memorized all of it?”
“Perka memorized almost all of it too. And Jiaron next door memorized all of it. You're the only one in this room who couldn't memorize a single thing.”
Tioren said, looking at Renil.
At that, Renil's face twisted sharply.
“F*ck, it's not that I couldn't memorize it. I just got nervous back there and my head went all white!”
“If you couldn't say it in front of the instructor anyway, it's the same as not memorizing it.”
“You bastard!”
Renil scrunched up his face as though he would lunge at Tioren any second.
But Perka stopped the two of them.
“Both of you, quiet down. More importantly, Theron. Did you really memorize all of it?”
At Perka's somewhat serious gaze, memories of the past flashed before Theron's eyes for a moment.
To these guys…….
‘I do owe them, after all.’
The past life.
Had they not clashed quite a lot with trainees from other sections while helping him, just because they were his roommates?
Perka in particular had been injured because of it and died in the middle of training.
Even so, he had never spat out a single word blaming Theron.
And…….
‘The other two…… were the same.’
They had very rough personalities, but after living here for a few years, no one could stay normal.
Part of him felt that these guys, who had not given up on being human even in such an environment, were remarkable.
Recalling old memories, Theron burst out in a chuckle before he knew it.
At the sight, Renil frowned.
“You grinning, son of a bitch?”
Renil's anger turned toward Theron.
Himself, who had been beaten half to death without managing a single word, and Theron, who had passed perfectly.
The momentary sense of inferiority that came from the gap between the two had burst out as anger.
But just then.
“Whatever. Sit down. I'll help you.”
“What?”
“Memorizing blindly will ruin even what could work. I said sit down, I'll help you.”
At Theron's words, Renil, caught awkwardly halfway, looked at Perka and Tioren.
The two of them nodded.
“Do I sit like this?”
“Just sit however's comfortable.”
“Ugh!”
Having taken a fairly severe thrashing, Renil grimaced, apparently in great pain just from putting his backside down on the floor.
But Theron, as though it did not matter, got up and said.
“Feeling mana comes first, before anything. Then, if you move the mana the way the formula in this book says, you'll pick it up naturally without having to memorize it separately.”
“……You're saying you've already felt mana?”
“Idiot Theron did?”
Renil called him an idiot every time he spoke to him, but his eyes were trembling badly.
Because he had never even imagined that Theron might already have felt mana.
But at Renil's words, Theron said.
“Should I not help you, then?”
“N, no! No!”
“……Renil, I think you'd better keep your mouth shut from now on.”
Tioren, beside him, looked at Renil with chilly eyes.
At that, Renil shut his mouth tight and looked at Theron.
With desperate eyes.
Because if he got beaten like this again tomorrow, it felt like something would definitely break somewhere.
Perka said to Theron.
“I'll apologize for what Renil said. If you can help, I'd like you to help.”
“……Fine.”
It was not that he was particularly offended.
He had simply meant to establish a little discipline.
When Theron nodded, the three of them made oddly relieved expressions.
Theron said.
“I'll inject mana into your bodies, so don't think about anything and focus on feeling that sensation. Once you get used to it, you'll be able to feel mana soon enough.”
“Got it.”
“Understood.”
“Okay.”
At the three's answers, Theron first went behind Perka and placed his hand on his back.
“Starting.”
NOD.
Then Theron slowly drew up his mana and injected it into Perka's body.
Since it was mana gathered over a mere single day, the amount was extremely faint.
‘Still…….’
It was enough to let these guys feel the sensation of mana.
Perka flinched in surprise at the warm feeling entering his body, yet focused all his nerves on it.
It was a sensation he felt for the first time in his life, yet it felt strangely familiar.
Something he felt he knew, yet could not easily grasp.
Perka moved all his nerves along with the mana moving inside his body.
And then.
“Keep tracking how the mana moves. Don't try to memorize it with your head. Remember it with your body.”
At Theron's words, Perka felt the path along which the warm energy moved.
First, it dropped straight from his lower belly toward the perineum by his left buttock, then climbed up along the spine and turned toward the shoulders.
Through the movements after that as well, Perka calmly focused his senses.
And one round, two rounds, three rounds.
Theron's mana moved ceaselessly through every nook and cranny of Perka's body.
Had about thirty minutes passed like that?
“Hooo…….”
At Perka's signal, Theron took his hand away and let out a small breath.
Perka was sweating buckets from pouring in so much focus, but.
“……I think I get it.”
Soon, he opened his eyes and looked around.
Because he could feel, however faintly, the enormous amount of mana floating in the air.
At the sight, Theron chuckled.
If this hellish place had just one…… advantage.
‘It's that the mana density is incredibly thick.’
That was why, fucked up as the place was, it was optimized when it came to training at least.
Of course, he still hated this damp smell of mold.
“Next, Renil.”
“O, okay!”
Renil answered as if he had steeled himself.
And after Renil, he injected mana into Tioren in the same way, moving the mana according to the operating formula of the Darkfin Mana Cultivation Method.
In the process, both of them felt mana and were able to fully learn the operating formula.
The only difference, perhaps, was that Renil took three hours.
While Tioren finished in a mere ten minutes?
Tioren slowly opened his eyes, and his wonder at feeling the mana in the air lasted only a moment.
“……Why are you so slow?”
He spat out the words bluntly, looking at Renil beside him.
At that, Renil flared up and shouted.
“Sh, shut up! You're the one who's fast!”
“……Three hours.”
“Shut your mouth!”
At the sight of the two, who looked ready to fight at any moment, Theron stepped in.
“I think you've learned the formula well enough. And there's one important point.”
“……What is it?”
Perka looked at Theron with serious eyes. At that, Theron said.
“From now on, concentrate while thinking only of gathering that mana here, toward the dantian. Two hours every day after you come back from training. You have to train every day without thinking about anything else.”
“Every day?”
“Every day, you said?”
The three's eyes shook greatly.
But Theron nodded without hesitation.
“Yes, every day. Why? Can't do it?”
“……No, I'll do it.”
“Fucking hell…… Fine, I'll just do it, then.”
“I'll do it too.”
Perka, Renil, and Tioren nodded as they answered.
Of course, it might not be easy.
Even just the training they received here was so intense it went beyond imagination.
‘If they do more mana cultivation after training ends here…… not just their stamina but even their mental strength will be shaken.’
But if they pulled it off, they could advance faster than any of the others here.
And…….
‘To get out of this place…… they need to be able to pull off at least this much.’
Of course, before that, he intended to take everything he needed.
The past life.
He had not known it while he was here, but he had come to learn that this Hell Island was more of a treasure trove than he had ever imagined.
Then Theron got up from his seat.
“Then train without resting. That's the only way to survive.”
“……By the way, did you hurt your head or something?”
Perka asked Theron.
So much had changed about Theron, far too much.
How could a person change this much overnight?
Tioren, who had been thinking the same thing, asked.
“You didn't get hit in the head wrong, did you?”
But at their questions, Theron merely shrugged.
“Who knows.”
It might be quicker to just let them think he had hurt his head.
Soon, Theron moved to a corner, closed his eyes, and slowly began practicing the mana cultivation method.
From here on, the plan…….
Theron's gaze calmly settled, and a meticulous plan began to fill his mind, dense as a spider's web.
Tab 4