The Punishment Room was one of the most vicious punishments in the training camp.
A place where special magic circles were used to cut off every sense except touch.
Truly, a room in which only darkness existed.
One might think it was nothing much, but it was a terrible place where those with weak mental strength could have their minds collapse within a few days.
Because of that, anyone sentenced to the Punishment Room was put in for at least a day, and as long as 4~5 days.
With only the bare minimum of water and food.
‘If it's that place…….’
What Theron needed now was a space where he could be alone, and time.
‘Considering the training ahead…….’
Not long after learning the mana cultivation method, the real training would begin.
From then on, this kind of child's-play training would be over.
Considering that time.
‘I need to tear this trash of a mana cultivation method apart and fix it…… and raise it to the 1st Star.’
Time was short.
Theron organized his thoughts and looked at the guys who were fighting roughly.
Certainly, this kind of pointless war of attrition had to stop.
All the more so for the sake of what lay ahead.
And for that…….
‘I think I'll need to…… get a firm grip on this place too.’
A space where, thoroughly, the weak were meat and the strong ate.
He needed to take hold of it once, so that things like this would not happen.
His thoughts were in order.
“Falcot!”
Theron shouted loudly and charged at him.
Unfortunately, the gap between his current self and Falcot was greater than he had thought.
Even in a head-on fight, he would not be pushed back, but.
‘Right now, I need to leave a definite impression.’
Just once.
WHOOSH!
The moment Falcot turned around, Theron kicked off the ground and leapt.
THWACK!
A knee, planted precisely into his jaw.
At the perfect attack, Falcot collapsed to the floor without being able to do anything, his eyeballs rolling back.
THUD!
They were of similar age, but Falcot was more than a head taller than Theron.
Not to mention his bulk.
But when such a Falcot went down in a single hit, the training ground fell silent.
“……Theron?”
Perka blinked his startled eyes as he looked at Theron.
But Theron simply looked at the surrounding trainees with cold eyes and said.
“Any other bastards with complaints?”
It was a side of Theron they had never once seen until now.
A Theron who did not seem like an idiot at all.
***
“……Theron?”
As if hearing the name for the first time, Berton looked at the instructor before him with a puzzled expression.
Bengle, the instructor in charge of Section 5, nodded as though bowing and scraping, and said.
“Yes, yes. He is a brat from our section…… a bastard they call Idiot Theron.”
“You are saying Idiot Theron completely smashed six trainees from Section 5?”
As Berton's chilling gaze turned to him, Bengle flinched and rolled his eyes about.
Though the situation had arisen suddenly, what happened in Section 5 was entirely his responsibility.
Moreover, if it was Berton, who had not a speck of mercy…….
“Th, that was something no one could have foreseen. That a brat who could not even let out a squeak until just a few days ago would cause such trouble…….”
“A hidden blade is always sharper than one laid bare.”
Berton closed the book he had been reading and set it down on the desk.
Then he looked at Bengle and said.
“In a little more detail.”
“W, well…… Three of them had some of their limbs broken, and two ended up merely unconscious. But…… there is a brat in Section 5 named Falcot who is quite strong.”
“Falcot? You mean that bear of a bastard.”
Berton was, to some degree, familiar with the fairly notable trainees of each section.
Bengle hurriedly nodded and continued.
“Th, that is right. He is big, so his stamina tends to fall short, but he has the strength of a strongman, so he is a brat well worth keeping an eye on.”
“And?”
“That…… Falcot was knocked out in a single hit, I am told.”
“Knocked out?”
Did it make any sense to knock out a boy who weighed nearly double his own weight?
Moreover, were they not greenhorns who had not even properly learned the mana cultivation method yet?
“It is not exaggerated?”
“Nearly all of the trainees saw it. Their testimonies match as well.”
“……Is that so?”
Occasionally, there were brats like that.
Brats in whom something awakened because of some trigger.
Berton's eyes narrowed.
As if pondering something, he lightly tapped the desk with his index finger.
TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP.
But soon, having finished thinking, Berton said to him.
“Theron, you said?”
“Yes.”
“Lock him in the Punishment Room for a week, and keep a close watch on him afterward.”
“A, a week?!”
Bengle said, startled.
Since one's mind could collapse, it was usually 3~4 days at most…….
“Is a week not too excessive?”
“You said he is an idiot anyway, did you not? It is good to make an example at times like this.”
But Berton's thoughts were different.
‘If…….’
If a week in the Punishment Room could become another trigger for that brat.
‘He will either change completely…… or go mad. It will be one of the two.’
Either way, it made no difference to Berton.
With an indifferent expression, Berton opened the book he had been reading once more.
At the sight, Bengle made a troubled expression, but.
“U, understood.”
He took a step back, bowed his head, and answered.
Because it was very rare for Berton to overturn a decision once he had made it.
And…….
“And so it was decided.
The matter was conveyed to Theron immediately.
Unlike when he stood before Berton, Bengle, a menacing look in his eyes, looked at Theron and said.
“Considering what you have done, you wretch, even breaking your limbs and tossing you to the mountain beasts as food would not be enough, but…….”
Bengle deliberately put on an exaggeratedly angry expression as he spoke.
Because he, too, knew that the punishment was heavier than expected.
“You had better be careful from now on. The same goes for you wretches. If you cause a commotion one more time, I will throw you straight into the Punishment Room.”
Bengle looked at the instructors who had come with him and said.
“Drag this brat away.”
“Yes!”
At Bengle's order, the junior instructors grabbed both of Theron's arms.
At the sight.
“Th, Theron!”
“Theron……!”
“…….”
Renil looked at Theron with the most apologetic expression of all.
Had Theron not ended up like this while helping him?
And the Punishment Room, of all things.
There was no trainee who did not know how terrifying that place was.
It was a place where those with weak mental fortitude would scream to be saved after being locked up for just two days.
“But Instructor, is a week in the Punishment Room not too harsh a punishment? We would rather……!”
Perka rose from his seat and said to Bengle.
The moment Bengle was about to glare at him fiercely.
“Perka.”
Theron called him calmly.
“I'm fine. So no more…….”
Theron shook his head.
Because if he said even one more word here, he could be punished along with him.
Perka knew that as well, so he just lowered his head with a frustrated expression.
“……Sorry, Theron.”
Renil said to Theron, looking as though he was half about to cry.
A week in the Punishment Room because of him…….
However, Theron looked at the instructors with a calm expression and said.
“Let's go, Instructors.”
“……?”
Why was a bastard being dragged to the Punishment Room so calm?
The junior instructors, who had seized Theron's arms and were dragging him along, made puzzled expressions at the sight of him.
But unlike their puzzled expressions, Theron had something completely different in mind.
‘A week in the Punishment Room…….’
It was something he had not expected at all.
Honestly, he had thought it would be four days at most.
And yet, he now had time to be alone.
A whole week, at that.
“Get in.”
When the door of the Punishment Room opened, lacquer-black darkness wavered as though to swallow him whole.
The bare minimum of food and water needed to survive for a week.
Having come into the Punishment Room with only that, Theron sat down.
SHIFT.
‘With a week…….’
It was more than enough time to get rid of every weakness of this Darkfin Mana Cultivation Method and merge a new mana cultivation method into it.
Moreover…….
“The 1st Star…….”
If he could accumulate 1st Star mana with the completed mana cultivation method…….
‘I could go looking for it during the next training.’
The past life.
If only he could find the thing that had brought change to his body back when he was Idiot Theron, and had even removed the Death Sigil.
‘I can get stronger. Even stronger than before…….’
Theron, in his past life.
He recalled the face of Castillo, who had driven him to his death.
And Asbon Zionheart as well.
To kill them, he had to become far stronger than he had been in the past.
And now.
He stood at that starting point.
‘A chance like this won't come twice.’
If he caused the same kind of trouble to get into the Punishment Room, next time it might not be the Punishment Room, but his limbs being cut off.
This golden time.
Theron focused all his nerves on the mana cultivation method.
The Darkfin Mana Cultivation Method taught at the training camp made it possible to accumulate mana quickly, but it had the side effect that the more one learned it, the more the mana circuits became blocked, until in the end, one could no longer use mana.
‘First…… I'll change the formula of the mana cultivation method a little…….’
But this part had to proceed very carefully.
The other instructors aside…….
‘Berton.’
Because evading the sharp eye of the chief instructor in overall charge of Hell Island was not easy.
The moment it was discovered that he was learning a different mana cultivation method, he could immediately be suspected of being a spy.
Theron carefully stripped away the unnecessary parts of the Darkfin Mana Cultivation Method's formula, bit by bit.
And…….
“This is the real deal.”
The mana cultivation method Theron intended to mix in.
The finest mana cultivation method he knew, and at the same time, one with the merit of being able to fuse with anything.
The Tempelst Mana Cultivation Method.
A mana cultivation method whose name meant phantom of the storm.
Its hallmark was that it let one use an enormous amount of mana, like a storm, while leaving no trace, like a phantom.
Of course, the way of learning it was incomparably more complex than that of an ordinary mana cultivation method.
‘……That doesn't apply to me.’
Theron had already climbed to the 7th Star with the Tempelst Mana Cultivation Method.
Operating its formula was as easy as breathing.
“Hsssssssp, hoooooo…….”
He breathed in through his nose, then slowly breathed out over twice that length of time.
‘First of all…….’
The priority was to mix the Tempelst Mana Cultivation Method into the existing Darkfin Mana Cultivation Method and raise its efficiency.
If he fully fused the Tempelst Mana Cultivation Method into it, detecting its characteristics would be impossible.
However, fusing two mana cultivation methods was no easy task, so Theron moved the mana within his body with more focus than ever before.
And…….
SSSSSSS!
The mana that had begun gathering through the formula of the Tempelst Mana Cultivation Method converged toward his lower belly.
But mana of different natures occupying the same space was extremely dangerous.
It was a situation in which, if one side was not cleared away quickly, a collision could occur inside.
‘Slowly…… slowly…….’
And by Theron's will, the mana created by the Tempelst Mana Cultivation Method slowly circled around the mana created by the Darkfin Mana Cultivation Method.
As if trying to probe something.
But soon…….
THU-THUD!
In that instant, a tremendous collision occurred inside Theron's body, violent enough to make it jolt.
Had it exploded, it was a situation in which his body could have burst and he could have died on the spot.
Theron calmly kept control of the two manas.
‘At this level…….’
Because the amount of mana produced by the two methods was quite meager, control was possible.
Had either side been further accumulated, an attempt like this would have been difficult, but.
‘This is the fastest way.’
To finish the fusion within a week and accumulate 1st Star mana, this was the only way.
Theron once again moved the mana of the Tempelst Mana Cultivation Method.
Once again, the two manas tried to collide, but…….
SWOOOOOOSH!
The two energies slowly began to merge into one inside his body.
Tab 6