The Duke’s Eldest Son Escaped to the Military (27)

Translator: ChubbyCheeks

9 High-nosed Owl (3)

The owl’s eyes widened in shock when Jaiden’s sword blocked its beak. It quickly pumped mana in its wings as it bounced up and flew up to escape Jaiden’s reach.

Jaiden pumped mana in his legs as he jumped up to strike at the owl. He looked like he was having a lot of fun.

Clang!

―Hoo!

The owl hooted loudly in anger as it deflected Jaiden’s attack. It seemed like allowing Jaiden to parry its attacks had hurt its pride. So it increased its movement speed and attacked Jaiden faster.

But Jaiden had expected the owl to do this.

He quickly straightened his posture and deflected all of the owl’s attacks. But the more he stood firm, the fiercer the owl attacked him.

Jaiden swung his sword like he was in a trance. His stabilized mana started to run wild and overflow. Perhaps it was because he was fighting as if he was in a real battle with the owl so his mana was easily agitated.

Starting from the mana stones, his mana circuit began to get overloaded. The overflowing mana eventually overloaded the mana stones and caused a mana explosion in his body. Jaiden could feel his body heating up and turning red from the sudden influx of mana. However, instead of stopping in his movements, he used that power to fend off the owl’s overbearing attacks.

After successfully blocking dozens to hundreds of attacks, the owl paused for a moment and stared at Jaiden. It seemed like it was asking him if he dared to block his next attack.

The black fog that enshrouded its body started to dye the owl’s beak. After being tainted black, a bluish light twinkled and shone on its tip. Then, the owl dived straight towards Jaiden. It was so fast that it left a black after image that was immediately followed by a loud sonic boom.

The owl’s attack looked like it would be impossible to be blocked or withstood especially if the person at the other end was just at the 2nd Stage. However, Jaiden was smiling brightly.

“This is it.”

Thanks to his mana exploding, mana was temporarily overflowing from his body. With his body in this state, he felt like he could imitate the state that he had achieved in his past life.

Even if he underwent countless procedures and drank hundreds of elixirs to get to the 5th Stage, the jjambap that he had eaten would never leave him. He could still easily recall the state that he was in and reproduce the feeling that he had back then.

After a few seconds, Jaiden was able to successfully reproduce the feeling that he had experienced back in his previous life. Then, the scattered and hazy mana that surrounded his sword started to solidify and emit a bluish light.

Baang!

―Hoo?

“You thought this would be the end? Work a bit more. I already got the feeling.”

He felt like the reason why he couldn’t reproduce the feeling before was because his body lacked mana. But now, he could feel his body burning from the huge amounts of mana coursing violently through his mana circuit so he was able to successfully reproduce the feeling back then.

Then, he guided his mana into both his arms before letting it flow down to his sword.

The owl’s eyes widened even further when he saw what Jaiden was doing. Its beak dropped open to the point that it looked like it would drop.

Jaiden immediately grabbed his sword tightly and followed the posture in the Imperial Basic Swordsmanship. Jaiden grinned up at the owl.

The owl felt provoked when it saw Jaiden’s grin. It immediately increased its speed as it rained down fiercer attacks on him.

It had been a long time since he had grasped this feeling so he took his time in warming up. He even went so far as to use the godly techniques that he had learned before just so he could push his senses to the limits and grab tightly on to that feeling.

The owl flapped its wings hard as it unleashed black mana towards Jaiden. Then, both of its eyes started to shine as it watched its attack cut down whatever was on its path.

Jaiden shuddered when he realized what the owl was trying to do. He had recalled what happened whenever the owl’s eyes started to look like that. Fearing what would happen next, Jaiden immediately braced himself and held his sword more firmly.

Then, the owl’s eyes began to emit a blue light.

Shiiiing!

Two blue lights were fired from the owl’s eyes. Strangely enough, it sounded and looked like the owl had fired a laser gun at him.

Fortunately, Jaiden was able to block the two lights. However, the impact was so strong that his body slammed into a tree a few feet away from his original position.

―Hoot!

The owl flapped its wings and perched on one of the branches of the tree where Jaiden was currently embedded. It hooted and told Jaiden that they should stop for the day.

Jaiden looked a bit disappointed when he heard the owl’s words but when he saw his red body, he realized that he couldn’t strain his body any further. All he could do was sigh and nod in agreement.

―Tweet! Tweet, tweet, tweet!

“Keuk!”

Before Jaiden knew it, Baepsae was already perched on his head and pecking him harshly.

The small bird was scolding him saying that what he did was too much. The owl watched to the side as Baepsae kept on scolding Jaiden for overdoing things before hooting happily mocking him for being stupid.

It’s not like you’ll get better if you push yourself too hard. This is retribution. It’s because you’re a fool. Hmph. Telling me to pay for my meals and lose weight.

Jaiden smiled bitterly when both of the divine beasts around him kept on chattering. One was teasing him for being stupid while the other one was severely scolding him.

All he could do was sigh while he stabilized his rampant mana.

His mana would continue to explode as long as there were mana stones embedded in his body. The mana in his body would need constant stabilization until all of the mana stones had melted completely.

“Uhmm…”

Jaiden groaned lightly from the pain caused by the mana explosion. He slowly leaned against the tree and rested until his mana slowly settled down.

“It already melted a bit.”

Jaiden looked at one of the small pieces of mana stone embedded on his arm. He could see that part of the mana stone, a lump of refined mana, had already melted and seeped through his body after the fierce rotation of his burning red mana earlier.

Usually, the embedded mana stones would be removed at a later date or be left until it cracked. Once removed, they would be crushed before letting the person absorb them. This process was extremely painful and one needed to undergo this a lot of times. It was so painful that the people who failed to endure the entire process often ended up dead.

However, there was another way to absorb the mana stones completely without doing something so dangerously painful. Although it was painful, it wasn’t to the point that they would die.

One could intentionally explode their mana and overload their circuit, just like what Jaiden did earlier. The mana stones would then melt bit by bit under the intense heat of their overloaded mana circuit and get absorbed by the body. In other words, crazy. This was a crazy method. Aside from the terrible pain brought about by the mana explosion, they still had to worry about stabilizing their overflowing mana.

However, Jaiden was doing this crazy method right now.

This was a method that would be discovered by a madman, ten years into the future. It was a method that would be known for increasing the mana absorption efficiency by ten times. However, it was literally a crazy method that not just anyone could do. In all those years, there was only one man who succeeded in completing this method.

‘A crazy bastard did something reckless!’ might cross one’s mind upon seeing this method but if the madman that discovered it and successfully used it was later known as Bloody Berserker and climbed the ranks of Masters, then it would be a different story.

Jaiden had seen the great possibility in this method so he tried the madman’s technique.

He was not a dunce, but a talentless fool who could almost be considered trash. However, his will was strong and he wanted to reach the ranks of Masters with his measly talents. So he explored and followed this method.

Even learning all those skills and techniques back then was also because he was influenced by the madman.

“Hoo… I feel like I’m going to die.”

He had experienced this kind of pain countless times in his previous life so he was already used to it. But since it was his first time experiencing it in this life, it felt like he was about to die from the pain.

Baepsae had also been helping him recover and heal but the pain was coursing through his entire body so he couldn’t escape the pain at all. Jaiden returned to the dormitory in that state and fell asleep after collapsing on his bed. He had no energy to even wash his body up so he just stretched his body out on his bed.

Perhaps it was because he overworked his body that he fell ill for nearly three days. After all, he fought fiercely against the owl while he was still suffering from the after-effects of the procedure so he was bound to get ill.

However, as soon as his body recovered, Jaiden repeatedly fought a fierce battle against the owl. His mana circuit would also continuously heat up and get overloaded during those fights.

The students in the area looked at Jaiden as if he was crazy.

Number 3 was also looking at him as if he couldn’t understand him. In fact, he truly couldn’t understand why Jaiden was crazily putting his life on the line just to become stronger. They were already getting stronger quickly since they were staying in this dangerous place but Jaiden still continued with his crazy training. He continued to walk on the tightrope of life and risked his all to get stronger as if he was unaware of the word satisfaction.

Meanwhile, number 2 was feeling alarmed. When the other students called Jaiden crazy for training like that, number 2 thought that she was probably living too comfortably. Even Jaiden, someone who was much stronger than her, was training desperately. She wondered if it was truly alright for her to live like this just because she could become strong in a short period of time.

So from that day onwards, number 2, who had been training fiercely, also started to train like it was a real battle. She even went as far as to ask the knight to fight her as if it was a real battle. Even though her sword was already fast enough, it began to accelerate even further. And as if to reward her firm resolution, number 2’s sword also began to have a swarm of lights after months of hard work.

“Monsters…”

Number 3 clenched his teeth as he stared at the two monsters who broke the wall of the 3rd Stage. He had also endured the pain of his mana circuit being stimulated and trained like crazy for months. But after number 1 trained like crazy to the point that he would risk his life, number 2 got stimulated and went crazy too. In the end, she was able to overcome the barriers and created a similar situation to number 1.

Number 3 finally felt a deep sense of crisis. He had always lived believing that he was a genius. And the same was true here. He only came here to prove his talent as a genius and he thought that he had already proven that to some extent. But after seeing these two monsters, for the first time in his life, he felt like his arrogance was completely crushed.

Back then, when he lost to number 1, he thought that he was still standing firmly on the realm of geniuses. After all, he was the only one who was able to compete with a monster like that. But after watching those two monsters train like that for months, the last handful of pride and self-esteem that he tried so hard to protect had easily been crushed and destroyed.

Even if number 3 stood above the masses, he was also no different from the other students. After realizing that he couldn’t go after those two monsters who willingly risked their lives to train, he stopped and just trained like crazy on his own. At the very least, if he did something like this, then he would not be left behind even if it was just for the title of motivation.

The other children also felt a sense of crisis when the children who took the second procedure used their desperation as their weapon and followed those at the top closely. It seemed like they would be left behind if they did not train too. So they also began to train like crazy once more.

“It’s finally over.”

On a chilly autumn day, all of the mana stones that had been embedded on Jaiden’s body had finally disappeared and melted into his body.

Jaiden stared at the owl in satisfaction. The time that it took for him to finish this had shortened greatly thanks to the help of the owl beside him.

“You’re not hurt anymore… and you’re in good physical condition.”

The owl flew in disapproval when it saw Jaiden looking at it with a smile.

Realizing the owl’s meaning, Jaiden quickly grasped the sword with both of his hands and prepared for a fight.

When he reached the 3rd Stage, Jaiden wondered where his jjambap would take him. He had used his past experiences to easily master the intermediate level of the Imperial Basic Swordsmanship. So he wondered how far he could go.

In fact, he was currently training on the final installment of the Imperial Basic Swordsmanship. Once he successfully learnt that, he was sure that he would become infinitely close to the 4th Stage.

There was a stage before the 4th Stage where one needed to apply their mana in their various skills. It was in fact much more complicated compared to just simply infusing one’s mana in their weapons. In this stage, they would need to connect the flow of their mana from their body to their weapon.

However, thanks to the countless experiences that he had received in his past life, Jaiden was able to reach this stage earlier. The problem was that it was only him and the owl who knew the current state and stage of his body.

‘My target is the Steel Mercenary.’

This thought flashed in Jaiden’s head as he lifted his sword solemnly.

The Steel Mercenary, who gave him a piece of advice in his previous life, had a sword that would not break in front of anything.

There were a lot of sword techniques in this world. There was a crazy sword that broke through the limits. An all-encompassing sword that could take on any form. A storm sword that had powerful rotational and destructive force. A beast blade that was savage and wild. And even a sword of destruction that could destroy everything in its path. Each of the high-leveled swordsmanship that existed in this world had their own unique characteristics. They also have their own complications and difficulties.

But imprinting their complex and difficult moves was too much for this body’s dull talent. So he decided that he would simply compress all of his mana into his sword and turn it into a sword that could not be broken. This was what Jaiden was aiming for and it seemed like he was already on the verge of achieving it.

In fact, Jaiden was actually going to test some of his sword movements against the owl today.

―Hoot!

However, for some reason, the owl felt several times more dangerous than usual. So Jaiden was a bit tense as he swung his sword with all his might.

When their attacks collided, he couldn’t help but be shocked at the shocking impact that reverberated through his body. Just parrying one attack made his wrist ache and his body tremble.

Receiving the attacks with all his strength, Jaiden instinctively felt that the owl was testing him. Realizing this, he raised his mana to the limit with the determination to endure all of the attacks that the owl would lay on him.

And just like that, the two of them fought like they were in a real battle for more than two hours.

Despite the owl’s overbearing and ferocious attacks, Jaiden still stood tall. He continued to stand and defend even if his body was bleeding all over. He was even able to aim his sword at the owl for another attack. He fiercely resisted the owl’s overwhelming power. His eyes were burning with determination, as if he was telling the owl that this was his one and only talent.

The owl finally nodded its head softly after seeing his look.

“Ah…”

Jaiden exclaimed when he heard the mechanical sound.

As if prompted by the notifications, the owl flew forward. It patted Jaiden’s head as if saying that he worked hard before disappearing into the black hole that appeared beside Jaiden. Baepsae, who was perched nearby, also flew into the black hole.

―Tweet!

Baepsae chirped. It seemed like it was telling Jaiden that it would see him later.

Jaiden’s tired body sank on the ground after the black hole shrunk and disappeared from his sight.