Of the two newcomers, Safa was the first to step forward. Although some time had passed, Raze was still feeling somewhat exhausted, and he wanted to give his all on the measuring device. That way, he could at least have an idea of how he compared to the others around him.
As Safa walked up, Gren whispered to the twins by his side, “Hey, it’s the disabled girl’s turn. I guess we’re going to see the score of a non-fully functional human.”
The twins giggled as they heard this. The twins themselves hadn’t gotten a bad score on the assessment, hitting around eighteen. It was quite clear that the three of them were the best out of the kids here, and they made their position quite clear.
‘I can’t believe these kids care so much about a simple matter. When they get out into the real world, they will learn that all of this is pointless,’ Raze thought. ‘Who’s the best looking, who’s the strongest, none of that matters apart from trying to put food on the table and a roof over your head.’
Stepping up, Safa prepared herself and gave the nod to Kron when she was ready. She then executed the two-step shift. According to Raze’s eyes, it looked perfect, at least compared to the teacher.
Then, when throwing out the fist, a small spark of her inner energy could be felt coming out of her fist. It slammed into the pillar, and the numbers started to change.
[22]
“Haha!” Kron couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “I knew you were a special one.”
Raze peeked over at Gren, whose mouth looked as if it was ready to fall to the floor. How long had he been at the temple for, how hard had he worked, to eventually achieve a score of 22?
Then, someone who had just joined, with a few simple instructions, was able to get the same score as him. This was what one called true talent.
Safa, pleased with herself, smiled as she went back to join the others in the line-up, and now it was Raze’s turn.
“Come on, Raze!” Simyon shouted at the top of his lungs. “If that’s what your little sister can do, then I expect big things from you.”
‘Come on, really?’ Raze thought, getting into position. ‘Didn’t you see how weak this body was?’
There was something innocent about the way Simyon cheered him on. He was generally a happy guy. For an orphan like him, it was rare.
Ignoring all of that, Raze focused. ‘I rested enough. I want to do this properly, at least once,’ Raze thought.
When he was ready, Raze took his time. He remembered carefully the movements that Kron had made, and then remembered what his sister had just displayed. His legs were moving as he imagined his body like theirs.
The two-step shift was imitated, and throwing out his fist, it hit the pillar straight ahead, absorbing the energy.
‘That was a good hit… he copied the movements exactly like his sister,’ Kron thought as he looked at the number that was starting to appear.
[10]
‘But, his body is incredibly weak, and there was zero force of Qi. Sometimes, I don’t know what to think about him. He is perfect at practicing movements, imitating them well, a talent just as good as his sister, but a body that can’t keep up with him.’
Raze was breathing heavily, as if out of breath. Even though he had only done three movements, two steps and one punch. Focusing while doing such a thing, on top of all the exercise, had worn him out.
‘I guess, an attack that is half the strength of the others isn’t so bad.’
“What the?” Gren whispered to the twins again. “I thought his sister was the disabled one, but it might be this guy. What the heck is wrong with him? Man, if Mr. Kron wastes his time teaching this guy, then he’s just going to waste our time.”
——
The day had come to an end, and Raze felt like he had learned a lot about the world already that could improve his basis for his magic. It was a good start, and he was sure that he would be able to surpass the strength he had in his previous life.
Exhausted, everyone had returned to their rooms for the night, and Raze was in the room with his sister, who was lying on the bed with a smile that couldn’t leave her face.
‘I guess she’s over the moon as well. It’s good to see her smile like that after having lost her parents,’ Raze thought but soon shook his head, wondering what on earth he was thinking.
With a clench of his fist, he struck his own thigh, frustration clouding his features. “This damned body of mine is mixing my emotions,” he muttered bitterly, his mind swirling with confusion. “It reacts every time he sees his damned sister; was he a siscon or something? I wonder how long until these feelings will disappear. Old Raze, you’re dead, stop lingering in this body and let me do what I wish!”
Before going to sleep, Raze settled into the meditating position he had adopted earlier. He commenced the dark essence cultivation technique, trying to absorb the energy that surrounded him, directing it towards his Dark core.
‘This is good, but it’s hard to know my progress,’ Raze mused. ‘There were a number of facilities on Alterian that allowed one to measure their mana capability and dark essence power.’
A sudden realization dawned on him; there was a way to measure his power in this world. Rising to his feet, he headed to the door and turned to his sister.
“Don’t say a word to anyone about me leaving this place,” Raze instructed, then slapped his forehead, remembering she couldn’t speak. “I mean, just keep this a secret, okay?”
Safa nodded, watching Raze leave the room, curiosity flitting across her face as she wondered what he would be doing at this late hour.
Moving stealthily through the building, Raze was grateful everyone else was still asleep. Eventually, the crisp night air greeted him as he stepped outside. Walking across the courtyard, he arrived at the spot where they had trained earlier that day, standing in front of the measuring pillar.
‘This thing… I saw how it worked. It absorbed the energy from the blow, which means…’ Raze lifted his hand, dark aura swirling around it.
‘It should be able to measure the strength of magic as well.’
Pointing his hand towards the target, Raze intoned, “Dark pulse.” Energy shot out like a beam, a small pulse leaving his hand and striking the pillar.
Just like the punches, the energy was absorbed, ensuring there was no sound, and numbers slowly started to appear on the pillar.
‘I can tell, the dark energy is already stronger than it was before due to the cultivation technique. Of course, as time goes on, its effects will lessen, but this is still great.’
[19]
The score finally appeared on the pillar, bringing a smile to Raze’s face. With this score, he was the third strongest in terms of a single hit. Not only that, but Dark pulse was a skill he could use at least five times and from a distance; if he got into a fight with one of the others, he was confident he would win.
Satisfied with the results, Raze resolved to continue using the cultivation technique and test it out on the pillar night after night, observing how much his skill would grow in terms of strength. 𝑂𝐯ℯ𝑙xt.𝗇𝓔t
Before he completely turned away, however, he stopped himself and looked at the pillar once again. Approaching it, he adopted the same stance as he had earlier in the day.
‘The two-step shift… this should work right?’ Raze thought.
As before, he memorized the steps, feeling well-rested, and moved his feet at the right time. Then, as he prepared his punch, he gathered the dark aura around his hand.
“Dark pulse.”
Raze’s fist hit the pillar, and simultaneously, a ripple of dark energy spiraled before being absorbed into the pillar. It felt like a solid hit with more power than before. The numbers began appearing on the pillar.
[35]
‘This…’
Speechless, Raze pondered the implications. Kron’s words suddenly made sense.
‘That two-step shift, Kron said, it could be used to enhance other techniques, right? What if I used the two-step, and then, when throwing out a punch, I used the Dark pulse skill; would it create a larger effect? I have none of this Qi energy… but the skill improved my regular punch, so in theory, it should work, and it seemed like it did.’
At best, he thought the result would be his punch plus Dark pulse, giving him a total score of 29. However, the footwork, added to the magic skill, must have improved the power of the magic attack as well, giving him a total of 35.
‘I was right… mixing martial arts, even if I don’t have Qi, with my magic, it works!’
Raze felt as though he had taken his first step towards becoming a magic fighter. Exhausted, he wanted to try the hit again, but he could feel his body weakening, and the results wouldn’t be as good as before.
That’s when he heard movement coming from the temple. He quickly needed to move away. Swiftly, he moved to the side of the temple entrance. One of the children had gotten up in the middle of the night.
Deciding it was best to head back to his room, Raze pondered his next steps.
——
Early the next morning, Mr. Kron rose before the rest of the children. A dedicated trainer, he had a routine and didn’t need as much sleep as the others.
Upon reaching the courtyard, he headed towards the pillar. There were no numbers on the front of the pillar; they disappeared after some time, but Mr. Kron went to the back of the pillar. Here, the numbers would be recorded, and Mr. Kron was keeping note of who was showing the most improvement.
That’s when his eyebrows raised in surprise.
‘What… When was this recorded… who managed to get such a high score?’