Chapter 400 - Another One In My Soul
A few days have passed and the twenty Ren was training were able to somehow stay alive. All of them could now manifest Spirit Aura. Still, even with that the training never got easier, in fact, the moment they have shown that they could use Spirit Aura the training became even deadlier.
If it weren't for the fact that Ren had allowed them to move in groups of two, they might have died already. Well compared to their training which would seem like a breeze in comparison, Arthur's training was literal hell on earth.
The twenty got to face monsters of all sorts and were required to beat a certain amount. On the other hand, Arthur's opponent was none other than Ren himself. Ren would restrict his power to the bare minimum, but even then he was still a monster beyond any monster.
It was a miracle that no one was dead. They continued to train and train. They had no choice, they were too far gone to quit now. Also, they weren't sure that quitting was a good idea. Seeing how unpredictable Ren was, it was entirely possible that the moment they tried to quit Ren himself would cut them down.
…
It was just another day of training, Ren told the twenty to dive into the deep river and start kicking punching the wooden dolls he had placed. They needed to stay underwater for about four hours.
"Don't worry, as long as you're able to maintain your Spirit Aura and enveloped yourself in it, you can hold your breath for a very long time. Well, those that fail to do so might die. Still, knowing all of you I guess you can survive this." Ren nodded his head as he smiled. He started pushing the twenty into the deep river.
Once the twenty were all in the river, Ren looked at his disciple Arthur. In the few days that they had been training, Arthur's mana had grown by a substantial amount. So today he taught Arthur how to stabilize his mana.
It was truly amazing to see how far Arthur could go with just his pure determination. Arthur did have talent, but he wasn't as talented as Lara or Valdel. Lara had something hidden within her, and her obsession with Ren had pushed her to become very strong. Valdel was a natural hero, his destiny linked to the destiny of the very world, and added to that he had memories of the former demon lord Kir. It wasn't hard for Valdel to get strong as he would always get something that could increase his strength due to his high luck.
On the other hand, compared to those two, Arthur might be considered a normal child, well if you compare him to Lara and Valdel that is. All Arthur truly had was his absolute determination, his extreme tenacity had forced him to be able to overcome all of Ren's tests.
'If he continues like this, it won't take too long to reach the same level as Lara and Val. I guess this much tenacity could be considered a talent as well.'
Ren looked at Arthur's stabilizing mana and nodded his head. 'Well, I guess while I'm waiting, I should better train as well… At this point both my mana and physical body are growing stronger for every second, the only way to power-up faster is if I fight opponents near my level or those stronger than me… Well, at this point the only ones who could help me train are those inside my soul realm. There's also that thing were I can gain their knowledge and skill if I beat them. So fighting them truly is the fastest way to get stronger.'
As Ren decided to enter his soul realm, he noticed a weird presence coming near. The being coming wasn't exuding any mana. 'Oh, perfect timing.' Ren smiled as his body disappeared.
…
The Primordial Demon Hako had wandered around the Serbek Kingdom gathering information. As he was returning to the meeting spot, he noticed that there were some humans at the base of the mountain.
He found it weird as to what the humans were doing in the middle of a monster-infested area. Based on the accursed mana they were emitting, they were too weak to handle the stronger monsters in the area. There was only one person there that had a decent amount of mana that he could sense.
'I am rather curious, so I'll just check it out for a bit.' Hako changed directions and headed to the base of the nearby mountain.
…
When Hako arrived at the area he found the humans. There were twenty humans kicking and punching underwater, while the one who had an impressive amount of mana was nothing more than a child. The child was sitting cross-legged and seems to be doing some meditation.
'That's a rather interesting training regimen. They might have weak mana supplies, but their physical body is beyond the other humans. Hmm, physical type humans are troublesome, they aren't that affected by our skill in emotion manipulation. Also those humans with strong bodies, usually have strong minds as well, and they give half-ass malice, but once they break they do give exquisite malice. Hmm, should I keep them alive and break them later, but that comes with a lot of risks. Should I just kill them now to nip this problem in the bud?'
Hako started to contemplate as to what to do. 'Even if I decide not to kill the twenty humans underwater, I should kill this kid that stinks of pure mana. Alright, I'll just kill the kid first and think about what to do to the others later.'
Once Hako decided what to do he immediately dove to the ground and was about to attack the child. Yet as he was diving his sight was suddenly filled with darkness. He looked around in surprise and saw that everything suddenly became dark. He could still move his body and he could still see his hands and feet, yet aside from that everything else was in darkness.
For a Primordial Demon who was born from chaos and darkness, Hako wasn't that scared by his current situation he just found it weird. Hako tried attacking in a wide area but that did absolutely nothing.
'What the heck is happening?' As Hako's confusion was growing, he suddenly heard someone whisper in his ear.
"Hey, what were you going to do to my disciple?" Hako reflexively attacked the person behind him. Yet when he slashed behind there was nothing there.
"Attacking like that is pretty rude." Hako once again heard the voice whispering in his ear. This time Hako took some distance and turned around. Standing in front of him was a man with a very average-looking face that you could see anywhere. His presence was nothing to write home about, and his mana seems to be only a little above average from the other humans Hako has seen. Yet despite all that Hako could see from the way the man stood that he had no openings.
"Who are you? Are you the one who created this dark space?"
"You're unworthy to hear my name, but I guess I can tell you that was indeed the one who created this space. I just isolated us from the outside world, you can call this a pocket dimension."
"To be able to create a pocket dimension with your mana, you must be using an artifact of sorts. Human, if you release me now, I'll spare your life. Even though you have artifacts that could create a pocket dimension, as well as teleport, that won't be enough to beat me. In the end, no matter how many artifacts you have, you're still just a weak human." When Ren heard what Hako heard, he couldn't help but smile.
"Pfft, HAHAHA! That's so funny. You're a very funny Primordial Demon."
"You know what I am?"
"Of course I do, I have already beaten one of you guys." Hako was alerted by what Ren said, this man had already defeated a Primordial Demon.
'Hmm, I guess with the artifacts he has shown me, he could defeat a weakened Primordial Demon. Even now I'm not at a hundred percent of my strength. So the Primordial Demon he fought before might've been below half his strength.'
"Do not compare me to whomever you have beaten. I'm sure that I am currently way stronger than the one you had fought before." Ren tilted his head, after a while, he shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't think you're stronger at all. In my eyes, both of you are pretty weak." Hako was angered by Ren's arrogant tone. No longer able to hold it in Hako was about to strike, when suddenly he felt an immense force weighing down on him. The force was so great he couldn't move an inch.
"You see, aren't you pretty weak?"
"What did you do?"
"Nothing much, I just thought about attacking you." When Hako heard Ren's answer he could feel his whole body becoming cold. 'Just him thinking about attacking me made my whole body stop.'
It was at this moment, Hako had only one thought left in his mind. 'ESCAPE!' He needed to escape. As he was about to flee in the other direction, Hako heard Ren's voice.
"I was going to use you as a training material for my disciple, but I changed my mind."
At that moment Hako could no longer feel his body. In the blink of the eye, his body was disintegrated into nothingness. Hako was only left with his soul. If he didn't find a body quickly his soul will disappear. Unfortunately for him, Ren was the only one near him.
'It's do or die. If I fail all that would happen is death, but if I succeed I'll get his strong body.' Hako took a chance and entered Ren's soul. As he was entering Ren's soul he heard Ren's voice again.
"How foolish doing the same thing as that guy."
…
Hako couldn't understand what Ren meant when he said those words, but now that he was inside Ren's soul all he needed to do is merge with it. Yet for some reason, Ren's soul was different from the others. The moment Hako entered Ren's soul, Hako who was in spirit form was now in a physical body. He then saw a familiar figure, it was none other than Nyarlom.
"Thanks for backing me up, now we can both experience the abyss together." After Nyarlom said those words Hako saw numerous humans appearing and surrounding them. Hako noticed a lot of familiar faces, especially one face that he could never forget. It was Leonard Tranor, when he saw that man Hako immediately knew what he had gotten himself into.
"Oh, how fun, another Primordial Demon to play with."
"Ren should collect them all so that we can have a lot of different sparring partners."
Hearing the excited voices of the incarnations of the strongest mortal soul, Hako felt true despair.
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