The makeshift lab didn’t need much input on Khan’s end. He had already dug out everything he could find, and the scanners were powerful enough to cover the entire underground chamber. Khan only needed to wait for the process to end, occasionally adding commands to the central console.
The process gave Khan a lot of free time, so he mostly meditated, absorbing all the energy he had stuffed into his body during the previous training session. His body healed quickly and grew stronger, getting hungrier for mana at each step.
That quickened the absorption but also emptied the reserves Khan had almost shed blood to accumulate. No red marks scarred his torso anymore, but he would soon need to get more of those. Khan would never complete his attunement with mana otherwise.
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Khan didn’t dare to summon the [Blood Vortex] near the makeshift lab, and going back to the surface would bring more debris into the underground lab. So, he waited, the pain radiated from his leg occasionally disrupting his regular meditation.
’I really overdid it, huh,’ Khan eventually thought, interrupting that negligible training session. His leg had mostly recovered, but everything remained sore.
Khan heaved a helpless sigh. Even without worthy opponents, he still managed to hurt himself. It almost seemed he was his worst enemy, and the cuts on his forearms vouched for that idea.
Scarred palms filled Khan’s vision. He didn’t need bandages since those injuries had stopped bleeding, but covering his arms anyway sounded wise. The marks his element inflicted always lasted longer, and they couldn’t look too good.
’Who is even going to believe I’m weak at this point?’ Khan wondered, dismissing the idea. ’Who cares anyway?’
Khan lay down on the sand, even if he knew who would care. He didn’t appear in public much anymore, but people would still notice his scars whenever he did, and someone dear to him would worry about it.
’As if covering them would solve anything,’ Khan thought. ’Scars or bandages still shout injuries. If anything, the bandages are more eye-catching.’
Khan didn’t even consider that hiding was impossible for him now. He only lingered on the idea for a second before dismissing it. The memory of Monica was worth at least that much.
Still, Khan couldn’t deny other implications. He lifted his arms, placing his scarred palms in his vision again. His element was literally breaking him apart, and his sore leg was the last clue.
’If I break,’ Khan thought, ’I break. Slowing down isn’t an option. I won’t die so easily anyway, and the pain is fine.’
That wasn’t any different from Khan’s mindset on Ecoruta. A subconscious part of him even made the connection, but he suppressed it to focus on other topics. He sat down, straightening his back to look at his leg.
’Stupid leg,’ Khan cursed, slamming his heel a few times on the ground to scold his limb. ’It’s just one advanced form, and I didn’t even add Maban’s technique. Start pulling your weight.’
Obviously, the leg didn’t reply, and Khan shook his head in disappointment while stretching his ankle and toes.
’How did I even end up learning Weight while training for Shockwave?’ Khan pondered. ’I’d get Cut or Speed, but this one …’
Khan had a general understanding of what the Transcendent Step’s six advanced forms demanded and produced. That was why he had started with one he should have been more familiar with, but his body had gone in a different direction.
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’Though,’ Khan considered, ’The Lightning-Demon style did have a similar attack.’
Habits were hard to overcome and often went unnoticed. As much as Khan’s martial arts had changed and evolved, his body still recalled his time with the Lightning-Demon style, affecting the direction of his training.
’I’ll just learn Shockwave next,’ Khan concluded. ’As for Pierce and Bullets, those might be hard.’
The Transcendent Step wasn’t meant to be fully mastered. After all, no expert had ever learned all its advanced forms, but the idea of stopping at one had never crossed Khan’s mind. He needed all the power he could get his hands on, even if he had to break himself time and time again in the process.
That break and the memories from the previous decent execution of the new technique gave Khan time to plan a new training regimen. The ship wasn’t the best place for that, especially while flying through space, but the Transcendent Step was a pleasant exception.
Of course, Khan had to approach the training with caution. Yet, everything was fine as long as he could keep the clashes of strands of mana inside his legs. That was only part of what the attack needed, but Khan would still make full use of that opportunity.
Time flowed slowly in the desolation of the underground chamber. Khan remained wary of his surroundings, but nothing arrived. He had probably cleared an entire quadrant of those strange lifeforms, ensuring a relatively lasting peace.
The console occasionally beeped, but Khan calmly waited for the right sound. That moment seemed unwilling to arrive, and Khan almost believed his ears were lying to him when the short alarm reached them.
Khan jumped to his feet, forgetting to curse about the spasms that ran through his right leg as he limped toward the console. The scanners had finished recovering all the available data, and the mainframe had even processed them, providing a sea of information.
Most details involved the ship’s layout, connecting it to an extensive database of information the Global Army had accumulated since the First Impact. Those findings could make historians drool, but Khan completely dismissed them, adding filters to search for what he truly cared about.
The scanners had found storage units, but time and the recent battle had eroded part of its data. Large, valuable chunks were missing, forcing the console to perform simulations and add the various engines’ lingering signatures to the equation.
Khan also let the console add his previously accumulated data, improving its accuracy. He already had a general direction, but the universe didn’t expand in a straight line. Khan needed something more specific, which, to his surprise, the mainframe managed to create.
Holograms suddenly shot out of the small console, giving birth to a blue star map. Khan recognized many of its planets and marks since he had studied the same area many times, but the drawing had something new now.
A series of hypothetical routes ran through the holograms, flying into specific directions. They didn’t have clear sources, nor were they connected to precise locations. Yet, all four of those converged on Chuwei, and tracing them back to their origins could give Khan what he needed.