Regression of the Manaless Sword God

Chapter 6: 12 years

Ethan tried to recall that feeling once again. It was faint, but at the moment when he came in contact with the Hellfire and used this new skill, Severance, he felt another form of power.

It was hard to explain, but it was something like a voice or a connection that he felt with the sword in his hand.

Even though he did not have the sword with him now, he still vividly remembered that connection, and when he was able to actually recall it, something else shifted again.

Ethan looked down at his hand where he felt that strange yet mildly familiar sensation. It wasn’t visible to the naked eye, and besides him, no one else saw or felt anything at all.

’This is...’

When he tried to understand what that sensation on his hand was, another prompt popped up before him,

[YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE PATH OF SWORD HAS DEEPENED.]

[YOUR LEVEL HAS RISEN.]

[YOU HAVE USED THE *** "BASIC INTENT OF SWORD".]

’Sword intent?’

He glanced at his character profile where his level had indeed risen. It directly shot up by 10. He was now Level 10.

But he did not feel anything at all. Levels only portray the understanding of the path and nothing else.

"Ethan?" Eleanor softly called his name, tugging on his shirt a little.

Even she felt scared when he used his skill, though she couldn’t sense the sword intent Ethan used after that.

"I apologize," he said after he saw all of them being wary of him.

He wasn’t foolish enough to think lightly of the things he got just now.

’These 2 things are what I learned when facing the Demon King... no wonder they are reacting like this.’

He quickly retracted his skills and looked at them with an indifferent expression.

"I don’t think we should delay the awakening any longer. There are many more talented students still present. Let’s go, Ellie."

With a soft smile, he gestured for Eleanor to leave the venue. She blushed a little, but did not say anything else and followed what he said. As much as she loved being called by the nickname he had given her, she was also worried for him for remaining unawakened.

"Ah, one more thing..." Before he followed after Eleanor, he stopped and spoke, "We will speak with only your guild masters. If they can fulfill the conditions, then Eleanor will join that guild. That goes for everyone else too."

His message wasn’t just for the representatives of the top 5 guilds, but for all. Fulfill his conditions and Eleanor will join them.

If it was a few minutes ago when they found him to be unawakened, those from the top 5 guilds might have ignored him, but the sense of fear they got... that was real. They themselves were fairly strong, so actually having to make them step back? They weren’t fools to ignore that.

Ethan left with Eleanor after that and the test continued normally, but nothing after Eleanor’s awakening felt grand, even when a few awakened with A-rank mana pools.

"That arrogance... I should have put him in his place right there," Julie, the one from the White Fang Guild, spoke.

Rodrek was present just beside her, watching the test go on as normal.

"Then why didn’t you?" he asked back, not breaking his focus.

"I was worried if that girl would harbor hatred for me. She is bound to be great."

"Is that all?" Rodrek asked again. He was amazed by that pride of hers, not trying to admit the obvious.

"What else if not that? Don’t tell me you think an 18-year-old guy, who doesn’t even have mana, was the one who made us back away? It’s not possible." She clenched her jaw tightly.

If Ethan were here, he would have recognized her emotions immediately. It was the very same thing he faced all his life... denial.

First, it was him denying his fate, then it was others denying his unusual existence.

"200 years ago, if someone had said monsters and superpowers were real, they would have probably said the same things, don’t you think? If even after seeing everything that has happened around us, you deny such a simple thing, then you won’t go far, Julie."

’By that time, it won’t be that girl you need to be wary of, but that boy... he wasn’t fazed even for a second when he spoke with me. In fact... he never considered any of us to be strong at all. I have to tell the Guild Master to agree to anything he says. No matter what, we have to have them join Black Horizon.’

At the same time, far away from the test ground, Ethan and Eleanor were sitting on the rooftop. While Eleanor was restless as to what to say to comfort him, Ethan was staring at the massive tower that was taller than the sky, with a timer going on before it.

’12 years... we have only that much time to clear the 50th floor. If not, then the dimensional barrier preventing other races from invading this planet will crumble.’

He had to stop that from happening, not for the grand intention of becoming a hero or anything, but to protect the one he couldn’t before.

’I have time, so let’s not worry for now.’

While his thoughts were running in the direction of what he needed to do, Eleanor was also frying her brains out to think of a way to cheer him up.

More than her, it was his dream to awaken and join the academy and then become a hero. That was what he used to say all the time in the past.

Even if he might have forgotten all that, she remembered all of it well. In fact, she remembered every single detail about him, after all, they spent all their lives together after losing their parents inside a rift.