I feel like something annoying happened while I was meditating. Of course, I have no evidence that something did, but I have that nagging sensation that’s telling me to run, before I’m pulled into someone else’s story.

I asked Bea if anyone happened to come by the carriage while I was under the hypnotic effects of meditation, but she shook her head. I half think she’s not telling me the truth, but I have no way of knowing for sure, unless the worst happens and she’s proven to have lied.

So, I’ll have to just wait and see what happens, even though I don’t really want to.

Pushing the nasty thoughts away, I decide to simply go about my daily routine. Just as I was leaving the carriage, Bea piped up, saying that she would join me.

I readily agreed, since that would give me a sparring partner for today as well. I had quite a bit of fun yesterday, and looked forward to improving myself as much as I can.

I mean, I still have my old combat senses, but I need to attune it to this body as well as I can. After all, the combat style you can use in a male body rippling with muscle is quite different from what you can use in the body of a girl just touching upon puberty.

And while I’ve had chances to hone myself before, I’m now a much higher level than I had been back then. I need to reacquaint myself with my power, and my skill. Perfecting these would increase my strength and survivability greatly, and pave the path to further and greater power—It’s like laying a good foundation for the future.

Even though she’ll never hear these words from me, having Bea to spar with is a gods-given gift, since she can help me strengthen that foundation.

We made good time while running away from the caravan. I could tell that Bea was only running at a tiny fraction of her full speed. In fact, even with the spar yesterday, I don’t think I’ve seen that full speed in use. I’m sure it’s terrifying, considering that she had causally broken the sound barrier during said spar.

She allowed me time to warm up, and I took an hour or two simply in order to loosen up my muscles and get my blood flowing. The sword forms in particular were difficult—not because of the movements, or any sort of special techniques that needed lots of attention, but because I was going through them as slowly as possible before gradually speeding up.

By the end of it, I was covered in sweat, and profoundly glad that the Sage’s clothing comes with an auto-clean function.

I briefly meditated in order to reinvigorate myself, before starting the spar with Bea, who was immediately confused by my actions, or lack there-of.

“Aren’t you going to activate that demon form thing you have?” She asked, puzzled as to why I was still in my normal form.

I shrugged.

“You aren’t going to get better without any effort, right? Besides, when I’m in that form, I’m almost as powerful as you, which kind of negates the purpose of the sparing.” I said.

Bea nodded, somewhat understanding what I meant.

“Hm, that’s fairly smart of you. I’m guessing that you’ll be trying to make your current form as powerful as me, so that the other form becomes much stronger?”

“Yeah, that’s the general idea. I will still be using most of my other tricks, though.”

Bea laughed, and welcomed me to try and beat her this time, tricks or no tricks.

And so it came to be that I was on the ground half an hour later, breathing raggedly, and nursing all sorts of bruises in as many places as I can feel.

Bea didn’t go easy on me, despite the fact that I wasn’t using as much power as I had last time. Thinking about this, I started laughing, even though it hurt my sore lungs.

“Are you okay Kai? I didn’t break you, did I?” asked Bea, concerned—even though she had been so merciless to me just now.

It’s lucky that I found the Sage’s clothing, since they’re more resilient than anything I’ve ever seen. Bea’s daggers can’t even begin to pierce them, even though it looks to be made of cloth. Instead, she had to start resorting to blunt force trauma—hence all the bruising. Also, she tried to avoid going for things not covered by clothing, like my head, or throat.

“No, I’m fine. I just had the thought that I couldn’t have found a better sparing partner, who uses so much power on a weaker opponent.”

Bea pouted.

“I can try and scale back, if you want….”

“No, don’t do that. I already explained to you why I need an opponent who’s significantly stronger than me. You fit the bill perfectly.”

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Somewhat reluctantly, Bea agreed to continue using the same amount of power. Besides, I have a feeling that she was already holding back, for my sake. How sweet of her.

I tried sitting upright, and winced as my muscles protested quite loudly. Fighting against Bea without using my Demon Lord’s form, or Storm’s Eye was a very painful and frustrating experience. I didn’t land a single hit on her, while she just wailed upon me with impunity. It wasn’t fun, but the whole thing was necessary. There was someone I once met, who claimed, “One’s true potential can only be stimulated through pain.”

As annoying as it is, I agree with him. My muscles will quickly repair themselves, and become stronger. My bones will gradually become more durable, and I will be able to react faster as time goes on. Hell, even my mana pool will quickly expand, since I’m using so much of it in combat.

And, meditating afterwards brings a soothing relief as dense mana circulated through my body; it’s icy fingers cooling my overburdened body. Compounding on the growth experienced from just one sparing session, I infused some of the mana into many of my muscle fibers, further boosting the speed of my recovery and my raw strength.

Only an hour of meditation proved sufficient to bring me back to peak condition, the bruises faded away, and my vitality completely restored. This may seem like a short time, but consider that I had to be undisturbed while meditating, and the fact that the worst damage I had taken was a few ribs that had fractured slightly.

As soon as everything was mended, I stood up.

Bea, who was waiting nearby, came towards me.

“Are you alright now?” She asked.

I smiled and nodded.

“I’m fully healed. Let’s go for another round, no?”

Bea sighed and shook her head.

“You must be insane, to be so willing to fight me again so soon. Do you like subjecting yourself to pain or something?”

“Not at all. However, if the pain of the present can help me to avoid greater pain in the future, then I would rather get hurt now. Come on, let’s get started.” I said, once again holding my sheathed nodachi in a ready position. That was another thing I wasn’t willing to use at the moment, since it would give me too much of an external advantage. Besides, Bea had a limited number of daggers, and I would rather not ruin them. Even though I’ve yet to block a single dagger, I don’t want it to be sheared in two when I do.

Just like last time, Bea seemingly disappeared from my view after I signaled for her to begin.

Then, she began attacking from almost every direction.

It looks like I have my work cut out for me, if I am to get strong enough to fight her evenly, without using my Demon Lord form.

Certainly, I can’t handle her at the moment, and have to simply resign myself to being a frustrated punching bag. But, who’s to say what it’ll be like in a few months or so? Considering my terrifying growth rate, I should easily be Bea’s match by then, especially since that same growth is so stimulated by our little sparing sessions.

Of course, she beat me up just as badly the second time around.

If anything, she might have even started hitting me harder, judging by the fact that not only do I have massive bruising all over my body, but various bones were showing signs that they were ready to give. A few of my ribs had cracked, and my forearm was swelling slightly, after I had used it to block a single one of Bea’s strikes. One of the bones in there was fractured once, maybe twice.

All this sure made me glad that a bit of meditation and mana can solve all my issues fairly quickly. Even if it hurt to sit upright at the moment.

Gritting my teeth through the mild pain, I began meditating. I also reminded myself of some of the other painful things I’ve been thorough, most of which made this look like an absolute cakewalk. The most recent of these painful events would probably have to be losing to that damnable lich. After all, just his opening strike had taken off my arm, and one of my horns.

Compared to the feeling of briefly losing an arm, this was nothing. 

Anyway, I quietly settled down into meditation, and repeated the same process I had used earlier to great effect.

The effectiveness of this training of mine was proven when I ended the meditation two levels higher than I had started. Knowing that I’ll likely be gaining another level or two while meditating tonight, even I’m frightened by my growth. It was only a few months ago that I was level one-fifty, and now I was closing in on level two-fifty.

That was a gain of nearly one hundred levels in a few months—when most would be lucky to gain that amount in a few years.

In fact, if all goes well, then I should breach level two-fifty either tomorrow, or the day after.

Bea and I began walking back to the caravan soon after. Normally, I would run in order to get more exercise, but I didn’t want to put undue stress on myself at the moment. Bea also told me in no uncertain terms that I had done enough for today, and just needed to relax. She gets protective at the oddest of times, apparently.

While we were walking, I decided to start asking some questions that had been bothering me lately—ones that I probably should have asked a while back.

In particular, I asked Bea about her current level, and her age. She was an odd person, who seemed intelligent and wise one moment, and worse than a toddler the next.

“Hm? My age and level? I turned 121 a few months back, and am currently at the level 499 bottleneck. Why do you ask?”

“Just wondering.” I paused. “121? I would have thought that you were younger. And what do you mean by ‘bottleneck’?”

Bea laughed.

“Thank you—people with high levels, or large mana pools tend to stay young for most of their very long lifespan. I’ll likely look like this for another few millennia, unless I break level 1000. As for bottlenecks, are you sure you don’t know?” asked Bea.

I shook my head.

“I think I know what it means, but are there bottlenecks for certain levels?”

Bea nodded.

“There are. The one for level 500 is particularly hard, and tends to separate the truly strong from everyone else. There are others, like for levels 100, 250, and 750. None of them are so important as the one for level 1000, though.”

“What happens at level 1000?”

“You become a partial divinity, with greater amounts of power, immortality, strength; and you can even evolve.”

“Oh? Is it rare for someone to reach that level?”

“Somewhat. It becomes more common the closer you are to the Center, but it’s rare to find one who’s done it out here. I only know of Lady Joan, who’s reached it.”

I pondered this for a while, thinking deeply about certain things.

I hadn’t realized that there was a bottleneck for level 100—I hadn’t had any trouble simply blasting through to it, and even evolved into a full Demon Lord. Even before that point, I had already gotten immortality.

What the hell kind of Demon was my father, for me to get so many good perks?

And, this is without even mentioning the fact that my level gain is only speeding up, even though I’m supposedly so close to another bottleneck. If Bea hadn’t told me that the bottleneck existed, I might not have even realized it.

I sighed.

Honestly, is it just my Demon blood that makes me so special? I feel like all this is just a little bit too unnatural.

I guess I'll just have to wait, and see. Maybe something special will happen when I inevitably reach level 1000, which will give me some sort of hint. 

And maybe I'll find my father before then, and get my answers from him. I can't rule that possibility out...