The next day, Illyan finally came to his senses.

When he opened his eyes, he realized that he was sitting in just a small puddle.

The puddle was crystal clear, displaying that any medicinal aspect it should have had was already gone.

Illyan tried to stand up, but his legs almost didn’t listen to him as he wobbled out of the pit with difficulty.

Once he did so, he just lay next to it on his back as he stared at the sky.

“Hahahahah!”

The birds were scared and flew away when they heard Illyan’s hoarse laughter.

“Finally! Finally, a way to get stronger in a short time!”

He felt ecstatic.

While his body felt depleted, he should be able to recover in a few days.

At that time, he should be able to feel some changes, even if minimal.

How did he know?

Well, it was because he finally condensed his first drop of Mind Power.

It was nothing in the grand scheme of things, but to the current Illyan, it was a priceless treasure.

Because, thanks to that, he could ‘see’ or rather feel the situation inside his body. His Mind Power allowed him to observe the insides of his body.

With that, he would have a much easier time doing some techniques or testing some medicines. The number of uses this power had was limitless.

“The one droplet… I guess that’s 0.001 of the first point… To reach the first level of acolyte, you need five points.”

Illyan was muttering to himself like a madman as he felt a big progress on his path.

That meant he needed to ‘just’ repeat the thing he did now 1000 times, and he would be in the second stage, also called the Apprentice Stage.

To reach each level of acolytes, he needed to accumulate five, ten, and fifteen points respectively.

Once he did so and met other conditions, he could become a Magister.

Of course, the other condition was to create a sturdy Mana Circuit and Mana Nexus, where he needed to collect at least the same amount of mana as the Mind Power within his head.

Arwen didn’t know much about how to continue after that, but he knew that Magisters needed to create an imprint within themselves.

That would be the attribute that would be imprinted in your very being for the rest of your life.

The attribute could be anything from a natural element to something as vague as fate.

Only talented people could have more specific or powerful attributes, though.

What Illyan was interested in, though, was the fact that you could also reach a Magister level just by collecting another fifteen points of Mind Power and opening the Seat of Consciousness when you gather all thirty points worth of it.

He guessed the same applied to his mana.

That meant he had many options to choose from in the future.

“Ugh…” It was then that Illyan realized that there were still barbs inside his acupoints.

With a groan, he started to pull them off.

The sudden relief almost made him moan in pleasure as the gusts of Spiritual Energy started to leave his body in a hurry.

He didn’t care. His goal this time wasn’t to absorb the Spiritual Energy anyway. He could find a way for that later on.

Now, he just wanted to rest…

……

Once he recovered enough to stand up, Illyan started to clean the tracks he left around and hid the bathing pit by putting some branches and dirt over it.

He hoped to use it many more times in the future and didn’t want some animal or human to break it.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t spend his time here for that long.

Illyan could already imagine that people were looking for him.

In the town that lacked a physician, he was someone sought after.

With a sigh, Illyan packed his belongings as he went on his way.

This time, however, he went much more slowly as his body was still shaky.

But since he was so slow, Illyan felt like it was a waste of time.

So, he took out some of the throwing knives he got from Caleb.

He wanted to learn to throw them properly for some time already. It shouldn’t be too hard with his control over the body.

Furthermore, now that his mind was stronger, he should be able to perform some tasks more easily and learn them quicker.

All in all, he was a better version of his old self.

And so, as he went on, the knives were flying towards the closest trees.

Big splatters of splinters then exploded in every direction while the knife itself recoiled and fell on the ground, leaving behind a large dent in the tree.

The aim itself wasn’t a problem. However, the knife would turn into the wrong angle which caused it to not penetrate the tree at all. He needed to find a way to balance the throw in order to let the blade of the knives enter the target first.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Once the knife fell, Illyan would come closer to collect it back.

This process repeated itself as Illyan threw knives at every tree in the vicinity.

Thanks to that, Illyan managed to learn the throwing of knives pretty soon.

Instead of explosions upon impact, only a small slit appeared on the tree with only a small part of the hilt coming out of it.

But Illyan was sure that if he put his entire strength into the throw, he could pierce through the entire tree without problem.

He once again looked at the blades with a blue hue in curiosity.

He wondered how this was forged. If it came to raw toughness and sharpness, then the Bakur Tribe’s cold weapons won out, but the technique of the forging was definitely better.

‘Now that I think about it…’

After finally gaining a bit of Mind Power, Illyan could feel more keenly the things around himself.

With the combination of his eyes, he could see much more clearly the energies flowing around the world.

The Spiritual Energy overflowing in the air, the sparse Mana which seemed to be more stationary, and even the auras of the trees.

But he also felt the aura of the sword. Or rather, the traces of aura.

‘It was tempered by aura?’ An idea sprung into his mind as he stared at the blades.

The aura was like a fire, and it was meant to cover your body and weapons, so it wouldn’t be strange to use it to temper them.

Now that he finally concluded this, he was glad to choose to stick to the path of knights.

It could bring him a lot of benefits in the future if he played his cards well.

Coo-coo

As Illyan pondered about this, a bird was emitting a sound on the tree carefreely while grooming its feathers once in a while.

Illyan looked up.

And then, his hand holding a knife turned into a blur as the blue streak shot at the bird.

The bird’s music was cut short as its body was pierced with a blade.

Its helpless body fell from the branch right into the hand of the attacker.

‘Now I finally have a way to attack at long range. If only I could walk around with a bow and arrows, this wouldn’t be such a problem…’

After Illyan lamented a bit, he continued on his way…

……

Subsequently, he managed to leave the forest and enter the town without incident as he rushed to his manor.

But as he entered the town without a hitch, the sudden rush of information hit his head.

The people were doing their own things as they walked on the streets, stood in the stalls selling goods, and other mundane things.

Even before, Illyan felt little discomfort at this as he lived in reclusive places most of his life.

However, after several months, he was already used to it.

Until now, since he felt his mind overwhelmed by the amount of information he got.

He felt all of his senses taking in much more information than before. He could see better, he could hear more distinct sounds, he could differentiate the smells in the air, and he could even feel the vibrations from the ground.

His body was tempered yesterday, so maybe his senses got a little stronger too, but he was sure that most of the changes were the result of the Mind Power.

He could process more information thanks to it, and the things that would just blend together normally were now recognizable.

Unfortunately, there were not many pleasant sensory stimuli inside the town.

People were unwashed, the feces were rotting on the roads, and rotten animals could be found in some abandoned alleys. That’s if they weren’t devoured.

It took him several seconds before he adapted to the new perception and then hurried to his place.

Fortunately, as he got closer and closer to his place, the area became cleaner, and he could sigh in relief.

But that was temporary, as the moment he saw his manor from a distance, he could also see a lot of people standing in front of his doors.

These people didn’t seem to be important as their clothes were just rags, so Illyan guessed they were patients.

When he got closer, they noticed his presence as they looked around. Their looks were tired and almost despairing. With dim eyes, they eyed the newcomer, expecting another person in need of treatment.

However, as they saw Illyan’s tall stature, their eyes shone brightly.

“Doctor! Doctor is here!”

“We can finally be treated!”

“My child! Please treat my child, sir!”

All of them ran towards Illyan, who just stared at them expressionlessly.

Despite being a physician, he didn’t feel the obligation to help people.

He could see that some of the people were disgruntled because of his absence. They didn’t say anything as they still needed to be treated, but he could almost feel the intangible resentment.

“

Good morning. Please wait for a while. I just came back from foraging and need to store my herbs…”

Illyan explained as he avoided them and hurried to his doors.

But then he stopped as he looked at the little girl in the man's arms.

She seemed to be unconscious with tears drying up on her face.

The man’s face was tired and full of worry as he held her gently.

The image of her face overlapped with the girl he killed in the Blood Crow Forest, and he sighed.

“What happened to her?”

“Doctor! H-her… My daughter’s stomach suddenly started to hurt very badly, and I don’t know what happened…”

The father was on the verge of crying himself as he explained what happened.

Unfortunately, other patients didn’t have the same sentiments as they stared at the man with anger.

“Hey! We were here first! Doctor, you should treat my shoul—”

“Argh?!” Just then, the little girl woke up screaming. She started to wriggle in her father’s arms, which made him almost let go of her.

The horrifying screams of pain prompted the other people to get quiet as they looked at the little girl.

“Take her in.” Illyan said as he opened the doors for the man.

The father quickly entered the doors before Illyan turned to the others.

“Emergencies have priority. Please wait for a while.” After saying so, he closed the doors with a bang.

“Carry her downstairs.” Illyan said expressionlessly as he went down to the laboratory.

He didn’t like people going into his laboratory, but when it came to emergencies, it was better to go to a sterilized environment where he had all the equipment ready, even for surgeries.

Thankfully, he always made sure that there wasn’t anything suspicious left and cleaned everything whenever he finished in there.

Illyan took her from her father’s arms and put her on the table.

Then, he rolled up her clothes to reveal her stomach.

Seeing that the girl wasn’t ready to answer his questions, he had to come up with a diagnosis all alone.

So, he had to touch the tummy to feel it a little.

“Aaaargh!” The screams got even worse as she started to wave her hands around.

“Doctor! What are you doing?!” The father was flustered seeing his daughter like this and started screaming as well.

“Don’t speak when I do not ask you to.” Illyan just looked at him coldly, which made the man’s legs go soft.

Then, he held the girl’s limbs and forcefully strapped them on the table with leather straps. He bought these after seeing the hidden room’s ones.

However, these ones were for patients and not captives.

After immobilizing her, he started to diagnose the problem.

He also used a little of his Spiritual Energy Manipulation he could muster to send it inside to feel her innards. Thanks to his Mind Power, the feeling was now more clear, so he felt he should be able to find the problem soon.

At first, he felt her tummy and found the problem was somewhere underneath her navel since she felt stronger pain there.

The moment he touched the right place, her stomach started to wriggle.

Illyan narrowed his eyes.

‘Something is inside. And it’s alive.’

“I need to open her abdomen.” Illyan explained expressionlessly as he took out a scalpel. He also sprinkled some of the sleeping powder.

This was one he created himself, as the one made for trolls would be too strong for her.

Since he didn’t need to see her reactions anymore, it would be just more difficult to operate on her while she felt everything.

When the father heard Illyan’s words, he paled.

However, Illyan didn’t care as he made one long incision on her stomach.

The wound started to bleed, so he quickly wiped it off before using another tool to pull the sides of the incision apart.

Once he did so, he started to observe the insides and even probed it with his Spiritual Energy. He was patient as he looked for the problem.

“Crrieyrgh!”

Suddenly, a shriek resounded inside as a black blur appeared in Illyan’s vision.

With small tweezers, he quickly snapped at the thing.

Feeling the resistance through the tool, he knew he caught it, so he yanked it outside and put it inside the bottle he prepared.

Once he sealed it, he looked inside the bottle.

“Centipede?” Illyan muttered in surprise.

Centipedes were uncommon in this area. And even less common was that they entered the bodies of humans.

However, feeling the similar fluctuations it gave off, Illyan realized where it came from.

‘Acolytes, huh…’