If sin has weight, can you imagine how it felt, how heavy it was to shoulder your sin? If I spend my two lifetimes doing nothing but sinful things, it might not even surpass this weight I'm feeling right now.

Maybe 500 is too much for a 12 years old boy after all?

"S-status window! Turn off the Phantom's Greed immediately!"

A liberating feeling washed over my body and I can't help but fall over on my back.

Ahh, I'm drenched in sweat...

My body is also sore all over. I send some time to engulf my whole body in white flame. The warmth immediately surrounded me, restoring injuries and anything that could be harmful to my body.

That was intense. It's hard to choose the best option for myself. If only the system could do it in my stead.

Wait...

I don't think I have examined the rest of the weight options. There are too many options to choose from, so I just kind of choose one at random.

I opened the artifact menu again and carefully read over the weight option one by one. It started with Custom, 1kg, and it went higher and higher, and higher, and higher... I got annoyed there for a moment so I violently slides the status window down so fast that the list went flickering with so many numbers until it stopped at 75.000 kg.

I slide the list down again.

100.000

100.500

101.000

101.500

102.000

...

110.000

...

120.000

121.000

...

131.000

....

140.000

"..."

There's no sign of stopping...

Is this broken?

No, that's not the right question. There's no way an artifact could be easily broken. To begin with, is there a need to go this far? The number is outrageous. If I accidentally click this option, won't I turn into a mashed potato?

Even Ais won't be able to recognize me if I do that.

I wiped the cold sweat trickling down my cheek. With more careful handling of the status window, I keep scrolling down the list until it reached the very bottom at 200.000

Unfortunately, there's nothing below 200.000 kg. I can't help feeling disappointed. I was about to give up when something caught my eyes. Ah, sure enough. After careful observation, turn out there is another menu beneath Drawback. It was hidden by the dropdown click!

I had to click or slide down the artifact's main menu list!

[Auto Weight]

Description: Automatically altered the weight according to the user's strength and endurance. Choose the available options:

– Casual

– Normal

– Hardcore

===

I blinked, What...

It was there all along?

Somehow I'm starting to get pissed right now. Before I knew it, I started delivering a rain of punches and kicks upon the innocent dummy. The poor dummy didn't stay still and take my punches. Fueled with a mana battery, it also pranced around in a mixture of martial arts. We smashed our fists against each other with youthful vigor.

With every punch, my anger receded by a grain of salt. It was only after the dummy turned into a mush that I stopped my onslaught on it.

Ha...

I heaved a breath and adjusted my collar.

I have shown mom my unsightly self.

Yeah, for some reason mom was watching from behind. Himiko is also the same as usual shadowing mom everywhere she goes. Since when she was here? I want to ask her, but I'm afraid to hear the answer. It's embarrassing...

"It's too late to act like a gentleman now, young master." Himiko casually launched a dropkick at my heart.

Uh, this woman... I'll deal with you later. For now, I have to use the chance God has given me.

I ignored Himiko and rushed to Ais. I used my angelic voice that every mom would love as I hugged her.

"Mom! You're here. Are you going to teach me swordsmanship now?"

"You want to learn how to use a sword?"

"Yep, you promised to teach me once I'm old enough. I have graduated from elementary school now!"

"Is that right?" Ais hugged me back and smiled faintly. "Why don't you pick one of that wooden swords by the rack then. I'm going to see if you have what it takes to be a swordsman."

"Roger, ma'am! I won't disappoint you!"

I grinned at her.

Yeah! Now I finally get myself a sword instructor. The best one at that.

Watch out world!

===

I take back what I said.

Ais Wallenstein might be the best at swordsmanship but she's suck at teaching.

-Smack

"Ugh."

-Smack

"Ack!"

Yeah, what you're seeing now is me being beaten up by a wooden sword.

-Swish

Yeah! I managed to avoid that one!

-Smack!

"Gah!"

Damn...

This is hardcore.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

All she teaches me is how to make a stance and hold my sword. After that?

Sparing!

What next?

Sparing and sparing!

It was an ever-ending sparing. But she did advise me when my form was wrong. She also pointed out the inefficiency in my swings and movements. Unfortunately, it was always ended by a sparing. Or maybe a beating would be more appropriate. It stopped just as my sleeping time arrived, exactly 10 pm.

Ugh... What a nightmare.

My body is hurt all over...

I throw myself at my bed and groaned from the pain.

Gah!

It was more painful than I thought. The artifact sure sprinkled salt on my wound.

I can feel the invisible pressure pressing on me from all sides, including my wound, leaving me a piercing pain for me to savor.

And it is just a Normal weight mode, I dreaded the fool who used Hardcore as their default.

Ugh, this pain will last a long time. I immediately healed my aching body. Lifeforce is truly a versatile Quirk. With just a thought, I can see myself glowing. A faint white light enveloped my body.

I glanced at the sword marks all over my torso and arms. They're nasty, mom doesn't play around even with her beloved child huh. And these nasty marks that might take days to heal quickly faded in the blink of an eye. It was erased by the white glow radiating from my body.

This is might more potent than Jaune's semblance, maybe. Since it's not a lethal wound I won't know for certain. Not that I looked forward to testing it. But... It may be not impossible. There are plenty of people in this world. And among them, some would not be missed if they disappeared from the surface of the earth.

Yes, it's plausible.

I just need to find the unfortunate soul- wait, what am I saying. I am the heir of the Wallenstein family, I'm not a villain. If exposed, it would not only destroy my reputation but also stain our family name.

No, wait...

Something suddenly clicked in my mind. There's a way to test it legally and righteously. Even if I am exposed, at most it would only end up in scolding. My reputation might even increase instead of dropping. I nodded to myself, liking the idea. Healing the wounded in the hospital might be working. Okay. Let's add it to my "To-do List"

Another issue is a habit...

Just then, I nearly forgot to use quirk to heal my injury. No big deal. But in combat, it's another matter entirely. Especially high-paced combat where one wrong move would decide between life or death. I must keep using my Quirk all the time until I can use them faster than my mind could follow. Just like muscle memory. I willed my life force to appear and coat my whole body in the white glow.

With a flex, I can feel the power begging me to be unleashed. I punched out into the air, and I swear I could hear the wind whooshing.

The more you trained your quirk, the more you understand your quirk as it increased in power, efficiency and mastery. So I must get used to it as much as possible until I could use it by reflex just like muscle memory. Speaking of muscle memory, I might have something in mind. A way to increase my combat rating by a huge margin. That is by concentrating the force field to a single place where I am about to get hit! This idea is quite dangerous. It might even cause me to lose my life if I use it in a real fight, but it's worth a try.

But here in this place, there is no real fight, which is good. Better yet, it's a sparing with mom! This is a golden opportunity to do my experiment. I rewind the scene of my match against mom in my mind... Her movement was simple, but I can't avoid a blow to my body even after I use full-body enhancement which boosts my physical stats. I guess It's a matter of technique. Her sword mastery is just that high, I can accept that hard truth. Uh, her stats are also disgustingly that high I guess.

But...

What if I don't spread the force field evenly on my whole body? Of course, I would get beaten black and blue. But it's just training and experiment. There's nothing at stake. Not to mention I can't even avoid a blow even with full-body enhancement, so there's no point in doing so. In that case, why I don't use that chance to train my quirk's muscle memory?

By deploying a focused forcefield on the area where the blow might land, it will massively reduce the damage I get in return! Not a bad training plan. But it was easier said than done as I found out through bitter training filled with pain. The bigger the gap between me and my opponent, the harder it becomes. But no one knows yet that the training I did with Ais who was beyond my league will push my mastery of the force field to an unusual degree. Leading to a new variation of the force field that boosts my defensive capability beyond my level.