Author's Notes: Its like 4:40 in the morning where im at and im seriously sleep deprived. I worked on this chapter for hours. It was intended to be released at 11 pm yesterday but it took a lot longer to get it how i liked. I kinda slacked off yesterday and spent most of the day doing christmas stuff instead of writing. I know other authors would usually give like bonus chapters or something for christmas, and Translators would release extra TL'd chapters of novels, but I'm too lazy.
But I felt guilty about that and so i decided to stay up and make this. Have to say this chapter is one im pretty satisfied with, seriously. Maybe its just because im too tired to write more, or because i feel im finally moving things along better. Well, enough of my rambling. I hope you all had a happy christmas and whatnot. Remember to rate, review, or comment on whatever you want. If you have any suggestions or the like, feel free to let me know.
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Roland had learned much about this world through the books he read. However, he had learned many other things as well.
For example, he learned that there now existed a newer system to measure the power of a warrior practicing the martial way. There appeared to be several realms added, causing Roland to wonder exactly how out-dated his current information was and how long it had been since his last life. Although the cycle came every 22 years, the time between the start of his new life and the end of his previous one could be many years.
But though the information was useful, Roland didnt really have any reference. How could he tell the difference between someone at the King realm and someone at the Origin realm?
If he had people of varying realms to get a grasp of the approximate power each realm holds, then he could tell them apart, but until then he wouldnt know.
Since there were new realms in the new system, Roland wasnt sure how exactly he would train the two brothers and Reina. Well, Reina was originally supposed to be like him, so perhaps he could do something about her, but the brothers and Lilith would be more difficult.
Roland didnt really cultivate in the martial way, but he had vague memories of previous lives when he did. In them breaking through to a higher realm was simple to him, as easy as breathing almost. However that was using the old system. For the new recently added realms, he was not sure of the methods regular people took to advance slowly step by step.
Lilith was more suited to magecraft anyway though and he didnt think that system changed so he wouldnt have to worry about her, he supposed. More like, becoming a strong mage relied on a few steps that were much simpler than cultivating in the martial way. Which meant it was only the two brothers he had to be concerned about.
Roland would have to research the new realms more.
No, wait. They should already know the steps since apparently the new system has been around for a long time now.
Though perhaps that was too presumptuous of him. A lot of knowlege known for years wouldnt neccessarily be known to someone who has never studied the subject before. Even if they did they wouldnt really know all there is to know on the subject.
Roland decided not to worry about it, as there were other ways to gain power.
Cultivating in the martial way was merely one of them, much like practicing magecraft.
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It had been quite some time now since lunch ended. That Fenris person was supposed to be in his evening classes but still had not shown up. He asked around a bit and got several responses like,
"Ah, her? I hear she is the only one to never shown up at any class before. Give up"
Or,
"That guy is never here anyway. He's one of the oldest students here and so is supposed to have a lot of responsibilities to take care of, but I heard that he comes to the school just to laze around all day. I wouldnt count on finding him. I myself have never seen him around either."
They confused him at first, because some responses refered to Fenris as a "he" while others called him a "she".
However, thanks to that, he finally remembered where he heard the name Fenris before. Apparently in myths, the Fenris Wolf was the son of Loki and a giantess named Angrboda or something like that. Fenris was a very powerful figure in the myths and it is sometimes said he will devour Odin during Ragnarok, the doom of the gods.
Stories like that are mostly just made-up though.
Loki was a shape-changer himself and could also change his gender, becoming a man or woman at will. His "son" likely had the same ability. Though Loki identified more as a male, which is why he rarely became a woman except to play tricks.
Roland faintly wondered what gender Fenris identified more with, but only briefly. He was a bit annoyed. If Fenris had Loki's shape-changing abilities in full measure, even Roland wouldnt be able to find him. Or her.
Loki could become pretty much take on the form of any living thing.
If Fenris could do the same, he could be right beside Roland and he would never know. They both likely had a base human form and a base animal form though. The two forms, appearances, that they originally had at birth.
Fenris, from the legends, likely had a wolf form as his base beast form. Or her base. As for his base human form, Roland had no idea.
If Fenris was like Loki, he wouldnt stay in either of his base forms though. Perhaps a varient, like how Loki like to appear as a young boy when he was human, a young version of his original adult human form.
If Fenris chose to change into his an animal form, he would likely make it younger, a young animal that had relations with the wolf family.
Like a young dog or fox. Hell, who knows, he could also choose to be something completly different, like a bird or a cat.
Forget it, Roland was getting a headache. He thought only Loki could accomplish that to this degree. Apparently his son could too, and he hadnt even met him yet.
Roland didn't give a damn if Fenris missed other classes, but when he--she--missed His classes, Roland felt particularly annoyed for some reason. It was downright disrespectful.
Roland decided to have a talk with Loki later about his son. Daughter. Whatever.
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In the meantime, he informed the students that from now on their training will be much different now as he felt he got a grasp on their abilities.
There were two groups he separated them into. The warriors who would purely practice the martial way from now on, and those who would be trained more in magic, the mages.
He broke them down like that and had the warriors meditate, to have them take in the universal energies around them and refine it within themselves, making its strength theirs.
The mages he had go through a more specialised training session where he increased the gravity on their bodies and had them do a series of exercises. The point of this was to force their bodies past their limits to have an optimum physique for controlling magic.
Magic flowed easier in a more pure and healthy body.
This type of training was not to increase their mana capacity, as something like that was not needed for them since the majority of the mages here were either demons or elves, races who excel in magic.
Rather, this was simply to help them in what he actually had planned for later.
The warriors had a bit of a harder time comparatively. It seems that they had until now only gathered the universal energies and did not refine them. This was a mistake Roland thought may be fairly common.
Races other than humans could store larger amounts of univeral energy and so they were different from the humans who had a smaller storage space to work with. Humans empathized refinement of energy for that reason. They had to since they had little room.
Other races rarely had that problem and so simply absorbing those energies were all they did. To those races, refining energy was probably not even widely known. But, to kids like these, this should not be a problem in the first place. What exactly did they learn about before now?
It was almost as if they were forcibly strengthened to their current power level and were not taught things they should know about for their future growth . . . No, perhaps he was imagining things.
Anyway, it appeared that they had a difficult time refining all the energy within them. The more pure the energy became, the harder it was to condense the universal energy. They had said it was like trying to gather water with a fork.
At later stages, refining became very, very important. Each person had to reach a certain level of understanding by themselves. Even if you told them what to do exactly, they wouldnt truly understand. This was why comprehension was important. High comprehension skills were able to be applied to many different situations.
Ideally the universal energy would become a thin, silken thread of pure, raw power within them. Once that was achieved they would create more until the threads became enough to compress into a small orb, which would be the core of their foundation.
After, they would absorb pure elemental energy and do the same steps until they have one orb for each of the four main elements of nature. The four elemental orbs would surround the core made of universal energy and you must then get them to harmonize,
This was a crucial step that will allow the five different energies the orbs and core exude to be converted into the divine energy that is used by Celestials.
For demons, different elements would be used to make the four elemental orbs and the end result would not be divine energy, but chaos energy.
But all that is still much too far away for them. For now it was good if they could just create a few threads of universal energy.
It seemed the students here who cultivated in the martial way had reached a high enough level where his old knowledge was currrently applicable. That should be expected though, since these were important steps that couldnt be changed.
For mages there were similar steps but he would not go into that right now.
Roland had them refine the energies in their bodies until the end of class.
By the end, all the students experienced a breathrough in their cultivation and were covered in a dark, oily liquid, the impurities in their bodies having been forced out.
From now on he would have to let the other kids do these things too. Of course, he still wanted to let them increase the power of their battle techniques. He would have to ask Loki about letting him take the students on a training camp type thing like he said wanted to. But since Reina and Lilith's adoptive parents would be here any day now, that would have to wait.
It was already getting late, and after around this time he didnt have much to do other than laze around. Roland left the students to clean themselves up.
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He was walking about aimlessly, strolling along with no destination in mind. He had entered the forest region that was located quite some distance away from the school grounds. The barrier Loki put up surrounded the campus in a 4 to 5 mile radius and prevented others from entering, but anyone could leave if they so desired.
He felt a slight buzz on his skin. signaling he had stepped outside the boundary.
The forest covered a large part of the land and outside the barrier the sounds of various animals could be heard. He walked around and entered the deeper parts of the forest, enjoying the fresh air, when he heard a commotion. Roland, being as powerful as he is, had abnormally acute senses and could catch many sounds from a mile away, more if he tried.
He heard a loud, mocking laugh.
He walked, unhurried, towards the sound of the laugh and found a fairly interesting scene. He saw a large clearing with some old houses and such within, few still standing. It seemed there used to be many more, but they lied in ruins and ashes on the groung.
In the center of the group of buildings, there were a hundred ordinary humans, men, women and a few children, that were surrounded by a couple dozen or so armed men.
Faintly, he recalled Abigail once telling him during the tour that there were some small villages and other places that were part of the area since before Loki erected the barrier around the school. It seemed this was one of them. If he remembered right, there should also be a small city fairly nearby.
Then who were the armed men?
Bandits, most like. No, definitely bandits.
There was a lot of mountains around, perfect places for then to congregate and create hideouts.
He saw a elderly man look towards a big, mean looking man with a scar running down his cheek. The elderly man had a begging expression.
"Please, you have already taken everything we own! We havent even fought back at all. Just let us go!" The elderly man had a strong voice, entreating the man before him. The man laughed evilly.
"Dont worry, this uncle is kind and generous. Of course we will let you live . . . Well, some of you." He eyed the woman and children. The smile on his face was sickening.
The elderly man guessed at his intentions and turned white. " You. . . You cant!"
"I cant, eh? Haha, who will stop me? YOU?" the man sneered at him. " Foolish old fart. We have played with you lot long enough. Everyone, take out the chains! Kill the men but capture the woman and children alive. Heh, you can play with them if you want but remember not to break them. Haha, they should catch a good price on the black market!" He let out a cruel smile.
The other men pulled out their weapons, looking vicious and menacing. The villagers panicked, and the male villagers were prepared to fight, unwilling to let their families be sold as slaves. At the very least they could let them escape and hope they reach a town to protect them.
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The leader of the bandits laughed at them in his heart.
Foolish!
Dont think your deaths will be easy!
The man looked at the woman, seeing a few that were to his liking. He felt a hardening in his groin, eager to have a taste.
Roland looked at the scene with displeasure. It seems that no matter where you went, there would always be trash like these men.
The elderly man, seeing the deteriorated situation, had a flash of viciousness in his eyes completely unlike his previous weak expression.
He took out a small blade hidden in his clothing and ran, aiming at the leader's throat. Roland felt a strong aura from the blade. No, rather, it came from the old man.
"HA, what are you gonna do with that little pig sticker, huh?!" The man brought out a large sword and slashed at the elderly man.
However, instead of hitting flesh, a sudden numbness spread in his arm. Confused, he then saw a young man in front of him, holding his sword with one hand.
The young man had a smile on his face, however, it felt eerie and disturbing to the bandit leader.
"Who the fuck are you?" the bandit leader demanded. He didnt even put the young man, who currently stopped his sword swing with such ease, into his eyes. He only noticed that someone was interfering with his fun.
The other bandits, who had only moved a few steps, halted upon seeing their leader suddenly speak. They turned and saw a young, almost frivolous looking young man currently holding the sword of their boss in one hand.
They were all inwardly shocked, as they had all seen their boss' sword strikes split a man in two.
But they didnt panic, as their boss was quite strong and had killed many people in his day. They didnt know how the young man managed to block their boss' strike, but they knew he had wasted a chance he wouldnt get back. Now that their boss saw the young man, he would undoubtedly be able to kill him off.
The villagers froze, unsure of how to handle the current situation.
" This" The young man began, ignoring the leader's question, " Will happen one of two ways: First, you could all drop your weapons and I will castrate all of you, yet leave you with your pitiful lives intact. Second, you try to retaliate and I cut off your tongues, eyeballs, noses, fingers, toes and manhoods but leave you alive and throw your bodies somewhere quiet where the wolves can pick at your bodies at their leisure. Which would you like?" After speaking, he generously let go of the sword in his hand.
He didnt speak angrily or fiercely, but bored and indifferent.
For a few seconds, there was complete silence.
Then, as if on cue, the entire bandit group let out a raucous wave of laughter.
"HAHAHA!! Boy, you are truly audacious, to say such words while not knowing your place!" The bandit leader looked at the young man again, his eyes roaming the young man's figure. " Haha, you're quite a good-looking one, aren't ya! You know, im not particularly choosy. So long as you can pleasure me I will generously forgive your earlier words! Dont be shy, boy. Come here and sit on this Uncle's lap! Hehe, dont expect I'll be gentle."
The bandit leader was truly a man with no scruples.
"Haha, that boy is dead. Or he'll wish he was."
"Indeed, to dare speak such arrogant words to the boss like that is simply asking for death."
" Right. However, his death wont be quick. The boss does like to toy with his prey first. That pretty boy there will become the boss' bitch for a while before he's done with him. "
The remarks of the bandits didnt even faze Roland. How could they? It was simply the barking of a group of dogs.
The young man, Roland, let out a sigh. " Well, you cant say I didnt give you a choice. " He looked at the villagers. " Take away the woman and children and leave. Once the screaming stops, you can come back."
He looked around. How odd, Roland thought. That elderly man from before seemed to have disappeared.
Well, no matter. Without another word, he released a heavy pressure that radiated from his body. Against such weak opponents, simply doing this was all it took for him to restrict their movements, making them unable to move even a muscle except to scream.
The bandits were inwardly in a moment of chaos.
They couldnt move!
No matter how they stained it was useless. They felt like a mountain was pressing down on them from all sides.
Simply breathing was a laborious task.
They couldnt comprehend what was happening,
Could it be that . . .the boy's words from before was not merely hot air?
Remembering the exact contents of the threats made them break out in a cold sweat.
The bandit boss on the other hand was furious.
This fucking brat, I'll kill him!
What the fuck is going on? I can even move! Shit!
He struggled and struggled but it was no use.
Goddammit, why . . .cant . . . I . . MOVE!!
Roland sighed once more. He had only wanted to take a leisurely walk and he finds such a situation before him. Well, he supposed it wasnt all bad. He would have some satisfaction dealing with scum like this.
Roland didnt appear like it, but he did have some sadistic tendencies now and then, especially when it came to trash such as this.
"Well, lets get ths done quickly then" He muttered
The villagers didnt move. They looked at the bandits and saw that they looked like statues, unmoving. The leader too, seemed lifeless, not moving at all. However, when they saw the young man raise a hand and start to pull out one of the bandit leader's eyes inch by inch, his hand red with blood and seeing none of the other bandits reacting at all, they quickly left.
They heard the most blood-curddling screams as they retreated deeper into the forest, screams that chilled them to their bones. However, the men all let out satisfied smiles.
They didnt understand exactly how the situation changed so fast or who that young man was, but they didnt really care.
The screams only stopped once the sun was nearly gone. After that, the sound of wolves could be heard in the distance.
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Roland was a scarlet mess by the time he was done, not a single inch of him remained clean. The metalic smell of blood seemed to have seeped into his very pores. However, he used a spell to clear the blood off his clothes. It was something he used often.
Although, his face still had drops of red on it. It was that, along with his cold azure eyes and the frightening smile upon his face, which gave him a distinctly demonic look.
He turned to glance at a shadowy figure several feet away.
"Why didnt you leave with the others?" He asked.
An old voice answered him. " I wanted to wait and thank you."
"You werent affected by the show i just put on?"
"Ridiculous. I almost vomited several times. I truly didnt expect you to actually go through with your words."
Roland shrugged. "Im not someone who makes threats lightly. Anyway, why didnt you do anything?"
The voice hesitated. " I'm afraid I dont know what you mean."
" Please. I know you aren't as weak as you pretend. You could definitely kill these guys easily. So im asking again, why didnt you do anything?"
The figure stepped forward slowly. It was the elderly man from before. " Well, because until now we have lived peacefully, undisturbed. You see, I was not originally part of the village and didnt want to cause a bloodbath, so i allowed these bandits to take a few things. I had kept a lot of reserve food and supplies in a hidden location, so that wasnt a problem. Even those buildings could be rebuilt. If the bandits had even a shred of decency and left us alone once they had what they wanted, i would have let them go.
But they even had thoughts of enslaving the others, and so I took action. But I didnt think that at the last moment someone would do the job of taking out the trash for me. Thank you for that. Anyway, If the others had seen me using my true power, they would obviously have questions for me. Especially my grandkids. I did nothing until they attacked because the only family this old man has left, I dont want them to see me as a killer." The elderly man responded evenly.
" Oh?You have some circumstances, dont you?" Roland felt he quite liked the elderly man. The man didnt seem arrogant and haughty like the other old experts Roland was acquainted with.
" Indeed. Suffice it to say, due to those certain circumstances, I angered some strong enemies and was forced to hide. After suffering injuries that left me weakened severly, I took my young grandchildren and hid here to recuperate. Though sadly im afraid my injuries were to serious and I now cannot exact revenge against those who wronged me and my kin." The old man smiled bitterly.
" I'm sorry to hear that. My name is Roland. Might I know Senior's name?" He was truly sorry for the old man, but it wasnt his business. If he was right, this wasnt a feud he had the right to get involved with anyway.
He kept a polite tone. After all, the man was older than him and had done him no wrong. There was no reason to be rude.
"Ah, my apologies. This one is named Leylin Bayl. You can call Ley."
Roland nodded smoothly. " Senior Ley it is then. A pleasure to meet you. Ah, excuse me. I must be getting back now. A shame my walk was ruined but I have to be getting back home soon. Also, dont worry, I will not mention any of this to anyone.". He gave a friendly smile.,
Leylin thought this Roland was quite something. Being able to act so normally like that after having commited such a merciless and cold method of torture. Even at his cruelest, Leylin would not have thought of such a gruesome method of torture. And he had commited his own fair share of sins and brutality. Leylin felt like this was a man who made for either a good friend or a terrible enemy.
" I thank you for your discretion. I trust you will keep your word."
The elderly man had a good impression of this Roland character.
He had no reason to trust that the boy would truly not speak of this, but the elderly man felt this was not somone who made empty promises. "Before you go, might I ask if you live someplace nearby? I only know of one place around here that an expert like you could be from, and I rarely see any of them coming out into a place like this, even for a mere stroll."
Roland didnt have anything to hide. " You probably guess right. I'm coming from the school not far from here. I took it upon myself to help a few kids out and a friend of mine is providing us lodgings. See, I had came to this world only recently and do not know my way around, so I can only accept my friend's goodwill. Well, for a price. I do have to teach some combat lessons in return, but that is not too difficult."
Ah, the old man thought. No wonder he sensed a bit of incongruity about the young man. Him not being of this world was not surprising to the old man. He had known many strong individuals who came from foreign worlds. Ever since the Pantheons had first tarrived on this world, such things were the norm.
Rather, he was more shocked that he was right about this young man being from that place. The school he talked of was a gathering of many different races of students with prestigious backgrounds, not one of them would be lacking in talent.
But for what reason would there be for them to learn combat? From Leylin's knowledge of before he was forced into hiding, the students there rarely recieved training such as that. Bluntly speaking, that talent of theirs had, until now, been wasted. Could something have changed?
Although, perhaps it isnt something to be suspicious about. After all, in the trillions of Major Planets and even in the Higher Planes, having personal stength was neccessary to survive. It was not as important here anymore, but that is only because the development of technology and such within the more populated areas had made monetary greed and materialism rise to new heights.
But having someone so young training monsters like that . . . How powerful exactly is this young man to have such qualifications?
Leylin knew that for long-lived races appearances can be decieving, but this Roland character was certainly not yet even over twenty. Leylin had much experience in dealing with long-lived races and so he knew how to accurately gauge a person's age. It was like an innate sense that was hard to describe, but he was never wrong before.
" I see. Well, I wont keep you from your business. I had left a doppleganger in my place but im afraid that it will disappear soon and the others will be coming back to start rebuilding."
"What will you do about any future bandit attacks?"
Leylin's eyes darkened. " There wont be any." His voice was hard, cold like steel. " I have been merciful and have not interfered before now, but no longer. I will simply have to wipeout the bandits in the area. Though im almost going to feel sorry for them. Not all bandits choose that lifestyle, most are only doing so to support their families or such in these troubled times. Few are like those bastards from before who have no morals. For bandits of the former category, I will give them a choice to help out and earn a place with us.
For the others . . . Well, I learned a thing or two from you i'm eager to try out. "
Roland smiled. " Well, good luck with that."
"Thank you. Ah, if you are ever in the area, feel free to stop by. Im sure the villagers will welcome the one who helped them."
" I merely did what I wanted to do, nothing more. But I'll keep that in mind. Now, if you'll excuse me. . ."
After finishing their talk, the two said their good-byes and parted ways.