Chapter 312 – Fishing for Mages is Going Well (1)
Claude stepped forward as the representative and asked,
“What kind of training are you talking about?”
There was already plenty of work to handle, so why was he asking for help with training on top of that? Until now, the lord had always trained alone. The only time he had done anything resembling group training was during his sparring sessions with Gillian.
Ghislain spoke nonchalantly, as if it were no big deal.
“Just keep doing what you’re doing and instruct the knights to ambush me. I won’t counterattack, nor will I hold them accountable for their attacks. However, they must suppress their mana or avoid using it altogether. Naturally, I won’t use mine either.”
He was spouting madness again. Amidst the group’s collective blinking and silence, Belinda
asked,
“Young Lord? What kind of training are you planning to do now?”
“It’s part of the training I’ve been doing before. To put it simply, I’m trying to increase my physical defenses by enduring attacks.”
“…Usually, that kind of thing ends with severe injuries. You should know that much at your level.”
“It’s fine. You’re aware of my recovery abilities, aren’t you? This is just a matter of slightly raising the intensity of my training.”
“Don’t do it. If you face attacks without properly using mana, it’s dangerous.”
Once someone reaches the level of being able to utilize mana consciously, their body naturally becomes tougher, even without actively enveloping themselves in mana. Their entire body passively absorbs small amounts of mana, which sharpens their senses and improves their physical abilities.
For someone of Ghislain’s caliber, his body would undoubtedly have far more mana accumulated within it than most knights.
But even that had its limits. Human skin was more fragile than one might think, and without proper mana usage, defending against steel weapons was impossible.
Despite Belinda’s protests, Ghislain shook his head.
“No, I need this right now. It won’t take long. Just a few days of it should suffice.”
“Why are you even doing this?”
“I feel like my senses will ascend to the next level if I push just a little further.”
Ghislain’s current training progress was at a halfway point. With just a little more effort, he felt he might reach a stage where he could endure mana-infused attacks from novice knights with his body alone.
However, his self-inflicted training to make his body instinctively react to attacks had hit a wall.
The issue was that his mind already knew where he intended to strike before he even attacked. Now, just thinking of stabbing a specific point caused mana to gather in that area automatically.
‘This isn’t right. Reacting because I know it’s coming defeats the purpose.’
The ultimate goal was to instinctively block and counterattack any sudden ambush, no matter where or when it occurred.
He had considered asking the dwarves to craft some sort of training device, but even that would eventually fall into predictable patterns, making it insufficient to meet his goals. After all, the best training was real combat. And if that wasn’t feasible, it at least needed to simulate combat as closely as possible.
Belinda clicked her tongue at Ghislain’s absurd training plan.
“Can’t you just take better care of yourself for once? Who here would even dare attack you, Young Lord?”
This estate belonged to Ghislain. Who would comfortably raise a hand against their lord?
“Quite a few people, I’d imagine.”
At Ghislain’s words, Claude nodded in agreement. But Belinda continued to oppose the idea.
“No! I won’t allow it! If you get even a single scratch, I won’t let it slide. Got it?”
At her warning, Ghislain responded playfully.
“Belinda, why don’t you give it a shot? If you manage to injure me, I’ll get you a ‘Shar’nel.’”
“Young Lord! Stop joking about such dangerous things!”
Whoosh!
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
Dozens of daggers shot out from various parts of Belinda’s body.
Startled, Ghislain immediately activated his mana. The force behind the attack was too intense to avoid using it.
Clang-clang-clang!
He deflected some of the daggers with his hands and dodged others by leaning back.
Once all the daggers had fallen, Ghislain stared at Belinda with an incredulous expression.
She averted her gaze slightly and muttered,
“Well… It’s just that… you weren’t listening, so I got a little annoyed and wanted to end it quickly… It’s not like I really wanted anything… Oh, you even managed to block that.”
“…”
Ironically, Belinda had been the first to strike. With that, no one else could voice their opposition.
Clearing his throat, Ghislain turned to Gillian and said,
“If everyone attacks me recklessly, the training won’t be effective. So, select a few people each day to carry out ambushes during our drills. Offer a gold coin as a reward if they manage to wound me.”
“…Understood.”
Gillian considered stopping him but sighed instead.
There was no point in trying to dissuade him Ghislain would push ahead regardless.
Thus, the “Ambush the Lord Training” began. At first, the knights hesitated, but they soon started enjoying attacking Ghislain.
True to his word, Ghislain didn’t retaliate. He dodged only when he deemed an attack too dangerous, allowing weaker strikes to land on his body.
And he did it all while suppressing his mana as much as possible.
Even so, no matter how resilient he was, Ghislain began to sustain injuries. Anyone who managed to wound him was rewarded immediately.
Getting gold coins for hitting him? No one could resist such an enticing proposition.
“It’s here! My gold coin!”
“Today, it’s my turn!”
“A chance to beat up the lord!”
Some knights even mixed in a bit of personal grudge, but regardless of their motivations, they threw themselves into attacking Ghislain with enthusiasm.
Since they couldn’t follow him around all day, each knight was given one chance per day to ambush him.
The limitation made the methods of ambush more cunning as time went on. Without any instructions, the knights began behaving like assassins.
Some lay in wait along Ghislain’s usual routes, ambushing him from hiding. Others struck suddenly while he was in the middle of work.
“Huh, this is having unexpected benefits,” Ghislain remarked with a pleased smile.
The knights’ skills were improving significantly. Their genuine attempts to hide and ambush him paid off, as they discussed strategies and exchanged advice with one another.
This outcome was exactly what Ghislain had hoped for. His training was meant to develop his ability to block attacks he wasn’t consciously aware of.
‘I need to dull my senses further.’
The issue, however, was Ghislain’s heightened senses. Because of the vast skill gap, he could still detect where his opponents were hiding, which reduced the effectiveness of the ambushes.
To truly benefit from the training, he had to blunt his perception as much as possible and let the attacks land.
Swoosh!
Suddenly, Gordon appeared and slashed Ghislain’s arm, grinning with satisfaction.
“Heh, I’ve gotten a lot better, haven’t I?”
“Hm, not bad,” Ghislain replied calmly.
“You’ve got a wound, so you owe me some money.”
“Yeah, keep it up.”
‘Heh, success!’ Gordon thought gleefully.
Ghislain had instructed them to suppress their mana as much as possible, but many knights subtly infused mana into their attacks. After all, they desperately wanted the reward, and wounds were becoming harder to inflict as the days went by.
Ghislain, however, let it slide. He actually welcomed this development his body was struggling to keep up as the knights increased the mana in their strikes.
It wasn’t easy. If he was struck too quickly, mana couldn’t gather in time to block the attack, resulting in injuries.
‘My body needs to react faster.’
In a state of heightened awareness, Ghislain had no problem. He could dodge attacks before they landed or use mana to block them.
But with his senses deliberately dulled, even when he detected an attack and mana surged to protect him, there was a limit. He still couldn’t block attacks above a certain threshold.
‘Hmm… Should I raise the intensity again?’
His body needed to sense life-threatening danger to adapt and evolve. Since the training began, he had seen some improvement, but there was still a long way to go.
Every day, he wandered the estate, immersed in his thoughts. One day, as he strolled as usual, someone suddenly stepped in front of him.
“What is it?”
It was Ascon who blocked his path. With a smug expression, he said,
“May I have a shot as well?”
“Hm? You don’t know how to use mana.”
At this point, ordinary attacks were no longer enough to easily wound Ghislain. Even though he suppressed his mana consciously, weapons without mana barely grazed his skin.
That level of attack wasn’t enough to trigger a survival response or elicit a proper reaction from his body.
Yet Ascon seemed determined.
“Why should only the knights get a chance? I want to try too.”
“Alright, give it a go.”
“You’re really allowing it?”
“I said yes, didn’t I?”
“Then I’ll attack with a mental assault.”
“…?”
Before Ghislain could respond, Ascon’s mouth opened.
“Hey, you damn piece of crap! Because of you, I almost croaked eating nothing but powdered rations at my age, you miserable little! You son of a! You live like there’s no tomorrow, don’t you, you crazy bastard? You creatively insane lunatic, you!”
“…”
Ghislain stood there, stunned, as Ascon’s barrage of profanity, insults, and unparalleled verbal creativity continued uninterrupted.
A relentless stream of vile curses spilled out of Ascon’s mouth, some even tinged with an odd sense of resentment.
Behind Ghislain, who chuckled in disbelief, Belinda stormed in with a face like a vengeful spirit, having heard the news.
Ascon, alongside his exclamation of curses, was promptly dragged away by the soldiers and thrown into prison.
As if nothing had happened, Ghislain’s training continued.
When the pace of progress seemed too slow, Ghislain increased the number of participants and the frequency of ambushes allowed. He also eased the restrictions on mana usage.
From then on, the knights attacked Ghislain even more boldly.
Ghislain began taking dangerous attacks head-on. At times, he sustained serious injuries and had to be carried away, and once, his arm nearly got severed entirely.
“Young Lord! Please stop this madness!”
“My Lord, this is becoming far too dangerous.”
“This isn’t training; it’s self-destruction.”
Belinda and the other retainers started to plead with him to stop. Ghislain’s body was already covered in scars, and as the number of injuries increased, his recovery speed slowed.
But Ghislain stood firm.
“No, I can feel my senses improving.”
The body never lied. The changes had started when he first suffered a stab to the heart.
Even without conscious effort, his body now maintained a constant state of tension. With each attack he endured, the speed at which mana gathered at the point of impact grew faster.
His senses had become impossibly sharp. Even when deliberately suppressing them, they were far more refined than before.
What’s more, unexpected effects began to emerge.
‘This is…’
Every day, he was injured and subjected to attacks. Having faced death multiple times, his body had begun adapting to survive.
There was a natural limit to how fast mana could move from his core. It could only accelerate to a certain degree.
In response, his body started circulating mana in small amounts throughout itself preemptively.
Even without conscious effort, his body was now achieving an effect similar to activating the 1st core stage across his entire body.
‘Hah, so it’s possible after all.’
This was a technique Ghislain had conceptualized and even attempted in the past.
However, continuously activating mana throughout the body led to constant depletion. To replenish the lost mana, one needed to practice energy cultivation or take sufficient rest.
Although someone at Ghislain’s level could recover a bit through controlled breathing, eventually, his mana reserves would deplete entirely.
There was also the issue of needing to consciously manage the mana flow.
‘That’s why I was just focusing on reaction speed before.’
But now, mana was moving autonomously to protect his body.
Even more astonishing, his body was replenishing the depleted mana bit by bit breathing it in through his skin and respiratory system, almost as if it were second nature.
The absorption rate was minuscule compared to proper cultivation, but it was happening nonetheless.
When facing life-or-death situations daily, the human body could achieve astounding levels of evolution.
‘I’ll need to tweak my cultivation method.’
He could now feel how mana was moving through his body. By utilizing this knowledge, he could refine his cultivation technique further.
‘If this works… I might even be able to increase the number of cores beyond what I achieved in my past life.’
In his past life, five cores had been his limit. The strain on his body and the rapid depletion of mana both made it impractical to create more.
Even with just five cores, Ghislain had risen to the pinnacle of power as one of the Seven Strongest on the Continent, a position so supreme that finding a rival was near impossible.
Now, however, he felt that with this newfound realization, he could surpass that limit.
“This is good.”
Ghislain let out a satisfied laugh. A training session born from a moment of inspiration had opened the door to new possibilities for his future growth.
As his body became accustomed to the autonomous circulation of mana from the 1st core stage, the results were remarkable.
“Here I am again today!”
Ten knights suddenly appeared, swinging their swords at Ghislain from all directions.
The blades of their swords were faintly wrapped in a blue glow.
The attacks were typical of novice knights nothing more than what Ghislain had already endured countless times.
Because Ghislain had been suppressing his mana, even attacks of this level had previously managed to wound him.
As always, Ghislain didn’t draw upon his mana this time either. He simply braced himself to take the hits, as usual.
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
“…?”
The knights, confident they had landed successful blows, froze in confusion.
Why did it sound like they were striking steel instead of human flesh?
The knights, inspecting the situation, blurted out in shock.
“What… What the hell?!”
“How is this possible?!”
“You’re using mana, aren’t you? You said you wouldn’t!”
Ghislain’s body was unharmed. His clothes were torn, but his skin didn’t bear even the smallest scratch.
Hearing the outcry, Ghislain casually glanced over himself before nodding.
“Hm. This will do for now.”
His body had reached a state where the 1st core stage was always active, even without conscious effort. That’s why the knights’ attacks couldn’t penetrate his defenses.
Of course, the knights hadn’t gone all out. They had only used the level of strength typical of a novice knight’s attack. If they had truly unleashed their full power, they could have inflicted serious wounds.
“From today onward, the ambush training ends.”
There was no need to continue practicing against surprise attacks. Though still rudimentary, he had established a new foundation.
What remained now was to further develop and strengthen this foundation, eventually reaching a state where the 2nd and 3rd core stages could activate autonomously and even aiming beyond that.
The announcement of the training’s end left the knights with mixed emotions.
‘Ah, those extra earnings were nice while they lasted.’
‘If only it had gone on a bit longer.’
‘Even hitting the lord felt oddly satisfying.’
While many were simply disappointed to lose their source of amusement, that wasn’t the only reason. Watching Ghislain walk away casually, the knights shared a common thought.
‘He’s turning into a monster.’
What they had initially dismissed as insane training had proven to be astonishingly effective.
Some knights even wondered if they should try it themselves, but they quickly shook their heads.
Such madness was only possible for someone like their lord.
The development of the estate was progressing smoothly. There was no shortage of work, but when had Fenris ever been free of tasks?
Having done this several times before, everyone had become adept at their roles, ensuring the process moved without any significant issues.
Old residential areas were being demolished, villages consolidated, and fortresses strengthened. Workshops were being expanded, and plans were underway to use Desmond’s abundant resources more efficiently.
Road construction was also ongoing. The more roads were built, the faster resources could be transported, dramatically accelerating the pace of development compared to before.
Of course, this didn’t mean there were no problems.
Claude, buried under a mountain of paperwork, was grappling with a pressing issue.
“Ugh… We’re still short on administrators.”
The retainers from Desmond’s estate had all been executed.
Through thorough interrogation and investigation, they had managed to sift out a few lower-level officials who were competent enough to keep. But with the vast size of the territory and the sheer volume of tasks, it was inevitable that they were understaffed.
“Sigh, where am I supposed to poach more people from now?”
Rumors about him had already spread throughout the Seiron Academy, making it unlikely he could recruit anyone from there. He would have to look elsewhere for talent.
“For now, we absolutely cannot take on more work.”
Even now, everyone was overworked, each person handling the workload of ten. If they tried to take on anything more, things would spiral out of control.
The lord seemed to have no new projects in mind lately and was focused solely on his training. At this pace, they could concentrate on training the soldiers and furthering the estate’s development without worry.
Claude had just begun to feel reassured when one day, Ghislain suddenly burst into his office and declared,
“I’ve decided to start a new project.”
“…”
“I’m establishing the Fenris Magic Research Institute and forming a Magic Corps.”
Claude’s face instantly twisted into a grimace.