Chapter 125
The morning sun found Lucas already seated inside the cultivation room with his legs crossed and his eyes closed while the runes covering the stone walls pulsed softly around him.
Ambient mana flowed continuously into the chamber before condensing within the enclosed space until the air itself felt thick and heavy.
His gravity weights rested in a pile near the corner because he had removed them before beginning cultivation, and without their constant pressure, his body felt strangely light.
He had already spent three hours cultivating.
With every slow breath, Lucas could feel mana circulating smoothly through his pathways before returning to his enlarged mana core.
He had already reached the Peak of the Silver Stage with his new core, and his control over mana had advanced to a level that would have seemed impossible only a year earlier.
Every thread of energy moved exactly where he intended.
Nothing leaked.
Nothing resisted him.
Even the runes surrounding him reacted faintly to his presence as though resonating with the rhythm of his mana circulation.
The door to the cultivation room opened quietly.
Aris stepped inside barefoot, his movements nearly silent against the cold stone floor.
He had slept inside the room exactly as Lucas suggested, wrapped in a thin blanket with a pillow Tracy had brought him during the night.
Lucas slowly opened his eyes and looked toward him.
"You are awake early," he said calmly.
Aris walked across the room before sitting opposite him and crossing his legs comfortably. "I could not sleep any longer. The mana in this room is too dense. It feels like being submerged underwater."
Lucas nodded slightly. "That is intentional. The denser the mana becomes, the faster your core absorbs it. If you remain consistent, you should reach the Iron Stage within the week."
Aris nodded once before closing his eyes.
A moment later, he began cultivating.
The mana inside the room responded immediately, drifting toward him in slow streams that followed the rhythm of his breathing and willpower.
Lucas quietly observed the process while sensing Aris's mana core expanding little by little with every circulation cycle.
By Lucas's standards, the progress was not particularly fast.
However, considering Aris's upbringing and lack of proper resources before arriving at the estate, his improvement remained remarkable.
The two of them cultivated in silence for another two hours while the morning sun climbed steadily higher outside.
Eventually, Lucas opened his eyes again and exhaled slowly before rising to his feet. Sweat covered both of their bodies, and the mana inside the room had noticeably thinned after hours of constant absorption.
"That is enough for now," Lucas said while stretching his arms above his head. "We should eat before training."
Aris stood as well, though his legs wobbled slightly after remaining seated for so long.
"What did you eat when you were at my stage?" he asked while steadying himself.
Lucas thought for a moment before answering. "Everything. My body was constantly rebuilding itself because of training, so I was always hungry. I ate five meals a day, sometimes six, and I still lost weight."
Aris laughed quietly. "I already eat four meals every day. I suppose I will need to add another."
The two of them left the cultivation room and walked toward the manor kitchen, where Tracy had already prepared breakfast for them. Plates of food rested beneath cloth coverings to preserve the heat, while a pot of tea still released steam into the air.
There was roasted meat, bread, cheese, and strong tea.
Neither of them spoke much while eating.
The food was simple, but after hours of cultivation, it tasted far better than usual.
Once breakfast ended, they returned to the training grounds.
Lucas began fastening his gravity weights back onto his body piece by piece, and faint cracks spread beneath his feet as the runes engraved into the equipment activated again.
He moved into his warm-up forms immediately afterward.
Every movement was slow and deliberate.
When he threw a punch, the air shifted visibly from the force behind it. When he kicked, pressure rippled outward strongly enough to scatter loose grass and dust across the ground.
Despite the immense force hidden within each strike, his movements remained controlled because the entire purpose of training with weights was precision rather than destruction.
Power without control was meaningless.
Aris watched quietly while his Ore senses followed the flow of mana through Lucas's body.
Lucas felt like a storm.
Mana surged through him in dense currents that constantly circulated beneath his skin while gravity runes pressed down against his muscles and bones.
The force inside him was chaotic and violent, yet somehow restrained perfectly beneath absolute discipline.
There was something strangely beautiful about it.
After several moments, Aris picked up his own katana and began practicing his forms nearby.
His movements were slower than Lucas's, and his techniques were simpler, but there was visible improvement compared to a week earlier.
His footwork had become steadier, his strikes cleaner, and his Ore senses now guided the movement of his blade with increasing precision.
He could feel himself improving with every repetition.
The two of them trained side by side for more than an hour before eventually beginning their sparring session.
Lucas restrained himself heavily from the start because the gap between them remained enormous. If he used his true speed or strength, the fight would end immediately.
Instead, he adjusted himself to Aris's level.
Their blades collided almost instantly.
Ting. Ting. Ting.
The sharp metallic sounds echoed rhythmically across the training grounds as Aris pressed forward with a rapid series of strikes aimed toward Lucas's shoulders and ribs.
Lucas calmly redirected the first slash with his katana before stepping slightly to the side to avoid the second attack entirely.
When Aris transitioned into a third upward strike, Lucas rotated his wrist and blocked the blade cleanly before guiding the impact away from his body.
Aris continued attacking without hesitation.
His movements were faster than before, and there was greater confidence behind each swing. He shifted his footing sharply before lunging forward again, attempting to force Lucas backward through constant pressure.
Lucas allowed him to maintain the momentum.
Whenever Aris attacked, Lucas responded with minimal movement, conserving energy while forcing the blind swordsman to continue adapting.
He blocked one strike near his shoulder before pivoting around the next attack and narrowly avoiding the blade by leaning backward.
When Aris attempted a horizontal slash toward his waist, Lucas lowered his katana and intercepted it smoothly before stepping outside Aris's range.
The exchange continued without pause.
Steel clashed repeatedly while grass bent beneath their movements.
Aris's breathing gradually became heavier.
His muscles burned.
But he refused to stop pressing forward because winning was never the goal.
He wanted improvement.
He wanted to push himself until he found the edge of his limits and forced his body beyond them.
Lucas understood that completely.
That was why he refused to counterattack seriously.
Instead of overwhelming Aris, he allowed him to continue attacking while exposing flaws naturally through movement and positioning.
Whenever Aris overextended, Lucas avoided the strike just enough to force him off balance. Whenever his footwork became unstable, Lucas shifted angles and forced him to readjust.
It was training.
Not battle.
Eventually, Aris stepped backward while breathing heavily, and his arms trembled from exhaustion.
"I cannot keep up," he admitted between breaths.
Lucas lowered his katana slightly before answering. "You are not supposed to keep up. You are supposed to improve, and you are improving. Your strikes are faster than yesterday, and your footwork is becoming cleaner."
Aris finally lowered his sword before dropping onto the grass.
His chest rose and fell heavily while exhaustion spread through his body.
"How long did it take you to reach the Silver Stage?" he asked.
Lucas sat across from him, and the weights attached to his body clinked softly as he settled down.
"A little over a year after I started training seriously," he answered. "But I had advantages you do not."
"Your eyes," Aris said quietly.
Lucas nodded once. "My eyes and my bloodline."
Silence settled briefly between them before Aris spoke again.
"I do not feel impressive," he admitted. "Most of the time, I feel like I am barely keeping my head above water."
Lucas looked toward him calmly. "That is what progress feels like. If becoming strong were easy, everyone would achieve it. The difficulty is proof that you are moving forward."
Aris laughed tiredly. "You always know exactly what to say."
Lucas smiled faintly. "I have spent years telling myself the same things."
The two of them sat quietly for a while afterward while clouds drifted slowly across the sky above them and wind moved through the trees surrounding the estate.
Eventually, Aris broke the silence again.
"Can I ask you something?"
Lucas nodded.
"Why do you train this hard? You are already stronger than almost everyone our age. Even if you stopped now, you would still remain one of the best."
Lucas remained silent for several moments before finally answering.
"Because stopping is not an option." His voice remained calm and matter-of-fact. "There are people in this world who are far stronger than me, and some of them are enemies I will eventually have to face. If I stop improving, I will die when they come for me."
He paused briefly before continuing.
"And honestly, I love the feeling of becoming stronger every day. At some point, improvement itself became addictive."
Aris considered the answer carefully before asking another question.
"Who are these enemies?"
"Some of them have names," Lucas replied quietly. "Some of them do not. Some stand openly in the light where the world can see them, while others hide so deeply in the shadows that nobody even knows they exist."
"And what are they waiting for?"
Lucas only smiled faintly without answering further.
Aris understood immediately and did not ask anything else.
The two of them resumed training again during the afternoon before continuing once more during the evening.
By the time the sun disappeared beneath the horizon, exhaustion weighed heavily on both of them.
Lucas's muscles screamed beneath the constant pressure of his rune-enhanced weights, while Aris's body burned from repeated sparring and cultivation.
Eventually, they sat together on the grass while stars slowly appeared overhead one by one.
Neither of them spoke for several minutes.
Finally, Lucas rose to his feet slowly.
"I am returning to the cultivation room," he said. "You should join me."