Seeing the silver, tangible energy coating the obsidian blade made a devilish smile spread across Chris's face. This wasn't just mana reinforcement; this was the "Void-Severing" fuel he had been dreaming of. He felt as if the sword and his arm were a single, seamless entity.
"Finally," he whispered, his voice dropping an octave. "Let's see what the 'strongest' style can actually do."
He stepped into a wide clearing and took a low stance, the silver Ether hissing like a serpent.
"Void-Severing Style: First Form – Absolute Horizon."
With a movement too fast for the human eye to track, Chris swung. A crescent of silver light erupted from the blade, expanding horizontally for hundreds of meters. There was no sound of impact—only the eerie shing of the air itself being sliced. A second later, a hundred ancient trees, each wider than a house, slid perfectly off their trunks and crashed to the forest floor.
Chris didn't stop. He pivoted, his silver eyes glowing.
"Second Form – Celestial Turbulence."
He thrust the sword toward the sky. The silver energy spiraled upward, piercing the atmosphere. The humid, stagnant air of the forest was suddenly dragged into a vortex. Above the clearing, the clouds swirled into a localized hurricane, and the temperature plummeted.
He raised his hand for the third technique, then froze. The ground beneath him was vibrating. He could feel the sheer destructive intent building in the hilt.
"If I use the third one, half this forest is going to be a crater," Chris muttered, relaxing his grip. The silver energy receded into his skin. "I should leave soon. But first..."
He looked down at himself. He was wearing the tattered remains of leather and homespun cloth from a year and a half ago. "I can't exactly walk into a city looking like a feral caveman. I need real clothes."
The Tailor of the Void
Chris spent the next fifteen days in a different kind of battle: weaving. He gathered raw fibers from giant silk-spiders and cotton-like fluff from forest plants.
"Failure... again," he growled on day three, looking at a heap of tangled thread.
But his genius wasn't limited to combat. By day fifteen, using his 1st-circle mana threads to manipulate the fibers with surgical precision, he successfully crafted a pair of rugged black pants and a dark, high-collared shirt. They weren't high fashion, but they were durable and fit his growing frame perfectly.
"Huhu, now I look like a person again."
He realized with a jolt that another six months had passed. He was now nine years old, but his body—stressed by mana and gravity training—looked like that of a fourteen-year-old athlete.
"I'm still not confident about meeting humans," he admitted to Fen. "Socializing is a different kind of Disaster-class quest. And what about you?"
He looked at the wolf. Fen was huge, a mountain of black fur and quills. He couldn't just walk into Salvalon with a Disaster-class beast.
"I won't leave you behind to be hunted," Chris said, grabbing Fen's ears. "Before we go, I'm going to help you become the King of this forest. We're going to conquer every beast in here until no one dares touch you."
Fen let out a whimper, looking genuinely terrified at the intensity in Chris's eyes. But under Chris's "encouragement," the training began.
The Sixth Circle and the King
For the next year, the Whispering Void Forest became a war zone. Chris pushed Fen to fight A-Class beasts daily—giant serpents, armored panthers, and lightning-eagles. While Fen fought, Chris watched, realizing he had hit another wall.
"The novels only get me to the 5th Circle," Chris mused, sitting atop a cliff. "To reach the 6th, I can't copy a story. I have to create my own logic."
He closed his eyes, thinking about the physics of a storm. Static electricity, friction, the sudden discharge of energy. He didn't just want to cast lightning; he wanted to become the conductor.
One year later, the result was terrifying.
Fen stood over the corpses of three A-Class monsters, his fur matted with blood but his eyes burning with newfound authority. He had conquered everything but the S-Class guardians.
Chris, meanwhile, stood in the center of a lightning storm of his own making.
"6th Circle Original Magic: Eternal Thunderstorm."
A series of massive, blinding bolts struck the earth repeatedly around him, carving deep glass-filled pits into the sand. Chris jumped in the air, punching the sky.
"Yay! 6th-circle mage at age nine! Who's the genius? I am!"
The Rematch: Obsidian Horned Bear
Teaching Fen and practicing his own magic and swordsmanship has made Chris a powerfull individual,he is now a 6 circle quasi master and a Swordmaster. Three months ago, when Chris wasn't an 6th circle he fought the nightmare of a beast by using his sword techniques.
He had finally hunted the S-Class beast from Chris's first day: the Obsidian Horned Bear.
The fight had been a dance of death. Chris didn't use his 5th-circle magic; he used his sword. He moved through the bear's strikes like a ghost, his silver Ether-clad blade parrying claws that could crush boulders. With a single, concentrated thrust of the "Void-Severing" style, he had pierced the bear's mana-hardened hide and shattered its obsidian horn.
"I am super overpowered," Chris said, standing over the bear's remains.
But as the adrenaline faded, his old-world caution returned. He looked at his hands, then at the destruction around him.
"If I show all this power, I'll be labeled a demon or a monster. I'm a nine-year-old with the power of a 6th-circle mage and a sword-master. That's a death sentence if the Church or the Empires get scared."
He looked at his reflection in the bear's blood. He looked fourteen.
"I'll hide the magic," he decided. "I'll pretend to be a talented swordsman. Since I look fourteen, I can't use Ether in public yet. People would know I'm a freak. Once I actually hit thirteen or fourteen, I'll 'awaken' it officially. Until then, I'll rely on my physical strength and hidden spells."
He let out a loud, echoing laugh that rang through the trees.
"I survived this devilish forest as a six-year-old kid. I am now one of the strongest people on this continent. Salvalon isn't ready for me."
"Muahahahahahaha!"
Fen let out a howl, joining his master's dark celebration. The forest had a King, and the world was about to meet its greatest anomaly.