WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 120: Energy Wave!

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It began with an entirely casual question.

"Tyr. You said your bloodcraft weakened before, but your physical abilities improved instead, right? You knocked Nabi unconscious with one punch."

"I do not know why it happened, but that is what occurred."

"But your ability to control blood outside your body has weakened. Hmm... Isn't that dangerous? Your body may have become stronger, but since you cannot die anyway, isn't that rather useless?"

"That is true. Still, I can control darkness. Darkness is the ash left after life has been scorched by light. With that alone, I can summon Black Knights..."

"Those Black Knights are useless. They disappear if someone just waves a hand at them."

"...Originally, Black Knights became strong when enveloped in blood energy. Black Knights clad in blood energy could contend even with knights."

"You said you can't use blood energy outside your body anymore. Rallion is the only familiar that even resembles a proper familiar."

"...Ugh."

Tyr lowered her head, dispirited after being rebuked for her incompetence.

I could make the Progenitor hang her head with a few words. The Sanctum should bestow the title of Saint upon me.

"Imagine running into a military state army outside. Could you stop them with those Black Knights? Rallion would be the only one running around tirelessly."

"I, I have gained some strength too."

"Well, personal strength is nice. But that doesn't mean you can shake a nation or turn the tide of a war through your presence alone. Besides, you only gained this strength recently. You don't even know objectively how strong you are yet."

I pointed to the debris piled in one corner of the prison. A massive steel beam was half-buried in the floor.

"Let's see how strong you are, then. Do you think you can lift that steel beam?"

It was an enormous reinforced steel beam that had once supported the prison. Could she lift the huge alchemical-steel framework that held the concrete together and kept it from crumbling...

...What? Why was that there? Give it back.

"Yes. Of course I can."

"Huh? Wait..."

Wanting to prove her strength, Tyr strode toward the beam. Her small hands gripped it tightly.

'I must show Hyu my strength so he does not worry. Let him fully realize who stands behind him... Though, can I lift something this large with bloodcraft?'

Tyr lost confidence at the beam's size, then gripped it with all her strength.

Screeeech.

Steel crumpled and twisted. The alchemical steel the military state boasted about changed shape like clay before the girl's hands.

The thick beam, too large for even an adult man to grip with one hand, reshaped itself around the outline of her hand. Wherever she held it became a handle.

Then.

"Whoa!"

Rrrrrumble.

The ground shook violently. I steadied my staggering body and stared in horror.

No, wait. This wasn't even ground, so why was there an earthquake?

"Woof! Woof! Woof!"

"Meow! Meow!"

The animals sensed disaster first and ran out of the building.

"What? What's happening?"

The vibrations were so intense that even the regressor, who had been focused on training, came running out barefoot. Above us, the immortal was evacuating Callis to the rooftop.

Tyr, the cause of all this, was pulling the steel beam free from the floor. She was pulling the beam rooted in the concrete out with her bare hands.

The floor beneath Tyr's feet collapsed under the strain. Each time it did, the beam twisted and revealed more of its buried length. She looked like a farmer pulling up a weed.

Then, at one point.

Snap.

The beam, stretched to its limit, broke in half. At that instant, the shaking stopped, and Tantalus, which had been lifted along with its foundation, sank about two centimeters. The prison building made a brief but violent "landing" with a thud.

Tyr had accomplished something no human, not even heavy machinery, could manage. Raising the broken beam, she said weakly,

"...It seems my strength has certainly weakened. I could lift something this heavy with the darkness I created before... Yet it was difficult."

The regressor and I could only stare at Tyr with our mouths open.

I took Tyr to the classroom and rapped on the blackboard.

"Today, we'll learn about energy arts."

Bloodcraft was a type of energy art.

Qi arts were techniques used by energy practitioners to control their bodies.

By infusing energy into a sword to make its blade sharper and sturdier, redirecting impacts into the earth, or hardening their bodies, energy practitioners gained combat power on a completely different level from ordinary humans.

And from what I had observed...

"Tyr's bloodcraft is energy arts."

I explained it again.

"Strengthening the body through bloodcraft. Extending life, regenerative power... All of that was possible because Tyr's power was energy arts. But because of some event Tyr went through, her power became the kind that spread beyond her body and consumed the outside world. It returned to normal when she regained her heart."

The regressor was not surprised, since she already knew.

She had come down into the Abyss ahead of time to study it after realizing that it was a type of energy art based on understanding.

"Still, perhaps because Tyr regained her power so suddenly, she doesn't seem to know how to use all that overflowing strength. I have no talent for energy arts, so today I'll invite Shei as our guest instructor. Come on, applause!"

Clap clap clap.

I put the regressor to work and clapped enthusiastically.

The regressor I had called on just sat there blankly.

"I'm the guest instructor?"

"Yes!"

"That's strange. This is the first I've heard of it."

"That's because I'm telling you now."

'...It's strange. Nabi is the one smoking mana herbs, but sometimes that bastard looks crazier than Nabi...'

The regressor shook her head, looking troubled.

"What I learned isn't military-standard energy arts. It's difficult to explain, so you do it."

"Me? Um, even if I was top of my class at the junior military academy, I never attended officer academy, so I didn't learn energy arts..."

"There you go, lying naturally again. You can use energy arts."

The regressor responded without much emotion, as though she was used to it by now.

"You couldn't even touch Skywarbler's blade without energy arts."

"So?"

"That means you learned at least enough energy arts to deflect the Skywarbler I swung. Naturally, that means you can use energy arts."

'Was that why I mistook him for at least an officer...? No, he isn't an ordinary laborer, so it wasn't exactly a mistake. Anyway, that was what I thought.'

That was when she began overestimating me.

She was right. I could handle energy arts.

I could only handle them, though. My total energy and output were miserable. If I imbued even one card with energy, I'd be left wheezing like a weakling. I was a tiny person standing proudly at 0.1 between zero and one.

Honestly, deflecting Skywarbler had been an accident I could never repeat if asked to do it again. Still, I decided not to show it.

"If you put it that way, then it's only right for me to teach her."

Returning to the blackboard, I picked up a piece of chalk and began drawing.

"Now. Qi arts are generally divided into three types."

I drew the earth, a person, and the sky.

As I drew an arrow extending from the person's body, I said,

"Heaven. Scattering energy throughout all things in the world."

Next, I drew a line seeping from the person's feet into the ground.

"Earth. Releasing energy into the ground to firmly support one's body."

Finally, I depicted energy swirling inside the person's body.

"Water. Concentrating energy within oneself to transform the flesh."

Tap tap. I struck the blackboard twice with the chalk and turned around.

"Those are the basic classifications of energy arts. For reference, military-standard energy arts recommend learning Heaven, Earth, and Water in that order. Apparently, that's the easiest way to learn them."

Tyr tilted her head at the familiar terms.

"The teaching itself appears similar to what the Earth Mother's Taoists explained long ago."

"That's where it came from. But unlike the Taoists, who vaguely described the principles of the world and nature, energy arts are classified through a practical, analytical approach."

Seeing something once was better than hearing about it a hundred times. It would be much easier for her to understand if I showed her directly.

I didn't know if my meager energy arts would be enough, but I could at least try.

"Now, I'll show you some examples of how energy arts are used."

I took out a card and placed it face down in the middle of the teacher's desk. I hadn't planned to do magic today, so I hadn't prepared any other cards.

Instead, I extended my index finger and stopped it a short distance from the back of the card.

"Attracting energy. Absorption energy art."

The card resting on the desk trembled. When I exerted force, it stuck to my fingertip like a magnet.

I raised the card stuck to my finger.

"Repelling energy. Rebound energy art."

I hadn't even flicked my finger, but the card sprang into the air by itself. It spun through the air, then fell.

"These two are the basis of every application. Other uses are ultimately just variations of pushing and pulling. You can also wrap this energy around objects, not just your body."

I wrapped energy arts around the card. Then I lifted the hem of my clothes and sliced it once with the sharpened edge.

Rip.

The sharp edge of the card cut the hem of my clothes.

Tyr was amazed by my demonstration.

"Sword energy? Hyu, are you an expert? Goodness. I knew there was something unusual about you..."

"No, no. Anyone who's crossed the threshold of the senior officer academy can use this energy art. What knights used to call sword energy is really just a thin layer of rebound energy art wrapped around a blade."

A blade meant to cut something would inevitably stick to what it cut. Those who swung weapons always feared the dead. If the dead caught the weapon they had swung with full force and refused to let go, the next corpse would be their own.

But those who used sword energy were free from that restriction. A blade that cut through bone and muscle shook off everything clinging to it with rebound energy art and slipped free, so they did not fear those destined to die by their weapons.

That was how they became specialists in killing. That was why people called them experts.

Of course, it was an outdated concept now.

"Then does that mean anyone can wield sword energy these days? I thought the strength of an ordinary soldier was beyond reason..."

"That's right. I might have ruled the back alleys, but I was only somewhat famous. The real ones have learned energy arts far more advanced than that. Now do you understand why you need to learn how to use your strength?"

"I understand. If I do not strive even now, I feel I will be unable to protect not only you, but even myself. I will concentrate."

Tyr looked at me with firm determination.

The regressor, meanwhile, could only find it absurd.

'That's impossible! The ones who came down here were not soldiers, but officers. One was a magic officer, another was an adjutant to a general, and the last one was a general... No matter how I look at it, Tyrkanzyaka is far beyond even a general's level!'

The regressor seemed eager to speak, but seeing Tyr focus with blazing eyes, she changed her mind.

'Still, it has been good motivation for Tyrkanzyaka, so I should keep quiet for now.'

Why did the teacher and student think alike? Were we becoming alike?

"From what I can see, Tyr's power is an extreme form of Water energy art. She has an abundance of power, but she can't release it outside her body."

Having enough power but failing to use it was what the military state hated most.

The solution was simple, though.

"You need to practice firing your power outward."

"We intend to train because I cannot send my power outward. How am I supposed to practice?"

"Like this."

I curled the middle finger of my right hand against my thumb. It was the classic forehead-flicking posture.

With my left hand, I held the card far enough away that my fingers could not reach it. It was clearly beyond my finger's reach, so even if I flicked it, I wouldn't hit the card at all.

"Hup."

Yet when I flicked my finger, the card snapped backward with the sound of something striking it.

The energy arts scattered from my fingertip had struck the card away.

"Like that. Keep sending forehead flicks from a distance you can't reach, and you'll gradually get the feel for it."

This was the skill I developed flicking cards in the back alleys. What did she think?

Tyr stared closely at the card in wonder.

"Your finger clearly did not touch it... Yet you struck something far away. It is like a ranged palm blast."

"People used to call it that. Here, I'll give you a card, so try it."

Tyr placed the card beyond reach as I had done, then curled a finger of her other hand. She flicked it hard.

That was all she did.

Boom.

The air exploded like a bomb. The wind churned, and the card caught in the gust bent sharply backward. The escaping wind whipped my hair around.

"I succeeded!"

Tyr looked at me with a proud expression.

No, that was...

"That's actual wind pressure. Tyr, you're just too strong."

A card wouldn't work. I gave her a block of wood instead of the easily bent card. Tyr was dissatisfied at first, but soon became absorbed in practice.

Making her study on her own was so relaxing, both physically and mentally. I was quietly watching Tyr endlessly flick her fingers when the regressor spoke.

"Your theory is really thorough."

Maybe because it was familiar material, the regressor came up to me casually.

"I told you I was top of my junior military academy class."

"You dropped out. Then you're an elementary school graduate just like me, aren't you?"

"Hey. Are someone who never even crossed the threshold and someone who routinely ranked first before dropping out the same? That's ridiculous."

The regressor, who always scattered energy in every direction, had Skywarbler floating above her head as usual.

Skywarbler, a weightless sword, was greatly affected by energy arts. Push it away with rebound energy art, and it flew off. Pull it with absorption energy art, and it stuck to you.

The regressor keeping Skywarbler floating above her head was itself a type of training. Keeping it balanced without pushing or pulling it was impossible without delicate control.

I had been able to flick Skywarbler away with my finger because of energy arts. My energy might have been only a handful, but Skywarbler was so light that even a brief burst of energy could shove it away.

If it had been made of steel... Ugh, I didn't even want to imagine it. A one-armed magician.

"You're impressive, top student. But why didn't you teach the remaining one?"

"The remaining one?"

"You know. Heaven, Earth, Water. The one after that."

The ideal of all energy arts. The ultimate state said to surpass even magic and reach godhood.

The regressor calmly brought up that level, one too dangerous to mention lightly.

"Li, the Fire branch."

'A legendary realm that even I have not reached... and one that even renowned experts can only touch, never grasp.'

She herself considered it a legendary realm, yet she wanted to teach this to a beginner? It was like teaching a child who had only just learned to walk how to drive an automatic carriage.

"The state where energy arts reach the principles and warp the world? There's no need to teach that now. Even if you taught it, it isn't something you can simply learn. It's different for every person, so there isn't even a standard."

"But some people can use it."

"Will we ever meet an energy practitioner who has reached the principles in our lives? And even reaching them doesn't make someone invincible. I think Tyr could win."

What was the point of warping the world? Tyr could endure it with her body, get close, and kill them with one punch.

Even if someone reached the realm of gods, if they were a weakling, Tyr's fist would send their head flying. These days, even gods could not survive if they were weak.

The regressor didn't hide her disappointment at my textbook answer.

"It seems you don't have any clues either."

"You have clues? If you do, I'd like to see them. I want to seize them too and wield some amazing power."

"...That's true."

It was then, as the regressor muttered bitterly.

Tyr, who had been flicking her fingers alone, called me as though she had figured something out.

"Hyu. I have found a method."

"What? Already?"

Bloodcraft already filled her entire body, but even so, in that short a time?

"Go ahead. Show us."

"Watch closely. I have adapted the way I once used my original bloodcraft..."

Tyr pressed the tip of her finger with her nail. The flesh compressed slightly, and blood seeped from the tip.

Then Tyr flicked her finger hard.

The world split in half.

For an instant, my retinas clearly caught a fan-shaped wave of fresh blood spreading out before me. Blood shot from Tyr's finger swallowed nearly half the classroom.

But by the time I blinked, that blood energy had already returned inside Tyr's body.

Even after reading her thoughts, the sight seemed like an illusion.

Yet the completely shattered block of wood told me what had just happened was real.

If she had flicked her finger in my direction... Wow. Tyr and I would have become one, in the physical sense.

"My blood energy does not wish to travel far from my body. Still, is this not useful enough?"

This was just... shooting her own blood and flesh by flicking them.

That wasn't the energy arts I knew.

I forced my trembling body to move and nodded. My mouth refused to close for a long time.

Footnotes:

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