WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reincarnation of the Sword Demon

Chapter 30

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I Get the Gist

Mana Stones are crystallized mana, found in nature or secret realms. Not as pure as the mana inside a spirit resonator. Under normal circumstances, even someone with no cultivation technique mastered couldn't draw mana out of a mana stone no matter how hard they pressed their hands against one.

Even with a cultivation technique, it wasn't really recommended. If you wanted to rapidly build up the mana in your body, taking an Elixir was far more efficient. Mana stone mana had poor conversion. Mana stones were mostly used in spells that drew on external mana, or in enchanted tools.

But Kyle's hand reached for the mana stone without a trace of hesitation. Inefficient, sure. That didn't mean only mages could use it.

Five hundred years ago, that was how things worked. The Dark Age. By today's standards you'd call it a primitive era. Spirit roots, circuits, Mana Cultivation Techniques, none of it existed. Mages were rare, let alone enchanted tools. In that world, mana stones were a kind of doping.

Kyle's body now had an awakened spirit root, open circuits, and an unlocked middle dantian, the heart-center. Close enough, all things considered, to what the Sword Demon had been when he first received the Blessing of Mana in his past life.

The core was smaller, yes. But the conditions were close enough.

Kyle closed his eyes and held the mana stone, turning his awareness inward toward the core of his middle dantian.

Mana from the stone immediately began seeping into his palm. Rough, wild mana. It flowed through circuits that had been opened alongside his spirit root awakening, without having been forged by his own effort.

Like tiny razor fragments dragged through the veins. Any ordinary child would have screamed and blacked out. Kyle smiled instead, the corner of his mouth twitching upward. Pain like this brought his past life's memories rising up, vivid and fresh.

Hm.

He was guiding the mana toward the middle dantian, just as his past experience dictated, when a crushing pain seized the lower dantian. The damned thing was screaming with hunger. Kyle pushed it aside for now and kept directing the mana stone's mana toward the middle dantian.

"Ngh."

His breath caught. This went far beyond hunger. His mouth fell open on its own, forcing air out.

Forging paths through the body with mana, expanding the core, that kind of pain he had lived with so long in his past life that it barely registered. But this was different. It wasn't the dantian being wrung out. It was the circuits themselves, no, his very soul, seized by an invisible hand and twisted.

Burst! The mana he'd been pushing toward the middle dantian reversed course and scattered out of his entire body in a faint spray of particles.

What was that?

He sat back, catching his breath, one hand pressed to his lower abdomen.

Mana backlash? Me?

Absurd. He closed his eyes and checked his body from the inside. The pain had gone with the expelled mana. Kyle frowned and thought it through.

I get the gist.

His lower dantian was completely empty. Try to develop the middle one first, and his body pushed back.

Arms crossed, he kept turning it over.

In his past life, there had been no such thing as a lower dantian. But this body had one, and it was open.

By any current standard, this shouldn't have been possible. His body had defied the natural order. The moment the spirit resonator shattered, the pure mana that burst free had been guided, by the instinct and experience of his past life, straight to the middle dantian. That was how the middle dantian opened first.

So that's it. His body was reading this as an imbalance.

Just a theory, of course, and since there was no precedent, there was no one to ask.

Kyle made up his mind, stood, and opened the door.

Arian was nowhere in sight. A servant told him she was in the back garden, communing with her spirit. He should at least let her know before he left. Kyle headed for the back garden.

"Son?"

Arian turned in surprise, one hand still resting on the beak of the large spirit he'd glimpsed earlier.

"What's wrong? You said you needed to think things through in your room. Are you done already?"

"I'm going to the Great Archive."

He said it, paused a moment, then added, "I might not come back today."

"What?! Why?!"

"I want to look at some books there."

"You're going to stay up all night in the archive?!"

"Yes."

Arian's mouth worked silently at the blunt answer. Her son had never once slept away from her, not in his entire life, and now that he'd turned ten he was announcing it just like that. The Great Archive was still inside the Sword Tower, so it wasn't truly an overnight stay. But still.

"I... okay."

Every part of her wanted to tell him no, but his expression was too resolute to fight. She hadn't managed to talk him out of anything in front of Julius either, where he'd held his ground and spoken his mind plainly before someone the whole world revered. She wasn't confident she could change his mind now, and honestly, she wasn't sure she wanted to.

From today, there was no mistaking it: her son was becoming a martial warrior of Alastor. She couldn't keep him tucked under her wing forever. Arian let out a short, quiet sigh.

"Don't worry too much. If I finish early, I'll come home."

"I... okay."

She could go to the Great Archive too, but she had no desire to get in his way. From the look on his face, he was after something specific.

"Oh, wait, Kyle. Zephie says it wants to tell you something."

"Zephie? Who's that?"

"My contracted spirit. Its real name is Zephyros, but... that's not very cute, so I've been shortening it to Zephie."

Arian smiled a little awkwardly and turned toward the spirit.

[Son of Arian. If you wish for the wind, whisper to it first. There is no wind in this world that would ignore your whisper.]

A large bird with six wings. Its expression was difficult to read, but its voice was extraordinarily gentle.

"The wind..."

Kyle gave a small nod, then headed for the Great Archive on the second floor.

Nelia the librarian was already back. She rose from her chair with a knowing smile, as if she'd been expecting him.

"What book are you here for?"

"A Mana Cultivation Technique."

Just as she had the first time he came to the archive, Nelia took his hand and led him to the shelves.

"Every book in this section is a tier-three Mana Cultivation Technique. And the sword technique manuals are over there."

She didn't explain further, but the shelves she hadn't pointed to must have held other martial texts and spellbooks. Kyle looked around at the vast rows and asked, "Is there one you'd recommend?"

"My, I didn't expect you to ask for a recommendation."

"I'm not going to start practicing right away. Just browsing as a reference."

Nelia's hand rested briefly on his head.

"The Family Head said he wanted to leave your potential open to any direction, but in his heart he's hoping you'll lean into your lightning spirit root first. Should I recommend something along those lines?"

"Sure, that's fine."

"What level would you like?"

Children who had just awakened their spirit root normally started with basic methods and worked their way up from the ground. Kyle answered without hesitating.

"Tier three."

"That might be beyond your understanding at this stage...?"

"I'll read through it and see."

For a child with so little of the childish in him, the stubborn look he wore right now was almost endearing.

Nelia raised one finger, and a thick book slid itself free from the shelf.

"This technique is called the Revolving Heaven Strike. An excellent Mana Cultivation Technique for the lightning spirit root."

"Sword techniques could have multiple styles under the same name. Is it the same for cultivation techniques?"

"Cultivation techniques are different from sword techniques. The circuits that open vary depending on the grade of the spirit root, but there are still circuits that open regardless. A high-level technique like the Revolving Heaven Strike aims to chart out the necessary circuits while gradually filling the lower dantian."

Once all the circuits the author intended had been mapped and the lower dantian completed, the technique could be called fully mastered.

"Your middle dantian is already open, which isn't the usual order. Normally you'd complete the lower dantian first and then work toward opening the middle dantian as you learned more advanced techniques. Your case is so unprecedented, I honestly don't know what advice to give you."

"I'll read through the books first and ask if anything comes up."

"I'm not sure I'll have answers..."

Nelia stepped back with an apologetic look. Kyle took the Revolving Heaven Strike and dropped into the nearest chair.

Hm.

Five years of reading tier-five sword technique manuals had already taught him this: sword techniques in this era were almost always paired with a matching Mana Cultivation Technique. Perfect form alone wasn't enough. Without mana flowing through the circuits, the real power wouldn't come out. If he decided not to bother with the paired technique, he'd have to check compatibility between his spirit root and the technique's circuits.

His body already had far too many circuits open, and they were complex. Even if a technique turned out incompatible, he was confident he could force it through the way he'd done in his past life. Whether that would even be necessary, given how many circuits he had, was another question.

Kyle kept reading the Revolving Heaven Strike, his thoughts running alongside the text.

Mana exists everywhere in the world.

Two kinds of mana existed. Neutral, formless mana that made up the world itself, and elemental mana shaped by its environment. Someone with a high-grade spirit root could alter their surroundings, transforming the mana around them to match their root.

Not that you always needed to. If you'd awakened an ice spirit root, training somewhere it snowed year-round was overwhelmingly more efficient.

The lower dantian, if he had to compare it to something, was a field. Without sufficient nutrients in the soil, nothing grew properly. The foundation, you could call it.

You planted the seed of a Mana Cultivation Technique in that field and tended it, filling it with mana.

My field is dry. Mana from the lower dantian should be flowing up to the middle one, but for me it's the other way around. Mana drips down from the core in the middle dantian and cycles back up again.

This era's martial arts were unfamiliar. Not beyond understanding, though. The destination was the same regardless, so a different starting point was hardly an obstacle. He'd already stood at a great height five hundred years ago. A principle like this he could grasp just by looking down at it, because that was always how it worked from up high: everything fit into a single view at once.

So that pain earlier came from the body's imbalance. He'd tried to develop the middle dantian without filling the lower one first, and the body simply couldn't hold it.

Which meant he had to fill the lower dantian first. Kyle tapped the table twice, then rose and slid the Revolving Heaven Strike back onto the shelf.

"Dear. Where are you going?"

Back at the entrance, Nelia looked up from a thick book in surprise.

"To practice the Mana Cultivation Technique."

"To... practice?"

"Yes. Is there a place in here where I can do that?"

"Wait, wait, dear. Are you saying you already understand the Revolving Heaven Strike?"

Her voice wavered. Kyle had arrived at the Great Archive alone and started reading barely three hours ago. That he was now saying he was ready to practice, Nelia simply couldn't wrap her head around it.

"Enough to begin the entry stage."

"What...?"

Nelia swayed.

Awakening a spirit root was like a completely new sense appearing overnight. Saying that circuits had opened inside the body was simple enough, but who in the world could consciously feel each individual vein and bundle of nerves?

That was why prior study of mana, circuits, and Mana Cultivation Techniques was restricted for children who hadn't yet awakened their spirit root. Studying in advance was pointless and could even instill bad habits.

"The entry stage of a Mana Cultivation Technique requires... clearly sensing the mana, then consciously identifying each circuit one by one, before..."

"Already done."

Said without a trace of bravado. Nelia swallowed. Even Julius, who had been called a genius in his time, took four days before attempting the entry stage of a Mana Cultivation Technique. And the technique Kyle had just read through was a tier-three, one of the more demanding ones.

"Dear. What do you see beside me?"

She already knew her great-grandnephew's talent was something monstrous. But she couldn't just send him off without checking. Nelia quietly stirred her mana and wrote a few letters in the air beside her shoulder.

"If you can't see anything, come back when you..."

"Kyle Alastor."

Kyle grinned.

"My name is written there."

"..."

"How would I prove I can sense the circuits?"

"No need for that. You wouldn't be stubborn about something like this without reason."

A helpless laugh escaped her. Nelia rose from her seat.

"The entry stage can technically be done anywhere. Gladiheim sits at the convergence of the Blade Mountain Range's mana, and the Sword Tower is where it runs densest."

She walked over, still slightly unsteady, and rested a hand on his head. A floating platform rose beneath them and carried them both over the tops of the shelves.

"I'll show you the archive's cultivation chamber first, but you don't have to use only this one. You do live in the Sword Tower, after all."

"Why didn't you mention it before?"

"The Family Head only gave you access to the tier-five sword manuals."

True enough. Kyle nodded.

The platform stopped at a wall beyond the shelves. Nelia gestured at a row of doors.

"Each one is an identical cultivation chamber. Normally you go in alone, but the entry stage can be dangerous, so I'll need to observe just for today. Is that alright?"

"Yes, that's fine."

"Just so you know, the archive's librarian keeps strict confidences. Whatever you read here, whatever you learn here, it won't reach your relatives."

"What about Grandfather?"

"Ha... the Family Head is an exception, of course. Everything concerning his family, he must know."

Nelia opened the door ahead of them. The cultivation chamber was a wide private room, spacious enough to practice sword forms in. Kyle stepped inside and felt the mana press against him at once.

"The mana here is especially thick. The archive itself felt fairly thin."

"That... yes, that's true."

How many more times was this small child going to surprise her. Nelia shook her head faintly and followed him in.

"Go ahead and begin the entry stage, dear. If anything goes wrong, I'll step in."

"Understood."

It won't come to that. Kyle settled himself in the center of the chamber and began the entry stage of the Revolving Heaven Strike.

A Mana Cultivation Technique begins with awareness of the spirit root. Focus your will there with enough intensity, and a desperate craving for breath wells up, the same as when you've held your lungs empty far too long.

Follow the craving and breathe deep. Mana attuned to the spirit root seeps in through the breath. From there, keep the spirit root in your awareness and guide the mana along the circuits the technique requires.

That mana circulates through the full circuit network and makes its way down to the lower dantian.

Kyle thought of the lower dantian, still unfamiliar to him, as a hole. A very large hole punched through the soul. The opening was wide, but the inside was shallow.

Similar to the core.

Five hundred years ago, training the core was like training a muscle. The more pain you endured, the larger and stronger it grew. Once it had been stretched that large, even if you burned through mana, recovery came fast, because the core already knew how to be big.

The lower dantian worked the same way. Pour mana into the hole and gradually expand its size. Stretch it far enough and recovery would come quickly no matter how much you spent.

My lower dantian has a wide opening, but the inside is shallow.

The wide opening at least meant mana flooded in fast. Fast and fierce. That was how the mana moved through the circuits.

Kyle kept the flow under control through the tearing pain in his body. The Revolving Heaven Strike was an advanced technique and its circuits were complex, but none of that was any obstacle for him.

Hum...!

Mana settled into the lower dantian.

The cultivation chamber's thick mana was neutral, raw and untamed. Kyle's spirit root resonated with the Revolving Heaven Strike and began refining the mana as it arrived at the dantian. Impurities were burned away by the spirit root, and what remained was refined into pure Thunder Energy.

So this is why the grade of a spirit root matters.

A low-grade root would take time to refine and lose a great deal of mana in the process. Kyle's spirit root refined with a speed that left nothing to be desired.

Mana cultivated purely through the Revolving Heaven Strike, nothing drawn down from the middle dantian, had taken root in the lower dantian.

The seed had been planted. Crack! Purple sparks burst out around Kyle. The sight drew a sharp intake of breath from Nelia.

He actually did it...!

Even talented children commonly needed an adult to guide them through their first entry into a Mana Cultivation Technique. Kyle's entry left no room for anyone to step in. Clean and complete.

"Hm."

Kyle opened his eyes and blinked a few times. At first there had been a strange, foreign feeling from the lower dantian. It faded quickly.

Pour mana into the hole and widen the dantian...

He turned his awareness to the spirit root and lower dantian and moved the mana. It rose from the lower dantian, cycled through the circuits, and followed his will up toward the middle dantian.

No pain this time. The imbalance had been brought into some semblance of order. Kyle held both dantian at the poles of his focus and kept the mana cycling. The flow accelerated. The spirit root stirred.

Only then did Kyle feel he had understood this body and its spirit root well enough.

The output is too much for a child's body.

The faster the cycle ran, the more his head rang and his vision swam. The Elixirs notwithstanding, this was a ten-year-old's body. Not fully grown, not fully tempered. The body was struggling under what was moving through it.

One slip and the body would break. Not unlike the mana addiction of the Demon Tribe.

A minor drawback compared to the advantages. Kyle smiled and got to his feet.

Looks like I can sleep at home after all.

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