WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reincarnation of the Sword Demon

Chapter 31

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Uncle Wouldn't Know

Her son had declared his first overnight stay away from home and then come back by evening anyway. Arian was already over the moon. Then she heard that Kyle had successfully entered a Mana Cultivation Method, and she didn't just feel like jumping. She actually did.

"The, the Revolving Heaven Strike?!"
"Do you know what that is?"
"Ah, no. I don't actually know."

Arian was a Spirit Artist who had never trained in martial arts. She flashed a sheepish smile for about half a second, then broke into a full beam and yanked Kyle into a hug.

"I don't know what it is, but just hearing the name, it sounds incredible!"
"It's a tier-three lightning Mana Cultivation Method."
"Amazing, amazing! My son really is a genius!"

No martial background, and yet she knew exactly how remarkable it was, a ten-year-old who had awakened his spirit root that very day, entering a tier-three technique from the Great Archive.

"I need a place to train."
"Use the basement!"
"That's the food storage."
"I'll clear the storage out and convert it into a Cultivation Chamber. Actually, no. Better to build a brand-new Cultivation Chamber in the back garden entirely. Don't worry, Gladiheim has no shortage of craftsmen!"

She grabbed Kyle and bounced in place until he finally managed to wriggle free.

No training space ready yet. Kyle headed back to his room.

He didn't lie down. There was still something he wanted to try. He dropped onto the floor and tapped the Thunderstone necklace.

"Hey. Come out."

Crack. A violet snake poked its head out. Kyle held out his finger, meeting its gaze, and it coiled around him as it always did.

"Can you actually talk?"

[Fi, finally.]

The snake flicked its tongue and whispered, as if it had been waiting for exactly this moment.

[Spirit root. Awakened. Me. Waited. Long time.]
"Your speech is terrible."

Kyle laughed to himself and rested his chin on his hand.

[Me small. Young.]
"I know."

Five years of lessons on Spirit Arts from Arian.

Spirits were broadly divided into four tiers: lower, middle, upper, and then the Spirit King, who ruled all spirits of a given element. That was the broad picture. Just as there were lower spirits still growing toward the middle tier, below the lower tier existed freshly born infant spirits, not yet classified at all.

This lightning snake, drawn by the Thunder Energy in the Thunderstone, was one of those. Born not long ago at all. That explained the poor speech.

"My mother said that with my talent, I don't need to bother contracting an infant spirit like you."

[Me, me waited. Long.]

"Awakening the spirit root feels like being born again, somehow. Even before, if I concentrated, I could sense something in the wind or the earth. Now, when I pay attention, I can actually hear whispers."

Tap. Kyle tapped the Thunderstone necklace.

"Inside the Sword Tower, it rains sometimes, but lightning never strikes. Rain's fine in small doses, they say, but lightning's too noisy. Outside, though, there are storms. On a day with lightning, I go out, and there'll probably be lightning spirits coming straight to me."

[Mmm...]

The snake drooped its head. Terrible speech, but its emotional range was surprisingly wide. Kyle smiled and stroked it.

"Just saying. Now let's make a contract."

[Re, really?]

It lifted its head.

[Me small, young. Really make contract with me?]
"I have more of a soft spot than I look."

Five years of feeding it Mana Stones, after all. This was the first spirit that had ever come to him.

Young and small? That didn't matter. Feed it well and it would grow. Arian had actually recommended this approach. High-tier spirits were proud and difficult to manage. An infant that hadn't even reached the lower tier was easy to tame, easy to shape as it grew.

"What's your name?"

He held its gaze as he asked. Its small body trembled.

Every spirit is born with a name. The true name is given, mana is received. That is how a spirit contract is made.

[My name... Jor... mungandr.]

The snake shivered and whispered. Kyle nodded and guided mana up from his lower dantian through his Circuits to his fingertips.

Crack! A violet current bloomed at his fingertip. The snake stared at it, entranced, tongue flicking.

"Jormungandr. Too long to call out, so I'll just call you Jor. No complaints?"
[None.]
"Eat this and you're making a contract with me."

He brought his fingertip slowly toward Jor.

"I become your master. Understood?"

A spirit contract was a Spirit Artist providing mana, and the spirit granting requests. A partnership, not a master-servant bond. Kyle imposed a master-servant contract on Jor anyway. He was taking in a spirit that hadn't even reached the lower tier and raising it himself. Asking this much was fair.

[Under, stood. Master.]
"Good. Eat."

Kyle grinned. Jor opened its mouth wide and chewed through the current. Sizzle! Its small body grew right before his eyes.

When they first met, it had been the size of a pinky finger. Now it was the size of his palm. The growth rate made the slow progress from feeding it Mana Stones look laughable.

[Ta, tasty, so tasty, Master.]
"You've eaten. Now let's get to work."

He had an idea for how to use his spirit talent in his cultivation.

Not entirely his own idea. His mother Arian had awakened the wind spirit root, contracted a wind spirit, and used that relationship to accumulate mana quickly as she learned magic.

'Magic also begins with entering a cultivation technique.'

Of course, the cultivation methods of martial artists and mages differed in structure. Mages used cultivation to gather mana in their bodies, then manipulated the mana outside themselves to work magic. But being bound to spirit roots and Circuits was the same for both. Kyle smiled and whispered to Jor.

"Convert the mana in this room into Thunder Energy."

A spirit was a living mana creature. Nobody fully understood how they came into being, only that when elemental mana developed a self, it became a spirit. That's what made them so close to mana: they could press their own nature onto neutral mana, reshape it.

[Understood, Master.]

Jor coiled and shivered. The neutral mana drifting through the room began to resonate with Jor's Thunder Energy and shift.

Too faint to call a current, really. But satisfying enough. Kyle turned his attention to his spirit root and ran the Revolving Heaven Strike.

Whoosh.

The room's mana was drawn in by his breathing. He focused on what flowed through his Circuits. The mana Jor had converted met almost no resistance, pre-digested, practically. What flowed through the Circuits and reached the lower dantian began to refine.

Less impurity than in the Great Archive's Cultivation Chamber. Less loss, too. The corner of Kyle's mouth crept up.

Perfect.

Using a spirit as a pre-filter before cultivation was something ordinary martial artists simply couldn't do. Spirit affinity was rare enough on its own. A spirit root like Kyle's was rarer still. This was a method only Kyle could use.

'For now I can only absorb Thunder Energy for the Revolving Heaven Strike, but as my mana grows and my body develops, I'll be able to contract more spirits.'

The spirit root Kyle had awakened bore the grand name of Chaos Spirit Root. With no precedent to follow, his cultivation would have to be equally unprecedented.

The Mana Cultivation Method was new to him, but to wield a sword well, the body had to come first.

'Others can only train in techniques suited to their spirit root's element. I don't have that limit.'

His Circuits were more than enough, and he was confident in mana control. He decided what to do in the Great Archive starting tomorrow.

First, skim every cultivation technique in the archive. Pick the ones worth keeping. Extract only the core.

'Running multiple techniques simultaneously would be inefficient and troublesome.'

So he'd mix them.

'My spirit root is the possibility of becoming anything, all elements converging into one. The Circuits that formed around such a root can handle anything, too.'

Not having done it before didn't matter to Kyle. Never tried it? Then try it. Doesn't work? Try until it does. And if it truly couldn't be done, admit it plainly and move on.

"Good."

He stopped running the Revolving Heaven Strike and opened his eyes.

"I'll call it the Primordial Chaos Art."

He preferred a name that spoke of the world itself over raw disorder. He gave the cultivation method he intended to create its name first, then stood up.

[Master... tired...]

Jor, sagging in the air, wriggled over to him. Infant spirit or not, its stamina was appalling.

"Eat."

Kyle drew some mana from his lower dantian up to his fingertip. Crack! A dense bead of violet mana formed. Jor opened wide and swallowed without waiting. The fading, nearly-gone current sparked back to life.

Jor converted mana. Kyle absorbed it. The mana he absorbed fed Jor. No one losing anything in the trade. Kyle smiled and stroked Jor's head.

"Grow big and strong."

The words were for himself as much as anything.

The next morning.

Kyle woke at his usual time, stretched, and walked to the window, then stopped. People had gathered in the Rose Mansion's courtyard. Craftsmen from Gladiheim, it looked like, called in to build the Cultivation Chamber on the grounds.

"Lucky to have been reborn into a wealthy family."

He muttered it and went downstairs. Arian was already beaming, arms spread wide.

"Grandfather sent another gift!"

Word of his entering the Revolving Heaven Strike had probably reached Julius through Nelia.

Julius's box held five fruits, gold and violet blended together. Kyle tilted his head at the unfamiliar sight. Arian let out a short laugh beside him.

"Thunderclap Fruit? He sent five of something this rare..."
"What is it?"
"A spirit fruit that grows very rarely on trees struck by lightning. Something people who've awakened the lightning spirit root would desperately want."

Lucky to be reborn into a wealthy family. The thought surfaced again as he picked one up. Just holding it made his palm tingle, a faint shock running through his skin. Focusing, he could see dense Thunder Energy packed inside, filling the fruit to the brim.

"Can I eat all of them?"
"No! One at a time, spread out over several days."

Elixirs were concentrated mana on a level Mana Stones couldn't match. Too much of anything was bad. The warning was fair.

He probably could handle all five. His Circuits and lower dantian had the capacity for it. But Arian would only worry, so Kyle bit into just one.

Crack, crackle...

Every bite sent sparks jumping through his mouth. His spirit root responded naturally, and the Revolving Heaven Strike ran on its own. The Thunder Energy circling his mouth flowed down through his Circuits.

[Master, Master!]

The air rippled and Jor poked its head out. Its expression was so desperate that Kyle tore off a piece and held it out.

[Yaaay!]

Jor whooped and swallowed it whole. Kyle had been curious how much it would grow. Not much, as it turned out. He chewed and swallowed his own piece.

"You're better off just eating my mana."
"Kyle! You contracted a spirit! Why didn't you call me?!"

Arian cried out, looking genuinely wounded.

"I wanted to surprise you."

Kyle answered calmly and let Jor coil around his hand.

"Its name is Jormungandr."
"You went ahead and contracted that infant spirit?"
"Yes. I was planning to raise it well..."

Knock, knock.

The knock at the door cut him short. Ceryl, the mansion's head servant, appeared with a stiff expression.

"Lord Barkas wishes to visit."
"That blockhead?"

Arian's brow crumpled. He wasn't someone she cared to deal with, but he'd come all this way in person. She couldn't ignore that.

"Kyle. Will you wait in your room?"
"I think he came because of me."

Kyle took another bite from the half-eaten Thunderclap Fruit.

"And with my uncle here, it'd be strange for his nephew to hide in his room. It's not like I've done anything wrong."
"But..."
"He'll be waiting. Let's go, Mom."

Arian hesitated briefly, then nodded. Her son was right. He hadn't done a thing wrong, nothing but accomplishments. No reason to hide. She steadied herself and walked to the door.

"What brings you here so early in the morning?"

On the other side stood the hulking Barkas, and beside him Bruno, smaller than his father but still large for his age.

"The noise has been unbearable since early morning."
"There's no way. The soundproofing is solid."
"Your brother has sharper ears than he looks."

Barkas answered flatly and glanced over at Kyle. The moment that sharp gaze landed on him, Kyle grinned.

"Hello, Uncle Barkas. Hey, Bruno."

Bruno Alastor. The cousin who, five years ago, had taken Kyle's punch to the solar plexus, lost his temper, drawn Aura, and been stopped cold. At fifteen, Bruno was now a Knight Candidate and didn't usually stay in the Sword Tower. Odd that he was here in the fourth-floor residential quarters today.

"The uniform suits you. Look at that build."
"Arian. Who did your son inherit those manners from?"

Barkas's eyebrow curled.

"He's calling someone five years his senior by name. Does that not bother you at all?"
"You only get called oppa when you act like one."

Arian scoffed.

"In that respect, I'm rather foolish, always calling someone oppa who never once acted like one. Lucky my son didn't inherit that particular failing."
"You're not foolish, Mom."
"See? He's even got a kind heart. Unlike a certain someone's son who flew off the handle and tried to kill his little sibling."

The counterattack landed. The crease between Barkas's eyebrows deepened.

"So, oppa. You really came just because of the noise? Bringing your son all the way here when he's busy with training?"
"I came to build some family bonds."

Barkas said it flatly.

"Your son awakened his spirit root as of yesterday. He'll be entering martial training in earnest now as a pure-blood of Alastor. So my son Bruno, as someone who picked up the sword first and as his elder..."
"Where's my birthday present?"

Kyle bit into the Thunderclap Fruit with a crunch.

"Yesterday was my birthday. Uncle didn't even wish me a happy birthday."
"..."
"If you gave me a present now, I wouldn't hold it against you."
"You... what are you eating?"

Barkas stumbled slightly over the words.

"This? A gift from Grandfather. Called a Thunderclap Fruit. Not particularly good, honestly. A bit tingly and bitter."

Crunch. Another bite.

"Thunderclap Fruit... right, Thunderclap Fruit. Why are you eating that?"
"Ah. Uncle wouldn't know."

Nelia had said archivists were discreet. True to that, Barkas had no idea that Kyle had entered the Revolving Heaven Strike yesterday.

"I entered a cultivation technique called the Revolving Heaven Strike yesterday."

Kyle saw no reason to hide it.

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