Chapter 21 : Breakthrough

Mount AusrDu

This infamous peculiar location in the Kemosin islands is an active volcano which has been lying dormant for hundreds years.

If not for the seething lava pouring lavishly from underneath the cracks, experts might have had classified it as an inactive volcano.

It's history dates back to the ancient time. The last record of it's explosion was recorded hundreds of years ago.

Despite not showing any big movement since then, the atmosphere around Mount AusrDu is exceedingly hot.

The creatures here have mostly adapted to the seething heat and evolved to be very resistant to fire.

The most famous thing about this locality is the hot water lake just a few kilometres away from the volcano.

It's rumoured to do wonders for a women's skin and is believed to have many medicinal properties but it's mostly just myth and hoaxes.

In Mount AusrDu, a young man was currently standing on a huge boulder staring at something before him.

Due to hot pressure stems pumped out from here and there, a layer of dust formed on his body.

He had a slightly charcoal color dreg on his otherwise pale face due to the thin dust. He was moving his hands at a ridiculous speed as they performed a certain series of hand seals.

Snake → Dragon → Rabbit → Tiger

Suddenly he exhaled a huge mouthful of air which was followed by....

[Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique]

Suddenly a fierce stream of fire gushed out from his mouth. It poured out and streaked through the air and landed against a huge boulder right before him.

The fire was intense and scorching, it turned the stone bright reddish, the range was also very impressive.

Anyone witnessing this scene would easily mistake this attack for the legendary spells of the ancient Magi.

Gradually the fire weakened and the youth stopped pushing out air from his lung, closing his mouth.

He breathed heavily and came closer to observe the attack effectiveness.

This youth was none other than Allen. He was currently checking the fruits of his labor and judging the extent of his practice.

2 months have passed since Allen slayed the mercenary group, he clashed against the Magus Tower.

Since that episode, he decided to travel and roam around and finally found his way to Mount AusrDu for training.

The reason why he chose to come to this place is because the fire element here is extremely rich.

Practicing in such a place, Allen's ability vastly improved with twice the results for half the work.

His advancement and efficiency in Ninjutsu was much more swift.

The environment advantage allowed him to better comprehend and test the fire element which further morphed his ability a step further.

'Even if I were to release Dragon Fire Technique ino without the advantage of the volcanic or rich fire elemental area, it would still be enough to severely injure a copper rank.'

'It can even scorch a Silver rank battleforce master, but I am not so sure about it's lethality against a Gold rank swordsman.'

'But my greatest achievement in this time isn't this but rather my successful advancement into the next cycle.' Allen's feelings were quite average about his current Ninjutsu progress, obviously it's a cool move but against a higher ranking battleforce master like a Silver rank it isn't much effective.

The battleforce defence manifested by them isn't just for show. Allen's attack can at most give them a few burn marks.

It isn't very helpful because Fire Release needs a bit of time to roast them. This isn't very practical since no sane man would keep standing while being burned alive.

What made Allen really content in this 2 months of training was his advancement in the cycle. He has successfully broken through from the 16 cycle and into the 32 cycle.

In laymen terms it means that his overall Soulforce, Battleforce and Chakra has all made a successful leap into a new realm.

His soul force broke from the limits of Bronze rank and into the Silver realm which increased his soul perception by a whole another level.

His battleforce has also amazingly broken through from the peak Iron rank into the copper rank.

Experiencing such a breakthrough is really impressive since he didn't have a battleforce manual to guide hum but isn't an impossible feat or unseen event among the swordsman actually.

Many warriors who are stuck at the peak of their rank and cannot take any help or guidance from the battleforce techniques turn to a life or death situation.

With a strong abominable will to advance and through life and death battles one might achieve a breakthrough by pushing themselves to the absolute limit.

In Allen's case, his advancement to 32 Cycle pushed his peak aura through the edge and into a higher realm.

The upside of this method of achieving through bottleneck is that the swordsman are generally more stronger than their peers.

While the demerits is the lack of isle understanding, and also the unnatural battleforce circulation can drastically increase difficulties in future improvement.

Allen had actually enhanced his understanding of the isle as well as the battleforce circulation by perceiving the three silver ranks he successfully slayed.

But obviously despite that it's not even nearly enough to unravel the mystery of battleforce.

Allen's breakthrough of the cycle has the advantage of pulling all of his powers together but if Allen doesn't remedy the situation then, at some point the Battleforce practice would come to a dead end. He would be better off abandoning it and focusing on only other power systems.

'I must somehow find a battleforce technique befitting my own nature or else it would be very difficult to keep dragging it with me.' Allen straitened his shirt and caressed the mysterious book as he contemplated.

This miracle of his breakthrough is only mostly because of the mysterious book. According to his estimation it should have taken a year to reach this point in cycle breakthrough but he succeeded in only two months!

The problem of Allen's advancement is that he doesn't know what his Battleforce nature actually is. But thankfully Allen doesn't need to buy various kinds of the technique to find his own.

He has the ability to extract the workings of a technique with just a plain observation but even then, he would need to thoroughly check many swordsmen not to mention that the ability of perception achieved by soul force is only possible on silver rank and above.

Now, Allen has two options before himself : First is to stay here in the Kemosin islands and he just needs to find more battleforce warriors at Silver rank and initiate a fight against them.

He would just record their isle activation and try to deduce the one for himself. If this didn't work he might even start a manhunt!

This option is rather volatile, risky and more importantly, time taking endeavor.

While on the other hand Allen has the option to just return back to Alwis city and find a way to duel with Silver rank swordsman which isn't very difficult actually.

Duels between student are very common, Allen can constantly work up in spar matches winning money as well as completing his goals. At an average the battleforce technique of the academy students and teachers are a level higher than mercenaries.

He might even clash with some unique practitioners and gain important insight. There is also a large size market from where he can buy any technique.

He can stimulate the manual to resonate with his own nature equivalent and immediately access his guesses.

The living conditions of Alwis City are also better, the wilderness isn't really a very amazing place to live in actually especially in your youth.

"It's been almost half a year since I left Alwis City, with my current ability fighting Silver rank aren't worth mentioning. Maybe only Gold rank can be my match." Allen muttered as he took out the mysterious book," It's better to return back, I also need to find something about this book and.....since there is something like this, maybe there are also many other hidden treasures around the continent! If yes then I should really find more information about the old era. Staying here is just wasting my time, I can cultivate anywhere so why not in comfort."

Allen has many reasons to go back. Ever since he has gained the mysterious book he was extremely in awe of it and he wants to know more about it.

He wants to at least identify the language in which it is written and also learn to read the language too.

Allen's intrest about the ancient era has been very much stirred and he wants to unravel them.

There is also the special event which is going to take place in the Alwis City among the different academies, the renowned 'Inter-Academy Glory Wars Tournament.'

It's a place where myriads of talented individuals participate against each other. Not only the current students but also from the previous batch, as long as their age makes the cut, non-academy students are also allowed to enter.

Many people from different empires, dukedom, kingdom and alliance participate in Inter-Academy Glory Wars Tournament to showcase their ability.

If Allen don't gain what he wants by the start of the tournament then he don't mind participating and sweeping the floor with many geniuses.

....

'Should I try to read it again?' Allen was about to keep the book inside when the idea of giving a read struck him, he has achieved a breakthrough just now and his soul force has also gained a boost. "Maybe it would be enough?"

Allen thought for just a second and ultimately choose to go ahead, he sat cross legged and calmly hold the book in both of his hand.

'Here go nothing.' Allen squinted his eyes and stared at the cover of the page trying to comprehend the meaning.

He looked calmly for a few seconds but after that his head started to hurt minutely but it was bearable. It wasn't as horrible as in the past, Allen hold on and kept continuing.

Allen kept using his soul force and continued staring at the words.

Those insentient words seem to say something, Allen could feel that he cannot read the words but somehow he can still mildly understand it.

He tried adjusting the frequency of his soul force until it was the most compatible with the operation of the reading the mysterious text.

Suddenly his vision seems to be able to penetrate through time and space and gaze upon the radiance of an ancient, terrifying creature

That creature looked at him indifferently. Being stared at by its predatory gaze Allen felt his body shudder and shake uncontrollably in a violent manner

Allen wanted to run away but an underlying intent barricaded his futile attempts.

The eyes of the gigantic umbra phantom creature were the size of Allen's whole body!

That strange creature seemed eager to suck his soul, It mildly opened its vicious mouth and a line of sharp pearl-like canine teeths appeared.

*Awwoooo!*

*Boom*

"Ahhh!" The gigantic creature hauled and the whole space seems to crumble under it's titanic pressure.

Allen's soul threatened to leave his body and succumbed to the ominous sound, before anything disastrous happened Allen was thankfully outside that illusionary state.

*Snicker*

Allen could almost hear a disdainful smug snot but he didn't care because currently he was loudly gasping for air without even noticing his eyes, ears, nose and mouth bleeding profusely.

Allen grabbed his head and let out a blood curdling scream, his body continued to shake for a good one minute but his eyes were strangely calming down and currently reflecting a certain euphemism.

'My... M-y sou-l for-ce increa-!' Allen's mind was at the edge of consciousness but he fought his drowsiness. He continued lying down for sometime as he mindlessly stared at the sky.

Allen was really shocked at first but after properly scanning his body, he found his soul force received a sudden increase, although it wasn't extremely high, it was still noticeable.

"I guess it wasn't so bad, although it was very scary but I successfully gained something substantial from this book again." Allen still felt a cold shiver when he remembered the scene.

But Allen could feel that the humongous creature didn't have any malicious intent against him.

Allen doesn't know why but even since he had the mysterious book in his possession he has grown strangely very attracted to unraveling its secrets.

That is why despite his scary encounter while acquiring the mysterious book in the Magus Tower, Allen still couldn't resist the temptation to further investigate it.

Allen continued to rest for a while. Afterwards he stored the mysterious book inside his clothes not daring to look at it again.

He immediately hopped in and performed a cycle trying to see if he had any improvement and sure enough he did..

"Three times the 32 cycle, not bad considering how I broke through just yesterday." Allen rejoiced at his rapid growth and flowed his chakra through his body.

'Thankfully my chakea reserve have also gained a significant boost, it was quite pathetic previously similar to a graduated academy student but now it's around a chunin level shinobi. It isn't that bad.' Allen thought and he immediately smiled.

_________

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