Chapter 8

Whoosh!! When the slight vibration spread throughout his body, Davey began diffusing his orbiting mana and rotating it around his body.

The most difficult parts were the areas near the Four Gates[1] and the brain. The area around the head was dangerous if he touched the mana or the acupoints. Speaking in terms of martial arts, it could instantly turn Davey into a madman.

In that sense, Hypocria’s knowledge was of great help. Her knowledge about meridians, which Davey stuffed into his head while getting scolded, was really helping.

As Davey slowly and steadily started moving mana throughout his body, the tightly blocked meridians began to shake and vibrate. Cold sweat ran down Davey’s face. Since it was delicate work, like putting a needle through a very small hole hundreds of times, he gave the task his entire concentration. He did have a backup plan, just in case, but it was better to succeed than fail.

Crack! There was the sound of something breaking. The mana had started to make holes in the tightly blocked meridians and was seeping in. Davey had to take this slow, so he proceeded with caution, since pushing through with force would cause a brain hemorrhage.

‘I just have to break through it once. Just once.’ Getting the first circle[2] was the most difficult part, so it required the most concentration. Although cold sweat ran down Davey’s face and he was starting to feel drowsy from the exhaustion, he did not break his focus. Rather, he pulled himself together and elaborately controlled his mana. He was also carefully observing his body at the same time.

Crack! Craaack! As he began to pierce through his meridian, unblocking his Conception and Governor vessels, Davey could feel the mana trying to move faster. Without forcing it, he fixed his mana along the path so that the mana would not stray from it, pushing through very slowly like a battering ram knocking on the palace gates.

Crack!

“Ouch!” Davey suddenly felt a pain so unimaginably terrible. He felt lightheaded; the pain was like he had been hit on the head with a sledgehammer, and even his mind ached from the pain. Since he was much weaker here compared to at the Hall, it was much more difficult. However, if Davey was going to back out because of fear, he never would've come back to life.

‘Failure isn’t an option.’ While muttering to himself hundreds of times, Davey poked through and mana started to flow like water falling from a dam. It began pushing through the brain meridian with great pressure. And then…

Boom!! With the sound of an explosion, Davey’s mind became clear. Both a cool breeze and warmth simultaneously surrounded his head.

“Phew…” Davey let out a sigh of relief. It might have seemed like an overreaction to a small accomplishment, as he had only established the first circle, but one would see that this was no trivial task upon trying.

To be honest, establishing the first circle in this weird way was much harder than establishing the eighth or ninth circles. It was less difficult back then, since four women were helping Davey so as to see their masterpiece. But this time, Davey had accomplished this crazy thing all by himself.

Although his mana, holy power, and devil mana were all still intact, the balance in Davey’s body was being maintained strangely. This was true since his body had returned to its early stages.

After checking the mana orbiting around his entire body, Davey slowly opened his eyes to a dark sky. He was sure he had come to the garden around noon, but it was already dark now.

Davey saw that a worried Amy was restlessly waiting outside. She seemed to have waited by his side. Her legs probably hurt from standing around for seven or eight hours, but she was quite tenacious. Feeling sorry, Davey flicked his finger out of Amy’s sight.

The circle traveling along Davey’s meridian allowed for powers of different natures to move through without colliding. And since he had created the path with mana, all he had to do was circulate holy power and devil mana through it. There were many other advantages to this strange method of creating circles, like allowing different powers to coexist, but the best one was this. ‘Non-verbal spellcasting.’

Whoosh…

Aside from that one advantage, which was something that could be seen in movies, another advantage was being able to amplify the efficiency of a spell if it was spoken. It meant that, just by flicking his fingers, Davey could use simple abilities to express his desires.

When Amy felt a warmth surrounding her as Davey casted ‘Restore’, there was a hint of wonderment in her eyes. ‘As expected from the master mage.’

‘There are far more things to be surprised about, and yet you are surprised by just this?’ Davey somewhat enjoyed seeing the look on Amy’s face, and he felt mischievous; it made him want to do something to really surprise her.

* * *

It had been five months, and all Davey had done was stay quiet and cultivate his mana in secret. Of course, there was nothing as difficult as beginning the process, and the drastic increase in his progress speed most likely had to do with his mana or holy power beginning to move. He was now at the fourth circle.

Considering that most regular human mages were not able to exceed three circles, Davey’s recovery speed was truly amazing.

In the meantime, Davey also sneaked out and hunted wild animals whenever there was a shortage of food. He began budgeting his monthly payments well, so he only used the budget when necessary. Now, he slowly started having some financial leeway, but of course, he still couldn’t indulge in luxury like other royalty.

“Your meal is ready, Your Highness.”

“Come in.”

Davey signaled to Amy to come in as he was sewing through a small piece of cloth with a needle. Amy entered slowly as she said, “Someone left a wild animal here again, along with some vegetables.”

“Is that so?”

Since four months ago, someone started leaving meat and vegetables in this silent palace’s inner court. At first, thinking that Queen Lynesse might have left it there to try and assassinate him, Davey examined the food very carefully. But after seeing that the food was perfectly normal, he was using them as ingredients quite well. Davey felt that someone was helping him, but he couldn’t exactly figure out who it was, since he did not have a chance to see them.

‘Someone did come here yesterday, for sure.’ Davey knew it was only one person, because he could use his mana, that was spread out around the palace, to make out how many were in the palace. As a side effect, he was also able to invade Amy’s privacy, but he didn’t use his mana to do that and he upheld his morals.

“I don’t think we will have to worry about food this time, too.”

“Okay. You did well.”

“Um… Your Highness?”

“Hm?”

“You may want to start considering repairing the palace…and get rid of the weeds, too.”

“Leave it.”

“But Your Highness, the exterior of the palace is…”

“It’s better to leave it that way for the sake of my life.”

After hearing Davey’s opinion, Amy lowered her head to hide her choked up expression. Because of her kind-heartedness and strong sense of responsibility, she seemed gloomy after realizing what he meant. “Yes, Your Highness.”

“You did well. You can go now.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

After momentarily glancing at Amy, who was leaving with her head lowered, Davey closed his eyes and slowly started moving. Although people thought Davey was still weak, he trained whenever he had the chance to do so away from surveillance.

Davey had an iron sword in his hand, of which there weren’t many left in the palace. It was frustratingly old and dull, but he didn’t have the luxury of picking and choosing the weapon. No matter how good a swordsman was, the moment they neglected practice, their skills were bound to worsen. Practice was essential, even if it was light practice.

Whoosh!! Davey’s mana transformed itself and moved along with his movements. His current swordsmanship was not like Sword Lord Ares’, who first taught Davey about swords. This was called the ‘Devil Sword’. Apparently, it had a meaning, but Davey wasn’t all too interested in the origin. But it was still swordsmanship comparable to what Ares had taught him.

‘Something about it being called the ‘Devil’s Sword.’ It moves swiftly, like flowing water.’

It was a swordsmanship acknowledged and accepted by Sword Lord Ares, who was known to be quite scrupulous. If Ares’ swordsmanship was violent and destructive, Devil’s Sword was persistent and fluid.

[Heavenly Destroyer Dokgo Jun.]

Heavenly Destroyer Dokgo Jun was a talented man who took down the corrupt partisan by himself and became the most powerful man in the martial arts world. As he was another person at the Hall of Heroes, who had an extensive knowledge about swords, Hercules, Davey’s first teacher, made Davey learn swordsmanship under him. At first, Dokgo Jun mentioned that he had no intentions of having a student and didn’t see why he had to teach Davey. However, after receiving a unique bottle of rice wine from that lazybones Ares, he immediately changed his mind. He was one weird fella.

When Dokgo Jun bowed to the bottle of rice wine as if he was praying to a god, Davey couldn’t help but laugh. He knew that Dokgo Jun was famous for drinking like a fish at the Hall. Even Saintess Daphne, who loved alcohol, shook her head at him.

Normally, after learning one swordsmanship, it was very difficult to learn another. This was because adding something new to a swordsmanship that was already learned to the extreme would only be an impurity.

So, Davey used this swordsmanship complex to do so. It combined the tenacity and fluidity of Heavenly Destroyer Dokgo Jun’s Devil Sword, and the destructive nature of the Sword Lord Ares’ swordsmanship. Even now, Davey thought that this swordsmanship, created by two men who were crazy about swords, was near perfect.

The other heroes also helped with any physical difficulties Davey had. Basically, it was safe to say that Davey was the ultimate final weapon that the heroes created. Davey knew he was strong, and that even the heroes were astonished at his strength.

Davey continued to move without rest, as if pretending to battle with an invisible enemy. His mostly recovered body didn’t feel pain, even with long periods of movement.

“Pant… Pant. I guess the 30th move is my limit for now.” Davey could only execute up to the 30th move out of the full set of 88 moves, but the fact that he recovered this much in just five months was still remarkable. The Commander of the Royal Guard, who was known as a Master, wouldn’t know as much as Davey about swordsmanship now.

“Huff… Huff…” As Davey dragged his tired body onto the floor, the worn-out yet clean hall ceiling came into sight. It looked like it was going to collapse at any moment, but because it was still minimally maintained, it was still holding out.

“Hm? Is someone here?”

“The priests are here, Your Highness.”

“Ah… They’re finally here. I’ll be right there.”

‘The vacuums to clean up my surroundings are here.’

As Davey used ‘Clean’ on his sweat-drenched body, he became fully dry. With a refreshed face that did not suit someone who had been training just seconds ago, Davey grabbed his cane and slowly made his way toward his room. ‘Since the Davey everyone knows still has trouble walking on his own.’

1. The 4 Gates are made up of two points that are needled bilaterally: Hégû and Tàichōng which sit on the Large Intestine channel and Liver channel respectively

2. Circles is a mage power system in Korean novels. The more circles one has, the higher their magic power.