Lord Lan Xin's training method is extremely unique.
As usual, I would be thrown into a furnace and try to endure inside for as long as possible. My body would be burned to the point of nearly becoming a lump of charcoal before being dragged out for care and rest. I had to learn how to utilize battle aura to resist the heat, and the best way to learn is to experience it—or so the Great Demon King said.
So I was thrown into the fire, taken out to recover, then thrown back in continuously for six days straight, to the point I started having nightmares that I was forgotten inside the furnace. Only to startle awake, find Lan Xin waiting with a beaming smile, and then get thrown into the actual furnace again.
After the first six days like that, I wasn't sure if I had gotten used to the fire as he claimed because that terrible pain felt no different from the first day. But my 'Master' Lan Xin said 'you're used to it, guaranteed' and started teaching me the technique to use Blood Tribe Battle Aura. In general, I don't know how to describe it, but it seems thanks to my solid foundation, I grasped the basics quite well.
Roughly in theory, Blood Tribe Battle Aura is just like normal battle aura, but it uses an additional special technique to convert external energy into the body. That energy will enhance strength and resistance like battle aura… but stronger, probably. It is an extremely critical technique and can only be applied to fire. In other words, the Blood Tribe, a tribe belonging to the Demon Race that fears fire more than anything else, uses 'fire' to make themselves stronger.
It sounds a bit absurd, but when explained, it's quite logical.
Basically, as ancient Greek philosophers proposed, this world is constituted by four elements including Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. Earth creates the foundation, water creates life, air creates flow, and fire is energy and change. All four are the essence of mana because everything in this world contains mana (according to Lord Lan Xin). However, fire is the element closest to mana and also the easiest to convert.
Grasping that theory, the ancient Blood Tribe… ah, specifically Lord Lan Xin here created a special technique that can turn fire into mana and absorb it inside oneself. Thereby reducing the contact of heat on the body through absorption and radiating a new defensive layer.
Meaning if mastered thoroughly and placed in a suitable environment, a Blood Tribe member can seemingly fight forever without ever running out of strength.
Sounds truly magical, I swear.
Even more magical, Lord Lan Xin demonstrated it for me by stepping into the furnace without a scratch. He even stepped out with skin even whiter than before.
"Ah, the thicker the Blood Tribe aura, the whiter your skin becomes. Cool, isn't it? Ke ke ke?"
I do like white skin, but being white like a ghost is truly concerning.
Anyway, I started learning how to use that fire conversion technique. Roughly speaking, it took me quite a bit of time. But eventually, I grasped the essence of the problem, which is energy conversion. Basically, my body will continuously cool itself down in many ways like sweating or exhaling. And specifically here, it is the way of breathing. I will use a special breathing method that Lord Lan Xin calls 'cold breathing' to quickly lower body temperature after exhaling.
Then my body will drop in temperature rapidly, and relying on the temperature difference, I absorb the fire's mana more easily. Thereby extinguishing the nearby fire or reducing its power, and then I use that amount of mana to 'cold breathe' and blast battle aura over my body.
I won't waste time explaining what is called the 'law of conservation of mana' or 'law of mana conversion', so in general, that's how it operates. It just works.
Perhaps because I understood the principle of this thing, it only took three days for me to master 'cold breathing' and 'absorb fire'. Now, when the furnace burns a black log, it doesn't faze me anymore. I could sit in the flames and truly transform and absorb them as if I were a Firebender. Quite cool.
"But the sun isn't fire, right?" I asked suddenly while sitting in the furnace noticing the issue. Of course, not forgetting to regulate body temperature and absorb fire continuously to avoid burning. "So how can one absorb 'fire' from the sun, Lord Lan Xin?"
"Good question. You seem much smarter than you look." Huh? What do you mean by that? "But as I said, we Blood Tribe have a special trait: we burn under the sun, right? And that is your fire."
"Huh?" I froze, and due to the distraction, the fire in the furnace immediately flared up, making me flail around for a moment to re-regulate. after calming down, I asked carefully. "So you mean we use our own body to burn and turn it into mana to create a protective layer?"
"Correct! Ke ke ke! That's why I told you to sit in the furnace to get used to it."
He confirmed it! This tribe is masochistic!?
"So… is my current level enough to walk under the sun?"
"Close, but still very weak. You still have a lot to learn, Baby Dragon named Atur."
I see. That makes sense; with the dangerous characteristic of the Blood Tribe under sunlight, just a moment of distraction means burning to death immediately. That is why I have to focus on training. And as always when learning a new technique, I have to find a way to control and enhance its capabilities.
But at the current speed, I feel it is still too slow. I need to improve faster so I can return early.
"So is there any way for me to improve faster, Lord Lan Xin?"
"There is! Ke ke ke! Just increase the difficulty!"
Lord Lan Xin laughed loudly and threw ten logs in, and I almost burned to ash because of it.
…
I gradually became stronger by being baked in the furnace into a lump of charcoal like that. Honestly, I'm a bit worried about whether I should tell Eris about this when I return. Because if she demands to follow suit, it would be a disaster.
Actually, although I say I'm getting stronger, there are still a few things that concern me quite a bit.
Like using battle aura to wrap around the body. I still struggle quite a bit to protect things on the 'outside' like my hair. So every time I start training, my head burns clean off, eyebrows gone too. Every time I look in the mirror, I have to cry silently in pain.
So I determined to try and learn how to wrap battle aura around my hair too. And success! After a month, my hair started growing back. Great. So the handsome boy named Atur has returned.
The difficulty in the training exercises also gradually increased; the goal to survive the heat of a hundred suns is absolutely not easy but not impossible. Based on current progress, after three months, I could withstand the temperature of thirty or forty suns or something, according to Lan Xin's words.
Truly a magical speed. Even the lanky Great Demon King had to say that my ability to improve is truly abnormal.
"Actually, about a few thousand years ago, when the Human-Demon war first broke out, there was a Dragon Tribe guy who also came to ask me how to use Blood Tribe Battle Aura." Lan Xin said during a meal.
"And you actually taught him?"
"I teach anyone who wants to learn, no problem." Lan Xin shrugged. "In return, that guy also taught me a few cool things, so it was fair. And your speed of mastering Battle Aura now is probably only second to that dragon. You are even faster than my own son."
"Oh…"
So I really am a genius? Sounds pretty cool. Eris also once said Ghislaine evaluated me as a genius type; now being recognized by a Great Demon King, maybe this body of mine truly isn't normal.
"So I think maybe you Dragon Tribe people are really good at learning techniques. Truly enviable."
That was the first time I saw him click his tongue like that. Except for times he laughs like a maniac, it seems this Great Demon King also has times living like a normal 'individual'.
"Even so, actually I'm not Dragon Tribe." I then explained again. "Both my parents are humans."
"I don't care who your parents are." Lan Xin rolled his eyes. "I say you are a baby dragon, so just be a baby dragon, don't talk back."
"Yes…"
Being imposed upon like that, I just have to accept it. Who am I to argue back against a Great Demon King?
Although I don't know how strong a Great Demon King would be? Maybe not to the level of the Seven Great Powers, but Lord Lan Xin here must be terrifying too. Either way, he has a few quite extraordinary abilities like flying down from high above and landing quite gently. Even his movement speed is fast enough to make race cars jealous.
But anyway, I don't want to question him and get punched in the face. The past three months have given me a valuable experience that this Great Blood Demon King has a very weird temperament.
"But aren't the Dragon Tribe and Demon Race originally enemies?" I asked further. "Not only did you teach techniques to that Dragon Tribe person, but you also took me in."
Actually, I'm not very sure. But it seems whenever there is a major conflict, the Dragon Tribe seems to stand on the side of the Demon Race's opponents. Like this Laplace war.
"I have no enemies." Woah, he actually said it. Is he a viking in a certain manga? "In the past, I fought because it was fun, not out of any malice. Ke ke ke! Besides, you are already my family, Baby Dragon named Atur! Ke ke ke!"
What does that mean? Sometimes I can't understand the mindset of this Great Demon King. Is fighting and killing just entertainment for him?
However, suddenly I had a few questions so I took advantage of this conversation to ask.
"And I have another question, just by you giving blood to someone, that person will become Blood Tribe?"
"Not exactly." Lan Xin answered with a mouth full of food and then swallowed with a gulp. "Only those who are truly compatible can accept it; if not, they will just keel over and die."
"Ugh. So that means there was a chance I would die the moment you gave me blood?"
"Correct, but either way, you Baby Dragon were dead meat at that time, so it made no difference, right? Ke ke ke!" The Great Demon King pointed a black metal spoon at me and laughed delightedly.
Which is true, I was near death anyway. If I couldn't accept it, it wouldn't make much difference. Luckily I could absorb it, huh? Although I fell into an ironic situation, at least I am alive and have a goal to accomplish to get out of this place.
…
Another month passed just like that; I was still gradually getting used to the fire. Then something I didn't expect happened.
…
I appeared in that white space again. Back in my old body, facing the blurry 'god'.
"Yo."
W… What the hell? I'm back to this white world again?
"That's right. Welcome back, Baby Dragon named Atur."
It's the god from last time. Oh… So you are real.
"What are you saying? Obviously, I'm real."
No. Urg… I thought that was just a hallucination I created. And now urg… I'm afraid you're angry at me for not heeding the advice that I would never return?
"Honestly, I am quite troubled by that. But you also paid the price yourself, so there's no reason for me to be annoyed, right?"
That is true. I thought I had died.
"Yeah, you should have died. But because I kept praying, you are still fine."
Oh really?
"What? Don't believe me?"
No no, I believe you. But if you truly have good intentions, why let me fall into the situation I am in now?
"Because I didn't want you to end up like now, that's why I gave the advice, right?"
A bit confusing, isn't it? But let's skip it. I truly apologize for not trusting you. Honestly, I also thought a lot that whether I saved them or not, The Diggers party would all die. Maybe I should have ignored them and left for real.
"Correct. Otherwise, you would be preparing to arrive at the Milis continent by now. Then just another year and you would have returned near Roa."
That fast?
"It's close from your place to Wind Port. Then getting on a ship is done. Besides, if Ken were still alive, you would have a quite peaceful way back without mishaps."
Oh… saying that means he really died? I mean… I knew fully well that was the outcome but… I still hoped there was some chance. At least… finding the body. But it seems even that is impossible now.
"Correct, you know what a corpse inside a labyrinth becomes."
Yeah… He must have turned into an undead. That must be why he and Nelu left their weapons with me so when they died it would be less dangerous. Damn it! It's all my fault!
"But don't be so downcast, your current situation isn't too bad. having the power of the mighty Blood Tribe, and trained by Great Demon King Lan Xin himself on how to use special battle aura. Great, isn't it?"
You could say that is a good point. I will get stronger, probably. But that doesn't change the reality that I am the one who caused Ken's death.
"Everyone makes mistakes, right? Instead of sinking into them, why not look towards the future together. Actually, I have advice for you."
Oh really? Honestly, I thought you would only call me to scold me or something, but if there is advice, that's great.
"I am a good god. No matter what you are, I always open my arms to help you ha ha!"
This time I will definitely follow your advice. So what should I do?
"Then listen carefully, after you overcome the seal, resolve Laplace's magic circle by conquering the entire ant nest labyrinth. With your current ability, confront the labyrinth guardians won't be difficult."
And with those words, I was sucked out of the white space and woke up.
…
A few days after that meeting with the Man-God, I continued training sessions with Lord Lan Xin but still made time to practice swordsmanship again. Honestly, I am quite concerned because the quest to conquer the whole labyrinth is not easy, but if that is the Man-God's suggestion, there must be a reason for it.
And I guess that reason is to liberate Lord Lan Xin?
Honestly, I feel a bit sad for this Great Blood Demon King. He just walks around all day, plays chess alone, and then walks around laughing kekeke with others. In general, it is quite boring. I tried steering the topic to how the outside world is, humans and demons are almost at peace, how civilization has developed and such. Lan Xin appeared interested, but then he said he was trapped here anyway.
"I can wait 100 years to leave. But I cannot wait 100 years to return. My castle is still here, I have to govern it, understand, Baby Dragon named Atur? Besides, except for the blood tribe, I don't really care about anything much."
His sense of responsibility is truly 'admirable'; I have to admit that.
However, also because of that, I became even more determined to conquer this damn labyrinth. One is to find Ken's body at all costs, two is to break the seal and liberate this Great Demon King. Of course, I intend to do it in secret, because it is like giving a gift, who announces beforehand what they will give, right?
Besides, there is still a possibility I will fail, and then I'm just afraid Lord Lan Xin waiting in the castle too long would get annoyed. So it's best not to give too much expectation. I will announce the achievement after completion, let's decide on that!
And perhaps seeing me suddenly diligent in practicing swordsmanship, the Great Demon King also excitedly sparred with me for a match.
Of course, I lost. And to save face, I won't recount the specific details of how that match went; in short, it was overwhelming.
However, after that loss, the Great Demon King also decided to teach me a few fighting techniques of the Blood Tribe. Quite convenient, suddenly I can fight like a Vampire. Ah no, don't use the 'V' word, that is taboo.
To recount, the fighting method of the Blood Tribe is quite wild. Specifically, they use both swordsmanship and martial arts as the mainstays. Blood Tribe swordsmanship, to put it bluntly, is like North God Style and Sword God Style fell in love and gave birth to a child, even though it seems to have appeared before both those sword schools.
To explain, Blood Tribe Swordsmanship focuses on precision and… well, just that. Specifically, they only have exactly 'six' moves, an extremely modest number. And all six moves are extremely simple; I only learned for exactly one day to grasp them all because they are all like 'slash left', 'stab right'... something like that.
However, the way to apply them lies in what move the user will use afterward. Like a combo chain. To compare, I find it quite similar to boxing, but it is swordsmanship.
Funnily enough, it is quite effective and suitable for me. Because according to this sword school as well as boxing, its policy is 'hit and don't get hit'. Meaning for a kid who spent his whole youth learning how to dodge attacks, clearly, it is like a fish meeting water. All I need to learn is how to hit.
And unlike Sword God Style, attacks of Blood God Style (I temporarily name it so) rarely have the ability to finish off the enemy immediately but aim to wear down the enemy's vitality more. Maybe because the Blood Tribe itself has the advantage in endurance and recovery ability, so they utilize it for long battles. I thought so and asked Lord Lan Xin if it was correct, and he replied like this:
"Fighting long allows you to enjoy watching the enemy die slowly, ke ke ke!"
In summary, the Blood Tribe is a bunch of sadists who want to torture their prey, not really having any tactics here. Understood. But I will still apply it and consider the tactic I thought up as the truth.
…
Somewhere around the fourth or fifth month, besides training in that over-thousand-degree furnace, I started trying to withstand the heat of God-tier magic.
The result was my hand disappeared immediately, of course. However, gradually I also learned how to focus and convert mana right when the body just burns and brought the zero-second mark up step by step slowly.
Basically, I would torture my body to pieces on top of the castle tower like that. Then be thrown into the furnace, convert fire into mana for the body to self-recover, then repeat. Basically, it was a process that was both painful and extremely exhausting.
However, to keep myself sane, I also rewarded myself with moments of entertainment by cooking. I learned how to make local vegetarian dishes here and learned a few quite interesting things.
Like since there is no sun here, Lord Lan Xin's garden grows vegetables and seeds capable of absorbing light from mana crystal. Basically, it seems because the mana here is too dense, there is a giant mana crystal sitting in the middle of the garden, and maybe due to some magical property of mana, the vegetables and fruits still grow quite lushly.
When asked, the Great Demon King explained that he researched a type of magic to convert mana into plants to help them grow faster. I was also shown his research notes but since I had too many things to learn, I temporarily didn't touch this new topic.
And besides cooking and gardening, I was also taught to play chess. The type of magic chess the Great Demon King plays has no official name; he just calls it 'chess'. Basically, it is quite similar to Go, just a few things slightly different like the scoring mechanism, but since I am a fan of Hikaru no Go, I learned quite fast. So I became Lan Xin's only chess partner just like that.
I also haven't mentioned that I made a few more friends, right? Well, staying here for a few months, I had to communicate with someone other than the Great Demon King. Specifically, the maid who takes care of my room, her name is Nin Nin, quite cute, braided hair, round static face, and has a very thorough personality. No matter how dirty or messy I make it, she cleans my room like new right after without any complaint.
Whether I need books, tea, or snacks, she immediately prepares them.
In general, like a model maid. I have a feeling associating her with Lilia but a version with smaller breasts and braided blond hair.
However, Nin Nin sometimes makes my heart stop, like once she suddenly took off her clothes and asked if I needed her to 'help relieve stress' when seeing I had morning wood. So I had to explain that I already have a wife, only then did she stop.
Yet the next day it was exactly the same. Actually, every day she does that to me to the point I have to wake up earlier to relieve 'my stress' before she sees it. What a pain.
Besides, I also got to know a few soldiers of the castle. Well, the most specific is probably the captain of the guard named Malph. That is a man with an extremely rugged face with a scar cutting across his nose. Yet he has a quite modest height, only equal to me - a 12-year-old kid. After finding out, I knew he was originally a halfling, only becoming Blood Tribe after being granted blood by Lord Lan Xin.
And it seems the vast majority of people in this castle are from other races transformed by blood granting. Only a handful counted on fingers are purebred Blood Tribe. And usually, they are relatives of Lan Xin and have slightly weird personalities so I cannot communicate with them.
Ah well back to Malph, he is a quite strong warrior. His weapon is a nunchaku stick like the type Bruce Lee used. In times when Lan Xin is busy, Malph would be the one training with me, and I was also taught many quite interesting things by him.
Besides Nin Nin and Malph, I also got to know a few others. Like the head chef, the gardeners, the librarian...
Since this place isn't too crowded, maybe somewhere around three or four hundred souls, I walked around and got to know almost everyone. Most people are quite comfortable and sociable, so my hellish training time was also much less stressful.
…
And by the 8th month I was here, I made great strides. I could put my hand out in the sunlight for five straight minutes without burning to ash. Although painful, I also tried stepping my whole body out and stood long enough to be confident that I could walk out of the seal without worrying about dissolving into dust.
But to be safer, I spent another two weeks training.
So that today, I stood before the black metal door underground, which leads to the place where Lan Xin saved me back then. Today will be the day I step outside.
Not only Lan Xin, people I know like Nin Nin and Malph also appeared. Ah rather, it seemed everyone in the castle also came to see me off. Some even shed tears.
"Ku ku ku! Every bird eventually has to leave the nest, right?"
Yeah, among those people was the Great Demon King. He cried rushing like a waterfall (for real) and buried his face into short Malph next to him like a mother needing support seeing her son move out.
Meanwhile, Nin Nin was the one who prepared a pile of food for me and stored it all in a type of red cloth bag capable of fire resistance. Besides, I was also gifted by Lord Lan Xin himself a black cloak similar to the type he wore not long ago.
So now I really look like his son preparing to leave the nest for real. Ha ha…
"But why don't you leave by the door on the high tower, Atur?" Malph, who was having a cry waterfall pouring on his head, still calmly asked.
"Ah, I still have a few things left in the labyrinth so I want to go back to get them."
I answered like that. It was both true and false. Anyway, I am going back to find Ken's body and to break the seal of this place. But saying it outright doesn't seem reasonable, so I hid a part of the truth, he he.
And not to keep everyone waiting too long, I bowed to everyone.
"Thank you everyone for helping me. If possible, I will definitely return."
Finishing the sentence, I decisively stepped through the door before anyone had a chance to stop me. The frenzied heat of God-tier magic immediately slammed straight into my body.
But I tried to stay calm and breathe, converting that frenzied pain into mana and continued stepping forward.
Step by step, one by one.
Until that blinding light faded, I found myself back in the dark and deadly labyrinth that took my life nearly a year ago.
"Ha…"
I took a breath, filling my two lungs with the cold and damp air of this damn place. Yet strangely, I couldn't help but crack a smile.
Perhaps because my mindset this time is different; I am no longer looking for a way to run away from it.
"Alright! Let's go kill all the bastards in this damn labyrinth!"
I returned to conquer it.