Rogue Villain-Chapter 220: Swimming

Ackster didn’t know if it was thanks to being at sea, but seeing and feeling the ripples in the water around him helped him understand how his mana was supposed to move after his strikes. It didn’t help much during the strike. But Ackster had a feeling that it wasn’t only his mana training method and affinity that suited the water element. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

The Unimportant Whatever Art was likely also suitable for someone with an affinity for water. So, the deeper his connection with and understanding of water, the closer he would come to mastering the punch that left his arm in rags.

When he came up with that idea, Ackster started spending more time in the water. He swam, fought, and trained in and underwater.

It went surprisingly well. Ackster had feared he would sink like a stone after his muscle and bone density increased, especially his bone from Nold’s secret technique. But he felt at home in the ocean and played around like a fish.

In doing so, Ackster also discovered that his mana resonated to an almost unnoticeable degree with the water around him. It was more like his mana recognized that he was submerged in water.

That discovery made Ackster want to continue training his mana until he saw a change where he could someday control the water around him. But he put that on hold as he focused on his martial arts.

The water resistance added another aspect to his training that was hard to replicate on land. After getting used to attacking and moving underwater, Ackster’s speed and swiftness on land rose.

Ackster’s growth and the deepening of his current abilities eased his mind. It continued to stave off the worry and paranoia that nagged at his mind since he didn’t seem to be doing anything truly productive in terms of stopping the end of the world.

However, Ackster didn’t forget that he wasn’t on vacation. He couldn’t take it easy and laze around in the water all day. So, he dove into his training again and focused on making his punches release the same kinds of target-pulverizing ripples as when he killed the shark.

But he felt like he had hit a wall in his progress. He had made slight improvement after moving his training to the water. But after that, his progress died down.

There was no problem with nolding the rest of his skeleton, but Ackster didn’t have much left. That was how long he had spent at sea. He was almost finished with the first round of Nold’s secret technique. And he had yet to reach enlightenment.

Ackster felt a little pressure. But he cooled his mind using a stormy rain shower he called with Stormcaller. After that, he made a decision. He was going to rush the rest of the nolding now that he had learned to meditate through the pain and channel his vitality into taking the brunt of the pain. He also felt like if he rushed his nolding a little, his life force would grow in intensity like a raging fire to soothe his injuries. That would make it more noticeable and tangible, which should make it easier to grab ahold of and control.

It was just a theory, but since he was going to finish his skeleton’s first refinement, Ackster went through with it anyway.

He grabbed the hammer and chisel with a face stiff from determination. Since he still had to be careful not to pulverize his internal organs, Ackster wasn’t going to finish it all in one go. But it would be non-stop nolding until all of his skeleton had undergone it once.

He needed to brace himself before putting the chisel between his teeth and holding it against his arm while he used his rubber-like flexible wrist to tap it.

It wasn’t the first time Ackster wondered what would happen when his arm regrew, if he would need to nold it or not. But he wouldn’t get an answer until it happened, so he just ignored the pain before shifting the chisel a little and continuing with the next part of his arm.

After finishing his arm, where it was difficult to hold both the hammer and chisel in one hand, Ackster moved on to his spine. He held the chisel between his pinky and palm and swung the hammer with his thumb and forefinger. Thankfully, he didn’t need much force to tap the chisel and make it pulverize his vertebra.

He was also thankful the secret technique only affected bone and not spinal cord or fluid, so his legs remained unparalyzed.

Ackster worked his way up his spine and finally reached his cranium, the final part after his jaw. Since it was so big and housed his most important organ, it required even more finesse than before. It was difficult, especially with only one hand. But Ackster had gotten plenty of practice. He was also flexible enough to use his legs to hold the chisel in place when it was difficult to get the right angle using only one hand.

It was tedious, painful, and delicate work, extremely so. Ackster only took breaks to focus on recovery, and he didn’t waste them on training, which would delay the process for nothing valuable.

Ackster got a little worried when he blacked out a couple of times during the skull refinement. But since he woke up without any apparent gaps in memory or personality, it was probably due process.

Still, before too long, Ackster finally refined every piece of bone in his body following Nold’s secret technique. He still hadn’t touched his missing arm for obvious reasons, but it would have to do.

It left him feeling sore, aching, pained, exhausted and hungry. But he was satisfied since he could now focus solely on his martial arts training, which wasn’t going to stop for a bit.

Punching the water had worked to a certain degree, but it had lost its effect. And he didn’t feel like he was gaining anything from striking empty water or air. He needed opponents and he needed enough of them not to worry about running out of practice targets.

So, when he finished recovering from the nolding, Ackster let go of the reins to his life force. He let it flow freely out of his body and turn him into a beacon. It didn’t take long for the sea to grow turbulent.