Rogue Villain-Chapter 225: Next Level Hot Potato

The bright orange lava from the volcano poured out and flowed down the mountainside in thick and slow streams before cooling down and turning into soft-looking, rounded wave formations. Ackster could tell that the latest additions to the volcanic rock below the mountain only had thin layers of black rock while maintaining a blazing hot and soft interior.

Surprisingly enough, maybe because of his latest eating habits, the glowing orange lava looked worryingly delicious.

And even more worryingly, Ackster considered eating it.

Ackster sighed as soon as the idea popped up in his head, partly because he couldn’t refute the fact that it would be a stupidly effective way to train his fire and burn resistance. If he was lucky, he might also get another digestive skill since Iron Body had devoured Iron Stomach. It would be nice if he could get something to break down the minerals in the molten stone.

But Ackster didn’t eat the lava. First of all, he didn’t have anything to eat it with, so he would need to use his hands. The problem with that is, without any fire resistance skills or anything defensive, the lava would eat right through his hands instead.

’First things first, I guess.’

Before he could eat the lava, Ackster would need to be able to hold the lava. Or find something to hold it with.

So, he braced himself for a new kind of pain and put his hand into the orange goo.

Ackster had put himself through a lot of pain but never anything related to fire. But with Pain Tolerance having updated to S-rank after the Nomi synchronized with him after he broke Bo’s seal, Ackster hoped it wouldn’t be too bad. And if it were that bad, it would simply be the first step toward the next rank.

At first, Ackster didn’t feel anything. But it only took a moment for his Overhuman Senses to pick up the sensation of the lava burning away his skin, blood, nerves, and muscles and charring his bone.

"Godamn fucK!"

Ackster pulled out his hand with the speed of lightning and waved it around, flinging droplets of lava around. It was a lot more painful than he had expected. Above all, it was more intense, not necessarily that much more painful, than he had thought it would be.

It felt like nothing Ackster could compare it to. But he forced himself to forget how painful it was, and while his body was still fighting off the remaining pieces of burning flesh, he stuck his hand, only held together through charred tissue, back into the lava.

A little pain wasn’t enough to stop Ackster from progressing at the fastest speed possible.

’That reminds me. I need to compare my arms.’

Since he had undergone a bodily rebirth, Ackster had regained his arm. But everything aside from the arm had already been treated once by Nold’s secret technique. That effect should have remained to some degree, even after the bodily rebirth, since Nold’s secret technique was an upgrade to his skeleton’s bone structure. But did he need to do his regained arm before starting another round?

The quickest way to test and compare his arms and hands’ different durability in his current circumstances was to plunge both hands into the lava and see if there was a difference.

Since his new martial body should have used his old body as a base and only perfected it while getting rid of defects or faults, it made sense that his arm had regrown with a structure and muscular mass matching the rest of his body. Otherwise, he would also need to train his right arm’s strength and mobility to get it up to par. But he hadn’t needed to do that. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

However, using the guise of performing a necessary test helped distract Ackster from the pain and speed up his training. Naturally, burning more parts of his body at once would increase his acquisition rate of a fire resistance skill.

Ackster rested his hands and forearms in the lava for a while until he got a little used to the pain. He then brought them up and realized he got used to the pain because his nerves and nerve endings were burned off. So, he let Iron Body and Stubborn Well-Being recover his horribly gruesome injuries before repeating the process.

He wasn’t sure if it was because of his Iron Body or if it was his Martial Body, but his recovery rate was significantly quicker than before the seal and the bodily rebirth. Most likely, it was both. But it could also be his S-rank Fortitude state.

Whatever it was, Ackster was grateful since it meant his hellish training would progress almost quickly enough to satisfy him. He just needed to find something to eat to sustain his body.

’Not lava.’

He had built up a small storage of energy on his way through the Land of Dragons. But recovering from bone-deep burn injuries required a lot of nutrition.

However, after sifting through the lava with his hands, Ackster discovered something.

It was the absolute last place he would have expected to find one, but he pulled up a faintly translucent orange fish nibbling on his fingers. It was as good as invisible when it was inside the lava, and it was too weak to threaten him since it could barely munch on the crispy tissue burnt to his bone.

But it was something to eat. It was just that it lived in lava, so its body temperature would be about the same as lava.

’I won’t die from this, right?’

It was as close to eating lava as Ackster would get without actually eating lava. He would also have Monster Muncher’s help in devouring it. Ackster tried to be hopeful. But more than that, he was confident in his ability to survive even if the fish a third the size of his hand burned his insides.

But just to be safe, Ackster activated Limit Breaker and Last Stand in advance to get his body raring and ready to fight for its life while the fish heated up his insides, including his brain and heart.

’Here we go.’

Ackster tossed the fish down his throat.