Sword Saint's Reincarnation-Chapter 69 (lol): Tournament (4)

In his room, Rylan did handstand push-ups while shirtless.

52, 53, 54…

After a while, he somersaulted and stood up with a sigh.

“It’s too easy.”

Even without circulating his mana, exercise using only his body weight no longer strained him in the least. Still, some training was better than no training at all. Now that he was traveling, the most important thing was maintaining a routine. He couldn’t let himself stop training.

Stretching his body, Rylan looked around.

“…It feels strangely empty without her.”

He had ordered Sarah to stick by Aelfric’s side, since he had kept Robert from coming along. If something happened, she would know how to deal with it and how to help Aelfric. Rylan could take care of himself.

He looked at the clock on the bedroom’s west wall. It was encased by a little wooden house, making it strangely pleasing to the eye.

Two hours left.

There was no point in waiting around for two hours. He should use that time to think about the past battles against the other applicants and improve his mana flow. It was decided. Rylan promptly sat down on the floor, cross-legged, and closed his eyes. In a few seconds, almost all his focus was turned inwardly, with only a sliver of awareness watching his surroundings in case of an ambush.

In his mind’s eye, the two whirlpools of blue mana kept flowing, creating a tide of mana that constantly rotated around his changed Mana Core. They mixed and shifted like water, going against the traditional Circles theory.

It’s getting closer to an Aura Heart.

Silently, he perceived the maelstrom and started circulating his mana. The whirlpools sped up, becoming larger by the second. Strands of mana flowed out of them and started spreading like water flowing downstream, extending themselves to every corner of his body and creating an elaborate network. Then, they expanded, flooding him with energy, and started flowing around in a continuous cycle that had its own rhythm.

Rylan perceived all of this with heightened concentration, but a question appeared in his mind all the same.

How can I improve this?

Currently, he was trying to ‘recover’ his power and get back to Roland’s level by using his memories. But was that it? He had already decided to learn magic to unite his two lives and surpass Roland but it was undeniable that the vast majority of his power came from his mana circulation and sword styles: Roland’s memories.

It wasn’t enough to mimic an Aura Heart. It wasn’t enough to learn a bit of magic on his own and reach Fifth Circle. He needed to go further.

He felt his mana’s movement within him as his Mana Core acted as the axis of the mana circulation. No, it wasn’t just mana circulation. The System had acknowledged it as Mana Cultivation. A thought struck him.

What if I could make the circulation empower my spells?

Mana was, intrinsically, a type of energy that fueled magic spells and changed the world. To begin with, it wasn’t as good as Aura when it came to empowering his body and weapons, at least not at his level. Even though he had discovered Mana Cultivation, it still felt like an application of mana that didn’t explore its full potential.

If he could make the circulation strengthen his spells, however, that would be different. By mixing Mana Cultivation and traditional spellcasting at the same time, he would create something new that remedied the circulation’s flaws. If he managed to awaken Aura later on, even better.

I still don’t know if Aura exists in this life.

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Still, Rylan wasn’t too concerned. Aura took time to manifest. He was trying to join a Magic Academy to learn more about magic, but that didn’t mean he would stop pushing himself to his limits. It was the best way to become stronger.

Rylan threw away all useless thoughts and raised his wand, still keeping his eyes closed. After quickly casting Magic Missile, he opened his eyes and looked at the blue mana arrow floating in front of the tip of his wand. Keeping it from flying away was difficult enough, but he wasn’t done.

Focus.

His mana circulation continued unimpeded as the strands of mana extended themselves to his wand, flooding its body with power, but that wasn’t what he was looking for. He needed the circulation to improve the spell itself. The minutes quickly ticked by as he tried to make his maelstrom-like Circles resonate with the spell in a different way. He didn’t have a proper Skill for this; the System couldn’t guide him. It was something he needed to learn on his own. That only made him smile. Roland had always liked a challenge.

The first thing he tried was to make the spell itself ‘flow’ like the mana within him, adding movement and rhythm to the mana that made up the Magic Missile. The reward for his first few attempts with careful effort was the complete collapse of the spell structure, but it was too early to give up. His new Trait only made him more determined to keep going, being the opposite of his past Trait.

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Rylan tried a variety of ideas, from using up more mana to struggling to connect his Circles and the spell structure. Every time, his goal was to empower the spell through a method somewhat similar to Mana Cultivation.

It was the first step to uniting Roland’s knowledge and memories and his current life’s system.

He kept an eye on the clock. Time quickly passed as he continued to struggle without stopping. Ever so slowly, there was progress. At the very least, his spells were more powerful than what he’d shown the professors during the exam. Once it was time for his next match, Rylan stood up and smiled at the System windows floating in the air.

[Intelligence has increased by 1.]

[Your proficiency with Mana Cultivation (Beginner) has risen.]

My efforts aren’t wasted.

The System itself was acknowledging his actions.

With a nod, Rylan opened the wardrobe and got dressed properly, then walked out of the room. Alone, he left the hotel and started making his way through the streets of Caer Rhelon. It was still just as lively as ever, making him smile. Rylan realized he quite liked this bustling atmosphere. At the same time, his perception evaluated his surroundings. Almost automatically, he avoided spots where he would be placed at a disadvantage if something happened, his left hand resting on the sword’s hilt.

It was impossible not to notice the strange looks he was getting from the others around him. Most of the people he passed by stared at the weapon. He didn’t need to hear their whispers to know what they were saying. Whether they were mocking him for using a sword and not being able to use magic or if they pitied him. None of it mattered.

Soon, he arrived at the fight’s location. The building didn’t have a ceiling, consisting only of stone walls that formed a circle around a paved square. Before entering, Rylan observed his surroundings.

It’s a good part of town.

It seemed like the further one advanced in the tournament, the better the fights’ locations got. Plenty of surrounding shops were filled with customers dressed in elaborate, expensive-looking robes and clothing.

Rylan then walked up to the man standing next to the arena’s entrance, who stopped leaning against the wall and laughing at a young, beautiful woman and looked at him. Before the man could say anything, he flashed the paper he’d been given by last fight’s professor. The man swallowed his words and nodded, throwing a glance at Rylan’s sword. His expression slowly contorted into a sneer, but he didn’t say anything.

Shaking his head, Rylan entered the arena. After walking through a corridor, he finally reached a paved square at the very center. The first thing that came into view was the crowd in the stands. His brow furrowed.

Why are there so many people?

Even at a glance, there were at least two hundred people in the stands surrounding the square. A more likely head count was around three hundred or even more. Something was up. Rylan kept walking, circulating his mana. The cacophony of voices from the stands became even louder, but he managed to discern what some of the people were saying.

“I wonder which poor soul got picked as the opponent.”

“I know, right? Such bad luck. Well, at least we’ll get to see how good a noble heir is.”

“Isaac has reached the Third Circle at sixteen years old. Isn’t that enough?”

“That doesn’t mean he can fight, though.”

His ears twitched as more voices came from the left.

“I heard that Isaac hasn’t lost a single fight so far. I had never even heard of this Rylan.”

“There’s a certain flair to watching a powerful Mage dominate a weaker opponent. You’ll see what I mean.”

“Man… I hope this Rylan kid at least puts up a good show. It would be sort of boring if it all ended quickly.”

Rylan inwardly nodded. The reason behind the number of people was revealed.

Third Circle, huh?

He grinned. Maybe this would be challenging, after all.

Lastly, he threw a glance at the four judges on the small podium next to the stone square that would serve as the arena, alongside a man standing in front of them. He raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Staring at him with a venomous gaze from among the judges was Professor Jacob.