Chapter 30: Force out the potential?

After suffering another heavy blow, Notebook Teacher Huston seemed to spend the entire time in class as if in a dream.

The “Giants' Snack” was indeed very precious. A piece like that was enough for a team of arcane masters not to worry about food for a week while they were out on a mission.

In some dangerous missions in the wilderness, especially when fighting other arcane masters, many edible things could be where the enemies buried their traps.

He spent the “Giants' Snack” he'd saved because he wanted Ayrin to fail the test. Then he could punish Ayrin and exhaust him until he ended up more dead than alive. But what he never expected in a hundred years was, Ayrin requested the punishment on his own initiative even after passing the test. He even continuously sprinting at top speed during the penalty run, making him more miserably tired than all the other freshmen.

Huston simply couldn't understand.

So at sundown, when he announced the end of the class, Huston thought he had to go back and reorganize his thoughts, else he might suspect his own brain of having a problem.

“Teacher Huston!”

Ayrin's voice suddenly came to his ears.

Huston turned his head back. Ayrin stood not far away beside him, his face looking exactly like a well-behaved child.

“What else do you want?”

“I wanted to ask teacher Huston how to condense arcane particles as fast as possible.”

“What?!” Huston almost fell down face first.

“I heard that although you can't be regarded as a powerful elite teacher and aren't very strong when it comes to fighting, you still know your stuff when it comes to arcane particles, you still were among the fastest people to condense arcane particles.” Ayrin said with a serious face, “So teacher Huston, can you tell me a few techniques and exercises that'll make me condense arcane particles faster?”

“Arcane particles? He's already thinking about this issue at this stage.”

“Even if he wants to ask a question, he doesn't have to say Huston can't be considered a powerful elite teacher and isn't all that strong when it comes to a real fight. Notebook Teacher Huston is the one most concerned about face, doesn't this simply amount to a slap to the face?”

“This is simply a slap to the face.”

“You can hit someone, but you can't hit his face.”

“Teacher Huston's going to go crazy now for sure.”

A clamor ran among all the freshmen.

“You...” Huston even felt the urge to cry. He felt as if countless feet had stepped on his face during this short moment.

He only restored his sanity several minutes later.

“Since you don't leave me any face at all, since you talk to me like this, then don't blame me for acting vicious and ruthless!”

He roared that in his mind, but he put on a gentle expression on his face. “There are two stages to condensing arcane particles. The first stage is to train your body and spirit to a level sufficient for condensing arcane particles. When the body and spiritual power reach the required level, what follows is the second stage, gathering a high degree of spiritual power and condensing arcane particles. For now, you don't need to worry about the second stage in your current situation. The only thing you need to worry about is to make your body and spiritual power reach that boundary.”

“Mhm mhm!” Ayrin nodded vigorously, thinking that Huston's explanation indeed made things clearer.

“To complete the first stage, the only way is, of course, to continuously exceed your own limits with painstaking training, to make your body continuously break through.” Huston narrowed his eyes. “If you want to go faster however... If you want to genuinely surpass your own limits, there's only one way, it's to make breakthroughs in the things that make you the most uncomfortable!”

“The things that make me the most uncomfortable?” Ayrin was a little doubtful.

Huston glanced at his belly and reminded him, “For example, maybe you're most afraid of hunger? Maybe the feeling of hunger is the most uncomfortable feeling, the hardest to withstand?”

Ayrin suddenly nodded strongly. “That's right.”

“If you previously could resist two hours without eating anything, then just resist for three hours! If you can resist half a day without eating, then just resist a whole day!” Huston firmly brandished his fist at Ayrin. “If you can withstand extreme hunger, and train or fight in such a state, then you'll be able to continuously surpass your limits, force the last drops of potential out of your body!”

“Back in the days, teacher Huston you also challenged the things that made you the most uncomfortable, that's what you did?” Ayrin watched Huston with much admiration.

“Of course! If you want to condense arcane particles as fast as possible and become an arcane master in the true sense of the word, then you have to truly squeeze out the power from every tiny particle inside your body. It's just like a sponge. The drier you squeeze it, the more water it can absorb the next time!” That was what Huston's mouth said, but what he thought inside was, if I can't sort you out, starving you until you're half dead works as well.

“Thank you teacher, I'll definitely work hard!”

…

At night, Liszt sat on a tree branch on top of a tree inside the forest of giant trees.

This branch was only as thick as a thumb. Sitting on it, Liszt continuously swayed with the night wind. It seemed this branch could break at any moment, or perhaps Liszt could fall from this branch any second.

Unexpectedly, neither of these situations happened.

A peculiar wind rolled out of the forest like a transparent python, falling opposite Liszt. Carter's figure emerged on a thin branch in front of him.

Carter stood on this tiny branch, extremely steadily, as if he were a heavy stone. The curious thing was, the tiny branch under his feet also seemed to have turned into a heavy stone, set fixedly in place without moving a single bit.

Throwing a glance at Carter who just appeared in front of him, Liszt stretched his back and said lazily, “Don't you think that's a big waste of arcane particles?”

“I'm not like you, I'm not a monster who's ready to fight in peak condition at all times. In a place as peaceful as Holy Dawn Academy, it doesn't matter much if I waste a few arcane particles.” Carter smiled, then he became serious again. “Huston conducted the wall running test today with that group of freshmen. Ayrin ran sixteen steps on that boulder we very often ran on.”

“He's so amazing?” Liszt clapped his hands and smiled. “It's truly a good result that surpasses expectations.” He didn't seem to think much of it when Carter cast a glance his way.

“What surpasses expectations even more is the speed of his progress and the speed of his recovery.” Carter solemnly said, “When I saw him a few days ago, it would have been impossible with his strength and speed to run more than ten steps. Also, you must have seen that as well, his body recovers much faster than an ordinary person. That means he can train for longer compared to others, or you could also say he possesses more training time compared to others.”

“Even a physique like Minlur's seems worse than his.” Liszt rubbed his chin, smiling. “Such a recovery ability, normally it only fits pure barbarian bloodlines, but he's obviously not from a barbarian bloodline, so I don't understand that part either.”

“Not only his healing ability, even his learning ability is especially strong.” Carter sucked a deep breath in and told Liszt, “I taught him the “Explosive Air Surge” not long ago. It turns out I only had to guide him a couple times before he more or less grasped it. Now it's only a matter of fine-tuning details about regulating the amount of power.”

“What you mean is, you suspect him of having dragon blood?” Liszt shook his head. “If it were a dragon bloodline, our library's senior Plum would have seen it a long time ago. His astounding physical strength and learning ability indeed make you think of high-level dragon bloodlines, but you must also have noticed that the arcane power he uses doesn't have the might of dragon bloodlines. For high-level dragon bloodlines, even during the Awakening stage, the might of the gathered arcane power when using arcanist techniques is visibly much stronger than ordinary bloodlines.”

“Correct, the strongest part about dragon bloodlines is that their arcane power and arcane particles are especially strong. When using the same secret skill, the might will be much stronger than other people.” Carter agreed with what Liszt said, but his face was even more bewildered. “Then what kind of mysterious bloodline is it in the end?”

“I wouldn't rack my mind so hard about this issue if I were you. This question will naturally be answered in the future.” Liszt smiled. “Anyway, we've ascertained he's special enough. Just like Chris, he's a genius hard to come by in our Holy Dawn Academy. That's enough.”

“You can say that, but every time I see this guy's attitude, I can't help thinking about this issue.” Carter shook his head, vexed. “Last question. It turns out senior Plum already took a fancy to Chris and taught her his secret skill. It's obvious you also appreciate her very much, and she obviously has the bravery to lay her life down in order to achieve victory. She should be very suitable for your secret skill Holy Gate of Life, why don't you try teaching her and see whether she can learn it?”

“The reason's very simple.” Liszt said, “Say I teach her. If she grasps it, she would certainly have the courage to use it, but her body can't bear it. She'd die.”

…

“Explosive Air Surge!”

In an empty spot inside the forest of huge trees, his body once again drenched in sweat from head to toe, Ayrin suddenly swung with his left hand while punching with his right.

With a deep and forceful chant, the movement of his hands became so fast they created series of blurs.

“Boom.” An explosive sound.

When his body reached its limit under the fists' momentum, he once again put all his strength into his fists. He almost seemed to shoot out something material, his body trembling all over from the recoil.

A mass of air visible to the naked eye charged out from his fist like a blast wave, bombing on the trunk of the great tree in front of him.

A white hole appeared on the hard trunk. Many dozen pieces of tree bark flew out.

“Amazing!”

Ayrin's eyes were full of little stars when he looked at the bark cracked open.

“My belly's so hungry.”

The next second, he once again held his belly, a pitiful miserable expression on his face.

Now, the thirst and hunger in the minute particles inside his body didn't feel sated anymore. That “Giants' Food” had already been digested after one day, and now his belly once again felt empty. He was so hungry he felt a little wan.

“Hm?”

Right at this moment, he heard a strange sound come from inside the forest, vaguely, sounding like Belo's voice.