Chapter 233: First Training Session [3]
Chapter 233: Chapter 233: First Training Session [3]
Chapter 233 – First Training Session [3]
Cassius didn’t know how many times he was pierced by arrows, spiked from below, or even strung up by threads that erupted from the ground.
He truly stopped bothering to count after one hour. Not that he could have anyway.
His mind was hazy with numbing, dull pain, robbing him of his full mental faculties. His body was in chaos, riddled with wounds on all sides, making each step a struggle worthy of a snail trying to lift a boulder.
And then came the weight. The damned weight.
It was agonizing.
Cassius realised that when his weight increased each time he failed to make his step even, it wasn’t only his body...it was his whole internal system growing heavier too.
That made the pain far worse than one could imagine.
Breathing became a luxury at that point, and without enough oxygen, his mind danced between consciousness and unconsciousness.
A dangerous dance. A deadly one.
But not everything was bad.
His numerous failures made Cassius begin to grasp more of what he was supposed to do. And that caused two Snake Loops to appear atop his head, curling, hissing in encouragement.
One of them was for his Adaptation to make his steps even across all types of surfaces.
The other for his ability to sense the traps ahead of time.
The First Snake Loop was only a third closed, while the Second wasn’t even at that point.
The fact that he was using only his body and none of his power made it a hellish endeavour. In that moment, Cassius realised he was nothing but a mortal with higher physical strength and mental fortitude.
And yet, the Last Born of the Desdemona didn’t give up, knowing his Snake Loops were still progressing, albeit a bit slower than he’d have liked.
There were moments when he grew impatient, spitting irritated and angry curses whenever the weight increased or a trap was triggered, but he always repeated the famous words of The Fool.
’Journey Before Destination.’
Always.
He reminded himself that he wasn’t meant to pass this training quickly. He was meant to take his time and learn as much as he could.
He could fail. No... he had to fail. Only then would he learn what he was supposed to do.
So with that in mind, with those words repeating over and over in his head, bringing him comfort from a place he wasn’t aware of, Cassius Desdemona continued his training relentlessly.
He would only stop when the weight became far too heavy to handle. And even though he wasn’t paying attention to it, Mallory could clearly see that the weight required to paralyse him had increased ever so slightly in the span of just one hour.
It was incredible. So much so that Mallory could hardly believe it.
Normally no one adapted this fast. Not in a single hour.
But her disciple was doing it, progressing faster than she had expected, despite not yet having reached even a third of the distance to the mountain.
’It seems I underestimated his capacity for Adaptation.’ Mallory whispered to herself, watching Cassius sway and wobble, yet still step forward.
She waited another thirty minutes, letting him try and fail again and again, before she decided it was time.
With one step, she arrived beside Cassius, at his right, looking down at him.
He was breathing hard, his lips visibly dry, his eyes dilating continuously.
She took a healing potion out of her space ring — a Tier 5 one — and made him drink it. In a couple of breaths, Cassius regained some of his senses, the pain easing considerably.
Mallory reset his weight again, returning it to normal. He instantly breathed a sigh of relief, almost falling to the ground.
"You’ve tried many times and failed every one of them." Mallory said, walking ahead, her voice carrying behind her. "Now that you know the difficulty and what you need to work on, watch me."
She halted, turning to look at him over her left shoulder, smirking.
"Watch how I do it, and understand what you’re missing."
Cassius’s mind was immediately on high alert, focusing solely on Mallory’s steps.
But...
"Not only my steps." She said again. "Watch my whole body. Or do you believe only your legs work when you walk? Your whole body takes part in the process. So, if you want to make every step equal..."
She lifted her leg and set it down.
"...keep your whole body the same."
His master did nothing but take a step. Only a step. Yet Cassius felt his heart skip a beat.
Now that he’d tried so many bloody times, he could instantly feel that her step was... perfect. No wasted power, no wasted energy. She used the exact right amount to step on that specific patch of ground.
She took another step, then another. The surroundings were quiet, and even her footsteps sounded identical despite the ground being different.
Cassius widened his eyes further and used all his senses to appraise his master.
He noticed she was using her whole body, making sure her centre of gravity never swayed, even her breathing. All of it remained exactly the same, steady and perfectly controlled.
Her eyes were also closed, showing she wasn’t looking at her surroundings. She was listening. She was feeling the shifts, the sounds, and the way the air itself interacted with her body.
That was when Cassius’s mind burst into a light of understanding.
When dealing with unseen traps, the eyes were practically useless — unless one had special eyes to back them up.
But in that moment, he had no power to speak of. His eyes were as normal as could be, save for their greater range.
But they were useless.
What he needed to focus on were his other senses. Every trap left something that could be recognised — the rusty smell of iron, the uneven sound of air over a particular surface, and so on.
He simply needed to figure out how, and avoid them properly.
Without his knowledge, both his Snake Loops began to progress, the snakes hissing in joy.
At last, Mallory stopped walking, making him understand one final thing.
’She... she isn’t forcing every step to be identical.’ He gulped, excitement building in his chest. ’She’s making every result identical.’
That was an important nuance Cassius only grasped now. He didn’t need to make everything the same. It was impossible, because the conditions were never the same between two steps.
What he could do, however, was make the result of each step the same by adapting to the conditions.
Again, the Snake Loops progressed even further.
"Now?" Mallory said, smiling. "Did you learn something?"
"I did." He nodded, smiling back. "A lot."
"Then start again." She said, looking at the watch on her wrist. "You have half your time left. Do it again, and again, and again."
Cassius nodded once more, closed his eyes, rehearsing everything he’d grasped, and took a step forward.
Instantly, Mallory’s smile went wide.
"Incredible."
...
While Cassius was going through intense training, his siblings were not quite idle.
Inside the top floor of Bliss’s Palace, Dorian Desdemona sat at the edge of his bed, wearing long baggy trousers, his chest bare, showing off his flaming tattoos.
His head was buried deep in his hands.
His mind was in absolute chaos, his heart beating so loud he was afraid it would leap out of his mouth.
It had been a very long time since Dorian had faced a problem that could potentially destroy everything he’d built.
A very long time.
And he didn’t like it one bit.
’This must be a joke. This can’t be possible.’ He repeated the same sentences for the nth time, yet the reality of his situation was as clear as could be.
He had been sleeping with Esmeray, his own family, all this time, without knowing anything.
"Oh." A sultry voice suddenly echoed behind him, coming from a naked middle-aged woman with a smile far too big for Dorian’s current mood. "You woke up early today, sweetheart."
She rose from the bed, uncaring of her nudity, and began to slowly crawl toward the seated Dorian, her smile widening as she recalled last night.
"You’re the best man I’ve ever tasted, sweetheart." She whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck. "The best man ever. With your capabilities, you could certainly overturn the Pink Lotus Brothel. I’ll help you."
Her hands began to roam his whole body, sliding downward.
"I just need you to satisfy me once or twice every week." She bit his ear sensually and whispered deep into it. "And I’ll be your spy to bring down Madam Fiona."
"Estelle." Dorian spoke, yet his voice was nothing like the charming one Estelle had heard last night. She almost jumped in shock at the coldness of it.
"I think it’s time for you to go home." He turned to look at her, his eyes dead cold. "Your husband is waiting for you."
Estelle stood there, frozen. It took her a couple of seconds to gather herself and manage to speak again.
"Did... did I do something to offend you, sweetheart? I’m—!"
"Estelle." Dorian cut in again, his essence churning dangerously. "Go."
That was all she needed. Her heart pounding, Estelle immediately gathered her clothes and ran out of the room, wondering in a daze what she had done to anger Bliss so much.
Dorian was finally alone. But not for long.
Morgan burst through his door moments later, her eyes shimmering with excitement. But that excitement died the moment she saw her younger brother’s eyes.
’Oh. He’s angry, alright.’
"Who angered you?" she asked, cocking her head.
"I have some rather inconvenient things to deal with immediately." He said, standing up and heading toward his wardrobe. "Do you need me for something?"
"Not really." She said, arching an eyebrow at her brother’s strange mood. "It’s just that old man Mort is finally stable enough and has fully become my Shadow Clone. He was about to share some information about a certain sect named the Crimson Daggers. I thought you should hear it with me."
"I’ll pass." Dorian said, putting on his clothes, sparing his sister a dark glance. "I have someone to pay a visit."
—End of Chapter 233—