Chapter 113: A Small Step Forward [Part-2]

Neo pulled back with a slightly disappointed gaze. What he wanted wasn’t to shatter the dummy into pieces. He wanted a clean hole in the centre of the dummy, so that no excess damage would spread out and the enemy’s core would be destroyed as well. It would result in less mana being used on the attack, and would also make the attack more effective.

But it was not as easy as it sounded. Finding the exact centre of mass of a body which wasn’t even his own was as difficult as finding a single key in a vast lake.

The centre of mass didn’t always mean the mana core, from where mana circulated. Though the mana core was also an important thing, and if it was hit, it could not only destroy the opponent but also destroy the surroundings around the opponent if it exploded. It was like a heart, and just as the heart circulated blood around the body, the core also circulate mana around, since without it no one could survive.

Of course, there were also people without a mana core, but they were not included in this, as they had never awakened mana in the first place and couldn’t sense it, just as we can’t exactly sense whether we are breathing oxygen or something else.

The centre of mass of any body was the point where the whole weight of the body was concentrated, and it was also the place where the blood and mana circulation were denser.

To find that place, a person needed extreme knowledge about the subject, which was only possible when considering their own body, and if they wanted to find it in some other body, it was as difficult as hell.

What Neo had just done was to surround the dummy’s body with his mana, and after wrapping around it, he checked where the material was densest in the body. He couldn’t sense the exact core, but he assumed it was somewhere around there and hit that place. As the tip of his sword missed the exact centre of mass, the shockwave hit the surrounding wood as well as the centre of mass and spread out, shattering the whole body in a chaotic form.

The dummy was a non-living thing, unlike a living being, whose mana pathways were relatively easier to search through, but Neo thought that if he could learn how to spot that place in a dummy, it would be far easier for him to try it on other beings.

So Neo didn’t waste his time being disappointed. He rose again and began to try different methods on another dummy, failing but still trying, hoping that one day he would surely be able to do it, and when that time came, he might just destroy an enemy with a single attack.

He moved on to the next dummy, and this time he decided to change his approach. Instead of wrapping the entire body with his mana at once, he released only a thin thread and let it crawl slowly along the surface of the wood, as if he was feeling for the veins beneath the skin. The thread moved down the neck, spread across the shoulders, and travelled along the torso, and with every inch it advanced, Neo felt a faint difference in the density of the material beneath it.

’It feels like the density gathers slightly lower than the chest... but there is something strange. The weight shifts every time I move the thread, as if the centre keeps changing its place.’

He frowned slightly, narrowed his eyes, and kept his focus on the thread. A single drop of sweat slid down from his temple and dropped onto the floor, but he didn’t wipe it away, as he was afraid that even a small movement would break his concentration.

After a few more seconds, he felt something, a very faint pull, like the sensation of a tiny magnet hidden deep inside the wood. He held his breath, pulled his sword back, and thrust it forward with all the precision he could gather.

The tip of the wooden sword pierced the dummy with a dull sound, and this time, the body did not explode. A small, round hole opened slightly below the chest, and a few cracks spread out around it before they stopped, as if they were afraid to go any further. The dummy stood there for a moment, and then its upper half slowly tilted and slid down along the cracks.

It wasn’t a perfect result, as the cracks were still there and the dummy had broken anyway, but it was far closer to what he wanted than anything he had done before.

Neo stared at the hole for a while, and a small smile appeared on his lips. ’So it can be done. I just have to refine it more.’

Just as he was about to move to the next dummy, he felt a gaze fixed on his back. He turned his head slightly and saw Nora standing a few steps away, holding her stick loosely in her hand. Her violet eyes were not on him, but on the dummy he had just pierced, and she was looking at the small hole with an expression which was blank as always, yet carried a trace of curiosity that Neo could not miss.

Neo walked towards her with the wooden sword on his shoulder. "What do you think? It’s not clean yet, but I’m getting closer."

Nora kept looking at the hole for a few more seconds, and then slowly lifted her gaze to meet his. She didn’t say anything, but she gave a small nod, so small that it could easily have been mistaken for a trick of the light.

That tiny nod made Neo’s smile widen, as it was the first time since his return that she had shown any sign of acknowledging him without being forced.

"Then watch carefully, since I’m going to get it right on the next one."

He turned around and walked towards another dummy with renewed energy, unaware that the girl behind him was no longer looking at the dummy, and that her eyes, calm and unreadable, had quietly shifted to follow only him.