How the Cult Saves the World

Chapter 106

Around the time he had swung the sword over 500 times in front of his now iron-blooded instructor grandmother... No, the Empire's Hero Helena Holden.

Revelof, out of breath, glanced at Helena, who had a cold gaze and sighed inwardly. He quickly gathered his composure and held the wooden sword with both hands.

-You can do it, child.

Kyros also cheered him on. Revelof swallowed and picked up his wooden sword, recalling Helena's actions from earlier.

Phew---

The movement was over in an instant with a slight breeze.

'I think this one was good enough.'

Revelof had no doubt that he had performed similar, if not identical, movements to Helena. But, judging from the look on Helena's face, things didn't look so good.

"You still have too much strength in your shoulders. Maybe that's why your legs are off balance."

Helena spoke to Revelof with a still cold gaze.

"Oh, I see."

Revelof smiled awkwardly and stroked the back of his neck. He was sure he had followed along correctly, but it was impossible to succeed on the first try.

"Try once again by relaxing a little more."

Helena nodded as she spoke. At her words, Revelof swung his wooden sword again.

"Again."

Helena carefully observed Revelof's movements and continued to make comments.

"Your left foot is too far forward. Again."

Revelof became anxious about the movements that were not going well. He bit his lip and continued to concentrate.

After cutting through the air dozens of times like that again,

phew!

"... You did well this time, Levi."

He was finally able to get the posture right.

Only then did Helena's cold gaze soften. Revelof wiped the sweat from his forehead while holding the wooden sword.

'I didn't know just getting into the right posture would be this hard.'

-I heard that it takes a lot of time to properly complete one movement.

The reason why Revelof was able to learn it quickly was that the movements he was doing now were the most basic.

"It's not perfect yet, but it's good enough. Now we can move on to the next step."

Helena approached Revelof with a smile.

"Now that you can get into the right stance, you need to put some strength into your sword."

Revelof listened carefully to Helena's words.

"Of course, just getting the posture right can give you a lot of strength. But to deal with threats that can come at any time and from any place, you need to cultivate your own strength. That is, rather than relying on a god who offers a deal in exchange for a miracle."

Helena smiled faintly after saying those meaningful words. Without her needing to elaborate, Revelof understood what she was implying.

'A deal for a miracle... Does she mean...?'

Meanwhile, Helena spoke again, her gaze fixed on Revelof.

"There is a breathing technique that has been passed down to Holden's direct descendants for a very long time."

"Breathing technique?"

Revelof's eyes widened a little.

"Yes. Breathing Teaching. I call it 'Mana Training'."

The word breathing technique triggered a thought in Revelof's mind. It reminded him of something similar in Terdius's basic skills in the Original HSAW.

'I think it was a passive skill that strengthened physical abilities.'

Could this be something similar?

As Revelof was thinking, Helena stood in front of him and closed her eyes.

"It's simple. You just need to control the mana in your body and let it flow throughout your entire being. And the true purpose of this training is to learn this breathing technique."

At her explanation, Revelof's mouth opened slightly in surprise.

"By mana control, you mean..."

"It is said that mana is typically stored in the center of a person. But, by distributing evenly throughout the body, you can achieve remarkable results."Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Simply showing him the way had allowed Revelof to advance to another stage.

Not long after, Revelof opened his eyes, his breathing ragged.

"Huff...huff..."

"Difficult, right? It's always hard at first. But as time goes on and you practice mana training persistently, it will get easier."

"Yes, Grandma.'

Revelof wiped the sweat from his face. He hadn't expected to feel so drained from simply cultivating his holy power.

"It's challenging now, but let's push a little more. Once you finish the mana training, you'll practically be done with the basic training. What you just did is the most critical part of the process. And once you perfect your mana control, learning the basic swordsmanship techniques will come naturally."

Helena patted Revelof on the shoulder as she continued,

"When mana circulates through your entire body, your physical abilities will improve. That'll help you master skills more quickly. If you want, you can even imitate other people's sword techniques. Of course, that will still require some training."

Revelof's eyes widened in surprise.

'I didn't expect the Holden family's training method to be like this.'

It was a completely unexpected discovery. If he could master this breathing technique, he could grow stronger far faster than he had imagined.

"And Levi, you seem to have a natural talent. You have plenty of mana, and your movements were almost you've used it before."

"Ah...is that so?"

Revelof feigned ignorance. He had no intention of revealing that he had already cultivated the holy power bestowed by Kyros.

"Yeah. You might even...finish this in less than a week."

Her lips curving into a gentle smile. Her hand on his shoulder tightened slightly.

"Alright, let's go again."

At that moment, Revelof couldn't even have imagined...

That this grueling mana training would continue late into the night.

***

I learned today that when someone reaches the peak of exhaustion, they don't even have the energy to groan.

Grandma's mana training lasted for hours, finally ending late in the evening.

'I'm dying.'

I slumped into a chair, closing my eyes. Trying to use holy power all over inside my entire body was far more taxing than I had anticipated.

While practicing, I worked on evenly distributing it and gradually increasing the duration of each attempt. But, in the process, I constantly used up a lot of my holy power.

'I'm pretty sure my holy power has definitely increased compared to before but...'

It seemed that controlling the amount of holy power was still difficult to me.

'Still, Grandma said I did pretty well for my first time.'

She had even clapped her hands in joy.

-You've worked hard, child. You look completely exhausted.

'Yes...I feel like I'm going to die.'

Now, my goal for the rest of this training was clear: I needed to fully master the mana training and basic sword stances Grandma had taught me.

'If I can get this right... '

Someday, I might be able to make Terdius's swordsmanship mine.

If I can do that, it'd be a huge advantage in navigating this challenging world of hidden paths.

'Not to mention, Grandma said I can copy not just sword techniques but other movements too. It'll be useful in so many ways.'

Of course, I'd need extra training for that.

After organizing my thoughts, I ate the meal the servants brought to my room, then quickly washed up.

Before I realized it, night had fallen.

I wanted to collapse into bed and sleep immediately, but I couldn't.

I set up a portal in the corner of the room and headed to the temple in Rovel. On the desk in my office, a mountain of books that Zain had prepared awaited me. I stored them in my inventory and returned to the mansion.

'I could have read these in the office, but the bed here is much more comfortable.'

I sprawled face-down on my bed, flipping through a book on 'Mana Burn'. Page after page, I devoured the information.

How many hours passed like that?

Through the book, I found out something new.