Body Tempering Method

"Tap. Tap."

After brushing the scattered gravel from the hem of his clothes, Guter suddenly exerted himself and finally yanked his body free from where it had been deeply embedded in the wall.

Turning back to look at the human-shaped crater left in the wall, Guter sighed and could not help remarking,

"Do Elf Mages all like using this method to brick their disciples into walls after becoming teachers?"

He had never expected that what happened to Feren in the story would one day be reenacted on himself.

Fortunately, Guter's physical condition was vastly different from that of Feren, a fragile mage.

Damage of this level would have left Feren bedridden for days, while Guter only needed to dust himself off and get back up.

Yet the shock that such instant-cast magic left in the disciples' hearts was not diminished in the slightest.

Before his body had even been sent flying, Guter had failed to detect any casting fluctuations around Serie. Not even the faintest trace of magic had leaked out.

It was not that the casting motions had been concealed. There simply had not been any casting process at all.

It was as though, for Serie, all it took to cast that spell was a single glance.

"Teacher Serie, you're terrifyingly strong."

Having climbed down from the wall, Guter looked at the figure emerging from the residence and spoke from the bottom of his heart.

"Hmph."

Serie gave a noncommittal snort. "Just a small warning from a teacher to her disciple."

"Go home and rest. After staying up all night in enlightenment, you need enough sleep to recover your energy."

"Lairn and Gumi can maintain order at the examination site. Just come over before today's exam ends."

"Thank you, Teacher."

Sensing the concern in Serie's words, Guter nodded slightly. After thanking his teacher, he turned and left.

Serie, meanwhile, stood before her door and stared absently at her departing disciple's back.

"Though I deliberately reduced the force of that impact, it was still an attack that ordinary Warriors could not take lightly."

"And yet it did not affect this disciple in the slightest."

"You truly are outstanding, Guter."

At that thought, the corners of Serie's lips lifted slightly, and the image of a deceased disciple surfaced in her mind.

"Bodi, the regret you carried at the end of your life will be fulfilled by a Junior Disciple who came after you."

An inn in the city.

After returning to his room, Guter changed clothes and lay directly on the bed. But because of his usual habits, he tossed and turned for quite a while without feeling sleepy. In the end, he simply pulled out the notes left behind by his predecessor senior disciple from inside his coat and began reading them in bed.

Guter had originally intended to read only for a while, using them to help himself fall asleep.

Who would have thought that the more he read, the more awake he became? At first, he merely read while lying in bed. Then he sat up. By the end, he had gotten out of bed entirely, pulled over a chair, and bent over the table to study them. From time to time, he grabbed a sheet of scrap paper to jot down and sketch things out to aid his understanding.

Honestly, these "Body Tempering Notes" left behind by his predecessor senior disciple were not difficult to understand. They could even be called simple.

The entire notebook was divided into only two parts: body tempering and practical combat.

In the body tempering section, the notes provided an extremely unusual method of circulating magic.

According to the description, this circulation method would create a special magical fluctuation within a mage's body.

The mage's body would then undergo all-around tempering within those fluctuations. Its effects far surpassed the Body Tempering Methods practiced by ordinary Warriors.

The practical combat section, meanwhile, provided another special secret method for circulating magic.

This secret method could greatly enhance a mage's physical abilities in a short time and amplify the destructive power of their attacks. In Guter's understanding, it was a combination of Lightning Release: Chakra Mode and Monster Strength Fist from Naruto.

The main body of the notes ended with the explanation of the secret method in the practical combat section.

The remaining pages contained the predecessor senior disciple's account of his creative journey, as well as his regret at being unable to witness his theory come into being.

After reading the last page of the notebook in his hands, Guter carefully closed it and put it away. Then he took a deep breath and rubbed his temples.

How should he evaluate the painstaking work left behind by his predecessor senior disciple?

Its cultivation principles were rather simple, and its results were exceptionally impressive, but...

The entry requirements were absurdly high.

This was not something one could practice just by having talent as a mage and training their body a little.

The magic circulation method in the body tempering section made Guter's eyelids twitch. Even mages with relatively good physiques would probably faint before completing a single cycle.

Yet the notes required a mage to precisely control their magic throughout the entire process, using vibrations to temper every part of their body through magical fluctuations.

Even ordinary Warriors might not be able to withstand such a Body Tempering Method.

Those who could endure it would definitely be highly elite Warriors.

But how many such Warriors possessed the talent to become mages?

Granted, through the long years of tempering their bodies, Warriors would passively accumulate some magic to enhance their combat techniques.

However, the amount of magic accumulated by Warriors through passively absorbing it with their bodies was worlds apart from what mages actively gathered through meditation.

Moreover, unlike mages, Warriors did not often cast magic. They lacked the skill to finely guide magic through their bodies. Even if they accumulated enough magic by the twilight of their lives, it would be difficult for them to control it according to a predetermined path.

It was clear just how high the entry threshold for this Body Tempering Method was.

Even Guter did not dare say for certain whether he currently met the standard to begin.

Still, this secret method was indeed worth trying.

Guter looked at the drafts he had copied onto his desk. His predecessor senior disciple's Body Tempering Method had been difficult to develop, but the finished product was relatively simple to learn.

If he had to point out a difficulty, it was only that the magic circulation diagrams for the body tempering and practical combat sections had to be memorized, and memorized so thoroughly that they became almost instinctive.

Reaching that level of memorization would normally take quite some time, but fortunately, Guter happened to possess an artifact that could skip the process altogether—Memory Bread (Enhanced Version).

"Scratch, scratch, scratch—"

Guter's pen raced across the scrap paper. Before long, two detailed diagrams of the circulation routes appeared on the page.

Thanks to his long experience copying books in the abandoned Monastery, Guter's hands were both swift and precise when reproducing documents.

Once he had finished copying them, Guter took a piece of Memory Bread from System Space and slapped it onto the scrap paper.

After the Memory Bread had fully absorbed the two magic circulation diagrams, Guter put it into his mouth.

Before long, when Guter opened his eyes again, he had gained a deep understanding of the magic circulation methods in the two diagrams and memorized them at the level of conditioned reflex.

"Whew—"

Guter let out a long breath. Now that he had fully understood it, it was time to try this Body Tempering Method and see whether his current self was qualified to get started.

I was a bit stuck on the writing, so I caught up on some manga this morning and redrew the map.