Chương 35: Chapter 32

Usually, warriors of the older generation used combat to teach the young about Skills and how the Ancestors rewarded them. Combat was the best way to do so, especially with the Barbarian Physique. Every Barbarian was born with the same physique, but it wasn't displayed in the same way by each of them. The chieftain once mentioned that those born with the Bloodline of Zeldron had the greatest of all synergies with the Barbarian Physique. That had been one of the reasons Tribe Taskur survived this long.

They were the Blood of Zeldron and thus the strongest of all Barbarians. The synergy of the Barbarian Physique and the Bloodline of Zeldron helped them acquire combat-related Skills. At the very least, the synergy further amplified a warrior's instincts, size, and muscle mass. That would also explain why Hakon had always been different. His Bloodline was not the same as most of Tribe Taskur. Still, he was one of the strongest before the Rite, and he prevailed to retain his position at the top.

Be that as it may, Hakon was not necessarily a giant. He was not small, but compared to the greatest of warriors, he couldn't be considered tall or particularly broad either. Teaching Astrid and Björn through combat sounded right. Björn's Blessing of the Bear would guide him toward a more bestial combat style. That made it all the more difficult to teach him something that required him to maintain full focus in combat.

Through the Ascensions, his Blessing would further enhance him, and, with the Ancestors' support, he would eventually be able to transform into a Divine Bear. Such a transformation, among other things, was the greatest of all rewards a Blessed warrior could acquire, as it would elevate their strength to an entirely new level. Once again, that was something the Sagas of Barbarians who had long since joined the Ancestors' feast said. He probably has a Skill like [Natural Regeneration] already.

His version is probably better than mine. Hakon grimaced. He considered teaching Björn [Dash], but he'd have to cleanse his pathways for that first. Teaching him that sounded more difficult than it had any right to.

"What are you doing?" Björn shouted, standing in the center of the sparring grounds, ready to spar–to 'learn'.

"Or do you not want to show me that Skill of yours?"

"How good is your control of mana?" Hakon had to suppress a heavy sigh when Björn looked at him like he didn't understand a single word he had just said.

"Mana? What's that?" He tilted his head, only for Astrid to step in.

"The Shaman wields mana." She turned to Hakon, one eyebrow raised.

"You know we're not Shamans. We wield Lifeblood, not mana."

"Lifeblood and mana are the same. At least, I think it is." Hakon waved dismissively and eyed his friends.

"How good is your control of Lifeblood?"

"Good," Björn grunted in satisfaction before pushing his chest out.

"The old hag said I learned [Crushing Advance] fast." With that, he activated the Skill and burst forward. The ground beneath him cracked as he barreled toward the closest tree with surprising speed. A sheen caught Hakon's attention as his friend crashed right into the tree, snapping it in two. Björn's hair did not change color, but it shimmered before the impact, absorbing most of the damage and leaving him unscathed even when the tree collapsed. Astrid could only shake her head at their friend's stupidity.

"Mother is satisfied with my power, but she said I have to grow a lot more." She said, completely ignoring Björn as he turned back with a smug smile. If he expected to be praised for destroying the chieftain's home, he'd have to go elsewhere. Astrid hesitated for a moment, but continued, "Mother told me to learn from you."

"What exactly did she say?" Hakon grinned at his friend as she grimaced. He had been around Astrid's mother long enough to know that she was not one to take her daughter's loss in the Battle of Generation lightly. She couldn't accept it, yet she would never openly say so out of respect for the Ancestors rather than anything else.

"She told me to squeeze you dry. To learn your secrets and to make them mine." Every word Astrid said seemed to physically hurt her.

"What an annoying woman." Björn walked up to them and spat on the ground, trying to look like getting ignored didn't bother him, even when it did.

"Say that to her. I want to see how you survive that." Astrid dared Björn, making him grimace. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Hakon stepped between his friends with a soothing smile.

"I don't know how much you have advanced already, but you need to cleanse your pathways to learn some of the Skills I learned."

"The tunnels inside your body," he added when his friends looked confused at the mention of 'pathways'. Björn was still confused, which was yet another issue, but Astrid seemed to understand.

"I will teach you [Flow Control] first. It might not help you too much, but it will help you improve your control of ma– lifeblood," Hakon explained to Astrid.

"[Flow Control] will help you cleanse your pathways faster as well. Using and improving the Skill will help me teach you [Dash]." He demonstrated [Dash] once, which was rewarded with a grunt from Björn.

"[Crushing Advance] is much better."

"Better or just different?" Hakon asked after a moment, silencing Björn. It was obvious that he wanted to say [Crushing Advance] was better, but the way his friend looked at him told him that there was more to it.

"You control [Dash]. It does not control you." Björn looked up at Hakon.

"I saw you use that Skill in the Battle of Generation. It did not force you to move in the way the Skill wants you to. The Skill let you move how you wanted to." That was a crude way to explain [Dash]. It wasn't entirely true in all its specifics either, but it was good enough to make Björn think. And thinking was a good way to get started. After all, it was something new.

"Let me teach you what pathways are first. If you want to learn more after that, I can teach you [Flow Control] as well. If not, I could show you [Combat Awareness] or [Weakness Detection] in combat later," Hakon proposed to his towering friend. Björn did not seem fully convinced. It took him over a minute to finally agree, with a stipulation, "Okay, but I want to fight you no matter what."

"That's fine with me." Astrid didn't object to the plan, so they started right away. Following the prodding in his mind, Hakon used [Sensory Expansion] and [Split Focus] first. Since he had gotten used to the Skills and the sensations they caused, it didn't take him long before activating [Mana Sense], [Mana Manipulation], and [Mana Shaping] as well. That was a lot of Skills he planned to use while following his Ancient Power's sense of wrongness to teach his friends, but it felt like the right thing to do.

Somewhat. Hakon's head felt like it was bursting the moment he released mana out of his body to form different shapes. Small spheres hadn't been too difficult, yet even they hadn't been all that stable. Tweaking and twisting his control over his mana-based Skills, Hakon created a small semi-translucent mass. His head throbbed and thundered, but the result was not all too bad: his creation looked like the mana mass inside him. There was only one problem. Neither Björn nor Astrid could see it.

They stared at him, expecting greatness, only to see their friend struggling to do… something. I can do this. Hakon closed his eyes, putting his mind into his creation and what he wanted it to be like. The first idea that popped up in his mind was the Healer's emerald light. He had touched it before and knew that it was mana, but replicating the emerald light of the Shaman's Healer sounded a little too difficult. After all, the emerald light was not just a Lightcaller's glow or a pyre torch's shimmer.

It contained what Healers required to tend to a Barbarian's wounds. Following his train of thought, Hakon thought about the Lightcaller and pyre torches. He discarded the thought after a moment since he did not want to blind anyone, which led him toward his father's crimson hue and Astrid's Blood Fury. Replicating their powers was not feasible, but what if–...

"Are you okay, dude?" Björn asked into the silence, only to let out a groan. Astrid hissed at him, silencing their friend while Hakon leaned deeper into the power of Enhanced Comprehension. Focusing on [Mana Manipulation], Hakon started to work, his approach as simple as it could be. He called out to Enhanced Comprehension, telling it what he wanted, and adjusted his Skills until the sense of wrongness no longer tried to consume him.

The wrongness may never truly disappear, but the voices grow more silent as he crawled closer to his desired goal. Hakon didn't know how much time passed–it could have been enough to extinguish a pyre torch, or only a few heartbeats–but he knew that he was getting somewhere. His head felt like it was bursting apart, which only fed into [Pain Tolerance] as he adjusted his Skills, yet it was Björn's voice that caught his attention.

Enhanced Comprehension urged him to keep going and work on the wrongness, even if it was no longer necessary. Hakon's eyes snapped open to the manifestation of the mana mass glowing in a dim blue light. It was barely perceptible; however, that was all he needed to teach his friends. The blood dripping to the ground beside him was pointedly ignored as he smiled at Astrid and Björn.

"Can you see the mana shape now?" Hakon asked, even though he knew the answer. Astrid stared at the conjuration like she couldn't believe what she was seeing and then at him.

"Did you just improve a Skill?" [Proficiency gained. [Mana Manipulation Lv. 1] improved to [Mana Manipulation Lv. 2]] [Proficiency gained. [Mana Manipulation Lv. 2] improved to [Mana Manipulation Lv. 3]] [Proficiency gained. [Mana Shaping Lv. 1] improved to [Mana Shaping Lv. 2]]"Two, actually." Hakon laughed, which was a mistake. His concentration faltered, and he struggled to regain full control of the mana shape before him. Improving one Skill would not have nearly been enough to make this work.

Even better would have been several more levels in both Skills, but that was something he could work on in the next few nights. That, and earning yet another level. Working with Enhanced Comprehension was truly a blessing of the Ancestors. It guided his Skill growth greatly and pushed him to think in ways he never thought would help him.

Now, he was still a little doubtful of the path he was supposed to take to make use of the Ancestors' gift in the best way, but he was confident that he was walking in the right direction. All he needed was to test more, be it through combat or in the chieftain's backyard.