Recovering

Three more days have passed since Lucas woke up.

It was a little awkward and hard to talk to everyone at first after everything that happened, but after a few hours, they warmed up to each other.

At least that was true for everyone except for Luna.

She was feeling guilty again that she wasn't there and kept crying in his embrace after not seeing him for more than 9 days.

It took Lucas an entire day just to comfort and spoil her until she calmed down.

He also got much closer with Lena after everything.

Though she didn't understand everything that happened, she was smart enough to know that Lucas went through something horrible.

Yesterday, two royal guards and one person from the government came by to ask for more details of everything that happened.

His father naturally talked the most about the wraith he fought since it was a new type of enemy they had never encountered, making everyone nervous.

He didn't have much information about the count-ranked demon except from Lucas.

Since these people knew that Lucas was kidnapped by him, they wanted to question him.

Naturally, his father got enraged by that and was about to kill the lot of them without hesitation of their ranks, but Lucas stepped in on time, calming him down and saying that he didn't mind telling them.

He just told them about what he experienced for those 9 days and lied to them that Karciel didn't ask any questions to him and simply tortured him. He even went into detail about what Karciel did to him, making them all feel weird, including his father.

They weren't shocked because of the details since this wasn't the first time they heard about torture or seen it. What disturbed them most was... how calm Lucas was telling everything, as if it didn't bother him.

After that, they decided to leave under the threatening gaze of his father.

Currently, Lucas was again in the training grounds but this time by himself.

He was sitting cross-legged and had his eyes closed as if he was meditating.

He was close...

Lucas felt that he was extremely close to breaking through to the next substage of his star level.

'Any moment now...'

He was guiding the mana in the atmosphere into his body.

He kept making the mana enter his veins and letting them spread out to every part of his body.

Ranking up to the next star level always hurt.

This process is done by everyone no matter if you are a mage or swordsman; you need mana from the atmosphere to enter and refine the body or the aura inside your body to get stronger by training.

For Lucas, though, since he was extremely talented and had the special talent dual wielder, he could advance in both at the same time easily.

Of course, this meant he had to train even more than the average mage or swordsman who wanted to become a famous hero or adventurer.

The process should hurt even more for someone like Lucas as well due to being a dual wielder.

But since he was a half dragon, it was surprisingly much easier than before for him to absorb mana in the air. So he only had to properly focus on his aura by himself, and it didn't hurt as much as it should. In fact, it barely hurt at all.

If his theory is correct, then that means the extinct race of dragons before could have easily advanced to the next star level, standing easily above any other race except for the demons. Perhaps there were many saints even before in the dragon race.

'I wonder how they perished...'

Lucas believes that the dragons had achieved stages higher than Saint. He is sure of it. Perhaps there are even some in Myrniel who have reached a higher stage than Saint. if that were true... almost every race in Myrniel would be thrown into chaos...

As he was lost in thought, he suddenly felt his body heating up and his body starting to absorb even more mana in the atmosphere at a much faster rate. Gusts of winds were starting to form around him as his snow-white hair kept dancing around.

He felt the mana starting to course and violently dance inside every inch of his body as more and more kept coming in.

He gritted his teeth hard to stop himself from groaning from the weird sensation he was feeling.

Suddenly the weird sensation was gone, and he stopped trying to absorb more mana since he felt a change in his body.

He opened his eyes as he took some deep breaths.

Clenching his hands, he felt how the quality and quantity of his mana changed.

He felt much stronger now.

"It really is true what they say... the higher you advance, the higher the difference becomes... I wonder how many times I should've died if it wasn't for all the abnormal things I possessed."

"...Hahah! I am starting to understand why I am titled as an Anomaly!"

Having the chaos element. Being a dual wielder which only the future Hero Klaus Ceviel should have. Being a half dragon. Having a baby dragon as a soul bond. Already reaching the High 6-star level as a mage and being a Mid 6-star level swordsman.

'I should try to become a High 6-star level swordsman before the academy'

"I wonder how much chaos the world will be in after I reveal myself in the academy as the strongest champion. I wonder how strong the other champions are... Well, the only one who is currently known closest to my level of this generation is Sylv. The future hero of humanity should catch up to us soon with his talent, after he can properly train in the academy, perhaps even some other champions or some dark horses will surprise me."

Honestly, Lucas didn't really need to go to the academy for the purpose of advancing star levels. If he wanted to get stronger, he could just keep training here, but there were some advantages to going.

He could start honing his powers more there under the guidance of the teachers. Though he had William and Lucielle, they didn't have a lot of time to train him and mostly just taught him the basics of mana control, spells, and swordplay perfectly. After that, he had to improve a lot on his own when he was adventuring in Myrniel as Noctis.

Inside the academy, he could just focus on training more and improving his spells and swordsmanship without having to deal with any other annoying issues. Perhaps there were people in his generation who were more skilled with the sword and magic, but unlike them, who weren't as crazy as Lucas, he has much, much more experience than them.

In the end, his main purposes of going to Shield are getting stronger while at the same time trying to experience his academy life, which he never really got the chance to back when he was Noah.

'A monster...'

Remembering the words of his previous self, he couldn't help but scoff as a grin appeared on his face.

"Heh. Noah, you said that I am destined to become a villain. A destroyer. That I cannot change. You are right; I shouldn't hide from my past anymore, but I won't be the same person I was before either. Perhaps you are right... perhaps it is my fate to become a villain.

But...

If that is true.

Then...

I will simply destroy my own Fate."