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Chapter 171 Volume IV - Chapter 16: Coughing up Blood

After a hot, relaxing shower, I got on my bed as usual, closed my eyes, and thought.

I need to take action. I need to keep moving forward now that I have managed to raise my general level.

First of all... Let me look again at what I need to do.

I need to investigate the Tenebra Family, heal Celine, understand Alysia\'s purpose and get her on my side, find a way to suppress my wiera side, find a solution for Lucia\'s attraction statistic as Melany and I agreed, slowly build the research facility and information agency I want to set up, and also go south to the continent where the dwarves live now that I\'m D- grade and can use Spiritual Ascension without backlash.

Huh, I really have a lot of things to do... And the tournament is coming up, even though it\'s almost four months away because of the events in the kingdom. So, I should at least do the last of what I said in the meantime.

I should go to one of the dwarven countries, the North Holar, that should be my next step. This may be the most significant step since I made the deal with the Sith in my early days on Lunerra. Maybe it already is.

With the connections I\'ve made, even if the dwarves are going through a tough time, I can use my connections to get a clearance to fly.

As for the academy hassle... Of course, there will be cons for me, maybe I will have to go through all the lessons I skipped again, but it is definitely worth it. Anyway, I don\'t think it will be too much trouble, Melany will take care of it somehow.

So... I don\'t really have that many obstacles in front of me. It\'s just going to take a little bit of eff-

Huh?

I paused, put my hand to my head, and waited. A slight headache, rising slowly from deep inside, was the reason why I suddenly stopped thinking.

I took a deep breath, put my head on my pillow, and closed my eyes.

I don\'t like to think too much, my head has been hurting a lot lately. I think I should rest-

The pain in my head suddenly intensified. My whole body trembled violently. I felt a tightness in my chest.

It was momentary, yet I was out of breath. At the same time, I froze with a strange, warm sensation coming from my nose.

I put my hand to my nose, looked at my palm, and saw blood.

\'Aiden?\'

Then I felt something rising in my throat and my eyes widened. I quickly turned to the edge of the bed and felt a pain as if my throat was being torn open. A metallic taste, blood, came out with each cough.

I tried to stop coughing, but it didn\'t work. I coughed and coughed. The blood kept shooting out of my mouth. Each time my throat hurt worse… my heart squeezed worse.

\'Aiden! Aiden what\'s happening?!\'

Finally, when I stopped coughing, my hand, my clothes, and the floor were soiled with my saliva and blood.

\'Are you okay?!\'

Sith jumped in front of me, looking directly at my pale face. He was scared.

I wiped my mouth with my sleeve, took a deep breath, and leaned back.

"I\'m fine, I guess?"

I looked at my right hand, which I had covered my mouth with when I coughed, my fresh blood dripping from it onto the floor.

Thanks to the Absolute Mind, this did not make me fearful or terrified about my life. I was calm, though that didn\'t stop me from thinking about myself.

What happened? Why exactly did this happen?

Was I poisoned? No, that\'s impossible. Everything I\'ve eaten lately has come from my own kitchen. Sure, Sue often gives me food she\'s made herself, but there\'s no way she could have done anything.

Or is there?

Ah, no. What am I thinking? Of course, it\'s impossible. It\'s been almost a week since I last ate a meal she made. I can\'t believe I\'m suspicious about her...

Then, it\'s because I\'ve just raised my general level to D-? This... It\'s not a \'normal\' thing, but it\'s quite possible. It could be that my body is trying to adapt to its new state, having already begun to exceed the limits of humanity.

It\'s not something that doesn\'t happen, it\'s just a rare occurrence when the body has a hard time adapting.

Why else would it be like this?

I\'ll... get some rest. I think that would be best.

*******

\'Hey, idiot.\'

I waited a moment before answering. I was used to such insults by now, especially when they echoed in my mind.

\'Yes, Lithoa?\'

\'Stop swinging that spear.\'

My spear sliced the throat of a holographic enemy. Then it went right through the heart of another enemy behind me, piercing it.

I paused, turned quickly to face another hologram trying to attack me from my blind spot, kicked it in the stomach, and plunged my spear into its chest.

\'Why?\'

\'Because we\'re going to talk about important things.\'

I sighed slightly, pulling my hand slightly to the left and lowering it down to draw a circle, and each of the holograms faded away. The battlefield around me slowly gave way to white walls, I stepped off the contraption that moved with me under my feet and stretched.

This was a training room the academy had given me exclusively. As a reward for my first place in the ranking, I could train in better conditions.

I wiped my sweat with a towel, then hung it around my neck and crouched down. A white beam of light appeared in front of me. The beam was like a normal marble. Yet, as usual, it began to vibrate as if it were speaking, with a voice echoing in my mind.

\'Just improving your spear style won\'t do you any good at this point, Adrian. Of course, you can get stronger by continuing to do so, but unless you do something new, all you can do is swing your spear and learn to use your mana more effectively. That\'s the \'normal\' way for someone to grow stronger, and we don\'t want that because I, and you, want you to grow much stronger than normal.\'

He was making sense, as always. Lithoa always made sense, only occasionally rambling when something annoyed him, that\'s all.

"So? What should I do?"

\'You need to acquire one or more skills or mastery. The ones you have now are of course functional, especially Mana Ascension, which gives you an enormous burst of power. Friend of Mana and Difficulty Lover also give you a lot of advantages in battles, but they are insufficient. At least that\'s what I think.\'

"Skills are hard to come by... It\'s even harder for the Masteries. You talk in such a way that it\'s easy for me to get them."

\'It\'s not easy, you\'ll have to work for it, but it\'s not impossible.\'

New skills and mastery, is that it...?

"If that\'s what I need to do to become stronger, I\'ll do it, no problem."

That was my goal in the first place, to get stronger. Yet Lithoa\'s next words made me frown, giving him a meaningless look.

\'Good, then first we need to get out of this academy for a while.\'

"Excuse me?"

\'Your progress at the academy is good, but as I said, what you\'re doing here is a repetition of what you\'ve done before. That professor you train with is talented, I can\'t deny that. She\'s also a good trainer, but as I said, if you want to get much, much stronger, you can\'t go the \'normal\' way. First of all... we need some high-level stuff. You need to get a special spear for example, then you need to get functional skills or masteries.\'

"So, we\'re back to the spear again..."

\'I\'m just saying you need to find a weapon more suited to you. That\'s the main goal, yes, but we\'ll get skills while we\'re at it.\'

I narrowed my eyes and then started to think.

Getting out of the academy for a while... Will I not be able to see my friends for a while?

I paused for a moment at the thought and frowned again, this time for a different reason. I slapped my cheeks twice with my hands, straightened myself up, and repeated a few words in my head.

You want to get stronger. You are trying to get stronger, not to play house. So, what if you leave for a while? It\'s not like you\'re not coming back or ending your friendships.

"About taking a leave of absence from the academy... I think I can work it out somehow. I have something in mind, but I\'m not sure if it will work, maybe not, but I\'ll try my best. Still, how do we know where to go after we do that?"

\'I have a place in mind, don\'t worry.\'

"Ah, good then."

Lithoa sighed slightly, still serious.

\'You better get ready, Adrian. I know you want to participate in the Kingdom\'s tournament, and that\'s what I want you to do too. It\'s a good opportunity for many things, including observation. So, we will be back here in four months, therefore the sooner we leave the better.\'

I stood up quickly, leaving the training room as it was going to be cleaned anyway, and headed for my room without hesitation.

"Okay, let\'s do it."

Getting stronger is the top thing I want to do right now. And I\'m going to do it.

I\'m going to get stronger... stronger than anyone could ever imagine.

If I have to leave the academy, leave my friends for a while, then so be it. It\'s not even a price to pay.