TSEDK 07

Chapter 07

It had been nearly two months since Ethan had entered Carserium.

More than half of the 65th class were still struggling to master the Hittite Breathing Technique.

However, although they were few in number, there were certainly some cadets who had begun to awaken their latent talents.
In the quiet hours before dawn, a gust of wind swept across the training grounds, where darkness had yet to lift.
No, calling it a gust of wind would have been an understatement.
The force behind it was far too immense.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
A series of thunderous impacts rang out, as though the ground itself were about to collapse.
The moment Ethan’s foot struck the earth, the ground seemed to cave in, sending clouds of dust into the air.
The air of the early morning was so cold that his lungs felt as though they might freeze, yet his body was already burning.
He was sprinting at full speed.
This was no ordinary run.
It was a sprint that pushed every muscle in his body to its limits, shattering the boundaries of human capability.
He moved so fast that his vision blurred, and the world around him became a smear of indistinct shapes as his acceleration increased.
But then—
An unfamiliar presence closed in right behind him.
It was Nicholas.
Ever since Ethan’s performance had improved after he began running, Nicholas had abandoned his stubbornness and started joining Ethan for their early-morning runs.
…This guy actually managed to keep up with me?
Ethan gritted his teeth.
As Nicholas, whose tall frame possessed perfectly balanced musculature, began to accelerate, his presence approached like that of a gigantic beast.
Faster.
The two men sprinted beyond their limits.
The air split apart.
The sound of the wind tearing through the air rang in their ears.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The training ground trembled faintly beneath their feet, as though the earth itself could barely withstand the impact.
Each step produced an explosive recoil, and that same recoil propelled them into their next stride.
Then—
[You have mastered Hittite Body-Strengthening Technique.]
[You have exceeded the experience threshold for Hittite Body-Strengthening Technique Level 1.]
[93% remaining until Level 2.]
Ethan’s body began to boil with heat.
Hittite Breathing.
The deeper he breathed, the more pressure spread through his body, as though his heart were crushing itself.
His blood grew hot. His blood vessels expanded, and his muscles momentarily transformed, becoming as dense as steel.
His recovery rate also increased explosively.
I think I understand why they make us learn this breathing technique.
Through this technique, Ethan felt as though he was beginning to understand why tax collectors were regarded as monsters.
The changes that followed his mastery of the breathing technique were astonishing.
Even as he ran, his body was undergoing rapid transformations.
The moment his muscles tore from being pushed beyond their limits, they recovered almost immediately, returning stronger and tougher than before.
Fatigue did not accumulate.
On the contrary, the harder he ran, the more activated his body became.
His muscles had changed completely.
His flexibility was almost unbelievable.
For a brief moment, he could bend his joints by approximately 270 degrees. He could even dislocate his shoulder instantaneously and then snap it back into place through the recoil of his muscles.
It was as though his body were being reborn.
That guy must be experiencing the same thing.
Ethan glanced at Nicholas, who was still hot on his heels.
It was difficult to read his expression through his breathing mask, but Nicholas’s eyes conveyed one thing clearly.
Today, he was determined to defeat Ethan, no matter what.
I can’t just let him win.
Ethan’s lips curled into a smile.
Faster.
He took another step.
In an instant, the ground shattered beneath his foot.
THUD!!!
With a tremendous cracking sound, Ethan shot forward, racing as though he intended to tear the entire training ground apart.
Thirty minutes before morning training began—
Hiss!
Ethan and Nicholas removed their breathing masks at the same time after finishing their run.
Previously, they would have been panting heavily and drenched in sweat. Now, however, their breathing had become considerably more stable.
No. More precisely, Nicholas was exhausted but was managing to maintain his composure.
We’ve been running together for more than two months now. Isn’t it strange that we still barely talk?
Until now, Nicholas had been so taciturn that even when Ethan tried to speak to him, he rarely received a response.
But they had a whole thirty minutes to spare today.
Perhaps this time, Nicholas might actually answer him.
Without getting his hopes up, Ethan opened his mouth.
“You’ve adapted incredibly quickly.”
“It’s a strange feeling hearing that from you.”
Nicholas answered with a coolness Ethan hadn’t expected.
Still, now that they had broken the ice, it became a little easier to continue the conversation.
“My name is Ethan.”
“I’d have to be an idiot not to know that.”
“I’m twenty years old, and I used to be a pickpocket in Arban. What about you?”
“…”
Nicholas seemed thoroughly taken aback by Ethan’s unexpected confession about his past.
He had apparently never intended to socialize with his fellow cadets in the first place. Nevertheless, since the person he had been competing against all this time had revealed his identity, ignoring him would have gone against his character.
“Nicholas. I used to belong to the Cloud Mercenary Corps, located north of Astar. I’m twenty-three.”
“Oh! That explains it. You do have the look of a mercenary.”
Nicholas regarded Ethan with a somewhat wary expression before speaking again.
“By the way, I didn’t know even criminals could become tax collectors.”
“Is there a problem with that? You might not believe me, but my sponsor threatened me until I had no choice but to come here.”
At Ethan’s glib response, Nicholas tilted his head back and spoke.
“Not particularly. You don’t seem like a bad guy.”
“People often tell me I have the personality of an angel.”
“…I’m not so sure about that. Judging by what happened in the waiting room, your personality can be rather difficult to pin down.”
Nicholas inadvertently let out a small chuckle, leaving Ethan momentarily bewildered.
A memory flashed through Ethan’s mind: the moment he had mercilessly kicked Rex away to ensure his own survival.
“Well, that was…”
Ethan belatedly tried to explain what had happened back then.
But just then, a suspicious shadow came shuffling toward them from behind.
“Hoho. You’re both early again today, Ethan and Nicholas.”
The owner of the shadow was Walter.
Flinch!
At the sound of his voice, Ethan and Nicholas immediately stopped talking and put their breathing masks back on.
A moment later, the other cadets of the 65th class appeared, wearing the same equipment.
Looks like those guys are finally getting a little more breathing room.
Ethan watched two people among the group.
The first was Rebecca, who sported gleaming red hair.
The second was Koren, who had his eyes closed and wore an air of complete ease.
Their progress was nowhere near that of Ethan and Nicholas, but there was no doubt that both of them had mastered the Hittite Body-Strengthening Technique.
“All right. Let’s work hard on the course training again today. The minimum qualifying time for completing today’s course is one hour.”
As soon as Walter finished speaking, the faces of the 65th-class cadets collectively darkened.
Walter once again revealed a murderous glint in his eyes.
“What, did you come here to play? You’re all looking like dead fish! The minimum qualifying time is fifty minutes. Understood?”
Good grief!
Everyone recoiled in shock before snapping to attention and shouting in unison.
“Yes, sir!”
At their response, the cadets of the 65th class immediately began tackling the course.

The first course involved climbing a ten-meter-high wall erected in the center of the training grounds.
But this was no ordinary rock-climbing exercise.
There were ten-kilogram mana-stone shackles attached to their hands.
Another five kilograms had been added to the weight just a week earlier.
And they had to rely on their skin alone to breathe.
Brute strength was not enough to climb the wall.
Without activating the Hittite Body-Strengthening Technique, a fall would result in a broken arm or a fractured leg.
Behind Ethan, who was leading the climb, one of the trainees slipped and lost his grip on the rock face.
CRACK!
“ARRRRGH!”
The instant he hit the ground, his leg fractured, and he let out a horrifying scream.
Yet the sound was swallowed up by the surrounding commotion.
I’m running out of energy.
Ethan was struggling just as much as everyone else.
Because he had trained more intensely than the other cadets, he could activate the Hittite Body-Strengthening Technique somewhat more easily than they could.
However, Walter had insisted on maintaining a balance in the training conditions.
As a result, he had added another ten kilograms to Ethan’s shackles and another five kilograms to Nicholas’s.
Grind! Grind!
The moment Ethan exerted himself, the veins in his arms and legs bulged as though they were about to burst.
But as he regulated his breathing, the body-strengthening technique activated.
His torn muscles gradually recovered, drawing out reserves of energy that had seemed nonexistent, and Ethan barely managed to reach the top edge of the wall.
“I… I did it.”
Ethan’s lips curled upward with a sense of accomplishment.
However, apparently finding the sight deeply irritating, Walter stepped on Ethan’s fingertips.
“I-Instructor! What are you doing?”
“Ethan. Climb up without using your feet. Again!”
Ethan nearly exploded with indignation.
What kind of petty nonsense is this?!
Just as he was about to protest—
Smack!
Walter kicked Ethan’s hand away without the slightest hesitation, sending him plummeting from the ten-meter wall once more.
KABOOM!
Ethan spun through the air like a cat before landing on the ground with a tremendous crash.
The impact was so powerful that the trainees climbing the wall could not withstand the vibrations, and several of them fell.
CRACK! CRACK!
“ARRRGH!”
Screams of pain rang out one after another.
Meanwhile, Ethan’s legs trembled violently as he glared at Walter, his eyes blazing with barely contained fury.
Walter, however, spoke with an utterly unapologetic expression.
“You still haven’t learned how to breathe properly.”
“If you don’t push your body’s mana sensitivity to its absolute limit, you won’t even be able to overcome a single wall.”
His words were true.
Two months had passed, yet those who had failed to master the breathing technique could not even climb three meters up the wall before being eliminated.
One by one, the trainees lost consciousness and fell to the ground.
The second course involved finding Carserium coins submerged at the bottom of a pond.
Clink!
Walter took a large pile of Carserium coins from a table and tossed them into a pond five meters deep.
“Before you start looking for coins, anyone who failed to climb the wall must start the entire course over again.”
Only around eight trainees had managed to survive the course up to this point.
Ethan steadied his breathing as he considered the situation.
This is far more exhausting than climbing the wall. And I can’t maintain the body-strengthening technique.
In a way, this was only natural.
It was impossible to maintain a breathing technique normally while underwater.
“Stop dawdling, Ethan. You need to find twenty coins.”
For reference, the other trainees only had to find ten.
Once again, Walter had imposed a particularly harsh task on Ethan alone.
This time, however, rather than dwelling on his resentment, Ethan reminded himself of the actual purpose of the exercise.
The key to this training wasn’t simply finding coins.
The real objective is to see how long I can maintain the body-strengthening technique.
If he failed to maintain it while searching for coins underwater, he would be eliminated immediately.
And activating such an intense state of physical enhancement underwater was extremely difficult.
As time passed, the exhaustion became increasingly severe.
“Huff, huff. I can’t do this anymore.”
“Ugh!”
Before even five minutes had passed, three trainees gave up and climbed out of the water.
“Start the first course again.”
Walter, of course, showed not the slightest mercy.
“…”
The faces of the eliminated trainees were painted with despair.
Meanwhile—
Underwater, Ethan’s arms and legs were growing increasingly stiff, and his entire body felt as heavy as lead.
He hadn’t even found all the coins yet, but he could already feel himself approaching his limit.
Stay calm. My body, which I’ve worked so hard to train, shouldn’t fall apart just because I can’t breathe.
When things get difficult, slow down and take the proper path.
Normally, Ethan found that saying frustratingly tedious.
But now that he was backed into a corner, he decided to prioritize direction over speed.
Then something happened.
He sensed a faint trace of the body-strengthening energy still remaining inside him.
The power had not disappeared completely. A tiny amount remained.
Ethan wondered if he could somehow draw it out again.
I can’t absorb as much through my skin as I can through my respiratory system, but I can still breathe to some extent through my skin.
The body-strengthening technique itself hadn’t vanished completely.
In that case, rather than strengthening his entire body at once, perhaps he could gradually redistribute the remaining energy, starting with the areas where it was fading.
Like gently blowing on an ember before it went out completely, coaxing it back to life.
Ethan steadied his breathing and focused on his legs. He relaxed the muscles before gradually spreading the energy through them again.
It was definitely less taxing than before.
It felt as though he were smoothly sustaining the body-strengthening technique without allowing it to break off.
This is it…!
Ethan’s expression changed.
Rather than stubbornly enduring the strain, he needed to make use of the energy that remained.
By doing so, he could maintain the body-strengthening technique for much longer.
[Hittite Body-Strengthening Technique has reached Level 2.]
At that moment, he spotted the coins lying at the bottom of the pond and began gathering them one by one.

After completing the training, the exhausted cadets watched the pond with worried expressions.
“…Do you think he’s dead?”
When someone muttered those words, the other trainees exchanged uneasy glances.
It had been quite some time since Ethan had dived into the water, yet he still hadn’t resurfaced.
“We’ve never had a fatality before…”
“Is our class about to have its first death?”
“Don’t say something so ominous!”
The whispers grew louder.
Numerous trainees had suffered broken arms, fractured legs, and even lost consciousness during training, but not a single person had died.
Would that record finally be broken today?
“….”
Walter stared silently at the water’s edge.
He showed no signs of anxiety. He simply waited in silence.
His expression remained calm.
And then, at that very moment—
“PUAHAK!”
A tremendous splash erupted from the water.
A moment later, Ethan burst through the surface with a powerful movement.
His wet red hair glistened, and his soaked clothes clung to his body.
But what surprised everyone more than anything else was what he held in his hands.
As Ethan walked out of the pond, he emptied the coins he had been clutching onto the ground.
One, two, three…
More than twenty metal coins rolled across the stone floor, clinking against one another.
The trainees’ mouths fell open.
“That’s insane…!”
“He actually collected all of those?”
“How did he manage that without breathing…?”
Despite his labored breathing, Ethan squared his shoulders proudly and slowly raised his gaze toward Walter