SSS Awakening: I Can Create Skills By Will

Chapter 160: Quiet Growth

Arthur stood in training hall for a moment as he watched Ryn walk away.

The captain didn’t look back again. He simply waved once earlier and kept moving like he always did.

Arthur scratched the side of his head.

"Good luck tomorrow, huh..."

He wasn’t sure what Ryn meant exactly.

Did he know about the squad?

Or was that just a casual wish?

Arthur thought about it for a moment before shaking his head.

Probably knows already.

Captains usually heard things before everyone else. If Commander Lyra was forming a special squad, it would be strange if he didn’t know about it.

Still, Arthur didn’t dwell on it.

Whether Ryn knew or not didn’t change anything.

Tomorrow would come either way.

Arthur took a small mana potion from his pouch and uncorked it.

He didn’t really need it. His reserves weren’t empty.

But he took a sip anyway.

The familiar warmth spread through his body as the mana settled back into place.

He sighed quietly.

"Not bad."

After that he finally turned and left the training hall.

The whispers hadn’t died down.

In fact they grew louder as he walked past.

Some explorers pretended to continue training but their eyes followed him.

Others didn’t even bother hiding it.

"That’s him."

"The one who maxed the machine."

"I heard he fought a C rank boss alone."

Arthur walked through the hall like he heard nothing.

Truthfully he had grown used to it.

Strongholds were small places. Rumors spread faster than monsters in an open dungeon.

And after the last few days...

Well.

Arthur had given people plenty to talk about.

He pushed the door open and stepped outside into the evening air.

The sky was beginning to soften with the slow colors of sunset.

Arthur stretched his arms above his head as he walked back toward the dormitories.

"Quite a day."

First the argument between commanders.

Then the recruitment.

Then the training hall incident.

For a moment he wondered what tomorrow would bring.

Probably more chaos.

Arthur laughed quietly to himself.

By the time he reached the dormitory building the corridors were calm.

Most explorers were still out in the city or preparing for missions the next morning.

Arthur unlocked his door and stepped inside his room.

The quiet felt good.

He closed the door behind him and leaned against it for a second.

"Finally."

He then began removing his armor piece by piece.

The metal plates clinked softly as he set them aside.

Soon he was left in his light clothing.

Feeling much better already, he rolled his shoulders and sat down on the edge of the bed.

There was still plenty of time before nightfall.

But with the attention he had attracted today, he had no interest in wandering around outside again.

Arthur lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

He could easily spend the rest of the evening doing nothing.

But that thought lasted only a few seconds.

Arthur snorted.

"Yeah right."

Doing nothing had never suited him.

His mind was already working again.

In this world there were several ways to grow stronger.

The obvious one was battle.

Real fights pushed explorers beyond their limits and forced their abilities to grow.

Another method was training skills again and again until they became sharper.

Arthur had already done plenty of both.

Then there was his system.

Intent Points.

With them he could strengthen skills almost instantly.

Arthur chuckled as he sat up again.

"Still feels unfair."

Most explorers trained for months just to polish one technique.

He could improve his abilities with a simple command.

Yet even with that advantage...

Arthur knew there were things the system couldn’t replace.

One of those things was cultivation.

Mana cultivation was slow.

Painfully slow.

It meant sitting still and guiding the mana inside your body again and again until your control improved.

Some people spent years doing it.

Many explorers hated the process.

Arthur understood why.

It was boring.

But it worked.

And the proof was obvious.

Commander Lyra.

Arthur leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.

The image of her standing calmly in training came back to him.

There was always something around her.

Not visible to most people.

But Arthur could sense it.

Mana.

A thin layer of it wrapped around her body like a second skin.

It wasn’t thick or flashy.

Yet it created distance.

Like an invisible wall.

Even attacks seemed to hesitate when they got close to her.

And there was pressure too.

A quiet force that filled the space around her.

Arthur exhaled slowly.

"That’s from years of cultivation..."

He had seen something similar with Ryn as well.

Not as refined as Lyra’s.

But clearly influenced by the same method.

Arthur rubbed his chin.

"Did she teach him?"

Probably.

Either Lyra had some kind of special technique.

Or she was simply a genius who developed it herself.

Maybe both.

Arthur stood up and moved to the center of the room.

"Let’s try."

He sat down on the floor and crossed his legs.

The posture felt strange at first but he adjusted until it became comfortable.

Slow breath in.

Slow breath out.

Arthur closed his eyes.

His senses turned inward.

Mana was already familiar to him.

He could feel it flowing through his body like a quiet current.

The pathways inside him carried that energy naturally.

He focused on that flow.

Guiding it.

Feeling how it moved through his veins and muscles.

At first it felt simple.

Like listening to a soft stream in the distance.

Arthur breathed steadily as he followed that current.

Then he expanded his awareness outward.

Mana existed everywhere.

The air itself carried traces of it.

Most people couldn’t sense it clearly.

But Arthur’s intent sharpened his perception.

Slowly, he felt the mana around his body even more.

It was faint.

Almost like the feeling of warm air brushing against skin.

"That must be it."

A/N:

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