In his room, Rylan did push-ups on the floor, shirtless. No amount of mana was sent throughout his body; for training purposes, he preferred to keep his body in its base state. Aura – and his way of using mana – were multipliers; at a high enough level, it was possible to empower one's body perpetually, but that was still far away. As such, he would only use the technique when he needed to. Forcefully empowering his body to do more exercise could cause severe consequences when the empowerment was deactivated. He had used the mana enhancement when running with the soldiers but kept close watch on his mana flow at all times.
With gritted teeth, Rylan lowered his body. As he was pushing himself back up, he felt his arms fail. His chest touched the floor as he let out a breath.
"…Pathetic."
To think he would struggle so much to do only eight mere push-ups, and even fail mid-way through. Roland had been stronger even as a teenager, before he started training. The debauchery and drugs, in addition to a complete lack of exercise, diet, and care, had almost ruined Rylan's body. The only reason he still felt hope was because his inborn qualities seemed to be great. His proportions, the length of his limbs and fingers, and other factors were all good. He was simply severely underweight and lacking in muscle. It was an unacceptable condition for a Sword Saint.
Rylan sighed.
That was just my past life.
There was no point in clinging to his past pride. The idea that he had a past life was still a bit daunting, but he had accepted it. The System didn't make mistakes, and it had given him the Reincarnator Title. There was nothing to question. He sat up, staring into the air for a few seconds, then stood up.
It's too early to give up.
Even if his body struggled, he needed to take advantage of every moment to become more powerful. Of course, that was without injuring himself. Only then would he be able to live differently. Building up his physical attributes was merely the first step in the long journey. Rylan got into position and started doing squats. It only took a short time for his muscles to cry out in protest, but he kept going. This wasn't his limit. The pain and tiredness grew. He only stopped when he quite literally couldn't do another repetition. Immediately dropping to the ground, he started doing sit-ups.
In such a fashion, he alternated between exercises for different muscle groups, always paying close attention to his body's state. Once a muscle group got too fatigued, he switched and let it recover.
Rylan's breathing was rhythmic and steady. Drawn-out, deep breaths resounded in the large bedroom as sweat dripped down his frame. After a while, virtually his entire body ached. Even though he was trying his best not to overwork any muscle group, their weak and untrained state meant that they couldn't properly recover between repetition sets. Rylan scoffed.
There's only so much I can do with this trash body.
Yet, he smiled. It was because of the two System messages that had appeared in front of him.
[Strength has increased by 1.]
[Body has increased by 1.]
He mentally wished for his Status Window to appear before him.
Status Window
Name: Rylan Flameheart
Level: 8
Race: Human (F)
Class: Mage
Profession: none.
Trait: Weak-willed
Stats
Strength: 10
Agility: 8
Endurance: 9
Body: 9
Intelligence: 12
Wisdom: 13
Free Points: 0
Active Skills
Magic Missile (F).
Passive Skills
Mana Core (First Circle).
Hybrid Skills
Sword Mastery (Master).
Titles
Novice Mage; Wastrel; Good-for-Nothing; Reincarnator.
It had been four days since he started training with the soldiers. By pushing himself to his limits and enduring gruesome training with nothing but his willpower, Rylan had been able to confirm several things while also not injuring himself. First and foremost, his Strength, Endurance, and Body stats had increased by just a bit. This was incredibly valuable information; it meant that stats could be increased without necessarily leveling up and spending Stat Points, even if just bit by bit. The same had happened as a result of this short training session of his. His Wisdom stat also saw improvement, likely because of how much mana he managed while empowering himself.
Things were similar in my past life.
As Roland, he had also been able to increase his stats through training, but there was a limit. After a certain point, leveling up was the only alternative. He had theorized that it was because he had reached his body's natural limit, making the System the only thing that was capable of granting him greater power. Several scholars had been in agreement. It remained to be seen if things were the same in this life, since he didn't know if it was even the same world.
The existence of a similar System, however, made him think. The System had existed since before Roland's birth. He had grown up with it, becoming completely used to its presence and workings. Now, he was living a different life, but the System remained, and it was similar to what he knew. Did this mean he was in the same world? Or were there multiple worlds with the same System, somehow? They were questions he didn't have an answer to.
Rubbing his temples, Rylan looked at the changes to his Status Window, but also focused on what hadn't changed.
My Class is still the same.
It was in accordance with his knowledge. Unlike stats, Classes didn't change easily and could only be upgraded at certain Levels. The possibilities at that moment would depend on everything one had done up until that point, including what Skills they possessed and the value of their stats. He also hadn't received a new Skill for his novel usage of mana. It made sense, since he was still using mana, just a bit differently than usual, following the same principles as Aura.
It's going to be a while before I manifest Aura, if it's at all possible.
Aura took training and time to manifest itself. It wasn't something that he could easily achieve just by having Roland's memories; each individual's Aura was unique and tailored to them, following what they had done in their lives. In that sense, Aura was similar to one's Class in the way that it was influenced by one's actions.
Rylan looked at what he considered to be the biggest change to his Status Window.
Master Swordsmanhip…
It was a familiar Skill. He had acquired it as Roland on his road to greatness; it was a lesser version of one of Roland's most prized Skills. As a Hybrid Skill, it had both passive and active effects. Passively, it improved his senses and swordsmanship. When activated in conjunction with Aura, it was capable of great destructive power. It seemed like he had reverse-engineered it; instead of having the Skill improve his swordplay, his skills had been enough to make the Skill appear in his Status Window.
Maybe it'll automatically evolve as I grow stronger.
He had Roland's memories. The base of his prowess existed; he needed only to be able to fully unearth and use that knowledge while having his body keep up. So long as he could do that, he could hope to reach Roland's level. Rylan spoke to himself in a low voice.
"…I think I'll need to study magic, as well."
He needed to keep an open mind. This world functioned based on magic and spells. Closing himself off wouldn't do him any good; he needed to adapt. The problem was that he knew nothing about magic.
Lost in his thoughts, Rylan barely heard the knock on the door.
"Come in."
The door opened and Sarah entered the room in her standard attire. Her expression, however, was a bit different from usual. It was only noticeable because Rylan had seen her cold mask of indifference so many times. Traces of emotions could be found in her gaze.
"…I'm done, young master."
Rylan smiled.
"So? What did you find out?"
Sarah closed the door behind her.
"According to the results of my investigation, nobody transported a staff like the Flameheart's out of the city after you… Sold it. However, there wasn't enough time or means to investigate contraband and hidden exchanges."
Rylan nodded with a grim expression. He had Sarah look for information regarding the staff his father had tasked him with finding, but he had already expected not much to come of it. He had given the staff to the head of a gang involved in various illegal businesses, after all. He just wanted to cover all bases.
"Alright. Thank you, Sarah."
The woman seemed to hesitate as a conflicted expression flashed on her face. Rylan took notice of this.
"What is it?"
"…Are you alright, young master?"
"What do you mean?"
Sarah hesitated again. Rylan waved his hand.
"Speak freely."
"What are you doing about the withdrawals?"
A bitter smile crossed Rylan's expression. He noticed the slight edge of accusation in her voice. What she was truly asking was, 'Why am I not seeing the effects of withdrawal?' It could be perceived that he was still using drugs, since there were no signs of it, but that couldn't be further from the truth. From the moment he remembered his life as Roland, Rylan hadn't touched a single substance. There were consequences.
He looked at his hand. It was trembling. It had been a while since he last slept well, and fatigue and anxiety had become a staple.
"I am feeling withdrawal. I've just been dealing with it."
Sarah furrowed her brow but soon normalized her expression.
"I understand."
Rylan shrugged in his mind. Circulating his mana helped to deal with the withdrawals and make them less severe, but there was nothing that could be done if she didn't believe him. He would have to show his resolve through his actions. He also knew that she wasn't asking out of personal curiosity alone. Sarah needed to report to his father daily. He spoke.
"Then, I guess I should get started on retrieving the staff."
Sarah replied as she stared at him.
"Do you have a plan, my lord?"
Rylan smiled.
"Always."
She blinked in surprise. Truth be told, the plan wasn't complicated or too elaborate; he needed to recover the staff at any cost, or to know where it was. The only way of doing so would be to get the answer out of Evenon Bled, the person he had traded the staff with, and there were a variety of methods that he could employ. He continued.
"I'm going to take a bath. After that, we get started."
Sarah nodded as she followed him into the bathroom. He took this naturally. She probably thought he was still doing drugs alone in the bathroom. It was a bit embarrassing to bathe in front of her, but he had gradually become used to this over time. As he took his clothes off, a thought crossed his mind.
I need to do this.
This was the first step in regaining the trust and affection of his family. For their sake, as well as his own, he would become stronger and shield them from all the rain. It was the only way for him to atone for the mistakes of his past life.