PathOfPen

Chapter 322 – Expedition

The girl – who had reintroduced herself as Sol – opened her eyes, allowing Percy to examine their surroundings. They were alone, in an enclosed space. Smaller than any room he’d ever seen – barely large enough for a single person. In fact, it wasn’t even a room. There wasn’t a ceiling. The walls were made of fabric, stitched together at the top, held up by a metallic pole.

‘A tent?’

They were sitting cross-legged on the ground, atop a bunch of rotting leav...

Chapter 264 – Proudheart

The library didn’t have any windows, so Percy had to rely on the students coming in every afternoon to keep track of time. Over the past few days, he’d skimmed through the books with very few breaks, only stopping when he estimated it was the morning before the class. Granted, he should still have a couple hours left, but he didn’t want to cut it too close.

‘It’ll probably serve me better to give myself a chance to unwind.’

Picking the pile of empty food conta...

Chapter 321 – Signal from an old friend?

Clone #270, maybe – Percy had lost count years ago – was about to look for a random body to possess, when he caught something he hadn’t expected to see by the edge of his ‘vision’.

It was a soul. A damaged soul, much like the overwhelming majority of his hosts. But this one was different. It was actively calling out to him, and from even farther away than he was used to. He’d never encountered anything like this before.

Yet, he could harbour a guess as to what was happ...

Chapter 263 – Alchemy 10

“What are you supposed to do if lumps start forming in the concoction?” the teacher asked.

“Generally, you break them either by increasing the cauldron’s temperature or by stirring.” Percy replied, before elaborating. “Usually, heating the mixture up is preferable, as it impacts the yield less. That said, novices are advised to stir instead, since they lack the experience to gauge the correct temperature by eye.”

He was sure he’d answered correctly, but the man sho...

Chapter 320 – A bit of a situation

It had been around eleven months since they entered the Valley when Nesha finally managed to activate Circulation. Her version involved lots of black circles of various sizes decorating her body, many of them seemingly disconnected from one another.

The visuals aside, the boosting art bumped her fighting strength noticeably. Between that, and her other spell upgrades, she had finally reached a level where she could take care of the group’s security by herself. Splitting the day with E...

Chapter 262 – Greater spring

“But, if that’s the case, shouldn’t these beast gods have dominated the universe already? How can the rest of us compete with creatures that advance so fast?” the same boy from before jumped in again.

The teacher shook her head this time.

“I can see why you’d think that, but it’s not as simple. Despite the relative abundance of resources on their planet and the various techniques they’ve invented to manage their hunger, they can’t just allow everybody to advance ...

Chapter 319 – Ambient mana

Several months had passed inside the Valley.

Everyone was making good progress towards the next grade, having never missed a single cleansing session. None of Acton’s guards had advanced either, which was great news.

Other than that, Elaine and Nesha were both growing stronger by the day, constantly fighting against the beasts and honing their magic. They’d registered a couple new Crude spells each, with Nesha having even started practicing with her earth affinity.

In fa...

Chapter 261 – Sixiang

Percy did his best to tune out the incessant chatter, trying to squeeze in a couple more minutes of practice with the pre-casting exercises as they waited for the teacher to arrive. Unfortunately, his efforts were doomed from the start – the gossiping students making it impossible to focus on his mana.

It was a larger room than usual too. From what he’d learned, the academy owned classrooms of various sizes, assigning them based on a course’s popularity. This one, in particular, c...

Chapter 318 – Cores and channels

Elaine and Nesha were fighting against a pack of Yellow hyenas led by a Green matriarch. They could have made quick work of them, of course, but they held back many of their tricks, focused on honing others.

As for Percy, he didn’t participate. Relying on his companions to keep him safe, he concentrated on something else. Semi-hidden at the foot of a medium-sized boulder, he was sitting cross-legged, his eyes closed and his boosting art running. Only Circulation though, not Synchroniz...

Chapter 260 – Probationary student

The next six days went by in a flash. Percy skipped both the Geography and Affinities classes, deciding his time was better spent preparing for the next term.

Technically, it might have been a good idea to prioritize Pre-casting, as he knew nothing about the topic. However, he chose to invest more than 80% of his waking hours into Alchemy instead, for a very simple reason.

‘My most urgent goal is to be allowed into the course in the first place…’

No matter how...

Chapter 317 – Execution

The gorilla swung its fist down, about to flatten Nesha like a pancake. Percy and Elaine were too far to save her, currently locked up with the creature’s packmates. But she didn’t need help.

Right when the attack was about to hit, something strange happened.

Nesha took a step back. Just a single, quick step. But her foot landed over a dozen metres behind her, her leg stretching like a rubber band. Next, the rest of her body stretched, and then snapped back, letting the creatu...

Chapter 259 – Mana Flow

The next few hours were quite a slog. The lesson itself had been illuminating, cementing the idea in Percy’s mind that pre-casting was a valuable technique to master. Even though it wasn’t immediately applicable to his spells, he knew it was only a matter of time until he found a use for it.

Sadly, he’d also made a complete fool of himself in front of the others. His classmates ran circles around him, practicing far more advanced exercises with ease. Meanwhile, he struggled with e...

Chapter 316 – Sharpness

‘Still Refined, huh?’

Percy wasn’t too surprised by the lower tier, since the runework on his new scythes wasn’t as extensive as his cauldron’s, and even that hadn’t reached Masterful yet. But there was no doubt in his mind that both spells were getting closer.

It wasn’t just the self-repair enchantments he’d added to the weapons either. He’d alternated them with another pseudo-enchantment of his own creation. One composed of three different runes.

Chapter 258 – Pre-casting

Aided by the map and his eagerness to begin his studies, Percy made it to the classroom early. By now, the first of the twin suns had fully emerged from its slumber, the other still bathing the sky in all sorts of vibrant hues as it slowly rose through the horizon.

The room itself wasn’t very large. It only contained twelve wooden desks, neatly arranged in four rows of three. It reminded him a little of the place where he and Nesha had had their orientation, back during their first da...

Chapter 315 – Rhino

It had barely been twenty minutes since Elaine fell asleep. A few Yellow beasts had invaded the stone formation in that time, searching for food. Nesha had made quick work of them at first, buying Percy time to don his armour.

Not that it was necessary for these weaklings, but he might need it if a stronger one showed up. Perhaps, it would have been prudent to do so before entering the Valley, but it would have only made the climb more difficult.

As soon as he was ready, the two s...

Chapter 257 – Restructuring

It wasn’t until most other students had left the library that Percy registered how late it was. Getting used to Felmara’s short days would take a while. Normally, his body’s internal clock would have helped a little, but his host was the kind of guy who’d literally overdosed on sleeping pills, so… no luck there.

‘I’m not even halfway done with the books…’ he groaned.

He still wanted to research his choices a little better before submitting them. Sure, he...

Chapter 314 – Entering the Thirsty Valley

Percy finally pushed himself up the edge of the cliff, rolling on his back. His chest was heaving up and down, but he didn’t dare to let go of his boosting art, in case he needed it. Only after failing to spot anything alive with Mana Sense did he allow himself to relax a little.

“How long… till they show up?” he asked between breaths.

“Any minute now.” Nesha replied, not faring much better. “Come on. Let’s grab Elaine and get the hell out of here.”

Listeni...

Chapter 256 – Library

Percy’s eyes snapped open as the first rays of sunlight streamed into the room. He was still exhausted, but he forced himself to sit up, knowing that if he didn’t, he might end up sleeping through the entire day.

Stretching, he made his way to the window, curious to take in more of Felmara. He hadn’t had a chance to appreciate the scenery yesterday – too busy catching up on Leo’s life.

'Wow, this is quite the view.'

Leo’s room was situated high up, likel...

Chapter 313 – Hail of desperation

“You think we’ll make it?” Nesha asked, stabbing her left pick a foot higher than her right.

“Looks like it.” Percy replied, wiping the sweat off his brow with his forearm.

It was already late in the afternoon, but they’d climbed over three quarters of the way. The edge of the cliff was in sight. They could certainly get there by nightfall. They had to.

Granted, Percy wasn’t having a great time. He was breathing heavily, each step a challenge of its ow...

Chapter 255 – Academy

Somebody knocked.

Percy lazily stood up, making his way to the door. Internally, he was a lot more anxious than he showed, of course. His heart raced at a hundred miles an hour, as did his mind. But he forced himself to walk as casually as he could, trying to appear normal.

‘Well, this lock ain’t helping.’ he frowned, taking a little longer than he’d like to figure out how he was meant to unlatch the mechanism.

If his visitor found the delay strange, he didn...

Chapter 312 – Climbing a cliff

“Did you two wrap everything up before leaving the city?” Percy asked, breaking the oppressive silence of the night.

The trio had been walking for several hours, and they’d likely have to keep going for a few more. Twilight City was dozens of miles across, and the Valley was larger still. On top of that, they had to put some distance from both first, to avoid being spotted by the Divine Root.

“I made sure Martina’s collaboration with Alexander ended on an amicable note. ...

Chapter 254 – Leo

Stitching the fragmented soul up, Percy was a little worried. The shards felt dull and inactive, his host’s will absent – save for a few scattered memories he figured he could tap into if he really needed them.

At first, he thought this person had taken more damage than expected, though it soon became apparent that wasn’t the case. The pieces of his soul weren’t really in that bad a shape. A good thing too, since Percy wasn’t sure he could fix a Yellow soul with his l...

Chapter 311 – Leaving the city

As soon as he finished carving the final rune on the chestguard, Percy put it on. Then, he pulled the second layer from his spatial seal, summoning it right on top of the first one, before fastening them together with some reinforced string.

Next, he pulled a third piece of his armour out, and then a fourth, getting used to summoning them directly on his body. Sadly, he still had to fasten them manually, as he couldn’t quite get the string to pop out in the shape of an intricate knot....

Chapter 253 – Return to Huehue?

A couple of weeks ago

The group was still en route to the next town when Percy’s second experimental clone returned. In the end, he hadn’t found anything of interest in the alien horse’s world, which was a bit of a bummer.

That said, Percy and his clone had managed to keep the cord in its empowered state throughout the journey, indicating that the upgraded Secret Art indeed held the potential to revolutionize his adventures. After he practiced with it so...