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So, I decided to retrain my body to truly master the skills I had downloaded from the etheric body.

Instead of just activating a skill from my mind, I wanted to understand everything. The bodily movements involved, how my center of gravity shifted, and which muscles I used. The flow of Mana and Chi—how to store it, how to circulate it, where and how much. I would measure all of that meticulously, trace each part, and commit it to memory.

Then I would repeat those movements and mental patterns over and over until they became instinct.

My goal was not to simply select a skill from within my consciousness and activate it. Instead, I wanted to master using these skills as physical techniques that my body naturally knew how to execute.

I started with one of the most basic skills. Power Smash, a simple move involving a strong strike with a sword or blunt weapon. It was a skill that merely delivered a heavy blow.

But before releasing the strike, where did I gather power? Where was my center of gravity? Where was my focus? What about when I started moving? When did I strike? What happened after the strike?

I broke all these movements down into fine detail and traced them accurately.

At first, I simply traced the correct form. Then I began moving through the form at different speeds. Sometimes at sub-second speeds. Sometimes extremely slowly, taking over an hour. At this stage, the subconscious skill data within the ether, or the Skill Domain as I referred to it, did not activate. Most likely, the ether didn’t interpret my actions as trying to use a skill through the Skill Domain. So I continued practicing in this conscious, manual way, gradually mastering the use of my body without tapping into the ether’s Skill Domain.

Eventually, I began to incorporate my consciousness into my movements as well. I would move my body and my awareness together and focus them on the area I wanted to use. I repeated this countless times. Over and over again, until I could do it at any speed.

By the time the 5th Red Moon arrived, I had become able to execute skills entirely through physical control, without relying on the Skill Domain.

After that, I began tracing all my skills one by one.

I went deep into the forest to activate and analyze them, but practiced the traced movements even outside the forest. I even practiced in my room once and got scolded by Elrose with “Dust is falling everywhere! How unladylike!” …which, in retrospect, could end up being a fond memory? Sometimes I trained in the yard before dinner. Often, I used the training area at school.

There, I would mostly repeat the traced forms slowly.

The other children would watch my repeated movements with wide-eyed curiosity. When asked what I was doing, I would simply answer, “Practicing forms.”

The first to act was Irvine.

“There are techniques that enhance slashes and strikes with Mana,” he said, “but this seems different. What exactly is it?”
“It’s a technique to increase the power of a blow, but it doesn’t use Mana.”

I replied. Irvine, who at the time still couldn’t control Mana, was immediately intrigued.

“Can I do it too? Could you teach me?” he asked me.

I thought for a moment. In this world, people commonly used Mana to enhance their strength or attacks, but awareness of Chi was nearly nonexistent. While many may unknowingly use it, very few attempted to control it consciously.

In my original world, I remembered, only some Asian cultures—like China and Japan—were proficient in using Chi, while Europeans were largely unfamiliar with it.

Here, with Mana being the default power system, awareness of Chi was likely even lower. On the other hand, someone like Irvine—who couldn’t yet use Mana—might be more attuned to perceiving Chi, and learning to control it might even help him grasp Mana later. And if he could use both Chi and Mana, it would boost his overall potential. I thought that teaching him might be interesting.

So, I decided to teach him. We began with the basic Power Smash.

Irvine was a quick learner. He picked up the form in less than three days. Within a week, he had begun to understand how to shift and drop his center of gravity. Ten days in, I could see faint traces of Chi enveloping the tip of his sword. Irvine himself seemed to feel some kind of response or feedback.

Seeing Irvine’s progress, Dana approached me, too.

“Are there any spear techniques?”
“Yes,” I replied.

From there, it snowballed.

“Any knife skills?” asked Kate.
“What about axes?” asked Lombard.

Before I knew it, I was teaching form practice to everyone.

But at that time, I still didn’t realize that this would eventually lead to me turning the kids into overpowered monsters.

◆◆◆◆◆

I was developing a mental image of Chi being stored on the inside. Not suppressing or shoving it down, but shifting it into another phase. I envisioned my inner space as something that overlapped with my physical body, and I moved the Chi into that layer.
It existed there, yet did not.

In its current state, my overflowing Chi was being forcibly sealed inside my body.

If someone capable of seeing Chi were to look, they would immediately notice the swirling torrent of energy within—even if none of it was leaking outside. “No matter how well you suppress it, that intense presence cannot be hidden… ku ku ku…” They might say something like that!!!

If I ever met a former player and got told something like that—if I were marked because of it—it would be a disaster! That was not what I wanted. I aspired to live as a humble, unnoticed commoner! I had to avoid that outcome at all costs!!!

So I continued refining my technique—layering my Chi internally in a way that it seemed like it didn’t exist. At the same time, I began experimenting with precise Chi control. Using only what I needed, where I needed it, when I needed it.

I started by gathering Chi into a single fingertip. Just the tip of my right index finger, while the rest of my body remained devoid of it. I compressed it densely, focusing it more and more tightly.

Then, I held that finger with my thumb and casually flicked it forward into the depths of the forest.

**BOOM!**

The atmosphere shook. Ahead of me, the trees and ground were gouged out like a cannonball had torn through them. In the far-off distance, a rocky mountain exploded into pieces. Clouds in the sky dispersed along the trajectory of the blast.

“…Oh no. This is bad.”

I muttered, feeling sweat pouring down my back.