As the intense aura started to die out, it began to shrink back inside Illyan’s body.

  But not before it absorbed a rge amount of energy from the surroundings, namely the heat.

  A rge amount of heat was forcefully snatched from the surrounding air, making it chilly, while Illyan’s body temperature started to rise.

  However, soon his temperature banced itself as the heat disappeared without a trace.

  His regeneration, like a dehydrated man craving water, assimited the energy in an instant to rejuvenate the broken-down body.

  The holes revealing the organs patched themselves, the broken skull clicked back together, and all the burn marks quickly disappeared.

  Not only that, but his disguise as Smiling Devil also fell apart as his facial scars faded away and his bald head sprouted fresh new hair that grew at a high pace to its original long length.

  “Gasp! Haah… Haaah…”

  Drained, Illyan colpsed on the ground right after the st bit of the crimson hue disappeared.

  While on his knees with hands supporting his leaning upper body against the freezing rocky ground, Illyan was gasping for air as rge droplets of sweat fell from his face.

  “What… Haah… I-in the world… was that?!” Illyan’s mind was filled with questions as he fought the extreme exhaustion.

  Everything was turning dark in his eyes as he was on the verge of fainting, but he gritted his teeth and persevered.

  He had been unconscious for who knew how long and couldn’t afford to sleep more.

  Illyan waited for a while to regain some strength in his limbs before he stood up with difficulty.

  When Illyan finally lifted his head, he saw his devastated surroundings.

  Bones of the troll were scattered all over the cave, while big craters made by the greenish fmes covered its surface.

  However, the craters didn’t have any warmth left, as the surroundings were engulfed in coldness.

  A rge amount of vapor was coming out of his mouth as he barely held his body upright. As most of the heat was used up for regeneration, Illyan’s stamina was at its lowest at this moment.

  Only his unwavering willpower stopped him from passing out.

  “Oof… That was dangerous. But it was worth it,” Illyan muttered in excitement as he remembered the fmes surrounding him before.

  He felt that once they retracted back into his body, they were absorbed by his muscles and blood.

  Now, his muscles felt pumped out as they were swelling more than usual.

  Surprisingly, his flow, which had been almost completely devoured because of this incident and had only a fraction of its original amount with no sight of recovery, thrived in the new environment as it smoothly flowed in circles in his body.

  ‘I see, so that was what happened…’ Illyan’s golden eyes fshed as he saw through the mystery.

  ‘I have awakened my aura by accident.’

  Thinking about the fme-like substance covering his body, Illyan was almost convinced it was the aura from the knight's path.

  However, he wasn’t sure if it was just simir or completely the same.

  Normally, a knight would need to accumute a rge amount of flow and let it circute inside their body to stimute the vitality of the body. The mental practices would also start, as the knights needed to learn to put their willpower, emotions, and beliefs into every movement of their bodies.

  Once their flow, vitality, and mental crity reached a certain threshold, they would stay in a prolonged meditative state with the help of a breathing technique.

  Taking in the spiritual energy through the air, it would blend with the flow, which would circute around. The life force would be attracted to the spiritual energy within and would be absorbed into the flow, making it mightier.

  And the st step: using the mental practice strengthened by meditation to explode the flow from within with strong emotions and beliefs. In such a way, the flow would expand at a rapid pace and turn from a strand of energy into a cluster resembling a fire or, rather, an aura that would seep out of the skin at first awakening.

  However, all of this would take at least a decade for someone slightly talented.

  Illyan knew that the change came with the spiritual awakening that had happened.

  Every living creature had spiritual energy. The world itself had spiritual energy, and there was even a Spirit World containing all kinds of spirits and ghosts.

  So even if someone wasn’t talented, they still had innate spiritual energy within them.

  In fact, they had two spiritual sources. That’s what Kaoran told him and was also the reason why Illyan was training for years to infuse spiritual energy within his body.

  If he managed to do that, he would have a higher chance of stimuting his inner potential. However, if the inner potential was hidden too well, it would be difficult to intake any spiritual energy.

  With this vicious circle, it seemed that Illyan had no chance of taking even the first steps of this training.

  But now…

  ‘That fire was spiritual. It stimuted the innate spirits within me, which made them break out of their shells, allowing me to release all my tent potential. However, they would usually stay at the base of the spine, waiting for the user to learn how to use them. Without this, it would be difficult for his innate energy to move inside the body, let alone to be released outside of the body.

  But the fme didn’t just do that. It devoured my flow and even my vitality. Together with its spiritual inclination, it fulfilled the first two steps in creating an aura. In fact, by fusing with the greenish fmes, the aura would be much better. As for the mental practices… I did those for a long time. I have my own beliefs and emotions and a will of steel after going through bloodshed and suffering over the years.’

  Illyan’s eyes shone with a red glint, as if the aura was hidden within them.

  The fme was tainted by Illyan’s mind, and in turn, Illyan’s aura was fused with the fme.

  This huge amount of energy was supposed to be released quickly through his skin, as the aura was that type of explosive power, but an incident happened.

  His innate spiritual energy caught on the aura and rose right up to the top of his head, where they were blocked.

  No aura would have a problem with release from the body, but the spiritual energy was different. Without the right technique, it was almost impossible.

  But Illyan found a different, much more violent way, which caused him to get the opportunity of releasing his spiritual energy early.

  “Hahahahah~!” Illyan started to hysterically ugh after coming to this conclusion.

  “Thank you very much for this treat! I will treasure it well!” Illyan, still out of breath, couldn’t help but thank only he knew who as his face turned crazy.

  ‘With this… Did my [Nature Breath Method] progress too? I feel them…’

  Illyan thought as he felt his spiritual perception rise to unprecedented levels. It was because of his old technique.

  [Nature Breath Method] had three stages to go through.

  The first one was Exhation. This step allowed him to exhale his presence into the surrounding nature and merge with it.

  On the other hand, the second stage was the opposite, as it was called Inhation.

  By breathing in the spiritual energy in the air, you would be able to perceive everything around you.

  Through this stage, your five senses would undergo tremendous changes.

  Your skin would be more sensitive to the vibrations coming out of the ground and the pressure from the air; the wind would bring even the slightest rustle of the leaves to your ears, and even the eyes would be complemented by the spiritual perception.

  However, the senses that would be strengthened the most were smell and taste, as these were the senses directly affected by the inhation.

  By breathing in with your mouth, you would feel the taste of the entire forest, even if nothing entered your mouth.

  By breathing in with your nose, you would be able to smell things that had already faded into obscurity.

  It was a wondrous ability.

  Unfortunately, the ability that seemed of ascetic descent wasn’t honored this day, as the first thing Illyan used this new ability for was to feel his surroundings, only to sense unwanted guests.

  “Giieek?!” Crooked sounds resounded behind the curve of the tunnel as only grey heads were visible.

  The loud sound of the battle, together with the strong aura, brought attention to the inhabitants of the mines.

  “Grueek.” Slightly salivating, small goblins looked around at the dead bodies and bones of the troll.

  However, the one who looked like the leader, and was also the rgest among them, screeched as he pointed at Illyan, who was standing there with closed eyes.

  “Criek?!” One of the smallest goblins whimpered as it was kicked forward. It looked timidly at the man before crouching to grab a rock lying on the ground.

  “Grurgh!” the leader yelled out when it saw the goblin was slow, but the small creature only shrunk in fear before turning to the man in the center of the tunnel.

  It looked cautious for a moment, but seeing that Illyan didn’t move at all, it slowly lost its hesitation. Grinning, it threw the rock at Illyan.

  The rock fell in an arc and hit Illyan’s temple with precision.

  However, nothing else happened. The rock bounced back and fell to the ground while Illyan remained unresponsive.

  “Guyek?” Suspicious, the goblin threw another rock. This time, it missed.

  “Hieheh…” Hearing mocking noises behind it, the goblin gritted its teeth, then took out a dagger made of bone that was strapped to its filthy loincloth and crept closer to the standing man.

  However, as it approached, it started shivering uncontrolbly as the surrounding air grew colder.

  Just as the goblin got within reach of Illyan, it looked up at him and hesitated.

  But in the end, greed won out as it saw the appetizing muscles covering Illyan’s body.

  With a battle roar, it jumped as high as possible and embedded its dagger into Illyan’s stomach.

  Unfortunately, as the goblin was weak, the dagger didn’t go in deeply.

  What was worse, Illyan finally opened his frigid eyes and stared at the little goblin.

  “Griesh-?!” The goblin growled in defiance, but what came out was just pathetic whimpering.

  Illyan’s gre wasn’t something it could endure.

  Before it could even retreat, it felt a prick in the hand holding the dagger, followed by an even stronger pain in its chest.

  “Gyueh?!” The pain in its chest became so intense that its vision darkened, and it lost strength in its legs.

  In the end, as if its puppet strings were cut, it colpsed to the ground.

  The leader of the goblins saw this and started making a ruckus, fear visible in its eyes.

  However, as it considered retreating, it saw something outrageous.

  Loud chewing sounds reverberated through the tunnel, followed by a swallowing sound.

  Looking at the man in front of them, they roared in anger.

  Illyan, who had been like a statue a second ago, was now crouched on the ground, holding the dead goblin’s body and biting into its arm.

  ‘Finally, some energy… It’s bitter, though. But it’s better than nothing,’ Illyan thought as he swallowed raw meat.

  He had been standing still, hoping the goblins would let their guard down and attack him first.

  There was almost no strength in his body; he was completely spent.

  The only thing he could do was use the st bit of flow within him to counterattack the unfortunate goblin, its heart pricked open.

  Unfortunately, this was the st of his flow, and in his current state, there was no way to procure any more.

  But that didn’t matter—he got what he wanted.

  Energy in the form of meat.

  Something almost sacred in Illyan’s eyes now.

  With a beast-like roar, he tore the body apart, eating it piece by piece, leaving only the parts he was unwilling to put in his mouth.

  He didn’t even mind the bones, crunching them in his mouth.

  The meat was disgusting, but it was nothing to him as he felt strength filling his fingers once again.

  It was at that moment he finally heard the angry roars of the other goblins.

  Illyan looked up and saw the goblin towering over him.

  It was even taller than Illyan, and its bulging muscles made it look humongous. Some peasants might even mistake it for a troll if they saw it.

  In its hand, there was a huge wooden club firmly csped in its long fingers.

  Seeing this, Illyan grinned as he let go of the poor goblin.

  With the power of inhation, he could feel the goblins surrounding him as they pnned to wear him out slowly.

  However, Illyan only saw his sustenance coming closer to him as he slowly stood up, shooting the leader of the goblins a ravenous gre.

  The goblin, or rather one of its close retives called a hobgoblin, looked at the man with apprehension for a second, but seeing the bloody mess on the man and his weak movements, it regained its confidence as it roared while pointing its club at Illyan.

  “Grooaar!”

  The other goblins, who were much less intelligent, roared in excitement as they lunged at Illyan with their makeshift weapons.

  However, with these types of creatures, Illyan didn’t even need to try.

  Feeling all their movements, Illyan sidestepped into an area where no attacks were directed and swiped his nails.

  One goblin’s throat was slit, while another’s head was caught in Illyan’s hand and squished with raw strength.

  “I feel strength returning to my body. Even blood energy within my veins starts to pump as usual. Yet you foolish creatures think you can taste my flesh? The first one was at least aware of the dangers. But you… are just filthy.” Feeling bored, Illyan was talking to the unintelligent creatures as he continued sughtering them.

  Their bodies, akin to that of children, were snapped in half, torn limb by limb, or even crushed into a bloody mess as Illyan’s naked body was covered in the sticky blood of goblins.

  Some of them managed to injure him, but since their strength was abysmal, they only managed to create shallow wounds that disappeared soon.

  In the end, the hobgoblin roared in rage as it smashed its club at Illyan’s head.

  ‘Let’s try it out,’ Illyan thought to himself as he reached his hand toward the club.

  The aura didn’t just disperse but was instead reabsorbed inside of Illyan.

  That meant Illyan should theoretically be able to use it even in his current state.

  Focusing on his hand, Illyan willed his battle intent to burst through.

  And the result was...

  Sizzle

  There was a certain shift of air around his hand, but nothing much happened.

  The hobgoblin thought it would crush Illyan’s hand as it grinned and put even more strength into the strike.

  However, Illyan wasn’t surprised. It was one thing to be able to control flow from the beginning since that power was created for the sake of simplicity, but it was something different when it came to aura that depended more on burst power.

  Illyan felt that it should be easy to control with certain practice, but it would take a few weeks to get better at it.

  So, he wasn’t disappointed. In fact, he was pleasantly surprised when he noticed the movement of the air in front of his hand as the club was deflected to the side of his body.

  It wasn’t his intention, as he aimed to crush the club, but since the result was not so bad, he wouldn’t compin.

  “Guoyeh?” The hobgoblin was surprised when it saw the club flying in a different direction as it lost its bance and fell head-on at Illyan standing in front of it.

  That was the st thing it saw as Illyan’s hand, powered by blood energy, swept across its head, busting it open.

  Soon, silence ensued inside the frigid tunnel once again.

  “Oof... not bad. Now then, I wasted a lot of time here. Let’s get going,” Illyan muttered as he took everything of interest in the cave and left, humming a certain song as he disappeared into the darkness.