Too Stubborn to Die Chapter 26

Leaving his mediation, Aaron felt more at one with his mana than ever before. He felt like he had gained considerable insights, but he hadn’t had the breakthrough he had been hoping for. Not yet, at least.

However, it certainly wasn’t anything to get hung up over, and he decided it was time to go test himself against another trial. After all, he had something to work towards.

The two best options to test himself against were clearly the Trial of Dominance and the Trial of the Challenger if he wanted to further improve his combat ability. But Yendal had told him to be ready the next time they fought, and he wasn’t there yet, even with his stamina veins open. At least it made his choice easy.

However, instead of selecting Yendal again, he decided to go back to his old pal, Oozagh. Sure, the ogre might be the god of cooking and gluttony, but he also remembered delivering a punch to the huge monster. It had probably broken his arm, and the return strike had easily finished him off. Not only that, but the ogre’s weapon was bigger than he was. It was pretty clear that the big guy was strong, and maybe he might just be able to help him increase his power. Besides, if the ogre proved a bad training partner, he could go back to Yendal, or maybe even test out another shadow.

However, he wasn’t sure about inviting another god into his life. The gods clearly kept tabs on their shadows in some way and didn’t love the idea of sharing. That much seemed obvious from his conversation with Yendal. It didn’t seem wise to test their patience by reaching out to yet another god. If they decided not to help him because of it, then he might be screwed. Best not to be greedy.

The big ogre stared down at him as the trial started, and he could have sworn it was sizing him up and looking at him differently than before. Did it know that he had spoken to Yendal?

Shaking the distracting thought from his mind, Aaron scanned his surroundings. They were standing atop a mountain of rough rock, and as he pivoted, he caught sight of a forest blanketed valley that surrounded the mountain. While the mountain itself was entirely bare, covered in nothing but flat rock and loose boulders, the surrounding land was densely covered in foliage.

At first, there wasn’t much to see, but as he narrowed his focus, he became aware of shuffling leaves through every inch of the forest. They were still some way away, and if not for his improved Perception, it was unlikely he would have been able to pick up on the ruffling leaves.

“Oh, okay. That doesn’t look good, does it? Got any ideas, big fella?” He turned to the shadow.

Oozagh’s shadow looked down at him and chuckled silently.

“That’s it, so you’re just going to laugh at me?”

The ogre remained silent and unmoving.

Glancing to his sides, Aaron saw the swarms of bug-like beasts bounding up the foot of the mountain. They were six-legged, about the size of a medium dog, and had a cockroach-like carapace. That wasn’t what worried him, though. It was the fact that there were literally hundreds, no, probably thousands, of the insectoid beasts.

Antler Roach Worker [ ??? ]

“Oh, great. So, I just have to beat an army now?”

Oozagh’s shadow shrugged.

“A lot of help you are,” Aaron muttered as he limbered up.

However, he wasn’t particularly bothered. He hadn’t had a chance to fight since opening his stamina veins, and welcomed the opportunity. After all, he felt much stronger and lighter than he was before. Perhaps he didn’t need help to beat this thing.

Circulating his stamina, he readied himself as the swarm approached. Once they were within a few meters of him, they pounced, shooting toward him.

In truth, the insectoids weren’t actually that fast, and Aaron activated [ Relentless Scourge ], [ Thick Skinned ], and [ Gorgon’s Time Dilation ] as the battle began.

Reading their threads, he expertly moved around the mountain top. But he hadn’t expected what came next. He knew he had grown stronger and could feel it in his muscles as he cycled stamina through his body, but he hadn’t expected to literally blow the antler roach to pieces when he landed.

Chunks of insect were flying through the air as his fists met shells, and his stamina empowered strikes blew them apart, one by one.

Aaron was in his flow state, covering the mountain top in meaty chunks as he landed strike after strike. However, nothing was ever that easy in the trials. The wave of roaches cascading up the mountain continued, swarming toward him with ever greater numbers.

As impressive as his display was, hundreds of roaches bearing down upon him all at once was simply too much. They piled atop Aaron like a mosh, and their pincers cut into his flesh, quickly ending his life.

Returning to the hallway, Aaron bounced straight back to his feet. He had no idea how he was supposed to deal with such overwhelming numbers, but he was damn well determined to find out.

Launching back into the trial, he looked up at Oozagh again and nodded. However, this time, the ogre raised a finger.

“Huh? Got something to show me, big fella?”

As the roaches began to climb again, the ogre stepped forward and stomped down with one of its huge feet and shook the very mountain itself. It was an incredible show of force, and the shockwave that shot out from it even sent Aaron sliding backward. The beasts, on the other hand, were flung off the mountain en masse.

Aaron’s brow rose as he steadied himself. The shock didn’t knock all of the beasts off, and even the ones it did knock off were returning to their feet and returning to the mountain, but he liked the ogre’s style. The problem was, how the heck was he meant to do that?

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

There was something else he had noticed, thanks to his previous meditation. The shockwave that had flooded out from the ogre’s stomp was unmistakably mana-fueled.

What if I tried pushing my mana out like I did with my stamina in the previous trials?

Deciding to give it a try, Aaron activated [ Thick Skinned ] and channeled mana into his fist, and threw it down at the ground.

It hurt. It really fucking hurt. And it achieved a whole lot of fuck all. Not only that, but almost breaking his fist and arm against solid rock gave the roaches the edge to end the battle quickly.

“Dammit, Oozagh,” Aaron huffed from the hallway tiles as he stared up at the ceiling.

Copying the ogre had proven disastrous, and the lard-laden god was sure to mock him on his next attempt. But as much as the gods liked to take the piss, he doubted that there wasn’t something to learn from it. Maybe he just hadn’t done it right?

Returning to the trial, Aaron attempted the same thing. Except this time, he began by cycling stamina into his fists to harden and strengthen them, and then poured in a mixture of aether and mana. Once his fist was flowing with energy, he then struck down.

The difference was noticeable. There was no pain, and nothing was broken. However, it only managed to make a little baby shockwave that didn’t bother anybody, and at a pretty considerable cost of mana and aether.

It was kind of cool that he had, in a sense, invented his own little Skill, but it wasn’t effective. At all. It was really just a waste of energy, and he was probably better off just trying to fight the swarm with his stamina-infused strikes. And so, that’s what he did.

Fifty-three deaths followed that. With each one, Aaron got more and more efficient with his Stamina, staying alive longer and longer, and killing more and more of the bugs. It didn’t matter, though. No matter how fast he moved or how much he conserved his Stamina, it was never enough. All it took was one bug grabbing onto his leg or his arm, holding him down for the others, and it was over. And with so many of them, there was no way for him to keep track of them all, so no matter how aware he tried to be, there was always one that slipped past his guard and ended him.

Groaning as he once again appeared in the obsidian hallway, Aaron thought back to the shockwaves created by Oozagh and reached into his pouch. Wrapping his fingers around the stone, he brought up its status and confirmed that the cooldown had expired.

Okay, well, that’s something.

Climbing to his feet, he decided it was time to meditate again. This time, he would take what he had learned and focus on the rush of energy flooding out from the ogre’s foot as it slammed down against the mountain.

Entering a meditative trance, he thought about how stamina worked. It powered his body, and through it, he would be able to punch harder than he ever had before. But why stop there? If he could apply an external force atop his internal power, then wouldn’t that be stronger?

Aaron had to thank the gloves. Being a conduit for mana was cool and all that, but it was really the inspiration it provided that he cherished. That and seeing the ogre’s powerful stomp gave him all the inspiration he needed.

He began to regulate his mana, sensing and feeling for how it flowed through him. Unlike stamina, it didn’t use veins to empower his organs and muscles. No, it was something more permeable than that. If he were to attempt explaining it, he would probably have said that while stamina was an embodiment of the cardiovascular system, mana was an embodiment of the soul.

It was present within every inch of him, but didn’t flow and power his body as stamina did. It was an ethereal-like substance that was meant to be harnessed and expelled. It was an energy that could take shape and be transformed into all manner of mystical creations.

In a sense, it was closer to aether than anything else. But like stamina, it had its limitations. Aether could be used to power the body and heal, neither of which mana could do. But like stamina, it was also better at being used as an external force than aether was.

His progress was far quicker than when awakening his stamina veins. Not only did he have a supreme degree of control over his body, which assisted greatly with things like meditation and mana control. But he knew what to do this time around.

He mentally followed his mana as it flowed through his body, sensing where it coalesced. He could sense that his mana was infantile and uncontrolled. He could feel it screaming out to him for direction, direction he was happy to provide.

Mentally wrapping his control around the mana, Aaron dragged it to where he wanted to focus it. This part was different from controlling stamina. Stamina powered everything throughout his body, and therefore, it needed to be everywhere. Mana, on the other hand, could be focused and concentrated for powerful external applications.

He could feel that he was bargaining with his own mana, persuading it to take purchase where he wanted it. Anchoring it in place would have consequences; he could feel that he was limited in his ability to do it, and that it was, in a sense, committing to certain aspects of his path. But he felt like that was right. Not because he suddenly believed he understood the multiverse or his path entirely, but because of studying the shadow of Yendal.

The shadow’s body moved with fluidity and practiced compromise. It wasn’t about outbursts of power; it was about rhythm. It was moving with his enemy, accepting their strikes and flowing with the rhythm of those strikes to avoid being hit like he had done against the arrow trap within the Trial of Travels.

His style wasn’t about being a bulwark and standing strong against an enemy's attacks. Instead, it was closer to being like rubber or water; he would move with the blows of his enemy, always in motion. But striking back was an entirely different philosophy. If movement and evasion were like water, they would always flow and be impossible to hit. Then, striking back was the torrent that was released in a storm, crashing against and destroying the bulwarks that tried to stand in its path.

It was about power, a reversal of everything he had learned. In perfect harmony, this style was about timing and predictions. The martial artist flowed until they didn’t, and then they planted down and summoned all of that power and threw it back into their enemy in an outburst of relentless force.

This was the true secret to the shadow’s style, Aaron realized, and he used this truth to pull all of his mana into his fists, even drawing on his life-force itself as he stubbornly willed it into place.

At that moment, Aaron realized he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to. As he accumulated mana into his fists, his body greedily swallowed it all, requiring more and more mana to be channeled into them. If he were stronger, he would have more than enough mana to feed into the anchors, but he was attempting this at a level far lower than he should have.

But he had felt this before, back when he awoke his stamina veins. Not that it mattered. Even if he didn’t know what he did, he’d still pour everything into the anchors, stubbornly forcing them open and defying the pull of death.

Unlike most people, Aaron had cultivated supreme control over his body, the stamina flowing through his veins, and now the mana that was present within it all.

Controlling that mana, he stemmed the uncontrolled torrent rushing into the anchor, thinning it to a stream that he could maintain. However, as the mana thinned, the anchor threatened to close up, and Aaron’s focus was split between the two tasks, simultaneously willing the anchor to remain open as he funneled mana into it. And even this, as delicate as it was, would have been impossible if not for his Faux Core regenerating mana at a rate far higher than he should have been capable of at his level.

It was a perfect balancing act, one that was on the verge of spilling over and failing at any moment, but he held on, and gradually, he could feel the anchors solidifying themselves in his fists.

This was the accumulation of the techniques he had learned earlier, which forced him to train himself to control his inner energy. Along with Faux Core, he realized the true secret.

It wasn’t the manipulation of pure energy that one ascended to, but using every asset provided by the System precisely as they were designed to be used.

Mana, stamina, and even health had vehicles that required conquering to be used properly, he realized. And with that thought, Aaron’s eyes shot open as his mana found purchase and secured itself in place.