Chapter 148 - Monster Paradise? (1/2)
Thack!
Sakonji's palm immediately struck Nik's abdomen as a pained cough leaked through his mouth before he fell on his knees while gasping loudly.
”You have grasped Hamon, that is definitely astonishing. But you still need to slowly practice your breathing technique. Do not be hasty.”
Sakonji stated calmly while he smacked Tanjiro's stomach in a similar fashion that caused the boy to slam on his knees and wheeze just like Nik.
”And you... why would you drill your Hamon energy within your own tendons right off the bat?”
”Sorr-y!”
Tanjiro wheezed out while Nik almost felt like fainting. The breathing technique that Nik and Tanjiro were put through was comparable to extreme torture. Even though it has only been a month since they started, Nik felt like his body would crumble apart and he knew why.
The breathing exercise was supposed to help Nik in grasping Hamon and learning the methods to control the Hamon and achieve superhuman feats. Throughout the month, Sakonji had described the various uses that also allowed the breath users to retain the look of their youth, just like Sakonji.
But, the main problem was that the breathing technique was targeted to the human body. And Nik wasn't a human anymore.
Grasping Hamon was easy. He simply needed to let his own system energy to interact with the strings of Hamon that would be generated within his body and soon, he could easily create and form a stream of Hamon energy.
[1 ENG= 8 Units of Hamon]
Being the type of energy that can easily be produced by a human body, unlike the elemental energy, Nik now boasted a reserve of Hamon that was at least capable of rivaling Jojo's.
But this wasn't the issue.
Once again, Nik started swinging his sword as he activated the breathing technique. The Hamon energy within his body rippled into action and soon started to seep within his organs, muscles and even bloodstream. For a few minutes, Nik could breathe easily, albeit, the act of breathing itself required immense focus.
But after completing the better half of the breathing technique, the blood that flowed throughout his body seemed to stop while his Hamon energy was slowly receding. Once again, just like many previous unsuccessful attempts, Nik furrowed his brows and immediately allowed streams of his system energy to flow within the body while Nik utilised his affinity with the water element to guide the Hamon energy itself to match the breathing technique.
Usually, the breathing technique guides the streams of Hamon energy, but Nik attempted the opposite and continued using his own affinity to guide Hamon energy according to the breathing technique as he felt a surge of wild power almost bursting through his body.
Taking a shallow burst of breaths to regain his composure while not interrupting the technique, Nik finally led the energy towards his abdomen, the next important step where several of his attempts failed.
To complete the structural change of Hamon energy, a cycle must be completed. Although it has already been a month, Nim still hadn't been able to complete the cycle and always remained stuck in the last phase of the cycle.
After days of experiments, Nik finally decided to do something crazy—
Before the cycle could be completed, under Sakonji's eager gaze, Nik suddenly converted his neutral energy into that of water elemental energy and the Hamon energy within the grasp of the energy immediately went berserk. Yet, before Sakonji could stop the flow of Hamon once again, he felt a familiar feeling within Nik... too familiar.
'My Hamon...'
An incredulous expression remained hidden behind Sakonji's mask, meanwhile, using the Hamon sent by Sakonji that would usually help him stop the berserk of Hamon, Nik allowed his elemental energy itself to gain a bit of life force attribute before Nik used brute force to assimilate the elemental energy within his Hamon.
”Shit! He is going to explode!!”
Sakonji's throat betrayed his fears as the wheezing Tanjiro's eyes immediately shot in surprise and panic and he immediately tried to reach Nik.
”St-op! You—”
Nobody saw the look of despair flash across Tanjiro's eyes as he distinctively smelled the scent of death on Nik before a golden aura erupted from Nik's body that immediately morphed into unending waves of wild waves that formed a burst of wind, sending Sakonji, Tanjiro and the surrounding rocks flying back.
[1 ENG= 5 Elemental Hamon Units]
Nik opened his eyes and a smile touched his lips before a dazzling spurt of blood leaked through his lips and he finally fainted.
***
”You were too adventurous, Nik-san!” Tanjiro muttered with indignation as he served the food while Sakonji nodded without finding anything strange about the situation.
There he stood, garbed in an apron while a white cloth covered his head as the concerned expression was no different from a caring parent who served the food to the eldest of the family while showering the child with nothing but disconcerting worries.
The eldest being the half-masked Sakonji who ate at a constant pace and the child being the pale-faced Nik that left Tanjiro with an obvious role.
Sighing, Nik started eating. Hamon being directly related to his own vitality and life force, required a lot of nutrients to be cultivated slowly and steadily. This meant that the older a demon slayer was and the greater the control over Hamon is formed, the stronger the said demon slayer is.
Of course, Nik could bypass this condition by directly increasing his Energy stat, but even that would require a session with someone who had already achieved great heights in Hamon. Not to mention, this method only worked once for each girl and the subsequent sessions would only reduce the efficiency of harvesting the energy.
It was definitely a good thing that Nik simply did not lust after flesh due to the energy he gained. He lusted after the flesh to satiate his own desires. And of course, his carnal desires would remain endless.
”Don't worry. Greater the risk, greater the rewards, right?” Nik had a small smile on his face as the intake of food did lift his mood a little higher as he continued.
”And this way, you are going to lag behind. And if you lag behind once, you'll always remain one step behind me.”
Nik drank a mouthful of tea and looked at Sakonji with a hearty grin.
”Can I take a break tomorrow, Master? I wanna hang out in the village and enjoy a bit before continuing the last part of the training.”
Sakonji also sipped on his tea while nodding.
”Break, you can get... but...”
He, for the first time, seemed a bit hesitant. After all, he had received too many complaints regarding Nik's existence itself. Of course, the letters did not state many sensitive matters directly, but even Sakonji knew what the villagers meant, the male section, of course.
Keep Nik away from the women of the village... especially the housewives. Although, it would have been fine if Nik had shown a little interest in youthful girls, but Nik's nefarious existence only sought out ripe, married ladies in the prime of their life.
But as Sakonji hesitated, the trio within the hut felt soft trembles that affected the whole hut for a moment. Although, Tanjiro and Sakonji did not put this sudden low magnitude earthquake to their hearts, Nik's eyes had already gone dazed as he felt his mind buzzing.
Almost instantly, he saw Brian's message that described their situation— the demon slayers faction's situation— accurately.
[Nik... get ready to use your pardon if you feel your life getting threatened. Although, I really wanted to make this trip easier for you, now, I don't think that is possible.
We are screwed.
So learn as much as you can... and get partners as quickly as you can to mitigate your losses.
These kinds of missions... to strong, they are a fortune. But to us, it is a disaster.]
And as Brian proclaimed, even though the fiend's strength had already reached the mind-numbing level of 30 points, the situation was still a disaster as the Quests had actually evolved.
[Main Quest
Survive
Description: Survive the impending apocalypse and resist the hordes of demons to uphold your mantle as an aspiring demon slayer.
ETA: 8 Months
Survival Time: 20 Days