Bloodbound Codex: I Grow Stronger in Secret

Atlas could be seen walking through the forest path toward the Central City at a steady pace, his gaze remained fixed ahead while his expression stayed calm.

Compared to before, his eyes now carried a colder and more detached feeling, though he himself hadn’t noticed that change. The surroundings looked exactly the same as they had when he first stepped as he exited that massive crater, but the way he perceived everything around him had changed completely after breaking through to S-rank.

The reason wasn’t difficult for him to understand.

Reaching S-rank through those five Abyss-Rank Cores had increased his Spirit Reserve to an entirely different level, and along with that increase came changes throughout his body.

At the same time, the first Fundamental Force he had learned was now completely under his control. That breakthrough inside the Abyss-Rank Ruin hadn’t only increased his strength, it had also answered a question that had remained in his mind since he regained consciousness.

It was about Gravity Multiplication.

More specifically...it was about why that Gravity Multiplication had appeared above the roof instead of beneath him during his first attempt.

That question had remained unanswered while he was inside the Ruin. He had tried recalling every step he took before losing consciousness, but nothing had seemed wrong at first. He had followed the explanations inside the book as carefully as he could, so he couldn’t understand where the mistake had come from. It was only after his breakthrough settled completely and his perception became much clearer that he finally started seeing the answer.

His understanding itself had changed.

He quietly went through everything once again inside his mind, from the moment he first opened the book until the moment Gravity had formed above the roof. Every step became much easier to recall now, and as he compared those memories with the contents written inside the book, one detail finally stood out.

He had been looking at the process in the wrong way from the very beginning.

He originally believed the process worked by releasing Spirit Energy outside his body first and then converting that Spirit into the Fundamental Force immediately afterward. That was the conclusion he reached after reading the explanation, but now he understood that interpretation itself had been incorrect.

The Spirit had to become the Fundamental Force before it even left his body.

Only after that conversion finished could it be released outward.

That was the actual process.

Atlas understood now why the Gravity had appeared where he never intended it to appear. His control over the conversion had been incomplete during that first attempt, which meant the Spirit left his body before the conversion itself had stabilized. Since the conversion hadn’t been completed properly, the Gravity manifested at a completely different point than where he wanted it.

Now that he understood the proper sequence, controlling Gravity no longer felt unfamiliar.

He could already tell the difference.

The conversion itself felt much smoother than before, almost as if his body had naturally accepted the process after understanding the principle behind it. There was no hesitation when he imagined using it again. Instead, he felt confident that if he activated Gravity Multiplication now, the force would appear exactly where he intended.

Atlas continued walking through the forest while calmly thinking about everything.

Every explanation written inside that book had been correct.

The problem had always been his own understanding.

The section explaining the conversion process had been written vaguely. It wasn’t incorrect, but it also wasn’t explained in a way that someone reading about a Fundamental Force for the first time could completely understand. There were several parts that depended on the reader reaching the correct conclusion through experience rather than simply reading the words.

Even though each increase in Attributes also improved his intelligence, that increase still had limits.

Higher intelligence didn’t automatically mean complete understanding.

Most importantly...he had been reading something for the first time in his life.

There was no previous knowledge for him to compare it with, nor was there anyone standing beside him to explain the parts he failed to understand. Everything depended entirely on his own interpretation, and because of that, making a mistake during the first attempt wasn’t surprising anymore.

Thinking about it now, Atlas even found it slightly surprising that he had managed to understand almost every other application of Gravity written inside the book.

As for how and why he was seeing things differently? It was because of his spirit reserves, it was so much that not only his body was enhanced, his perception was now on a whole another level compared to before, he could actually look past several miles without a hitch.

And his control over his own body...it seemed it was lost when he had just came back to senses from that Unconscious state which caused that destruction...but now? Now it was...the opposite of it, his control increased again to an absurd level.

That’s what his detached cold eyes now saw, as to why they felt detached...it was unknown, Atlas himself didn’t know that his eyes looked detached.

Though when he reached the central city and maybe go to an inn and see himself in a mirror he would realize this and think about it, but that was for later.

Now though, as Atlas walked he suddenly frowned as he was thinking something that clicked to him just now, he had been walking for about twenty minutes now, and all he could see was forest and forest ’Wait...Why don’t i fly using Crowbeast wings? I have a massive amount of spirit energy now, it would cause no problem at all, and I doubt anyone would be here in this forest route at all.’

He thought this, but not just this he also thought through other things such as ’And my senses have stretched...it seems I can sense upto several kilometres now even without the Spirit Instinct Trait.’

Then his eyes dropped to the books in his hands, he couldn’t fly properly with them if he carried them like that and while he used his wings that he still couldn’t properly use, that seemed difficult.

But...he had no other ways, if he wanted to control those wings properly and fly he needed to use them more often, but he had no chance of using it that much until now, so he thought ’I have to adjust if I get heavy on one side...’

And then he activated the trait just like he usually did, he channeled spirit energy through his back, the books remained in his right hands grip at the right side, and from his back the phantom black wings came out, the Crowbeast wings.

And he swayed them once ─ WHOOOSH

sound escaped from the ground as dust rose and Slided away from that position, Atlas lifted off the ground and with another sway of the wings, he flew high, though his Flying was uncontrolled as his body swayed here and there in the Air.

Still, Atlas bat his wings again and again as he tried to control the flying flow, he slowly came to a state where he was slightly more controlled than before...then again and again he beat them, he didn’t go upper, he forced his body to remain there as he bat the wings so that the force direct him towards straight.

And as he did, his body slowly became stable instead of swaying right to left again and again, the books at his right hand stayed in the grip as Atals looked straight, he had already wore his mask before he had picked the Books, his hood flared and went behind as if came of his head, his black hair fluttered in the wind as he finally came to the state of controlling his own movement in Air.

As Atlas stabilized himself, he thought ’It became easy to control after I broke through S-rank, though I think I still need more practice and use of this...the spirit consumption also seems nothing much right now.’

And Atlas finally started to swing the wings properly behind him to get straight and steadily, he didn’t hurry because he needed to use this for long to get the hang of it like his other traits.

And with that Atlas was finally going to the Central City, but what he didn’t know was thatright as he was going there, the Captain of Martial Cleaver...had already come to Lumivale and was searching for him while concealing himself.

And on the other hand, someone else was also coming to the Central City.

- - -

A figure could be seen flying in the Air in a completely different place than Atals, and he...had no wings, yet his body was a streak of pure blurr as he flew through the distance like hundreds of kilometres meant nothing.

And unlike Atals who wasn’t even above 200 meters from the ground this figure was about a kilometer above the ground, and his speed...it was unbelievable in the Air - It looked like only a blurr if looked from a distance.

As this figure flew through like a streak of blur he thought ’Damn I have to go to the Angelic continent, i don’t like it at all, why would her Majesty Elarion would need me to deliver this to the Angelic Queen?’

In his hand a parchment could be seen in that grip, and from his features one could clearly tell just from a glance that he was an Elf.

And... this Elven figure was none other than Alberion.