Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 475: Basic Applications [Bonus Chapter]

Asher swiftly paid for another three hours, four thousand two hundred points vanishing from his balance, but he didn’t mind in the slightest. The receptionist tried speaking to him again but this time Asher flatly ignored her. He had no intention of wasting focus on idle conversation.

Upon arriving once more inside the Lightning element training chamber, he immediately sat down and resumed his training. He began again with intangibility, steadily refining it, then transitioned into stamina rejuvenation, only to snap back into intangibility training once more, repeating the cycle with methodical precision.

Spending a total of three hours earlier had not magically built every basis and fundamental he needed. Yes, he was talented, but he was not a magician capable of instant perfection. Even so, regardless of that truth, he had already done something undeniably ridiculous. In Crymora, some people possessed innate awakened abilities, and those abilities could very well be intangibility, or perhaps stamina rejuvenation. Others might awaken with similar gifts, yet Asher had achieved both without any external guidance or specialized assistance.

Yes, other lightning users might eventually achieve intangibility or stamina rejuvenation. After all, Asher was not the only intelligent or talented individual in the world or even within the Empire. But did any of them accomplish even one of these feats within three hours, let alone both? Certainly not. Yet, even Asher himself did not truly comprehend how absurd his own achievements were.

And even if he had known, it wouldn’t have made him arrogant. Arrogance and pride provided neither strength nor Academy points, and as far as Asher was concerned, both were utterly useless. Power was built through discipline and results, not self-indulgent admiration.

Time continued to blur as Asher remained focused on these two abilities for the time being. A foolish person might have immediately dived headfirst into another advanced lightning application, chasing novelty instead of refinement, but Asher was not foolish.

It was far better to master something thoroughly and be flawless at a single discipline than to be barely proficient in a dozen different ones. Because of that, he refused to dive into another advanced lightning application until he had established an excellent foundation. Still, Asher wasn’t worried in the slightest. He was confident that three hours would be more than sufficient to build such a foundation and still leave him with ample time to spare.

Time slipped by steadily, and almost two hours passed. By then, Asher had achieved excellent basic control over both intangibility and stamina rejuvenation. Whenever he returned to his room that night, he would train them again, reinforcing what he had learned and pushing them closer to instinctive use.

With only an hour remaining, Asher’s focus finally shifted toward other forms of lightning application. At the moment, he didn’t want to dive into anything grand or absurdly complex like intangibility again. Instead, he wanted something simple, practical, and immediately useful in battle.

His thoughts moved through a variety of basic lightning abilities and applications. The first to come to mind was electro-sense, an application that allowed him to sense nearby movement through the minute electrical signals generated by muscle contractions. However, Asher quickly recognized that this ability was largely redundant. He already possessed Omni Perception, an ability that far surpassed such a technique in most situations.

But then again, Asher wasn’t about to dismiss the value of basic training so easily. What if he encountered someone with an ability similar to Blue’s, but this time with an effect that somehow interfered with Omni Perception? Asher wouldn’t lie to himself; he knew he relied on Omni Perception far too much. Still, why wouldn’t he? It was his ability, after all.

With that consideration in mind, he decided to learn electro-sense anyway, as he chose to call it. With his ridiculous talent, it took no more than a few minutes to grasp. Since there was nobody nearby to test the ability on, Asher simply turned it inward, sensing the subtle electrical impulses flowing through his own muscles and nervous system. Seeing that it worked as intended, he nodded at the easy success and smoothly transitioned to another simple application.

Next came magnetic pull. By manipulating lightning, he could exert control over various metals. Yet again, it felt redundant. He could already achieve the same result through telekinesis granted by advanced Astra control. Still, it didn’t matter. He had nearly an hour left in the chamber, and wasting it would be foolish.

With a casual wave of his hand, various pieces of armor clattered onto the ground as he pulled them out from his system space. These were the armors he had obtained from Lyra. Infusing lightning into each piece, Asher quickly established control over them, achieving smooth and stable manipulation within minutes.

Asher’s thoughts drifted briefly to a distant future, imagining a point in time when he might be able to influence the world’s tectonic plates through sheer lightning manipulation alone. The thought made him smile, though he quickly shook his head. At the moment, he was still nothing more than an overpowered ant in the grand scheme of things. But an overpowered ant was still allowed to dream, wasn’t it?

His thoughts soon shifted into something deeper and more abstract. Since the mind transmitted thoughts through electrical signals within the brain, could he theoretically intercept those signals? Could he sense thoughts, or even read memories, through an advanced form of signal interception using lightning?

At the same time, the idea felt far-fetched, at least for now. He had no real starting point, no clear method of sensing someone else’s thoughts, let alone intercepting or interpreting them.

’Could electro-sense help if I tried to combine it with this application?’ he wondered, his thoughts beginning to spiral uncontrollably. As he felt himself getting carried away by the allure of another overpowered lightning technique, Asher forcefully cut off his own train of thought.

’I need to master the two applications I just achieved before diving into something even more ridiculous,’ he told himself with a quiet sigh.

With that decision made, his focus shifted once again toward basic and practical uses of lightning. Building upon the concepts of stamina rejuvenation and intangibility, he realized he could also use lightning to repair nerve damage or numb limbs if the situation ever demanded it. Although he possessed the Virelass Crimson Pact ability, which allowed for powerful regenerative effects, it relied heavily on blood. While he doubted he would run out of blood anytime soon, it was always better to have alternatives.

On that note, he also learned how to regulate and dull pain using precise lightning stimulation. The technique was delicate, requiring careful control to avoid causing further damage, but it came naturally to him.

Asher didn’t know when he would need all of these abilities, but that uncertainty didn’t matter. It was better to have them in his arsenal just in case. After all, each one took barely five to ten minutes to master. They were basic, straightforward, and almost laughably easy for a monster of his caliber.