Gonna Be a Demon King!
Chapter 78: Learning Curve

Chapter 78: Learning Curve

Clinic 4, Ward 26

Cinder Region Outpost

Ohlion Continent

April 18th

Year 9025

Xaren woke up with a start—or at least, that’s what one might say if his body had jerked upright like anyone to who that phrase would apply.

But no, Xaren’s body didn’t move like that even though it should have.

For a very simple reason: he was completely immobile.

He let out a pained groan, and almost immediately, a voice spoke up from the bed next to his.

"Oh, you’ve woken up."

The familiar voice made Xaren turn his head—with a bit of effort—towards the source, where he saw Ilya lying on her own white clinic bed, her gaze fixed on the ceiling.

Judging by the way she lay motionless, he figured her condition wasn’t much better than his.

And as for the reason why, Xaren didn’t need long to figure it out.

It was because of the sudden awakening of aura during their battle with the half-giant.

Though his body had formed extra energy circuits for accommodating aura after surpassing Level 100, they’d never been used before. They’d remained shrunken and narrow, like dried-out channels with barely any space within their pathways.

They were in no way ready for the way Xaren had forcefully shoved his aura down those pathways during the heat of battle against the half-giant, and the sudden forceful expansion had caused some of them to rupture.

It was just as bad as one’s blood vessels bursting inside their body.

That was why Naephas had said their bodies were in far worse shape than they realized, even though they couldn’t feel it at the time because of the adrenaline.

The same thing had happened to Ilya, who had copied what Xaren had done to forcefully awaken her own aura during the fight.

The pain that now locked their bodies in place wasn’t just from the damaged aura circuits—which for the record, had healed while they were unconscious—but also from the stress placed on their bodies as a whole.

Another reason was that their bodies, which had grown to match their new levels, had also been further enhanced by the aura now flowing through their circuits, much like how magic power flowed through one’s magic circuits or blood flow through veins and arteries.

Now, they experienced a low but constant flow of aura through their bodies.

"You know what time it is?" Xaren asked.

"I would tell you if I knew," Ilya replied. "But I’ve been counting the ceiling boards since my last attempt to turn my head and check the loudly ticking clock on the wall didn’t end well."

At that response, Xaren thought back to the strain it had taken to just turn his head towards her, and he nodded in understanding.

Taking a deep breath, Xaren roused his magic power, increasing the speed of its circulation to gradually ’wake his body up’. It did cause him some pain, but his stiff muscles began to ease up, and he was able to slowly regain his mobility.

’It did not hurt this much when I awakened my aura before...’

Indeed, it did not. Which was understandable as he had awakened it in much calmer circumstances, not while fighting for his life against a half-giant wielding a broad sword that could cleave him in two.

He flexed his fingers, testing the motion, and began rotating his wrist. A series of pops echoed from his joints as the fluid inside them shifted and released built-up pressure.

While he did that, he spoke again.

"You know, none of us got that half-giant’s soul."

"...is that seriously the first thing that came to your mind?"

Xaren could almost hear the sigh in Ilya’s response. He chuckled a bit, gradually forcing his upper body up as he replied.

"Come on, don’t pretend you’re not at least a little curious about how many stat levels we could’ve gotten from his soul. That guy had to be at least thirty levels higher than we were."

He rolled his shoulder carefully before continuing.

"We only won because he was overconfident and underestimated us. That gave us just enough room to land a few solid hits that really messed him up.

And the sudden aura awakenings caught him off guard too."

Hearing Xaren’s explanation, Ilya tilted her head slightly, still careful not to strain it too much, before responding.

"Personally, I believe that it’s that skill you used to crush his hand that caught him off guard. When did you get that one?"

She was definitely referring to his Gravity Crush. And yeah, in hindsight, the way he’d timed and executed it had played a huge part in turning the tide of the fight.

"I got it in Zlego," Xaren responded. "I went back to that inn we stayed at and was trying to have a moment of silence, but some idiot kept yelling in my ear. I got pissed and ended up squashing his head.

It wasn’t until the skill notification popped up that I realized what I’d just done."

"...is that how acquiring skills works?"

Ilya’s tone held a hint of skepticism, but before Xaren could answer, she continued speaking.

"So if I were to imagine a ball of compressed wind, trying to crush something inside it with pressure..."

As she spoke, magic power began gathering in the air above her, swirling wind into a sphere that spun faster with each passing second. Xaren opened his mouth to caution her, but before he could say anything, Ilya let out a pained groan.

"Ugh—!"

*POP!

The wind orb above her burst like a balloon, and a blast of turbulent air rushed outward, scattering nearby items off the tables and across the room.

At this, Xaren finally sat up fully, turning toward her.

"I was about to say something," he said, "but it looks like you already know what’s wrong."

He looked at Ilya’s lightly contorted expression, clear proof that she knew why her wind orb had suddenly burst.

Having recently acquired aura, Ilya hadn’t yet trained her body to control which energy she wanted to use. She tried to channel magic power, but her aura surged out along with the magic power. When she tried to force it back, her magic control ended up slipping, causing her attempt at skill acquisition to fail and resulting in a small backlash.

The girl sighed before finally noticing that Xaren was sitting up. Her eyebrows lifted slightly as she asked,

"You can already move?"