"just what is missing?" Asta mumbles to himself about his inability to maintain the ki flow. He feels something missing in his attacks.
Again and again he punches at the waterfall, the ki barely moveing to his wishes as all it does is just be pumped out like uncontrolled explosion.
"I feel myself still standing on the line I was at three days ago.. just what is different? Power. No, control neither... Urgency?"
He decides to try thinking of the moment he was fighting that figure, he visualised not the figure or the boulders but the sense of urgency and the desire to fight. He closed his eyes as he again and again saw the scene in his mind, latching onto the last shred of rope he could think of.
With closed eyes, he punched again but instead of thinking it as normal waterfall, he saw it as the giant boulders coming at him. He punched with a desire to fight until he could no longer differentiate between the image and the reality.
Among tens of punches he threw, one managed to split a portion unlike the others but asta didn't stop nor did he care, he thinks to himself and finally says, "so it was not power or control, but just that my ki was not united. It lacked the drive and need to move together and just went it's own way."
One punch after another, he saw nothing but the boulders coming his way until they grew faster and faster. Asta was no longer moving his ki, he was fighting with it. Until-
"Huh?", Asta collapses onto the ground , his body sore and reserves empty but he didn't just faint, he begins meditating like the instructor said and forced his body to create more ki than its limits.
****
"That kid.. did he gain somesort of opportunity in the battle three days ago? He seems to be understanding ki now" tenoch the orc instructor says as he looks at Asta from far away while he himself tends to other students
He praised Asta and his constant drive which compared to the other notso passionate students who are complaining while sitting in a water stream was like difference between passionate artist that do it for themselves and artists for money who want quick success.
'Hmm? Maybe I should get him to rest? He might break his body if he keeps going like that...' "ASTA, come here for a minute"
Asta stood up and soon arrived at Tenoch's location, he looks at him and the students to the side. Most of the rankers are training at the front of the stream while the others are sitting in The back.
"You called teach? New assignment or training?", "No. you rest and spare with someone until I tell to continue.", Tenoch states his order and Asta accepts with a nod before moving towards the students.
The rest of day was the same with sparing and all, asta went to other classes which were basically etiquette and he didn't give a Goblin's a** about it. He also went to smithing classes but all he got was a introduction to runes he already knew all about.
*****
"You took your time coming here didn't you?" Klaus looks at Asta who came to the academy gate in his giant sword, he gives the Asta the box of materials and together they went to Argon's.
"Atleast I won't have to take a wagon this time, it took me hours with all these turns last time.", "the academy is mostly for knights and mages so it is only right to give them freedom to fly on the brooms."
Talking among themselves the duo finally reached the metallic building, Asta called on side counter like last time and together they went up from the side door.
After arriving the duo were greeted by argon himself, he greets Asta and begins "Ah, Ragon's brat. *Smokes from his pipe* Passes the exam i presume?", " I sure did, i aced it", "Good good, the guy will probably very happy to learn that. What brings you here?"
Asta then explained the need to make something for his friend. "I see, well go on ahead and use the forge, the night hours are our rest time so they are empty."
Led by Argon himself, Asta soon started the forge and changed his clothes to more comfortable ones.
He looks the box in front of him and with a deep breath, opened it and brought out the mithril plate he first needed and threw it into the smelter.
The heat begins to rise as Asta covers his body with wind to stop himself from overheating, Klaus was standing far behind alongside argon who just put down his pipe and was focusing on Asta's work.
"How did you get the boy to help you? It's not easy to get a master rank's help for something." Argon says while Klaus turns to him in confusion and said "master rank? Asta said he was advanced.. you're telling me he-", "the youngest master rank I ever seen, I saw him create a master rune myself, he didn't tell you?" Ragon asks and recieved a shake of head from Klaus who clenched fist in anticipation.
Meanwhile, the forge is grown so red that it is reaching it's peaks, Asta carefully brings out the melted mithril and pours it into a circular mold, he grabs the coral from the box and makes a small cut on it's branch.
A golden coloured liquid drips out and feel into the molten metal and the colour begin to change from blue into silver, as the metal cools down, Asta took a chisel and begins hammering runes into the metal one by one.
After 3 processes of reheating and chiselling the metal now looks like a bracelet with many small lines running across it, Asta takes the powdered mana stones and marbel and begins pulling it into the lines like a web of canals in a city.
After the powder was filled, the lines now appear like blue crystals rivers in a white rocked mountain, he embeds the core he had left into the bracelet and begins to embue some mana into it.
The runes light up one by one as the bracelet shines like a small star for a few seconds before dimming out, Asta puts it on and felt mana being blocked from entering his body and his inner mana being pushed out like a water pump.
He quickly removes it and places into a small item box, he cleans his hands and places the hammer back onto the anvil.
"Oi Klaus, I am done. Let's go get some food, I am dying from hunger." Asta says as he yawns while putting on his academic clothes back on. He hands the box to Klaus who just stood there alongside Argon and watched as he left.
"Did he just walk away as if it was a everyday deal? It's master rank damn it." Argon cursed Asta's lack of professionalism while Klaus inspects the item in his hand, "it definitely is a master rank but only the lowest one. It should suffice."
Klaus buds his farewell as he follows behind Asta but found him gone, eventually he decided to return to academy and ask his family to create portal few days later.
*****
Meanwhile, Asta is now sitting on the street bench while slurping down a bowl of noodles. He was too hungry to go back so he decided to order some food instead.
"Hmm? What are those shady looking guys the-..." He places the empty bowl down and stands up while clutching onto his sword, "Demon servant Scum." He senses the power of the demons on the people he saw slip into a nearby alley.
He raises his arm and gives a call to the Severio, soon the call connects while Asta leaves to the roofs while concealing himself with a layer of anti-magic.
"Why are calling at night for? Did you need find someone already? *Yawns* Secre is sleeping so don't pu-", "Demon followers, last hope city's commercial district. I am following them down the alley." Asta quickly blurred out the details and the lazy voice severio changed in a instant.
"I will be there to 10 mins Max, don't lose sight of them." The calls cuts while Asta silently follow them through the rooftops, while not truly silent the distance and anti magic blocking the detectors managed to get Asta across.
The figures with goblin masks opened a shutter nearby and ventured deeper into the lower grounds while two people stayed behind to guard the door.
"I guess I have no choice", Asta opens his grimoire and casts one of the blood spells called Blood bullet, a few drops of blood appeared in front of him before condensing intoa single spherical bullet.
Fwoosh. Bang , the bullet pierced through one of the figure's brain and kept going before hitting the shutter, the other figure panics and looks around only to find Asta coming at him from high above.
The Goon tried to fight back with a wand and tried to cast a spell but got his neck snapped with telekinesis before Asta beheads him for assurance. Asta also beheads the other goon he killed and instantly feed their grimoires to his. They were so weak it didn't even unlock a spell or enchant, nor did they unlock the element.
He slips into the place to find a ladder going beneath the ground and instantly entered but instead of just climbing down like a sane person he jumps into it.
He falls and soon the ground begins coming into his view, using the greater telekinesis spell he got and the wind magic he had spent a lot of time enhancing to match a three leaf, he landed with grace but not without sound.
A goon was guarding the bottom as well and got the perfect opportunity to be Asta's landing bag, the floor cracks as Asta's body lands on top of the goon and knocks him down next second.
Asta instead of just killing the goon thought of a better approach, "i should use a disguise or something.. as if one of this novel cloak disguise gonna help." He nips the idea in the bud and decided to brute force like he always does.
As Asta kept moving onwards, much to his surprise there was no other goon waiting for him or intruders. Eventually after a few corridors filled by literal Nothing he managed to reach a dead end.
"Why are you panicking like this sam? You know damn well nobody can enter here without triggering the mana sensors we have placed al around.", "But still, my senses are never wrong. Just let me go."
Asta comes across two goons just after he reached end, he heard through a door one of the goons smoking while the other Basically begged him to let him go.
The first goon assured the second goon again and again before while walking towards the doorframe, he leans on it and just as he was about to say something.
A pair of hand break through the door and drags him through it, the second watches in terror as Asta basically twists the goon's neck in a instant and before he could say anything, the goon was cut into two by a smaller dimensional cut.
"Who even hired such weaklings? Have the devils degraded so low to grant power to basically anybody now?" Asta mummers to himself while trying to figure out why the hell there is long tunnel that basically spans the entire commercial district under a abandoned house next to a cemetery.
Despite his curosity, he refrained from using the ring to contact Severio now that he heard about mana sensors from the goons.
****
"How the hell am I supposed to open this?" Asta looks at many meter wide vault, he brings out his Goliath and gets ready to chop it up like he once did in a dungeon.
"Stop!! You are the literal reincarnation of the machine king, use our memories damn it." From inside his mind, Jassen screams into his brain like a fourth dimensional narrator giving you advice.
Asta had to relent knowing he can't always brute force his way like he used to, he brought out the machine grimoire once more and decided to try using for once.
His turns into the dragon eye while black flame comes out of it, his vision changes to something akin to a mana vision and he saw the pathways in the mechanism.
With a tap of his fingers, the mechanism mends under his magic and changes completely, the door soon opens while Asta sighs in relief.
'Dont just look at it, how about you only use that to fight against these weaklings? It would serve as a decent start atleast' Jassen complains, Asta agreed to follow his advice after negotiating to lessen the memories assimilation time.