### Chapter: 192
It had been quite a while since the midterm evaluations took place.
Before anyone knew it, summer was right around the corner.
The World Tree, which had been showering pink petals for ages, was now radiating a fresh green light.
Beneath this World Tree stood Rahern Academy.
“Ah!”
“Caw-caw!”
“Quit whining and get up!”
The training sounds echoing from the Unnamed Academy were as relentless as ever.
Kraush was currently sitting cross-legged in an absurd location, quietly closing his eyes.
He was none other than atop a branch of the World Tree.
An immensely high place, a stark contrast to the ground below.
For the past few weeks, Kraush had been climbing this tree like it was his job.
The reason? Durandal.
“The training starts at the top of the sacred tree. Get moving as you climb!”
As soon as Durandal said that, he straight up climbed the World Tree.
His nonchalant posture, hands behind his back as he ascended, made it look easy.
But as soon as Kraush started climbing himself, he realized just how ludicrous it was.
The World Tree was much taller than it appeared.
At first, it followed a gentle slope along the roots, but from halfway up, it was practically vertical.
Even using aura to climb up the wall had its limits.
Thanks to that, Kraush jammed his Rain Thunder into the World Tree midway and leapt using his Excel skill.
Then he’d stab the sword in again to keep climbing.
“Damn, I didn’t think I’d end up using Excel for this,” he grumbled, fighting back the urge to curse as he climbed.
If he were anyone else, he probably would’ve given up shouting curses by now, but Kraush was no ordinary guy.
Whenever his stamina hit the wall, he would fall once, stab the great sword he brought into the sacred tree, and sit there snoozing to recover his energy.
Then, he’d repeat the climb until he finally reached the branch of the World Tree.
“I’ve made it.”
As Kraush arrived, exhausted and worn out, Durandal greeted him with a very relaxed demeanor.
He then said bluntly,
“Sit down and cross your legs.”
With no time to catch a breath, Kraush trudged over to cross his legs.
Soaking with sweat and looking like a mess, the fierce determination in his eyes remained.
Durandal approached Kraush from behind and slapped a piece of paper on him.
“This paper I just stuck on you has the power to suppress your aura.”
Upon hearing that, Kraush felt his internal aura completely still.
He realized a formless energy was rising from the paper he had on his back.
That force was undoubtedly the secret art of Raigongrak belonging to Durandal.
‘I thought it only suppressed World Erosion,’ he mused.
It seems this power could also suppress aura at will.
As Kraush was still digesting this, Durandal continued,
“From now on, you will learn the fundamental power of Raigongrak.”
“Fundamental power?”
“That’s right. Once you master that power, the paper on your back will naturally fall off.”
The paper on his back had such meaning behind it.
“It’s a kind of test, then.”
“Exactly. If you can’t pass this, you’ll never learn Raigongrak.”
With that, Durandal walked over and plopped down, sitting cross-legged, silently staring at Kraush.
Feeling that gaze, Kraush awkwardly maintained his position, expecting some advice.
But Durandal merely watched in silence, allowing him to figure things out alone.
Kraush quickly grasped what this meant.
‘So, I have to figure this out on my own.’
Sticking a paper infused with Raigongrak on him and telling him to just figure it out—what a ridiculous situation!
It was absurd, but if this was part of the training, he had no choice.
Reluctantly, Kraush closed his eyes and began tuning into his own senses.
As per Durandal’s wishes, Kraush’s internal aura was indeed like a statue—completely still.
That sensation was peculiar.
It felt as if a massive weight was pressing down on his aura.
Moreover, the power of World Erosion also quieted down to match.
Just like the aura, the power of World Erosion was subdued as well.
Perhaps because of that, Kraush felt an unusual calm within himself.
Previously, the noise of his aura and World Erosion had been chaotic day in, day out.
But today, with both powers asleep, only serenity was left.
It was like his body had been emptied.
Strangely enough, Kraush didn’t find this sensation unsettling at all.
‘This feeling…’
It reminded him of a curse he once endured.
There was a curse that worked similarly to Raigongrak.
That curse was none other than one that consumed a person’s aura.
For ordinary people, this curse didn’t really cause any trouble.
However, for exceptional individuals like those of the Sky Generation, it was utterly destructive.
After all, no matter how exceptional you are, you can’t fight only with your bare hands when your aura is gone.
Thus, Kraush had absorbed this curse, which had been cast on one of the Sky Generation members.
If he were any slower, he could’ve been stripped of his aura completely.
The moment he absorbed that curse, it quickly engulfed his aura.
But unfortunately, Kraush’s inherent aura was nothing remarkable to begin with.
He had long given up on mastering martial arts!
Being wrapped up in curses, it had become too late for him to manipulate aura.
At that moment, Kraush felt the same sensation he had experienced back then.
The feeling of having his aura completely extinguished, leaving him full of curses.
While the curses themselves were noisy, the emptiness of his aura resonated with tranquility.
For some reason, Kraush felt comfortable with this sensation.
While others might panic, he began surveying his surroundings within.
With his interior calm, Kraush became more sensitive to the sounds around him.
The powerful winds at such heights stirred the leaves of the World Tree, causing them to flutter.
Yet the sound was not solely that of the World Tree.
He could sense that the sky, the ground, and the sea all had their own sounds and powers, moving in symphony.
Given the calm within himself, the powers of nature became all the more vivid.
As Kraush sensed this power, the forces themselves began to sense his presence too.
Perhaps that’s why those forces became curious about the void in him.
Slowly, they started seeping into his interior.
Kraush knew this sensation well.
It was precisely the feeling he had when absorbing the power of World Erosion.
‘The way to handle it differs, but the principle is the same.’
As soon as he grasped that, Kraush began absorbing the power at high speed.
Before long, that unknown power filled his being.
A power distinctly different from aura or World Erosion.
The moment that power flooded his core, Kraush felt a formless energy layering over his body.
At last, when Kraush opened his eyes, he was met with a scenery vastly different from before.
Just as he felt an expansive force when absorbing the power of World Erosion, he felt something grand once again from the strength absorbed from the world.
“Ha.”
A sigh mixed with disbelief escaped Kraush’s lips.
Swoosh—
At that moment, the paper on his back fell off, fluttering through the air.
Right in front of him, Durandal stared at Kraush with wide eyes.
Surprise flickered in his gaze.
Well, naturally.
Durandal had set Kraush upon the World Tree without giving him any instructions.
This power could only be felt directly by Kraush himself; it was utterly beyond anyone else’s capacity.
Aura is an innate power of living beings.
It’s a privilege that living beings have, growing through inherent talent and effort.
On the other hand, the power of World Erosion is derived from another realm.
To change one world into another, it’s aggressive and coarse.
The World Eroders were never aware of this power originally.
But after crossing over to another world, they realized the distinction between the power of the world they erode and that of the new world.
Thus, the World Eroders learned to wield the power of World Erosion freely.
Creating bells for their powers was but an extension of drawing the foreign world closer to their own.
At that moment, Durandal grasped something.
If the power of World Erosion exists,
then perhaps the original world also holds inherent power, doesn’t it?
The moment he reached this revelation, Durandal emptied his own inherent power as an aura.
Spending an entire day pouring every ounce of aura and hitting a state of exhaustion, it was only then that he truly felt the power of the world.
Everyone lives in the world but remains oblivious to the inherent power it carries.
Durandal named that power the “Aura of the World.”
It was through this aura that Durandal managed to formulate the secret art Raigongrak and reached the peak of Heaven’s Sword.
The reason Durandal had urged Kraush to ascend the World Tree was to help him easily sense this aura.
Because the World Tree is one of the places where the aura can be felt more acutely than anywhere else.
Of course, this action was done with the expectation of a positive effect.
But Durandal hadn’t anticipated just how effective it would prove.
‘This level of effect is beyond my expectations.’
Durandal’s surprise knew no bounds.
‘Is this what talent looks like?’
Standing on the edge of talent and reaching the peak, Durandal looked at Kraush with mixed astonishment.
In reality, Kraush had accumulated experiences, not some grand talent at play.
“Is this it?”
Before he knew it, Kraush was manipulating the aura with ease.
Having experienced the powers of World Erosion, mastering aura became second nature to him.
‘So that’s why those stars from the Sefira prophecies appeared.’
As Durandal watched scenes unfold, he unwittingly regarded Kraush as an unprecedented talent.
“Indeed, as you say, that is the power of aura. It’s the inherent strength of a world, different from aura. And the strength you’re using is also the result of curses.”
Perhaps it was because Kraush had recently mixed too many curses into himself.
To Durandal’s eyes, Kraush’s power of World Erosion appeared as if it were simply a curse.
Well, they weren’t wrong, so Kraush nodded along.
“And based on that aura, you’re going to learn Raigongrak from here on.”
“That sounds good.”
Kraush looked at the aura in his hand.
The aura swirling around his hand was distinctly different from World Erosion.
While World Erosion is a power for devouring, aura is a force meant for protection.
For this reason, Kraush decided to test things out by colliding the powers of World Erosion against the aura.
Zap!
In that instant, black and white sparks simultaneously flew from his core, freezing Kraush momentarily.
He felt a strange sensation, as if his body had split in half.
In that fleeting moment, he nearly screamed in front of Durandal.
‘It seems I can’t use them both at the same time yet.’
But this outcome was expected as he had anticipated this beforehand.
While the revelation of inherent power in the world was astonishing, Kraush had already considered how to manage it from the start.
Even if he had to scorch his body, he was prepared to master Raigongrak.
‘I’ll utilize everything I’ve got.’
This had been Kraush’s intentions from the get-go.
“You can take today off. You struggled quite a bit on your way up.”
With that, Durandal turned and started to leave leisurely.
“Bring up some food from below.”
Kraush watched Durandal casually descend after he had spent weeks painfully climbing up.
Flopping down onto the ground, Kraush stared down at the clouds far below, where Rahern Academy emerged in sight.
Kraush only wished for one thing.
Please, don’t let anything happen down there while I’m up here!
He was all too aware of how futile that wish would likely be.
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