CH 6

[Ryou's perspective]

Today was the first day of training for the boy and the Demon Lord. Lucious came to me crying, apparently the training was too hard for him.

"Uhh, uuh."

"Kukuku, looks like you've been beaten up pretty good."

"I don't even know if I'll really be able to release my magic power. There's no doubt in my mind that I'll end up dying before that happens..."

The magic power within the boy is very low. There isn't the slightest doubt that he really will die if he gets to use it even a little bit.

But that doesn't mean that the training is useless, because the closer you are to death, the greater your magic power will increase when you recover.

...It looks like the Demon Lord is enjoying this.

But as my rival, I won't allow myself to lose to her.

"Good! Now it's your turn to train with me. And you're going to die trying!"

"What!? But I have no magic power!"

"I know that! We're not going to practice magic. We're going to be practicing the art of Qigong."

"Qigong...?"

He looks very confused...

I think I should first explain to him what Qigong is.

"You see, Qigong, or 'life force', is a power that resides in living beings, very different from magic power. And if you manage to master it, even a mere human can gain the strength to rival against a dragon's power."

"Wow, that's amazing! I didn't even know such a thing existed!"

The boy looks at me with shining eyes and an expression of pure amazement.

Hmmm... I don't dislike his expression, no one has admired me like that in thousands of years, and seeing this guy acting like that makes me feel weird....

"But if it's such a powerful technique, why don't people use it like magic?"

That's a good question... He isn't afraid to show his ignorance, and he genuinely wishes to grow stronger.

A moment ago he was so exhausted and on the verge of crying, but now he is so curious about this newly discovered ability that he has forgotten how tired he was.

Kuku, it looks like this training will be worth it.

"The reason why people don't use it is because it is difficult to learn Qigong."

"Difficult...? That's the main reason?"

"Mm-hm. The reason why magic is so widespread is because it's easy to learn. If you have no talent for magic, you may not understand it, but ordinary people can use elemental magic without training. However, when it comes to Qigong, you can't use even the simplest techniques without rigorous training."

"I see, so it will be just as difficult for me how to learn magic."

"You are wrong. You don't need any talent to learn Qigong. You just have to exert yourself so much that you bleed."

"I see! I'll give it my best!"

"That's a good reaction."

He seems to be very motivated now.

Even though I said that no talent is necessary, that was a bit of a lie.

Qigong is a technique that requires very rigorous training, but even so, there are things that can become difficult to learn.

Now I wonder, how many hundreds of years will it take this kid to learn them?

I expect he'll be able to master it in a thousand years. But it will certainly be much quicker to master than magic.

I can't afford to lose to the Demon Lord!