Genius of the Dark Magus Family

Chapter 4

‘That was close in the end. If I had made a mistake, I might have died or ended up crippled.’

Rebirth consisted of multiple stages.

Purifying impurities with white (白), refining with fire (火), solidifying with earth (土), and making it flow freely with water (水).

Each step was a difficult process.

The most challenging was the final stage, the dream stage.

‘Since I have to artificially experience enlightenment.’

Rebirth was a supernatural phenomenon.

The body was completely transformed in accordance with enlightenment.

Thus, enlightenment had to be artificially induced.

‘The Phantom Dream Stone is essential. Luckily, I got one easily.’

Using the Phantom Dream Stone, he artificially experienced enlightenment and successfully achieved Rebirth through secret techniques.

Chris let out a long sigh.

His breath was incomparably clearer than before.

His appearance had also changed noticeably.

His body was still gaunt. That was because he had been living in such a deteriorated state that his muscles had withered.

However, the condition of his inner body had completely changed.

It was now in an optimal state for learning swordsmanship.

Moreover, his skeletal structure had improved, so once he gained weight and developed muscles, his outward appearance would also reach an ideal state.

His face had changed as well.

He still looked ill-tempered.

However, as the bad energy accumulated in his skin and blood vessels dissipated, his face became clearer, exuding an air of refinement.

He now had the appearance of an aloof nobleman.

‘And there's something even more important.’

Chris observed his internal state.

Then, he witnessed something unbelievable.

Below his navel, at his core (dantian).

There were two hollows!

‘Heh, successful Rebirth, Chris-style.’

This was the reason why Chris had suffered so much during his Rebirth.

As he underwent the process, he created a second core, an inner core inside, and an outer core surrounding it.

It was a crazy attempt.

No one in the world had two cores.

But Chris had conceived an idea.

‘Since a core is ultimately a conceptual thing, and Rebirth transforms the body based on enlightenment, wouldn’t it be possible to create two cores if I held the belief that I had two during the process?’

Anyone else hearing this would have cursed him for talking nonsense.

But he had succeeded.

He had nearly died when things went wrong midway, but he pulled through.

‘Heh, nice.’

There was a reason why he had deliberately divided his core into two layers.

‘This way, I can use the power of the Dominion of Light.’

From Chris’s hand, a burst of light flared up.

It was One-Star Magic, ‘Light.’  

‘There’s no need to focus only on Dark Mana, right?’  

In his past life, Chris had mastered the swordsmanship and magic of the Dominion of Light up to Four-Star level.  

If he had more time, he would have reached an even higher level.  

He didn’t want to abandon that power.  

‘This ability of light will be my hidden trump card.’  

There was no need to worry about being exposed.  

Chris had concealed his Light Core inside his Dark Core.  

Thanks to the outer Dark Core, the Light Mana Core was completely hidden.  

On top of that, he had connected the meridians of the Light Mana Core to the Dark Core, creating a double-layered disguise.  

Even if someone directly examined his core, they wouldn’t be able to detect it.  

‘I need to master as much of the Dominion of Light’s swordsmanship and magic as possible before I leave.’  

Once outside, it would be difficult to learn the powers of the Dominion of Light.  

There were roughly 20 days left.  

He had to achieve as much as possible within that time.  

Chris devoted himself to training.  

Since he had already walked this path once before, retracing his steps was easy.  

"Hoo..."  

He took a deep breath.  

It was the breathing technique used by the Meyer Household, the most prestigious swordsmanship family of the Holy Crusade Alliance, once practiced by the Hero himself.  

After watching it for a long time, he had managed to steal and learn it.  

‘That got me into so much trouble.’  

Chris had mimicked the Hero Evan’s breathing technique once, and he had been put through hell for it.  

People kept questioning him—how had he copied it? Had he read his family's secret manual? And so on.  

Even when he insisted that he had only imitated it by observing from the sidelines, no one believed him.  

To prove it, he demonstrated exactly how he had copied it, slowly showing how he controlled his breathing.  

‘The look on his face back then was priceless.’  

It was the first time Chris had ever seen the Hero Evan look so dumbfounded.  

- H-How?  

And after observing Chris’s breathing technique more closely, Evan was even more shocked.  

- It’s similar, but different. It’s different, yet… better?  

Originally, the Hero’s breathing technique was too advanced for a beginner like Chris to use.  

So, he had modified it to suit himself.  

A Chris-style adaptation, so to speak.  

- It’s simpler and more efficient. How did you—?!  

Hero Evan had been unable to recover from his shock.  

‘I just followed the basic principles of breathing techniques.’  

Breathing techniques.  

In nature, there was something called Vital Energy.  

Breathing it in and converting it into the energy of Light resulted in Mana.  

Converting it into the energy of 'Darkness' resulted in 'Dark Mana'.  

As the names implied, 'Mana' was more stable and pure, whereas 'Dark Mana' was unstable but destructive and sinister.

Chris discarded everything else from the Hero’s breathing technique and focused only on absorbing Vital Energy from nature and converting it into Mana.  

How did he manage to do that?  

‘I don’t know. It just worked.’  

He recalled the exact words he had once told the Hero’s party when they couldn’t believe what he had done.  

It just happened.  

How was he supposed to explain something that simply worked?  

Paah!  

Light gathered around Chris.  

Mana was accumulating in the Light Hollow.  

And before long—  

Chris felt a sense of fulfillment.  

A vessel had been formed.  

He had stepped into the realm of One-Star.  

‘I did it even faster than before. I guess that’s natural since I’ve done it once already.’  

How long had it taken in his past life?  

Even then, he didn’t think it had taken a full day.  

Well, it was only One-Star, after all.  

This was merely the Runner stage, signifying the beginning of learning. He had only just taken his first step.  

Of course, for others, this process would take at least a year, even for so-called geniuses, no less than six months.  

But Chris barely gave it any thought.  

‘The road ahead is still long.’  

After that, Chris continued his training.  

Time passed quickly.  

How many days had gone by?  

Five? Seven?  

The vessel he had created was steadily filling with Mana.  

Rapidly.  

At an abnormal speed.  

The once-small vessel gradually expanded and solidified.  

And when it could no longer contain the overflowing Mana—  

Paah!  

Mana surged through Chris’s body.  

He had reached the stage where he could strengthen his body using Mana.  

The realm of Two-Star, the User stage.  

Now, Chris’s body would become incomparably tougher and faster than that of an ordinary person.  

"Does this mean I’m as strong as a decent knight now?"  

Outside the Magic Empire, there were plenty of so-called "knights" who hadn’t even reached Two-Star.  

But that wasn’t all.  

"Flames, rise."  

Paah!  

Flames erupted.  

A Two-Star elemental spell—Fireball.  

‘Well, I already had it in my head.’  

Normally, reaching the Two-Star level wasn’t easy for either knights or mages.  

It wasn’t just about accumulating Mana—knights had to master the technique of reinforcing their bodies with Mana, and mages needed to understand the magical formulas required for Two-Star magic.  

But in Chris’s case, he had already done it before.  

He knew the tricks, so it was naturally easier.  

…To be honest, even in his past life, it hadn’t taken him that long.  

‘Two-Star is just the basics, after all.’  

If any disciple of a swordsmanship household or magic tower, struggling desperately to break into the Two-Star realm, heard him say this, they would probably cough up blood in fury.  

For ordinary talents, reaching Two-Star usually took anywhere from 5 to 10 years.  

‘Anyway, I need to reach Three-Star before I leave.’  

Three-Star.  

From that point on, one was considered an elite combat force anywhere.  

A knight at that level was a key asset in any knight order.  

Among mages, they formed the backbone of their ranks.  

‘It's a tight schedule. I need to push myself as much as possible.’  

Just as he was about to throw himself back into training—  

Chris suddenly stopped moving.  

As his level rose, some of his senses had returned, and he felt the presence of someone outside.  

‘It hasn’t been a full month yet, has it?’  

Chris tilted his head in confusion.  

‘Are they ending my punishment early?’  

But that didn’t seem to be the case.  

The footsteps were quiet and cautious.  

As if the person was worried about being caught.  

‘An assassin?’  

A chill ran down his spine.  

It was a very real possibility.  

‘I won’t go down without a fight.’  

Chris steeled himself.  

Whoever it was likely thought he was still nothing more than a foolish wastrel.  

That meant they would let their guard down—and he could take advantage of that.  

‘Come on. I’ll make you regret it.’  

And then—  

The figure arrived right outside the door of the Punishment Cavern.  

Chris tensed his entire body.  

But something unexpected happened.  

The person did not open the door.  

Instead—  

Through the faint gap between the doors—  

Thunk.  

Something was dropped inside.  

‘What?’  

Chris was momentarily bewildered.  

That was it.  

The figure disappeared again.  

As if delivering the item had been their sole purpose.  

‘What is this?’  

Chris carefully examined the object, then let out a dry chuckle.  

‘These bastards.’  

It was a Phantom Dream Stone.  

*         *         *  

The intent behind leaving a Phantom Dream Stone was obvious.  

‘They want me to lose myself to it and destroy myself.’  

Chris recalled that he had brought a Phantom Dream Stone for his Rebirth.  

Whoever was behind this knew about that fact—and had deliberately set him up, hoping he would overindulge in it and ruin himself.  

‘A Phantom Dream Stone, when abused, can be even more dangerous than the strongest drug.’  

Chris idly tapped the stone with his fingers, deep in thought.  

‘Who the hell is behind this? Let’s think this through.’  

From this, he could infer a few things.  

First, someone wants me ruined.  

‘Maybe… someone even orchestrated my downfall into a wastrel in the first place.’  

Second, the culprit is an important figure in my family.  

‘They knew I brought a Phantom Dream Stone with me when I was sent to the Punishment Cavern.’  

And—  

They managed to approach the heavily guarded Punishment Cavern unnoticed.  

That meant the culprit knew all the security loopholes.  

‘Or… they could be working with the guards on duty.’  

Chris smirked.  

‘What a mess.’  

The Count Khazar Household, an honorable branch of the Dark Mage Household, Duke Baren’s lineage—  

It seemed rotten from within.  

And Count Khazar, the head of the household, was completely unaware of it.  

‘Well, this isn’t bad. No, actually, it’s great. This works perfectly.’  

An unexpected thought.  

Why would this be a good thing?  

There was a reason.  

‘I’ll use them as my stepping stones.’  

His goal was to stand at the pinnacle of the Magic Empire.  

His first target—the Dark Mage Household.  

To achieve that, he first needed to seize control of Count Khazar’s Household, the branch family he was currently part of.  

And if there were parasites eating away at the family from within, they would make excellent offerings for his rise to power.  

‘But first, I need to reach Three-Star.’  

Chris’s breath deepened.  

Paah—light swirled around his body.  

And so, the promised month passed.  

*         *         *  

"Today is the day you promised, my lord. Do you not plan to go?"  

Count Khazar remained silent.  

He didn’t want to go.  

If he went, he might start expecting something.  

And he hated that.  

It would only lead to disappointment.  

But the butler cautiously suggested,  

"This may be the last time you see him, my lord. Wouldn’t it be best to check for yourself?"  

"……."  

"Or perhaps, he might have endured better than expected."  

Count Khazar let out a dry chuckle.  

"Do you seriously mean that? He’s probably lost in hallucinations by now."  

The moment he heard that his son had taken a Phantom Dream Stone with him, Count Khazar had abandoned all expectations.  

“…I apologize.”  

"Still, I’ll listen to your advice. This might be the last time, after all."  

A sharp glint flickered in Count Khazar’s eyes.  

"I will accompany you, my lord."  

"No, I’ll go alone."  

If he opened the Punishment Cavern and found Chris intoxicated by the Phantom Dream Stone, he wasn’t sure he could suppress his murderous rage.  

Dismissing his butler, Count Khazar set off toward the Punishment Cavern alone.  

Taking a deep breath, he pushed open the door.