The Bizarre Wizarding World

"And then, I felt something smack me on the head," he recollected, reaching out to discover precisely this book... these notes."

'Dragonfly-like bizarre cave creatures, huh...'

Colin nodded silently, then after a moment cast a glance at Alec and waved his hand gently.

A pale blue chill spread through the air, but this time, he did not freeze Alec again. Instead, he constructed a vast cage around him, akin to the iron cages used to imprison humans for food within the cave.

Having done all this, Colin instructed Onions to keep a close watch on the remnants of the Wood Family and then withdrew alone to ponder in the Quiet Room.

He harbored some doubts in his mind.

Alec's words were evidently not lies; he had questioned him many times, and there were no inconsistencies, nor did his witchcraft checks reveal any deceit.

But... within Cumberland's research notes, there was simply no mention of anything related to the cave.

Why would consuming cave creatures specifically benefit the practice of the Giant Mountain Breathing Method?

Could it just be a coincidence? An attribute that both Gran and Cumberland had failed to discover in their time?

It wasn't outside the realm of possibility, after all, both Alec and Onions had stumbled upon this trait under extremely fortuitous circumstances.

Yet after careful contemplation, Colin still felt that this was no mere coincidence. The Breathing Skill modified by Cumberland could very well have been designed with some connection to the cave creatures in mind.

After all, this research notebook was ultimately discovered inside the body of a cave creature, which could imply that Cumberland's research site, prior to his death, was situated close to the cave.

However, what the actual truth was remained uncertain due to a lack of information.

'Still too little information.'

Colin sighed; aside from the initial description, the notebook contained little else, not even the research data for the Giant Mountain Breathing Method.

This could be because Cumberland had only just improved the eighth version of the Breathing Skill, and his research was still on paper – he had not yet begun any substantive experiments, hence why it was merely organized and recorded in writing.

If subsequent research notes could be found to provide more information, it might reveal whether Cumberland had discovered some link between the cave creatures and the Giant Mountain Breathing Method, and whether he had made any substantial research breakthroughs.

But for now, this was all nothing but speculation.

Although he could not be certain whether Cumberland was dead or alive, Colin surmised that there was a high probability he was deceased.

Otherwise, had he been alive, such important research notes would never have ended up outside, much less inside the body of a cave creature.

Death was obviously more troublesome than life – he didn't believe he would have Alec's luck in finding the rest of Cumberland's research notes.

Massaging his temples, Colin weighed his next course of action.

Although his journey to Intuo City had been fraught with complications, his objective could be considered largely achieved.

Even though he had not obtained what might be the subsequent developments of the Giant Mountain Breathing Method, Cumberland's words and Alec's ordeal had at least provided direction for his next steps.

After all, his specific journey to Intuo City was motivated by his realization of something special about the Giant Mountain Breathing Method.

A year had passed, and those Knights who practiced the selected Breathing Skills had essentially all undergone a Limit Breaking process.

Some of them turned to gold in one Limit Breaking and merged, while others did not become gold even after a second Limit Breaking.

But as for what was most helpful in enhancing a Knight's strength, it had to be the Giant Mountain Breathing Method!

Prior to this, Colin's understanding of it wasn't comprehensive enough, and Cumberland had improved it into eight versions, with the eighth version seemingly no different from the regular Knight Breathing Methods.

So he had simply assumed it was a Breathing Method of exceptionally high quality.

But now, it appeared that this Breathing Method, or rather, the Nameless Breathing Skill it originated from, was forging a new path!

Whereas the other Knight Breathing Skills followed the same route as the ones that had undergone many Limit Breakings.

Having already traveled that path himself and reaching the First Rank Advanced, those Knight Breathing Skills that only reached the stage of Great Knight were naturally of lesser assistance to him.

In contrast, the new pathways brought by the Giant Mountain Breathing Method were naturally more significant.

Having understood all this, Colin no longer delayed and, as evening approached, he hurriedly brought Onions to the cave area.

He left only three Frost Shadows to guard the underground laboratory in the wilderness.

After a round of gathering and fighting, before dawn broke, Colin returned to the wilderness underground with the harvested cave beasts.

He planned to first understand what exactly was influencing the efficiency of the Giant Mountain Breathing Method's training within the bodies of the cave beasts.

...

Half a month swiftly passed, and the progress of the research was much faster than Colin had anticipated.

After capturing a few samples of cave animals and plants,

after some screening and comparison, Colin soon successfully identified the parts within them that affected the training of the Giant Mountain Breathing Method!

It was a special energy existing within the bodies of the cave creatures, which Colin named the "Cave Factor."

The Cave Factor was basically present in most of the cave creatures' bodies. The reason Onions mentioned only some plants was simply that he had only eaten those few cave plants.

But Alec was different; over hundreds of years, he had eaten almost all the common cave creatures found in the shallow layers of the cave, and they all essentially helped with the training of the Giant Mountain Breathing Method.

This was consistent with Colin's research findings.

According to the tests, the Cave Factor was not only difficult to detect but also inherently inert, not reacting with magic power, spirit, or even blood energy or fighting aura.

If ordinary people consumed cave creatures, the Cave Factor would enter their body, but only temporarily, gradually fading away with time.

However, the situation was different with knights practicing the Giant Mountain Breathing Method — the Cave Factor would linger in the body for a long time and gather towards the heart!

The specific reason was still unknown, but Colin speculated that it might be related to the fact that the Giant Mountain Breathing Method directly strengthened the body, rather than indirectly through blood energy.

Normally, for regular knights, the enhancement of the body is mostly brought about indirectly by the nourishment of blood energy, which becomes more apparent later on.

After all, common physical exercises are most likely to enhance external muscles but are hardly able to improve internal aspects, such as vision, senses, or even digestive abilities.

And the reason why the knight's practice is also considered a transcendental path is because the nourishment from blood energy can bring about improvements in all aspects, something that simple physical exercise can't achieve.

However, even with the nourishment of blood energy, the enhancement of the body has its limits, typically reaching its peak at the Great Knight stage.

At that time, it becomes a competition of blood energy accumulation and combat experience.

The Giant Mountain Breathing Method, however, was not like this; it directly strengthened the body, not indirectly through blood energy, and could continue to do so even at the Great Knight stage.

Due to practicing too many different Breathing Skills and having an exceptionally strong body, Colin had not noticed this before.

Even now, having recognized it, he still couldn't find any difference between the flesh directly strengthened by the Giant Mountain Breathing Method and flesh indirectly enhanced by Knight Blood.

However, since the Cave Factor showed different reactions to the two, it suggested that there was indeed a difference, one that still required further research.

Unfortunately, time was always short; half a month had gone by.

Colin planned to return to Golden Barley first, as the time he had given Welber to cover for him was only half a month—although the latter had said even two or three months would be no problem.

But to be on the safe side, Colin still planned to head back to Golden Barley for now.

Moreover, he needed to figure out a way to handle the guard duty to focus as much energy as possible on knight research.

Although, according to the current pace, it would take at most another half a year for all the Breathing Skills on the Golden Paper to be fully integrated and break the limit.

But to practice the integrated new Breathing Skill to the point of limit-breaking and to advance further on the knight's path would likely take several more years.

And if there were breakthroughs in the research of the Giant Mountain Breathing Method, perhaps the time required could be greatly reduced.