Chương 35: Chapter 34 - Essence Circulation Technique

That night, Ren slept better than he had in a very long time. The last occasion he'd rested this soundly had been the night after he'd spent a gruelling thirty-six hours out in a rainstorm with his father, searching for a single lost lamb. It was a peaceful and dreamless sleep. At least, it was, right up until he was abruptly dragged out of that peace when Alice's foot dug a little too hard into his liver.

Ren grunted and shoved her foot away, rolling over in an attempt to sink back into blissful sleep, only for that very same foot to slam straight into the side of his head.

"Kughh!" he shot upright.

"What's your problem!?" The doll-like girl lay sprawled out in a star shape, half on his futon and half on her own, sleeping away with a goofy smile plastered across her face. She was no longer wearing Marionette's Attire either. Instead, she had on a long nightgown, which, as Ren had come to learn, was simply what she wore beneath the Soul Attunement for the sake of convenience.

"Glad you're sleeping so well..." he grumbled, rubbing at his head before pushing himself up and shuffling toward the bathroom to wash the sleep from his face. The night before, after Ren had somehow forced down the entire plate of sludge Alice had so lovingly served him, Mr. Jester had come around and produced two futons along with a couple of blankets from behind his back for them, exactly the way he had with the desk and chair the previous day. When he looked into the mirror, his golden eyes stared back at him.

His auburn hair was still short and unruly, but his face had changed slightly. His features looked sharper now, more defined than before, and the old scars from his childhood had vanished entirely, along with every last little blemish he'd long since grown familiar with.

"…Accelerated Regeneration?" he mused quietly, frowning at his own reflection.

"Or maybe just the side effects of awakening? Something about removing the impurities…" After splashing some water on his face, Ren stepped out of the bathroom to the sound of several quills scratching furiously against paper simultaneously, a noise he hadn't noticed until now.' Did he not sleep at all?' he thought, walking around the canopy bed. The sight that greeted him was not one Ren had been expecting in the slightest, because there wasn't just one, but four separate Mr.

Jesters occupying this half of the room. One hung upside down from the roof like a bat, scribbling furiously away into a thick book. Another lay flat on his stomach, feet kicking lazily through the air as he wrote on the floor. The third paced steadily back and forth, muttering to himself while he scratched across the parchment in his hand with every couple steps. And the fourth stood fiddling with that same strange device Alice had used to cook up that abomination of a dinner last night. Mr.

Jester had called it a Portable Stove, the child of one of Mr. King's amazing ideas brought to life by the genius inventing of Mr. Magician, and according to him, it acted much like a small, easily moveable fire. Something Ren had already seen demonstrated firsthand.

"Mr. King is my boss," Mr. Jester had explained the previous night while juggling the little stove in his hands.

"I've already mentioned you as my protégé, so if you do well, I'm sure he'll grow fond of you! But you'll need to get much stronger and that means no slacking on your Hero Training Program™!" Immediately after saying that, he had dropped the invention to the floor and it broke into pieces.

"HIEEEK! Oh, no! Mr. Magician is gonna kill me!" And then he had spent the rest of the night desperately trying to put it back together. Well... at least this one Mr. Jester did.

"Good morning," Ren said, stepping fully into this half of the room, deciding it was probably for the best if he didn't dwell too much on the man's various mysterious abilities. All four Mr. Jesters look at him and spoke at the same time.

"Ah! Good morning, my little protégé!"

"A fine morning indeed!"

"Did you sleep well, little protégé?"

"Perfect timing, truly!" The Mr. Jester fixing the Portable Stove sprang to his feet and beamed at him.

"He's right! You are just in time! I've decided to teach you my legendary technique!" Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

"What does that mean?" Ren asked suspiciously, a little fearful that this would be another Hero Training Program™ situation. Mr. Jester motioned encouragingly at Ren.

"Just come closer!" Reluctantly, Ren crossed the rest of the way over to him, stopping just short of the jester and eyeing him warily.

"Little protégé," the brightly dressed man said slowly, "do you circulate your Soul Essence?" Ren had no idea what that meant.

"…No?" Mr. Jester shook his head and clicked his tongue in disappointment.

"You should be doing that!"

"Why?" Ren frowned.

"And how was I supposed to know this 'legendary technique'?"

"You weren't," Mr. Jester explained with a smile, 'that's why I'm about to tell you!"

"First off, circulating your essence makes your body tire slower so you can do more in a day! It also makes you stronger and faster overall, because of the essence getting absorbed into the muscles and stuff." He lifted a finger.

"But most importantly, you'll earn finer and more precise control over your Soul Essence! Which means you will be able to use your Soul Power, or even active enchantments, for longer." Ren raised an eyebrow.' The first part would be extremely useful for me,'he thought, flexing his hand.' But the second, not so much. Since the only thing I really use essence for is summoning Alice... I suppose I could always just teach it to her afterwards. And who knows?

Maybe I'll end up with a Soul Attunement that needs loads of Soul Essence to use anyway.'

"I know what you're thinking," Mr. Jester said with a grin.

"And yes, it's very useful! Especially for a fresh Blessed who is only Awakened, like you!"

"Ok then," Ren was intrigued now, "How does this legendary technique work?"

"I'll teach you right now! Oho, Miss Knight is going to be furious!" the brightly dressed man clapped his hands in excitement.

"Sit down here and cross your legs." Ren complied, lowering himself down onto the floor and settling into place before looking back up at the jester expectantly.

"Back straight. Straighter! Yes, just like that," Mr. Jester crouched in front of him.

"Now close your eyes and imagine your soul." Doing just that, Ren began to picture the radiant orb hovering above the white island in his Soul Plane.

"Now just imagine your Soul Essence flowing throughout your body." Mr. Jester's voice echoed in his ears.

"You should feel something like a whoosh then maybe a click?"' There's no way he's just as bad at teaching as Alice...' Ren thought, pursing his lips. Regardless, he tried his best to picture the essence flowing in its endless circle around the island of his Soul Plane. At first, he attempted to imagine it seeping out from his Soul Plane and into the physical world before pouring into him, just like the essence within Soul Cores seemed to work.

But when that didn't work in the slightest, he switched tactics entirely, instead picturing the essence from his Soul Plane dispersing outward, soaking into his body from every direction.' A whoosh and then a click? How is that supposed to be a good example of anything if I'm only imagining it? Thoughts don't even make sou—' Then he felt it.

A literal whoosh and click as the milky-white essence began pouring out from his soul and into his body, coursing all the way through him and flooding into every one of his limbs. Strength surged through him and his Soul Essence started to drain at an alarming rate. The sensation was both intoxicating and terrifying at the same time.

Ren snapped his eyes open, instantly breaking his concentration and cutting off the flow of essence, only to find Mr. Jester's face hovering mere centimetres from his own.

"Hey! That's way too close!" Ren yelped, falling backwards.

"Stop doing that!" Mr. Jester closed his eyes and nodded thoughtfully.

"Hmm, a very quick learner indeed." a massive grin spread across his face as he opened his eyes again.

"You almost beat my record!" Ren blinked and propped himself up on his elbows, suspicious that it was that easy.

"That was it?"

"Yep!" Mr. Jester chirped, straightening up from his squat.

"Now you just need to practice being a funnel and controlling how much essence flows in. Enough to strengthen your body without draining your essence, the goal of one hundred percent upkeep!" This particular Mr. Jester then promptly returned to his place on the floor and resumed tinkering with the broken stove.

"Make sure to practice whenever you can! You want to get strong quickly, yes?" Ren nodded just as he caught some movement in the corner of his eye.

"Ugh… Why is Ren up so early…" Alice groaned, rounding the canopy bed while rubbing one eye. Her unruly bedhead somehow didn't take away from her doll-like beauty at all.

"It's because of you!" he said, pointing an accusing finger at her.

"Huh?!" she looked genuinely shocked.

"But Alice slept nicely all night..."

"I know you did," Ren sighed, getting to his feet.

"Forget it, let's just go."' The sooner I get better at swordsmanship, the sooner I'll be able to catch the preacher. And now that I've somewhat learnt how to circulate my essence, it'll hopefully give me an edge!'

"Right now?" Alice asked.

"But Alice isn't even ready yet! She needs to do her hair at least."

"Hurry up then," Ren said with a dismissive wave, causing the doll-like girl to run back around the canopy bed.

"Oh! Before you go—" one of the Mr. Jesters, the one hanging upside down, called after him.

"Take this with you." He tossed a pouch toward Ren, who caught it reflexively.

"Look inside," Mr. Jester said. Ren froze in shock as he did, because there had to be at least two dozen gold coins sitting inside, more money than he'd seen in his entire life.

"I-I-Is this all mine?!"

"Sure is!" all the Mr. Jesters answered together.

"Buy yourself somethin' nice!" one finished.

"But not all at once," another added.

"Cause that's all I got." Ren looked back down at the coins with a warm smile.' Yeah… he isn't too bad.' Just then, Alice rounded the corner again. She had summoned Marionette's Attire once more, and her hair was tied back into its usual style, those same two pigtails as always.

"Alright," Ren said, closing the pouch and securing it to his belt, "to your 'secret training spot' we go!" He'd started this day off by learning Mr. Jester's essence circulation technique, and he was eager to put it into practice right away, his excitement to learn swordsmanship bubbling away inside of him. On top of that, his body felt fully recovered now, without so much as a trace of yesterday's aches and pains.

So he pulled open the door and stepped out into the Bumbling Magician's hall, Alice following close behind.