Chapter 330: Time-Skip (1)
(Time-Stilled World, an unknown underground tunnel, Leo’s POV)
As soon as Leo opened the Codex, a new text began appearing on its pages, glowing faintly under the beam of his flashlight.
> "You have now perceived the second glimmer."
> "Blood Red—born from the ancient instinct to dominate and destroy."
> "This is the hue of pure killing intent. Unfiltered. Undiluted. A force that exists beyond emotion, and is an intent so sharp it etches itself onto the world around you."
> "Unlike frustration, which clouds the aura inward, killing intent extends outward. It touches your surroundings. It leaves trails, scars, and pressure."
> "You saw this color not because you wished to kill... but because you meant it."
> "Recognize this difference. Track it. Study how it pulses when you’re calm, how it sharpens when you’re cornered, and how it fades when doubt seeps in."
> "Only by mapping its fluctuations will you learn to bend it—to cloak it, to mask it, or to turn it into a blade sharper than any weapon you wield."
The words faded, but Leo’s eyes lingered on the empty page.
The fact that the codex acknowledged it means that he hadn’t imagined it.
The blood-red shimmer had been real.
’So that’s two now... Maroon and Blood Red. Frustration and killing intent,’ he thought, closing the Codex slowly as he stared down at his open palm.
He had somehow managed to spot two of the seven primal aura colors now, albeit holding limited understanding in them.
"The Codex told me to observe my killing intent.... How it interacts with my surroundings... how it shifts when I simply want to kill versus when I truly mean it. And how it changes when doubt creeps into my mind—" Leo muttered out loud, repeating the instructions the Codex had given him.
For now, he had only managed to observe the shade itself, but he hadn’t yet grasped how it fluctuated under different mental states.
He still had a long way to go before he could claim any real understanding—let alone mastery—over his own killing intent, as this was a journey that he had still only barely started.
—-------------
200 days passed quickly for Leo, with him taking that long to finally make his way out of the endless tunnel system and reach the surface once again.
During this time, his body underwent drastic changes.
His muscle density had increased significantly, while his mana capacity and spell output were now nearly fifty percent higher than when he had first entered this world.
The denser, richer mana of the Time-Stilled world had rebuilt his blood from the inside out, making each cell in his body stronger, larger, and more efficient.
It took him a while to notice it.
The improvement was subtle at first..... such as barely perceptible changes in his stamina, recovery rate, and endurance—but over time, the effects of the Mana Heart enriched body became impossible to ignore.
His mana circuits, which had once resisted and strained under high-speed circulation, now felt almost frictionless. The micro-imperfections that previously slowed his casting were gone, refined away by the passive work of the Mana Heart.
If before he could activate [Vanish] in 0.8 seconds at Perfect mastery, he could now do it in 0.4.
It was still categorized under the same grade, but in practice, the difference was massive. That split second could mean the difference between life and death in close quarter combat, and with all of his skills seeing a massive casting time boost, it was safe to say that his combat ability had improved by leaps and bounds.
And yet, despite all his progress in terms of his physical abilities and his skill moves, if there was one area where he did not make any improvements at all, it was the [Sevenfold Revelation Codex], as he saw no progress made beyond the colors he had already uncovered.
In all of the past 200 days, he had not seen a single new color, as the Blood Red of his killing intent remained the only aura he had observed after Maroon.
He had seen it flare around him three more times in the past 200 days, and on one rare occasion, he even noticed the faint imprint of his own aura still lingering on a beast he had just killed, like a shadow that hadn’t caught up with its source.
But beyond that, there was nothing.
No new colors. No new insights.
As even within the blood red shade he had observed, there was nothing new to draw a conclusive insight from, regarding how his mental state affected his killing intent.
The codex remained frustratingly silent, with no new texts appearing on its surface, no matter how many times Leo opened the manual.
But still, Leo didn’t stop.
Every beast he hunted, every breath of mana he absorbed, every emotion he felt whether it was joy, hate, love or anxiety.... he kept checking his body for signs of a new color, as although he saw nothing, he could feel himself getting closer to something.
For now, he wasn’t sure as to what it was, but he had a firm belief that he was on the right track.
And so, after nearly seven months of crawling, killing, training, and growing stronger beneath the earth...
As he finally saw the muted gray-orange sky once again, he couldn’t help but feel a small feeling of joy enveloping his body, as the journey to the surface had been nothing but difficult.
"I’m finally back to the surface..." Leo muttered, as he gazed towards the twilight sky and let out a sigh of relief, when something unexpected happened.
For a brief moment, he saw the color sky-blue enveloping his body. It was vibrant and light, but it disappeared almost as fast as it appeared, as it blended into the twilight sky.
’Huh? A new color?’ Leo wondered, as he tried to find the traces of the sky blue all over his body, however, it was too late.
The color was gone, and the only way to confirm what he had seen was to seek validation from the [Sevenfold Revelation Codex], which was exactly what he did as he opened the book yet again.