章 158: Pioneer of the Sun

*Whoosh!*

As the massive heat spread throughout the courtyard, a tree suddenly ignited, bursting into flames.

At the same time, the surrounding space began to distort, and before long, the flowers, grass, and trees in the courtyard also caught fire.

Everything around, including the ground, seemed to melt in the face of this astonishing heat and high temperature, gradually losing its original form and dissolving like butter.

"Yo-Young Tsugikuni!"

Unable to hold back, Kyoujurou called out to Riezel in panic.

At this moment, the temperature around had become unbearably high, causing even Kyoujurou, the Flame Hashira, to break into a sweat.

Not to mention Shinobu, whose forehead was nearly soaked, with her hair sticking to her forehead, and her clothes drenched in sweat, outlining unexpectedly appealing curves on this Insect Hashira's body.

After Kyoujurou's voice echoed, the heat pouring out in the courtyard suddenly halted.

Soon, the heat began to dissipate, the high temperature fading away, and the anomalies around Riezel's body disappeared. Only the burning trees and the charred marks on the ground remained, proving that everything that had just happened was not an illusion but reality.

"Huff..."

Standing in the courtyard, Riezel seemed to exhale a breath of relief, opening his eyes.

In his eyes, there was a fleeting bright glow, as hot as fire and as bright as light.

"Are you guys okay?"

Riezel asked with a calm expression as he approached the two Hashira.

Both Hashira shook their heads, still sweating profusely, but seemingly not injured. However, when they looked at the unusual brilliance in Riezel's eyes, they were filled with indescribable surprise.

"That heat just now was so scary!" Kyoujurou exclaimed in surprise before asking. "Young Tsugikuni, did you succeed?"

Upon hearing that, a smile finally appeared on Riezel's calm face.

Seeing his smile, the two Hashira understood.

"It seems so... Well, congrats! That's really something to celebrate, right?" Shinobu said with a beautiful smile, congratulating Riezel.

"Um, thank you..." Riezel nodded, his tone tinged with a hint of sigh.

Indeed, it was something to celebrate.

After three months of relentless efforts, nearly a hundred days of life-threatening trials, and enduring endless pain and torment, he had finally succeeded.

His previous assumption and theory had been completely confirmed.

"Huu... Haa..."

Riezel breathed lightly, drawing in a large amount of air from the surroundings, allowing it to enter his lungs and then spread throughout his body.

In just this second, a monumental change occurred within his body.

Every cell in his body became active.

His internal organs, one after another, seemed to be activated, emitting heat.

His blood flowed rapidly, mixing with the magical energy emanating from deep within his body, surging throughout his entire existence.

At this moment, Riezel could clearly feel that the power of his body had undergone a remarkable enhancement, to the point where he even felt like he was using 'Ariel'.

Obviously, this was because of the new and evolved Sun Breathing, a breathing style that combined the breathing principles and swordsmanship of this world and the Akasha Continent.

It perfectly fulfilled Riezel's theory, not only extending the strengthening effects of Total Concentration Breathing to every part and every cell of his body but also incorporating the vast magical energy within his body into the blood flow to enhance the effects of honing his body.

It also possessed the breathing style effect of Akasha Continent's swordsmanship. Each time it was used and each training session, it would allow his body to continuously absorb the stimulated magical energy from his 'Gate', permanently enhancing his body's strength.

It could amplify strength in battle and assist in growth on regular days, fulfilling Riezel's initial plan completely.

'Now, once I use Sun Breathing, the increase in my strength should not be lower than when I used Ariel before, right?'

'After merging the breathing and swordsmanship of two worlds, my evolved Sun Breathing can be called a Special Swordsmanship in the Akasha Continent, and it's highly likely to be no weaker than the Holy Dragon Sword Style.'

'My current strength...'

Riezel pondered for a moment, forming some thoughts in his mind.

'I can definitely challenge opponents of higher level.'

Now was different.

Before, Riezel needed to use Ariel, an overpowered enchant-type magic, to gain the capability to challenge higher-level opponents by enduring a tremendous physical burden as a side effect.

Otherwise, he had to reach the limit of his current level by reaching SSS in all basic abilities, so that he could rely on his astonishing latent basic abilities accumulated over several levels and the assistance of several combat-type development abilities to challenge higher-level opponents.

However, none of those were necessary anymore now.

Since the enhancement brought by the evolved Sun Breathing was all-encompassing, it required no burden on his body nor reaching the limit of his current level.

Now, his Sun Breathing could allow him to have stable strength to fight against a level above, without any side effects.

Just this alone, the importance of Sun Breathing to Riezel had already surpassed that of Ariel. Of course, the gains brought by the evolved Sun Breathing to him were far more than this.

In addition to the effects brought by this new and evolved breathing style, the process of learning it also brought about two changes to his body.

The first change came from his status.

In Riezel's mind, a status appeared on its own.

...

Riezel Brynhart

Level 5

STR: D570 → SSS1303

END: D555 → SSS1300

DEX: C611 → SSS1385

AGI: C637 → SSS1393

MAG: C632 → SSS1399

Lightweight: F

Swordsman: F

Mage: G

Battle Adept: I

...

This was Riezel's recently updated status.

After three months of relentless efforts, he finally reached the limit of his current level, achieving SSS in all basic abilities.

Although at first glance, he seemed to have only been continuously attempting to develop a new breathing style during these three months without any decent training; in fact, his basic abilities grew because of one of his skills.

In the effects of 'Fool's Obsession', it was clearly written:

- The deeper the obsession, the stronger the effect.

- The effect is greatly enhanced in dangerous situations.

Undoubtedly, during these three months, what Riezel had done perfectly triggered these two effects.

Persisting through extreme pain and relentlessly evolving Sun Breathing regardless of danger, this behavior completely qualified as 'obsession' and 'dangerous situations'.

As a result, Riezel's growth rapidly escalated, successfully reaching the limit of his current level and achieving SSS in all basic abilities.

However, this was not the change Riezel thought about.

The growth of basic abilities was an expected occurrence, but not a noteworthy change. The actual change in his status was in the section where his skills lay.

There, besides 'Fool's Obsession', 'Endless', and 'Self Redemption', emerged a new skill.

...

Pioneer of the Sun

- Become a spiritual being.

- Double magic effects from the light and heat systems.

- Gain resistance to the light, heat, frost, and darkness systems.

- Possess special attack capability against evil entities.

...

Riezel awakened a new skill called the 'Pioneer of the Sun'.

The emergence of this brand-new skill meant that his previous wishful thinking of turning himself into a sun was no longer just a pipe dream.

Although he hadn't literally transformed himself into a sun, he seemed to have turned himself into a spiritual being, akin to a spirit born from nature and considered a part of nature itself.

Although he still looked like a human, due to the effect of 'Pioneer of the Sun', his body seemed to have transformed into some sort of spiritual being, possessing characteristics similar to a spirit.

Moreover, he was a spirit born from the sun.

What changes this spiritual body would bring, Riezel wasn't yet clear. He could only wait to explore them slowly in the future.

Nevertheless, judging from the other effects of 'Pioneer of the Sun', this skill was definitely unique.

It doubled the effect of magic from the light and heat systems, meaning that light attribute and fire attribute magic would both have double power in his hands.

Without a doubt, this would enhance magic like 'Fusillade Fallarica' and 'Rea Laevateinn', two flame attribute wide area annihilation magic, to a great degree.

In the future, Riezel wouldn't fear high temperatures or low temperatures anymore, nor would he dread fire magic or ice magic. No matter what kind of magic was cast upon him, as long as it was from the light, heat, frost, and darkness systems, the damage it could inflict would be significantly weakened.

Furthermore, the special attack capability against evil entities was particularly valuable. This meant that if he faced enemies with evil attributes in the future, he would have a restraining effect on them.

For example, he might be able to slay demons in this world even without using a Nichirin Sword. Moreover, many monsters who inhabited the dungeon in the world of Danmachi were also considered evil. Even Demon Swordsmen who wielded evil swordsmanship, once confronted by him in the War Festival, might find themselves severely restrained.

All of these effects were significant enough to fill Riezel with satisfaction.

As for the second kind of change, it came from his senses.

Riezel raised his gaze and looked at Kyoujurou and Shinobu in front of him.

Under his gaze, their bodies gradually became transparent, transparent enough for him to see the insides of their bodies.

He could see their hearts and internal organs.

He could see their muscles and flesh.

He could even see the blood vessel flow in Kyoujurou and Shinobu's lungs, and based on these signs of flow and the degree of muscle contraction, he could even predict what actions these two would take next.

'So, this is the Transparent World?'

Experiencing this incredible ability with his own eyes, Riezel silently thought to himself, amazed.