Another defense victory—aotal win, as Manna mao sy the enemy Lord.

  Even so, this was just the beginning. They were still in the early phases, so it was no surprise that many of the oppos they faced were inexperienced and unprepared. There was still a long road ahead.

  The m, Ats wasted no time and dove bato his training.

  Since he had grown aced to running without his vision, Kurogasa decided it was time to push him further. That day, Baldritroduced a special set of armor for Ats to wear during his training.

  The armor wasn’t just heavy—it weighed about 100 kilograms (220 pounds). It also insuted him from the surrounding air, blog aion of temperature on his skin. This meant he couldn’t use his sense of touch to detect heat.

  But at least it would protect him from va, right?

  Wrong. If the armor came into direct tact with solid or liquid heat sources, the inteemperature would transfer into the armor, making it unbearably hot.

  No vision. No sense of touch. And now, the weight of a 100-kilogram suit? Ats knew from the start this training would only get harder. But giving up? That wasn’t even an option.

  Let’s go!

  Ats pushed himself to run, relying on his sense of smell and hearing to navigate the training. It was anything but easy—he fell repeatedly, his body burned, and the pain was excruciating.

  Yet he kept going. He forced himself forward, even as his mental strength was stretched to the brink of colpse. As long as his resolve held, he believed he could overe this.

  Ats became pletely immersed iraining. By nightfall, he was too draio joihers for their usual bonding sessions. Instead, he colpsed into a deep sleep, utterly spent from exhaustion.

  But was he being so ed by this brutal regimen that he was ing other important aspects of his life?

  Had he beeing everyone as they deserved?

  So far, Edrik had been managing everything on the isnd—handling the troops’ needs, anizing them, and overseeing the isnd’s operations. Edrik worked tirelessly, almost like a secretary running the entire domain, while Ats remained ser-focused on his training.

  But wasn’t this necessary? His goal was to bee stronger, wasn’t it? He couldn’t afford to sck off. He had to get stronger.

  Stronger!

  Ohird day, Ats started to shorogress. He could now run while relying on his sense of smell and hearing with greater preaking fewer mistakes as he navigated the treacherous terrain.

  But on the fourth day, damn Kurogasa—he deliberately chose a route with even more flowing va than before.

  Another day, another round of pure torture.

  It was a week filled with relentless pain and exhaustion.

  By the sixth day, though, Ats had adapted. He mao plete his 20 ps without falling into the va once.

  Colpsing onto the ground, pletely spent, he tore off the armor that had been suffog his overheated body.

  Ats panted heavily as Edrik, Kurogasa, and Lyrassa approached him. Surprisingly, Lyrassa didn’t immediately panid rush to heal him like she usually did.

  “You made it just in time before our battle begins,” Edrik said with a grin.

  “Yeah… another level of training,” Ats replied, chug weakly. “I wonder if after this, my other senses will be shut off too?” he added with a wry ugh.

  Just as he spoke, his vision filled with notifications.

  [gratutions on the achievement.]

  [Two of your talents have advanced rapidly and synized.]

  [Unyielding Resolve and Immutable Discipline have successfully merged.]

  [You have acquired a new merged talent: Ironcd Will (Rank S)]

  [The fusion of mental and physical fortitude creates an unshakable focus, enabling peak performander even the most extreme ditions.]

  [Effect: Dramatically reduces the effects of fear, exhaustion, aal attacks. Grants enhaamina and mineion wheing under intense pressure.]

  Ats smiled to himself, feeling a rush of satisfa. His grueling training was finally starting to bear fruit.

  [Ironcd Will (S) - Tactical Awareness (A) - Instinctual and (A) - Perfected Rhythm (A) - anding Presence (S) - Bloodbound Vigor (S)]

  Ats reviewed the six talents he now possessed: three at Rank-S and three at Rank-A. This left him with one remaining talent slot, which he might unlock at some point iure.

  Normally, individuals could develop a focus for up to seven talent slots. As talents evolved, merged, ressed, a alent could arise aer in their system.

  That didn’t mean people were limited to just seven talents. They could possess many more, but only seven were dominant aered in the system, making them easier to develop based on training and focus.

  Of course, not all talents were useful. Karian’s talent for sn or Edrik’s “perfect hair” talent werely game-gers. But then again, not every talent o be practical, right?

  At least with his current progress, Ats saw the potential to build more bat-oriealents. He needed every edge he could gain—after all, his priority was to improve as much as possible before hitting level 50.

  Reag level 50 was indeed a signifit bottleneost people. The experience required for each level grew expoially, while the experience gained from killing monsters remained frustratingly small. It took hundreds of monster kills just to gain a single level.

  For this reason, many Awakeners at this stage turo dungeons. Dungeons offered much higher experience rewards, making the time spent hunting far more effit. However, dungeons were far from safe. Onside, if a group became overwhelmed by monsters or challehere was a real risk of losing their lives.

  Thinking about dungeons, Ats found himself w. Should he push himself to tackle a duo speed up his progress to level 50?

  Another battle came, but this time Ats and Edrik iionally allowed the troops to hahe fight on their owing the results of their training. It was an all-out battle for each of them. While some suffered severe injuries, they ultimately secured victory in their fourth defense.

  However, this time the enemy Lord mao escape. Ats chose not to pursue, deg io save his remaining Attack Token for seleg his oppo more strategically.

  [You have advao Seeker Division 3.]

  [The current list of challengers has been cleared due to division mismatch.]

  [You now have 1 challenger slot avaible.]

  [Gacha Haven has ehe Reinfort Phase. The fallback cooldown will st for 7 days.]

  Gacha Haven had advao Division 3, bringing him closer to the top of the Seeker rank. With a total of five divisions, if he could maintain his momentum, he might reach Rank-2 Scout in the season of Lord Battles.

  However, rapid progression came with its risks. The higher the division and rank, the more formidable and experiehe oppos became. It was evident that future enemies couldn’t be approached the same way as the earlier ones. Every adversary in these divisions had fought through numerous battles and earheir pce through hard-won victories.

  Still, ohing remained certain for Ats: he had to keep training. At this point, his dedication to improvement was so relehat his alent might as well be called Training Maniac.

  But this time, his training had truly reached a new level of insanity.

  Ats now had to wear a helmet that pletely blocked out all his senses—no vision, no hearing, no smell, and no touch.

  Did people actually train this hard? Was this crossing the lio madness?

  If he couldn’t use any of his senses, how the hell was he supposed to run or detect his surroundings?!