Chapter 53 - Control

"Urgh." Opening his eyes up albeit with some difficulty, Grim felt a stinging pain emanating from his head as he found himself staring up at the ceiling of his bedroom inside the Black Bulls base.

*Sigh* Did I pass out again?*

Recalling the scene of himself in the cave repeating the words "Take it back" over and over again, Grim put together the pieces of how he got here.

'So that was me recalling something from a past life...'

"You're awake!" A quiet voice suddenly exclaimed.

"Hmm?"

Turning his head to the side, Grim was surprised to see the makeup wearing Gordon sitting next to his bed making what he could only ȧssume to be a doll of himself.

"Gordon?"

Grabbing him by his hands, Gordon brought his head down to them and in a teary voice he said. "I'm so happy you're okay. The healers said you were okay physically but for some reason you just didn't wake up."

'I didn't wake up? Could that have been during the time that I was inside my mindscape?'

Suddenly realizing that the base seemed too quiet, Grim realized that he couldn't sense the mana signatures from any of the other black bulls.

"Where are the others?"

"The others?" Raising his head, Gordon blinked a few times until Grim's words finally settled in. "Ah, a couple of days ago the wizard king ordered the magic knights to retrieve a magic stone from a place called the Seabed Temple."

---

Listening to Gordon's explanation of what had happened over the last few days, Grim learnt that the Eye of the Midnight Sun guys were actually looking for something called a magic stone and that this Seabed Temple place apparently had one.

After learning all of this, Gordon eventually left in order to pick up some supplies to speed up Grim's recovery. While he was fine physically, Gordon wanted to be extra careful and bring him some healing concoctions from his family home.

Sighing to himself, Grim eventually started thinking back on the events of the cave battle.

'Tch, so in the end I couldn't even watch a captain level battle besides Yami's! And what was up with that Fana the hateful chick? If I'm looking at her from a physical standpoint, then she's definitely not older than me by much! So why the hell is she so goddamn powerful!? Even stronger than that Licht guy who could go toe to toe with Yami!'

'Dammit! All of them were stronger than me!'

Clenching his teeth tightly, Grim raged for the next five minutes before eventually calming down.

'And now I'm stuck here while everyone else gets to go have fun in some underwater palace. *Sigh* Why did they leave me with Gordon of all people.'

Thinking about everything that had transpired, two glaring issues stuck out to him.

The first one was what King had said to him in their shared mindscape. If what he was saying was true and that him using his wishes to retain his core memories was all for some higher purpose, then would that mean that this Elven blood and Demon Slaying magic also played a part in his plans?

The second glaring issue was the Light mage Licht. While Grim achievements so far have been impressive, in front of that Licht guy all he could do was hide behind Yami.

'I have to get stronger.'

Recalling Licht's figure, something felt off to him.

'What was it that Yami said again? Guys with a lot of mana can do all sorts of things?'

Thinking about it now, it was actually quite weird that Licht was able to fly the way he did. While he may not be an expert on light magic mages, he was pretty sure that flying wasn't an inherent part of their abilities.

'Could it be because of the way he was utilizing his own mana?'

Closing his eyes for a bit, Grim considered the many ways in which doing this would be possible before eventually getting up and going outside.

---

Sitting cross legged in the courtyard, Grim took several deep breaths as he focused on controlling his mana. After arriving in this world 5 years ago he had taught himself how to use mana at the basic level. Then after leaving the forest and meeting sister Theresa he was taught the proper ways in which to properly control his own mana. But to say that controlling mana was on of his strong points would be a huge lie. While he wasn't bad at it by any means, he couldn't exactly say he was an expert. It was at least comforting to know that he was better at controlling it compared to someone like Noelle who had been practicing since she was a child.

In this regard Grim was far behind everyone else. From the moment he was reincarnated in this world he had the time disadvantage. Coupled with his exceedingly weak body, he really struggled to get to where he is now. While Yami and the rest of the magic knights may see him as a genius with never before seen potential, only Grim knew just how hard he had worked to get here. The fact that he was able to reach where he was with only 5 years of training was a miracle in itself. If he was reincarnated as a child his current power would be far above what it is now.

*Sigh* 'No point thinking about things I can't change, if I'm going to get stronger I can't get stuck on what could have been.'

With no one around to fight, Grim's mental state was actually really calm and quite serene. It was unknown if this was a result of him focusing on his task or a side effect of entering the Transparent World.

After learning ki, Grim's thought process of using mana had changed considerably. If mana was all around them, ki could be said to be found in everything. Sitting in the same position for the next few hours, Grim ignored everything from the outside world. Even Gordon's calls were ignored as he had lost himself in feeling the ki and mana in his own body.