The panting sounds gradually subsided.
Merlin and Yol had stopped their sparring at this moment.
The Equipment Slot appeared before his eyes.
Synchro Value: [24%]
A week had passed, and the Synchro Value with the Lynx had increased significantly again.
At this time, Yol, with a flushed face, looked at Merlin. Her slightly parted red lips closed, and her breathing also began to calm down:
"I found that your speed and explosiveness have become more powerful recently!"
There was some urgency and helplessness in her eyes. She thought that after learning swordsmanship, she could efficiently utilize her physical foundation and become stronger than Merlin.
However, a smile rose on the corner of Merlin's mouth at this moment, noticing the depression in Yol's eyes:
"Want to surpass me? Yol, stop daydreaming in broad daylight. Save dreams for after you sleep at night!"
Hearing this, Yol rolled her eyes grumpily and ground her teeth:
"Don't be smug. I have already visualized a greatsword in my consciousness.
"I feel my consciousness is beginning to condense. I can also become more focused when practicing swordsmanship. The efficiency is very high now. Soon, my swordsmanship will surpass yours.
"Just wait, I will definitely crush you in swordsmanship in the future."
Hearing this, a speechless look appeared in Merlin's eyes, "You're burning the bridge after crossing it. Without me, could you have visualized successfully so quickly?
"Like a desperate madwoman, practicing until tired, then visualizing, and starting to practice again after visualizing. If I hadn't absorbed your fatigue Calamity, no matter how good your body is, it couldn't withstand your torment.
"Moreover, even if I absorb this Calamity for you, training like this is not completely without impact on you.
"Not knowing how to balance work and rest, you are overdrawing your future potential. Like only consuming without replenishing, do you think your body is an infinite perpetual motion machine?"
Criticized by Merlin, Yol couldn't help but look away, becoming somewhat helpless:
"Can't I pay attention in the future? Besides, didn't you do the same yourself?"
"..." Merlin was speechless. Calamity was his ability. Using it consumed physical and mental energy. As long as the consumption reached a certain level, Merlin would rest.
He could grasp that degree.
"We are different."
When Merlin said this sentence, a deep stubbornness flashed in Yol's eyes. Immediately after, she smiled and said:
"Alright, alright! I know. I will supplement a lot of nutrition and get good sleep after cultivation.
"Physical and mental fatigue can be replenished this way, right? And doesn't high-intensity training like this also allow me to grow faster?"
Merlin shook his head. Seeing her say this, he didn't continue to say more about her.
As long as she understood the harm of unrestrained training and changed for it, that was enough.
Taking out the pocket watch from his pocket, he glanced at the time, "It's already twelve o'clock. Let's go eat!"
Hearing this, Yol, who was moving her shoulders causing her chest to tremble slightly, nodded.
She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, then smiled and said:
"Then let's go! After lunch and a nap, we'll continue cultivation!"
Merlin nodded with a smile. Together with Yol, he found Lami and took her to the student cafeteria.
Not long after, they walked into the cafeteria gate.
At this time, Merlin was surprised to find that the attention of most students in the cafeteria was focused on a dining table near the front.
There was a double table where a young man and a young woman were eating.
The man had shoulder-length purple hair with center-parted bangs, a strand of hair naturally hanging down in front of his forehead. His pair of sharp dark golden eyes looked somewhat gentle at this moment as he ate and chatted with the woman opposite him.
The woman had wheat-ear-like blonde hair, and her purple eyes were as clear as a spring. On her, Merlin faintly sensed an aura that was both light and heavy.
Looking about eighteen or nineteen years old.
Yet she had exquisite features and a tall figure, wearing the dojo's purple-black training uniform. However, at this moment, her eyes looked somewhat helplessly at the slightly older young man opposite her who bore a forty percent resemblance to her.
Lami noticed Merlin's gaze looking over there at this time, so she whispered:
"Those two are Teacher Fiore's children. They went to our training ground this morning, and that Senior Sister named Teresa personally taught a basic swordsmanship class!
"She taught much better than Senior Brother Orr who teaches us."
Hearing Lami's explanation, a look of realization flashed in Merlin's eyes. No wonder, with his keen senses, he could detect a rather dangerous feeling from those two.
"Like father, like son!"
Merlin thought to himself, then paid no more attention to them. Together with Yol, they went to the cafeteria window to get food.
Lunch today was particularly sumptuous, perhaps because Fiore's children had returned.
The staple food looked like the meat of some sea beast. It tasted exceptionally delicious, and after eating it, one could feel a warm current filling the body.
Therefore,
Merlin ate five extra large plates until he couldn't eat anymore.
After Merlin started cultivation, due to the significant consumption of energy by the Calamity Fruit ability and equipping the [Lynx], Merlin's appetite was increasing day by day, showing a tendency to develop towards the strange creature known as a glutton.
Regarding this, although Merlin was helpless.
He could only enjoy the pain.
After all, being able to eat is a good thing.
And there were too many delicious ingredients in this world. If one didn't have a good appetite, it would be somewhat pitiable in the future.
Regarding this, Yol beside him also had a say. With cultivation, her appetite also began to show significant changes.
Therefore, two stacks of dinner plates gradually piled up on the table of the three, attracting the attention of many people.
Not far away, next to those two people, Monde sat eating. seeing that Merlin and Yol's appetite was still huge, envy flashed in his eyes:
"It's really good to be able to eat so much. Brother Merlin and Miss Yol are truly the geniuses mentioned by the teacher!"
The speaker had no intention, but the listener was interested. The purple-haired Fulvio turned his head to look at Monde and asked with a light laugh:
"Monde, are they the new students my old man accepted?"
Monde blinked, looked back at Fulvio who was talking to him, and excitement appeared in his eyes:
"That's right, Senior Brother Fulvio. I met Merlin and Yol, and they are also VIP students accepted by the teacher half a month ago.
"Both of them are geniuses. They have already finished learning the basics and have started to practice on their own!"
"Mer... lin?"
Fulvio nodded with a smile, a gleam appearing in his eyes. Then he looked at Teresa, the corners of his mouth curling into a bright smile:
"Sister! Interested in going to play with them later? VIP students!
"We siblings have an obligation to help Dad discipline them properly!"
Teresa rolled her eyes at her brother grumpily, "Usually you don't like teaching VIP students at all, do you?"
Fulvio shook his head gently, glancing at Merlin with a deep meaning in his eyes and said:
"That boy is not simple! If I'm not mistaken, he should..."
Speaking of this, he stopped talking, strands of inexplicable expression flashing in his eyes.
Hearing his words, Teresa's eyes also narrowed. She looked at her brother with doubt, but curiosity also rose in her eyes.
...
After lunch.
Merlin and Yol took Lami to an indoor VIP training ground not far from the ginkgo forest training ground behind the manor.
The environment here was spacious and quiet.
The three sat on the wooden floor.
At this time, Merlin dispersed the black flames in his hand. Lami hummed comfortably, hugging Merlin's arm and grinning:
"Worthy of my Merlin-niichan. With you here, Lami seems to have infinite energy."
Yol's eyes were gentle and smiling. She extended her index finger to tap Lami's forehead, then repeated what Merlin said to her in the morning to Lami.
Lami looked at Merlin with a bitter face:
"Merlin-niichan, you weren't wrong. Sister Yol really acts like my mother."
"Pfft!" Merlin couldn't help laughing out loud instantly. Seeing Yol's pretty face suddenly flushing red at this moment, he chuckled:
"It seems Lami is asking for a beating today! If I were you, I wouldn't tolerate it."
Lami blinked, immediately shrank her neck, looked at Merlin wanting to cry but having no tears, and wailed instantly:
"Merlin-niichan, how can you be like this?"
"Sister Yol, I was wrong! You..."
But just then. Yol's hands had already pinched Lami's cheeks and pulled them outward.
"Good going, Lami. You've grown bold now! Actually daring to laugh at me!"
"Wuwuwu... I was wrong!"
Watching the two play, a smile appeared at the corner of Merlin's mouth. Then he sat cross-legged on the side and closed his eyes.
Breathing rhythmically.
Although the visualization guidance using mild oxygen poisoning taught by Fiore at the beginning was crude, it was also useful.
But once visualization was successful, that crude guidance was no longer necessary. Once the "seed" of visualization appeared, one only needed to calm oneself down to enter this state of visualization anywhere.
Breathing was just an aid.
Assisting oneself to become calm and peaceful.
And the function of visualization, as Yol said, was to condense consciousness.
By consuming one's own mental power, constantly outlining and filling in the details of the visualized object in consciousness, thereby achieving the tempering of one's spiritual will and strengthening one's mind from the outside in.
At this moment, a vigorous lynx with a face full of majesty appeared in his consciousness.
Lying prone, throat vibrating, muscles, bones, and skin rhythmically moving, as if ready to pounce forward in an instant.
Consuming spirit, visualizing the lynx in consciousness. Various movements and postures of the lynx appeared vividly in consciousness. At the same time, Merlin didn't notice that as time passed, the [Lynx] picture in the Equipment Slot began to gradually flash with a hazy azure halo.
Unknowingly, Merlin's consciousness fell into a wondrous state. He seemed to have become a lynx, running freely and hunting in the vast mountains and forests.
Quietly lurking, muscles, bones, and skin rhythmically moving, waiting for the prey to approach, then pouncing out like lightning. Under fangs and sharp claws, hunting was successful in an instant.
Physically and mentally happy, hissing hoarsely.
At the same time,
In the Equipment Slot deep in his consciousness.
Spots of azure hazy light flew out quietly from the lynx picture, submerging into the void of consciousness space.
At the same time,
In every corner of Merlin's body, dots of azure brilliance began to emerge.
A wondrous metamorphosis began.