At dawn the next day, there was a sudden knocking on the door.
Adonis, who had just woken up, wondered who it could be so early in the morning.
Knock! Knock!
"Who is it?" he asked as he removed the warm blanket.
"Young Lord, it's me, Millia."
Hearing her voice, Adonis hurriedly fixed his appearance and opened the door while still in his pajamas.
Millia's beautiful face welcomes him at first sight. She appeared to him as the most natural beauty in this world. Fresh and Spirited.
And the longer he looked at her, the more Adonis felt attracted toward her.
"Young Lord, that lady has called for you immediately in the outer courtyard," she said hurriedly, not particularly noticing the way he looked at her now.
Adonis snapped out of his stupor at once. "Which lady?"
"That female knight. The one who came to the castle yesterday. It seems she was serious about your daily punishments, Young Lord. Be quick."
She smiled mischievously.
"Millia, aren't you enjoying my misery a little too much? You don't know what kind of hell she might put me through today. At least you can accompany me there, right?"
She shook her head vehemently, "No, no. Young Lord has to face this alone. If I go with you, she might skin me alive."
With that, she hurriedly ran down the corridor.
Adonis chuckled at her cute reaction before pulling himself together.
He quickly freshened up, then headed over to the outer courtyard.
"All right, Adonis. You can do this."
He glanced one last time down the hallway, then stepped outside.
Instantly, a refreshing scene greeted him.
The courtyard looked almost like a part of the cloud itself as the thick mist of dawn still lingered in the air, creating a natural picturesque scene.
The sun had not fully risen yet, but its faint glow cast the perfect light for a tranquil morning.
The adjudicator known as Claudia Nont Hellitrix stood there with her hands clasped behind her back.
Coupled with her mesmerizing beauty and valiant charm, Adonis was attracted at once.
"You're late," she said flatly, without turning around.
"Apologies, my lady. It won't happen again," Adonis replied calmly.
She finally turned to face him.
"At least you didn't make excuses like others."
He was about to respond, but she cut him off, pointing toward a rock boulder that appeared there out of nowhere.
"You see the rock over there. For today's punishment, you need to lift it onto your shoulder and run for ten laps across the whole garden."
Adonis's face drooped at once. The boulder looked to weigh at least 200 pounds.
For him to lift it was nearly impossible, let alone carry it around the entire garden for ten laps.
This punishment was too severe.
"Um, Lady Hellitrix, isn't this a bit too much? I will die," he said, acting pitiful to garner her sympathy.
But she remained unmoved by his crocodile tears.
"Get to work, boy. I don't want to hear any more excuses from you."
Afterward, she sat down on a nearby chair, usually reserved only for members of the Duke's family.
Nonetheless, Adonis sighed and went over to pick up the boulder.
But as he tried to lift it using his arms, his legs started wobbling.
The boulder shifted slightly, but it did not budge even an inch from its original spot.
His arms struggled just to hold it properly.
Unwilling to give up, he tried lifting it from different angles, but he failed every time.
Claudia watched all of this clearly, yet she showed not a single trace of sympathy.
"Let's see what the princess saw in you, boy," she thought inwardly.
Suddenly, Adonis realized a crucial fact.
From the design and mechanics of the game Sword Evolution Online, he recalled that at the beginner level, every Swordmaster could sense the Ether within their body and learn to circulate that energy to temporarily boost their physique at a foundational level.
Once they learned a Sword Art, this technique acted as a catalyst to unleash the internal Ether more efficiently.
There were also other foundational mechanics, such as Ether Net, which allowed one to build an internal network to move energy more efficiently, but those were considered advanced-level mechanics.
For now, Adonis could attempt to utilize the Ether within his body to strengthen himself.
"How could I forget such a crucial fact…The plot may have changed, but the mechanics and secret techniques are still alive to this day.
I will use those secret mechanisms and become the cheat code myself. "
With that serious epiphany in mind, Adonis suddenly stopped moving the boulder immediately.
Instead, he sat in a meditative posture on the ground and seriously began to meditate on the ground.
Claudia noticed this change and became surprised.
"So, you've finally caught on, huh? It seems the princess wasn't so wrong after all. But realization alone isn't enough. The next part is the most difficult," she thought.
She watched him with keen interest.
With his eyes closed, he inhaled slowly and exhaled quickly, completely separating his mind from reality.
At first, it was difficult. All the worries, anxieties, and pain from his past life came back to haunt him, breaking his focus again and again.
But the moment he rested his hand on his Harem Sword, all those distractions disappeared.
< I am always happy to help you, Master. >
Vexa's cheerful encouragement only strengthened his will further.
Very soon, his mind reached a profound state.
Inside his body, within his internal organs, his bloodstream, and even his very cells, he could see tiny dots of purple energy, shining like stars within a galaxy.
They were Ether, the building blocks of life and all creation.
And only Swordmasters could utilize them freely. At least, that was the common assumption of the world.
Slowly, little by little, Adonis began to communicate with these special energy particles.
Their amount was minuscule compared to veteran Swordmasters, who breathed Ether in and out as naturally as oxygen.
But Adonis was not discouraged. An ocean was not formed in a single day, nor was civilization built overnight.
He wholeheartedly believed that he could become a powerful Swordmaster, especially since he held the Chaotic Harem Sword in his grasp.
Ding!
[ Synchronization Complete! ]