The Prince Wants to Retire

After commanding Tarion to bring information on the ancient werewolves, Kariel immediately returned to the palace with the task of going straight to bed.

“Ugh….”

Kariel reached the point of groaning and moaning as if his strength had been drained, just from walking a little after seeing the palace. He cursed his own worthless stamina, but at the same time, he was filled with anticipation.

“It was real.”

The gods had said that he had to make a contract with a mythological being and gave him the ability to be a contractor, but Kariel didn’t completely believe it. That was because he was so skeptical of the gods. He had thought that the process of making the contract would be difficult or that it would be stuck in a hard-to-find place, but that was not the case. Although he had failed to contract due to his poor physical condition, he could still hold on to hope.

“Kinetic Martial Arts….”

Kariel indulged in nostalgia as he muttered about the ancient werewolves’ Kinetic Martial Arts. He had to master Kinetic Martial Arts as a way to secure the minimum physical strength needed to make the contract. The problem was that it was the most advanced skill of the ancient werewolves, making it difficult to find. That’s why he took the risk and asked Tarion to get it.

“Ah, looks like the number of bandits will increase for a while,” sighed Kariel, looking out the window with a weary expression.

Although there wasn’t much of a threat with Tarion around, they had detected bandits on more than one occasion. Without Tarion, Kariel would have died long ago.

“If news of what happened at the palace gets out, things will only get more exhausting,” Kariel murmured to himself.

The calm prince had suddenly become active. With just that, he would attract attention, and it seemed like he was planning something. Perhaps he had found a way to recover his body, or maybe he had developed some newfound belief. Whatever it was, it was tiring for them. Some factions might try to hinder Kariel’s recovery before it became a problem. Before that happened, they needed to find the werewolves’s Physical Techniques and complete the contract with Surt.

“We don’t have much time,” Kariel muttered, looking at the stack of books.

“Reflections on the Werewolves (1)”

Kariel picked up a book related to the werewolves and quickly flipped through it before throwing it far away.

The book was quite thick, as if it contained a lot of information, but it was nothing but a collection of common stories. Although the books related to monsters and ancient mana utilization were the same, when they examined the contents, it was nothing more than a trivial matter.

There were quite a few professors who published books for the sake of earning money, using their noble status and connections, and subtly supplying them to the palace to gain fame and continue their academic life. However, in the past life, they had to deal with such trash even if it was a rebellion or an external invasion, so the stress was no joke.

It didn’t matter to Kariel now since he had no intention of becoming emperor this time, but if he were to become the one who stood in for the emperor, he would face a very irritating situation. It was natural that there were no available talents when things were going wrong.

“Well, it’s not my concern,” Kariel said, throwing another book. Although there were some useful ones among the ones he just read, there was no information related to physical techniques.

If they hadn’t been looking for Physical Techniques, there were some contents that might have been interesting, but since there was a solution, there was no need to go back. So Kariel waited patiently for Tarion with anticipation.

After a while, Tarion returned, and as if he knew what was on Kariel’s mind, he brought in a large number of books with his wagon. Most of them seemed useless, as if Tarion had brought them to deceive their enemies.

“What about the spell books?” Kariel asked.

Tarion laughed awkwardly in response to Kariel’s rebuke.

“Here are the ones you requested.”

“Just these?”

Tarion pulled out two thin and old books.

“These were the only ones I could find with my authority.”

“So I have to find the rest myself.”

Kariel said with a serious expression, and Tarion looked at him and asked, “May I ask what you are looking for?”

After a moment of hesitation, Kariel spoke in a soft voice, “The ancient werewolves’s mana utilization techniques. Specifically, I need their physical enhancement techniques.”

“Physical enhancement…” Tarion repeated, his jaw clenched as he fell deep in thought. As someone who had spent his entire life mastering Mana Refinement Techniques, Tarion was a novice in this area. “Um, is it something other than the usual Mana Aging Technique?” Tarion asked.

“It seems that way,” Kariel nodded in agreement.

Although the Mana Aging Techniques used by monsters seemed different, their fundamentals were the same. They created small Mana holes in their muscles or organs, circulated Mana through their blood vessels, and transformed pure Mana into a form suitable for their physical bodies. Some scholars called this Mana Refinement Technique “Mana Utilization for Physical Enhancement.”

However, the ancient Werewolves seemed to have gone beyond this.

“I presume it’s a method of accumulating Mana in the body without using Mana holes,” Kariel explained.

“It could be a purely physical enhancement technique from ancient times,” Tarion added, understanding what Kariel meant.

In the past, when the development of martial arts was not as advanced as it is now, there were inefficient Mana utilization methods that focused solely on accumulating Mana in the body. That’s why Tarion nodded his head, thinking that it made sense.

“It’s dangerous, but…there seems to be a possibility,” Tarion said, nodding his head.

Unless Mana is collected and processed in one place, stability cannot be achieved. Even the Mana Aging Technique that uses multiple Mana holes is known to be extremely difficult to control the rampaging Mana. So, hitting the body with Mana itself?

That’s just a significant risk.

Humans didn’t create Mana holes in their hearts and refine Mana in just one place for no reason. Pure Mana is like a thug, rampaging around the body, making it challenging to control.

Kariel began to examine the books that Tarion had brought, but to no avail.

“Unfortunately, it’s a bust,” Kariel sighed as he put down the book he was holding. He couldn’t find the information he needed.