Rogue Villain-Chapter 198: Next Stop

Ackster trained hard enough to want to lose his sense of time and for it all to be done and over with. Speeding through Bo’s extensive education like it was a training montage would have been nice.

Unfortunately, the laws of reality weren’t that kind, and Ackster had to live through and experience each and every single moment of the training. Still, time passed. Bo came up with tons of different and increasingly taxing and difficult training methods that honed Ackster’s stats and body until he was a completely different person from when he had shown up on Bo’s island.

His senses, reflexes, strength, explosive power, mobility, blood circulation, oxygen levels, mana circulation, agility, and more had all reached new levels. And that was before Bo started teaching him fighting moves.

Ackster’s skills, including his Inventory and Nomi, were sealed. But Ackster had a feeling that even if he could have checked his Nomi, it wouldn’t have been that different from before.

Bo hadn’t bestowed or helped Ackster gain new strength. He had merely helped Ackster access and refine the potential resting his current body. Ackster was confident Bo wouldn’t agree, but he felt like a lump of coal that had transformed into a diamond.

However, there was a limit to what Ackster could achieve on the island. So, when he had reached a level that Bo was satisfied with, Bo stopped the training.

Ackster still hadn’t reached the bodily rebirth that Bo had talked about, so he wasn’t sure what to think.

"You will need some kind of enlightenment for that. Your body is ready for it. But if that were all it took, bodily rebirth wouldn’t be anything special."

"Enlightenment? How am I supposed to get that?"

Bo shrugged.

"I just told you. If it were that simple, it wouldn’t be anything special. All I can do for you now is to give you advice."

Ackster stayed silent for a moment as he glanced at his stump. What Bo said made sense. But he hadn’t expected that Bo wouldn’t know how to get him past the final step.

"What happens if I can’t get any enlightenment?"

"Then I wasted my time."

’Harsh.’

Ackster nodded.

"Alright. What do I need to do, then?"

"You need experience."

With those words, Bo sent Ackster away. He wouldn’t get any experience on the island, at least not the right kind. He had to search for it throughout the world in whatever way he deemed fit.

And when he had gone through a bodily rebirth, he could come back to the island for another round of training that would elevate him even further.

’So if I don’t, there’s no need to come back. Okay.’

Ackster understood the implication of what Bo said before giving him a one-person sailboat not unlike the one he had bought in Temir.

Ackster drifted away from the island as he thought about where to go. He could guess that the kind of experience he needed the most was fighting experience. Before training with Bo, Ackster’s fights had almost solely been brawls where he relied on his skills and superior physical aspects to brute-force a win. The only exception had been the trial in the Sea God Temple, where he tried to imitate the watery mermen guards. The fight with the Crimson Edge adventurers had also been a little more technical, but he had relied on tricks to win, not his abilities.

That fight alone had given him enough experience to know how capable he was and how much of his potential he had wasted by brute-forcing his earlier fights.

Besides, bodily rebirth was something martial artists had almost monopolized in terms of professional development. Other professions, especially physically combat-related ones, could also undergo it. But martial artists honed their bodies and combat techniques in a way that didn’t rely on skills as much as other professions.

That was another reason why Bo had sealed Ackster’s skills. It was so he could get in better touch with his body without letting his skills dominate or interfere with his progress.

The only problem was where Ackster could find the necessary experience. He wasn’t yet at the top echelons in the world since he hadn’t even reached the S-rank yet. But he was still quite strong, so finding any beating up any random fighter wouldn’t do him any good.

In addition to it being useless, it would also be a waste of time if he just went around and fought when he had no idea how long it would take to reach enlightenment. Ackster had about nine years left.

In terms of stopping the world’s destruction, it was nothing.

’Should I look for Karandiel again?’

Ackster considered returning to Tenger and looking for Karandiel since the Blood Moon disaster should have been dealt with by now. But Karandiel, just like The Hero, could be anywhere on the continent. It was risky and potentially futile.

Tenger also wasn’t a confident known for its martial prowess. It had its share of strong fighters for sure, but it was still one of the more peaceful continents.

If Ackster wanted to fight while also looking for ways to improve his odds of stopping the world’s end, he had to go elsewhere and hope that Karandiel didn’t forget him.

Ackster started preparing the sail as he realized something.

He didn’t only have to worry about human resources he could use against The Hero and his party. Ackster could also start collecting useful treasures. Of course, items useful against The Hero when he was at his strongest at the end of the original story were stupidly rare.

But Ackster could still pick up a couple of them. He could also look for weapons better than the garbage that was trapped in his inventory.

And speaking of weapons that suited his mana attribute and mana training method, there was one that came to mind. He needed a trident!

Of the two places he had narrowed down his options to, the Myrrhia Continent and the Central Isles of Matar, Matar was the only one where he knew where to find an exceptional trident.

’Next stop, Matar, I guess.’