Hunter Academy: Revenge of the Weakest novel Chapter 669

Chapter 669 147.4 - Chamber of Emberheart

'How long has it been... hours? Minutes?"

Time had become something distant, slipping away like sand through my fingers. Each second stretched, distorted by the heat until I couldn't tell if I'd been here for a few breaths or half a day. Everything blurred into a haze of scorching air, searing pain, and the relentless pressure pushing down on me.

I could feel my own pulse thundering against the inside of my skull, each beat a reminder that I was still here, still enduring. But for how much longer? The fire wrapped around me, and pressed deeper, and my thoughts grew faint, scattered in the heat.

And then... something shifted. Subtle at first, a faint, almost imperceptible sensation- a tremor, like a ripple inside my chest, spreading outward. It felt... foreign as if it didn't belong to me, yet at the same time, intimately familiar. It wasn't the flames; no, this was something different, something that moved from within rather than pressing down from outside.

'What... is this?"

The feeling grew, spreading through my body like a silent current, pushing back against the fire in a way that felt... instinctual. I couldn't pinpoint it, but it was there, pulsing just beneath my awareness, building in intensity, matching the rhythm of the flames but working against them. It was as if some force within me had finally awakened, responding to the fire's challenge.

'Ah....Right.....

The haze around my mind began to thin, as if that steady, foreign pulse was carving a path through the fire, clearing the fog that had consumed my thoughts. My awareness sharpened, the oppressive heat retreating to the edges, no longer clouding my mind. I could feel clarity returning, my senses recalibrating as the fire's grip lessened.

And then I realized it-my subconscious had acted.

Somewhere, deep within, I'd triggered an old safeguard. My mana had traveled along a pre-planned path, connecting to something I'd embedded beneath the surface, something that, under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have needed. But this was exactly why it was there, why I'd planned for a scenario like this in the first place. I glanced down, and there it was: the faint glint of a small, nearly invisible needle pressed into my chest. I could feel it embedded near the ganglion just below my collarbone, exactly where I'd set it. The pain from it was sharper than the flames, precise and unyielding-a clean, piercing sensation that cut through the numbing heat like a knife.

'So, it worked..."

"Haaah....."

I let out a slow breath, feeling the faint sting of relief. This needle-this tiny mechanism of my own design-was a tool I'd developed when I'd begun studying psychic magic, particularly the mental defenses that could be employed in extreme conditions. I'd wondered, what if I encountered something that could warp my focus, that could slip through the cracks in my defenses? Something like the flames here, that didn't just attack the body but also the mind?

And so, I'd crafted a solution. A needle, enchanted with just enough magic to stay hidden beneath my skin, with a small reserve of mana directed toward it. In the event that my thoughts were compromised, my subconscious would release that mana, sending a surge of pain through my chest-sharp enough to cut through any mental haze, but controlled so that it wouldn't compromise my physical state.

'A bit unconventional, but necessary'

I leaned into the feeling, letting that controlled pain bring me fully back to myself. It wasn't overwhelming; it didn't distract from the flames, but it gave me something to anchor to, a solid line that my mind could follow back to clarity. The fire continued to burn, pressing in with its relentless fury, but now I could meet it with clear intent. 'And now, you will start to act.'

The moment I thought it, I felt a familiar pull-a sudden, intense drain as my mana began to flow, not outwards, but inward, toward the center of my chest.

-The Everchanging Glyph.

It flared to life, pulsing beneath my skin like a second heartbeat. The rune's ancient symbols, etched into me through countless hours of training and adaptation, began to absorb mana at a steady, insistent rate. It was sensation I'd grown accustomed to during training, but here, under the relentless assault of the flames, it felt different- hungrier, more eager. It was as if the glyph itself sensed the extremity of the environment, the intensity of the flames, and recognized it as a call to evolve. 'So, this is how you react...'

I let the glyph do its work, feeling the familiar tingling spread through my limbs as it adapted, recalibrating my body. This was its core purpose-the ability to shift, to adjust to any condition, to place me in the most optimal state for survival. It was as though my body and mana were reorienting themselves, aligning with the chamber's conditions. Muscles tensed, then relaxed, my skin grew attuned to the heat, feeling it more acutely but managing to endure it more efficiently.

A faint glow spread from my chest, like faint embers flickering to life just beneath my skin. The glyph was adapting, realigning every fiber, every cell, until my body understood the conditions here and began to acclimate. I could feel my breathing ease, each intake of air no longer searing my lungs as intensely. Even my skin felt less vulnerable, almost as if it had developed a slight resilience to the heat licking at it. 'Good. Now we're getting somewhere.'

The Everchanging Glyph had been invaluable in training, adjusting my body to withstand fatigue, amplify strength, or enhance agility.