Chapter 474 — Dumb
6 min read ·
The man’s expression shifted slightly, something like surprise crossing his features.
"Child, don’t you have a master? You seem talented enough that someone should have explained this to you by now."
"Headmaster Kaiser is my master."
Damian’s voice came out neutral.
"But he isn’t around most of the time. I don’t know if you know him."
The man paused, his crimson eyes studying Damian’s face for several long moments.
His expression became complex, something flickering through his gaze that Damian couldn’t quite identify.
"...That dumb guy is still taking on disciples?"
’Dumb?’
Damian’s thoughts stuttered.
’The Headmaster of the top academy in the entire Federation, one of the strongest humans alive, a legend who’s trained some of humanity’s strongest awakeners... is dumb?’
The man shook his head slowly, his smile becoming almost helpless.
"I understand now."
He looked at Damian with something like sympathy.
"The status screen only shows you what your soul has some sort of understanding of... Without knowledge, without a framework to interpret what you’re experiencing, it won’t be able to display much beyond the basics."
’That makes sense.’
Damian’s thoughts immediately jumped to his bond with Kuro.
The status screen showed almost nothing useful there either.
Bond: Kuro (B+ Rank)
- Unknown Entity
- Talent Unknown
Just vague categories with no real information because he didn’t understand what Kuro actually was.
"Humans don’t understand much about slaughter intent, its levels, or how to push it toward becoming slaughter law."
The man’s voice pulled Damian back from his thoughts.
"It’s only been a couple of centuries since we awakened. That’s nothing in the timescale of universal knowledge."
He paused.
"Your dumb master doesn’t know much about slaughter intent either. If I remember correctly, he only incorporated the intent into his weapon art, but that art is primarily based on the law of belief."
’Indeed.’
Damian’s thoughts confirmed what the man was saying.
’Abyssal Slaughter weapon art is mainly about belief... The conviction that your next strike will kill.’
Kaiser had told him as much during their training and admitted that slaughter intent was just a component he’d added later, something he didn’t fully understand its depths.
The man’s expression became thoughtful.
"But there is a world called the Slaughter World."
His voice carried weight.
"Maybe there you will find your answers about this intent and how to transform it into a law. That world specializes in paths of carnage and violence in ways humanity never has."
’Slaughter World.’
Damian committed the name to memory immediately.
The man looked at him with those kind eyes.
"So you’ve embarked on the law of belief as well, following in your master’s footsteps."
Damian nodded subconsciously, then his expression shifted as another thought surfaced.
"I have another art based on devouring principles, though it’s incomplete. Sometimes it lets me absorb skills from enemies I kill, and a strange devouring energy gets released whenever I use it."
He looked at the man hopefully.
"Do you have any idea what that might be?"
The man’s smile twitched slightly at the corner, his expression becoming strained.
"Slaughter, belief, devour..."
His voice trailed off.
"Is there anything else you’re dabbling in?"
"I have a domain of despair as well."
Damian replied before the man even finished his question.
"Also another gun art, but its principles are kind of mixed. It has spatial deletion principles incorporated into it, but I don’t understand much about space in general, so I can’t really–"
"..."
Deathly silence fell across the peak.
The man stared at Damian, his mouth slightly open, his expression frozen somewhere between disbelief and exasperation.
Then after some time, his hand rose, rubbing his face slowly.
"...How did that dumb guy manage to get a disciple like you?"
His voice came out muffled behind his palm.
Damian’s eyebrows rose.
"Why do you keep calling him dumb? The Headmaster is one of the strongest people in the entire Federation."
The man’s hand lowered, his smile returning but carrying something like helpless amusement.
"I’m not insulting him, child. Kaiser really was dumb."
He paused.
"He never understood anything deeply throughout his entire life. There were thousands of people around him with better comprehension, sharper minds, faster learning speeds."
Damian’s head tilted slightly, confusion written across his face.
"But you know what people say?"
The man’s smile widened.
"Smart people are full of doubts. They second-guess everything, see all the ways things could go wrong, get paralyzed by possibilities and potential failures."
His crimson eyes gleamed.
"While the dumb ones are full of confidence. They never doubt, never hesitate, just charge forward believing they’ll succeed."
He stopped, letting the words hang in the air.
’Is that why Kaiser is so strong?’
Damian’s thoughts raced.
’Because he’s too dumb to doubt himself?’
"Your comprehension is good, child. Better than most I’ve seen."
The man’s voice carried weight that made the air feel heavier.
"But it’s far better to focus deeply on one or two laws and learn different skills based on those foundations, rather than spreading yourself thin across many paths you’ll never master."
He paused, his crimson eyes studying Damian’s face.
"Build your strength on solid understanding instead of shallow dabbling."
Damian’s mouth opened slightly, then closed without sound.
His gaze shifted away, looking out over the landscape instead of meeting the man’s eyes.
After several heartbeats of silence, his voice came out quieter.
"How many laws do you have?"
The man’s smile remained gentle.
"Two."
He raised one finger.
"My main law is Blood... It was born from my law seed that manifested when I reached S rank, something I dedicated most of my life to understanding and refining."
He raised a second finger.
"The other came from my sword intent. I trained with a blade for decades, and eventually that intent transformed into sword law."
Damian’s head turned back, his eyes studying the man’s face.
"Is an SS rank with more laws more powerful than one with only a single law?"
The question came out carefully, like he was testing an idea he’d been forming.
The man’s smile widened slightly, understanding flickering in his eyes.
"If one man has a single law mastered to eighty percent, he would probably destroy someone who has four laws but only understands each at twenty percent."
He paused, letting that sink in.
"Depth matters more than breadth when the gap is that wide. A deep well beats four shallow puddles every time."
His expression shifted, becoming more serious.
"But if the laws are at the same level of understanding, if both warriors have equal mastery over their respective paths..."
His voice dropped.
"Then the one with more laws will destroy the other without question."
A smile began forming on Damian’s lips, small but unmistakable.
The man noticed immediately, his own expression becoming knowing as he watched that smile grow.