[Ding! Congratulations you have leaned the skill Pain Tolerace (F)]

[Ding! Congratulations you have leaned the skill Self Healing (F)]

’Now that’s an unexpected treasure...’ he mused as he moved his attention back to his body.

His body was not as broken as before, but it still throbbed violently. He could feel his muscles twitching on their own.

He looked down into the bath. The light green liquid was now a murky, dark red color since he had bled a lot.

’Now there’s another issue to fix...’ he thought.

The medicine strengthened his body but it did not magically generate new blood to replace what he lost.

He felt extremely lightheaded and the room spun slightly, making him close his eyes shut.

"Do you have a potion for severe blood loss? More like... something that can replenish blood." Adrian asked, his voice sounding incredibly weak.

"I do." Celeste said quickly. "I have some in my storage in the mansion. I can go get them right now."

"No." Adrian shook his head. "If you leave, you will not be able to get back inside this specific instance of the dungeon. Help me up and we’ll go back to the mansion together."

Celeste walked over and pulled his arm over her shoulder. She basically carried half his weight as they walked out of the dungeon and headed into the mansion.

Even though his body was completely exhausted, Adrian could feel the difference. His legs felt heavier but much more solid.

They reached the mansion and Celeste ran to her room before coming back with a glass vial filled with a red liquid.

Adrian took it. "How many of these do I need to drink?"

"One is not enough for the amount you lost." Celeste said. She pulled two more vials from her pocket. "Drink three to stabilize. If you want to return to completely perfect condition, you need to drink five. I can make more if you’d like but I’ll need some rare ingredients."

"Got it." Adrian said as he took the three vials. "Don’t bother brewing more. This is enough for now."

He turned toward his bedroom but stopped in the doorway before he turned to look back at her.

"Keep everything you just saw completely quiet." Adrian said. "Tell your brother the same thing. The Goddess blessed me and if the wrong nobles hear about the secret room that I have access to, I’ll get assassinated."

Celeste gave a firm nod. "Not a word. You can trust us."

Adrian shut his bedroom door and locked it before using dungeon link. He tossed the three glass tubes into storage and got the system to duplicate it.

Five full vials popped right back into his hands. He flicked the corks off and chugged all five straight down his throat. It was extremely bitter, but he didn’t really mind it.

He didn’t bother putting on new clothes and faceplanted directly onto his mattress. His body still throbbed like crazy. But he was so exhausted that he drifted to sleep in three seconds.

The medicines continued while he slept. The red potions kicked his bone marrow into overdrive, rapidly pumping out fresh blood to replace everything he lost in the tub. Meanwhile, the leftover green medicine from the bath fixed the last of his torn muscle fibers back together.

Morning sunlight hit his face and Adrian rolled over and stretched. The heavy soreness was totally gone and he felt amazing. He was light on his feet but he could tell that the strength and endurance of his body had increased by a lot.

He sat up and immediately opened his system screen to check his status.

He stared at the blue window, only to be disappointed.

His Knight Rank still said ’None’.

"All that absolute torture and I am still not an F rank knight?" Adrian complained as he stood in his empty room.

He closed the screen and sighed.

He was not going to give up. The process was slow but he could physically feel the results.

Adrian walked right back into the dungeon and started the cycle all over again.

He tweaked the routine. He lay in the damaging magic circle bathtub for exactly three hours. The pain was still terrible but he handled it much better than the first day.

After three hours, he got out. He spawned a second, normal bathtub filled with fresh green medicine. He soaked in the safe tub for one hour to let his body purely heal without taking damage. While he soaked, he drank five blood replenishing potions.

He repeated this four hour block four times a day.

Sixteen hours of pure, agonizing physical torture.

By the time he finished his fourth cycle, it was pitch black outside. He stepped out of the healing tub and dried himself off. He felt absolutely incredible. It was almost like, he had a much better control and sense over his own body.

He pulled up his status screen again.

[Congratulations! You have achieved the rank of Knight.]

[Knight Rank upgraded to F Rank.]

Adrian grinned. But then another notification popped up right below it.

[Congratulations! Your Magic Circle has leveled up.]

[Mage Rank upgraded to Third Circle.]

"Ha?! Hahahahahahah!! This is great!"

He did not even know how that happened. He was barely focusing on his body’s magical capacity, but the hybrid breathing technique forced so much mana through his mana heart that it passively expanded his magic circles.

He dismissed the screens and walked out of the dungeon.

"Just a little bit of preparation," Adrian muttered to himself. "And then it is time to head to war."

Two months passed quickly.

Adrian stood near the front gates of his mansion, wearing his custom white suit with the gold engravings.

Aria stood right in front of him. She wore a dark blue dress today. She was pouting so hard her cheeks looked puffy. She didn’t even look at him, and instead, just glared at the ground below like it had committed a major crime.