He pushed open the low doors one by one, ducking inside to inspect the rooms.
Some tombs were cramped with hard stone beds and lacked even a single lamp.
Others were slightly better, but only marginally so.
That was until Ethan pushed open the seventeenth door.
The space inside was at least seven or eight square meters, and the stone bed was wide enough for three people to lie side by side.
The mattress was sewn from the fur of some magical beast, feeling soft and warm to the touch.
Four crystal mirrors were embedded in the walls, each displaying views of the deck from different directions.
Better yet, there was a small partitioned area in the corner that served as a fully functional washroom.
"This is the one."
Just as Ethan was about to crawl into his tomb, he heard a strange movement behind him.
He spun around instantly.
On the deck, the corpses scattered everywhere were undergoing a transformation.
The blood was the first to move.
The blood that had been flowing freely and pooling into streams across the deck suddenly seemed to come to life.
Defying gravity, it began to spread in all directions like countless tiny red snakes, slithering into every crack and crevice on the deck's surface.
Ethan's pupils constricted slightly.
He looked down at the deck beneath his feet.
The moment the blood entered the cracks, fine red lines appeared on the surface of the pale white bones. These lines acted like living organisms, spreading along the texture of the bone, weaving together, and merging until they finally vanished.
Immediately after, the corpses began to sink slowly.
The bodies lay there as if on quicksand, sinking into the deck bit by bit. First the backs, then the waists, then the chests, and finally the heads.
The entire process was silent.
They simply sank into the pale bone deck quietly, slowly, inch by inch.
Ethan stood where he was, his gaze sweeping across the entire deck.
Over a hundred corpses.
Strewn everywhere.
A river of blood.
Now, those bodies were disappearing at a rate visible to the naked eye. One after another, they sank into the deck as if submerged in water, without even a ripple.
After about a dozen breaths, the last corpse vanished into the deck.
The last trail of blood slithered into the cracks.
The deck returned to its original state.
It was once again that pale deck made of countless bones joined together. It was smooth, level, and so clean that not a single drop of blood or speck of filth remained, as if the massacre from moments ago had never happened.
Only the faint scent of blood lingering in the air reminded Ethan that everything had been real.
Ethan stood in place, silent for a few breaths.
He looked down at the deck beneath his feet.
On the surface of the pale bones, he could faintly see intricate patterns. Those patterns flowed slowly like living things, their color reminiscent of blood.
"Is it... feeding?" Ethan raised an eyebrow and muttered to himself.
Was this airship alive?
It didn't matter whose life it was.
The dead couldn't even keep their bodies; everything was devoured by this ship.
The corner of Ethan's mouth curled into a slight arc.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
He turned and ducked into his tomb.
Ethan sat cross-legged on the wide stone bed and pulled out the Supernatural items he had looted.
Five items in total.
A silver hairpin, a pair of pitch-black gauntlets, a short spear, a pair of leather boots, and a small round shield.
He turned them over and over, but he couldn't quite figure them out.
A faint ripple of energy flowed over the surface of each item; some were warm, some were ice-cold, and others were as unresponsive as dead objects.
"I'll study them later."
He tucked the items into his pack, closed his eyes, and focused his mind on the system.
"Add passive."
【Adding the 6th passive will consume 32 Life Energy points. Do you wish to confirm?】
"Confirm."
【Energy deducted: 32 points. Current Energy: 204 points.】
【Generating passive...】
【Generation complete. Gained passive: Eternal.】
【Eternal: Whenever you take damage, restore mana equal to 10% of the damage received. Whenever you consume mana, restore health equal to 25% of the mana spent.】
Ethan raised an eyebrow.
A perpetual motion machine, basically?
Restore mana when damaged.
Restore health when using mana.
It was an infinite loop of recovery.
A smirk touched his lips, and without hesitation, he continued.
"Add passive."
【Adding the 7th passive will consume 64 Life Energy points. Do you wish to confirm?】
"Confirm."
【Energy deducted: 64 points. Current Energy: 140 points.】
【Generating passive...】
【Generation complete. Gained passive: Yama's Blessing.】
【Yama's Blessing: Upon death, you may spend 1 year of your lifespan to perfectly resurrect.】
Ethan's pupils shrank slightly.
A chance to resurrect?
Wait a minute!!!
Holy mother of...!
Longevity paired with Yama's Blessing...
He took a deep breath, suppressing the surge of emotion in his heart.
He knew exactly what this meant.
The value of this passive was unrivaled!
"Continue."
【Adding the 8th passive will consume 128 Life Energy points. Do you wish to confirm?】
"Confirm."
【Energy deducted: 128 points. Current Energy: 12 points.】
【Generating passive...】
【Generation complete. Gained passive: Sub-Saint's Gaze.】
【Sub-Saint's Gaze: The speed of learning, understanding, and absorbing knowledge is increased by 10,000%.】
One hundred times.
His learning speed had increased a hundredfold.
Ethan's grin slowly widened.
At Blood Bone Tower Academy, what was the most precious thing?
It wasn't resources or magic stones—it was knowledge.
"Phew..."
Ethan exhaled a long breath and closed the system interface.
For the next month, Ethan's life was disciplined to the point of being mechanical.
He woke up in the morning and went to the building in the center of the airship where smoke rose from the chimneys to have his meal.
The free food wasn't exactly exquisite, but the portions were generous and the variety was decent.
After eating, he would return to his tomb, sit cross-legged on the wide stone bed, and begin practicing his breathing technique.
Deep within his abdomen, the Life Seed—now grown to the size of a pigeon egg—rotated slowly, releasing warm life energy that flowed through his limbs and bones.
On the morning of the fifteenth day, Ethan finished a night of cultivation and opened his eyes.
He raised his right hand and clenched his fist.
The muscular lines of his arm were clearly defined, each muscle containing strength far beyond what he had possessed half a month ago. The rotation speed of the Life Seed in his body was nearly twice as fast as when he first boarded the airship, and the life energy it released was even more pure and potent.
He closed his eyes, carefully sensing the changes within his body.
The cultivation of a Great Knight was essentially the continuous tempering of the Life Seed to make it more solid and powerful, while simultaneously using the released life energy to nourish the entire body, steadily improving one's physical constitution.
At this rate...
Ethan opened his eyes, a smirk playing on his lips.
"I should be just about ready to trade blows with my father."
Marquis Leo was a veteran Great Knight and an absolute peak existence within the Empire's knightly class. Ethan had watched him train since childhood and knew exactly how powerful that man was.
But now, he had that confidence.
The effects of Warrior's Body were simply too powerful.
Rate on N.U.
