Chapter 103: Another Boost in Strength
In the following time, Ian stayed in his room, experiencing this new way of utilizing his psychic power.
Currently, Ian had two methods of controlling his psychic power: one was psychic release, forming psychic energy into sword qi and striking it in a single direction; the other was psychic diffusion, a skill brought about by advanced Nen training.
As he continued to explore, Ian discovered that this so-called psychic diffusion essentially created a psychic force field around himself. Within this field, it was filled with his own psychic power. Any movement of objects would stir his psychic energy, providing him with feedback.
This psychic perception was different from what the eyes could see directly. The eyes could only capture a general outline, but through psychic perception, he could detect extremely fine details. For example, when moving a hand or foot, the eyes only saw the direction of the movement, but through psychic perception, he could sense the various muscle fluctuations involved in that motion.
Ian casually tossed an object and, through his psychic power, could accurately perceive its trajectory and precisely predict where it would land. It could be said that after activating this psychic diffusion, the world Ian perceived became entirely different. Although he had never truly witnessed Observation Haki, he understood that the effect of his psychic perception should be similar to it.
He was well aware that within his own body, the power of Haki should also be latent. The greatest benefit of the system was that it allowed Ian to experience effects equivalent to Haki in advance, which would help him develop his own Haki power later on.
Full of interest, Ian drew the Enma sword and held it in his hand. Even with his eyes closed, when the Enma sword was within the psychic force field, he could still sense the sword in his hand. As he began to slowly swing the blade, he could even feel the trajectory of the sword cutting through the air, the air currents swirling around the blade, how they flowed and converged—all within Ian's perception.
With a single swing that stirred the air, Ian gained a new understanding of Yasuo's Wind Style swordsmanship. He suddenly swung his blade and unleashed a wind barrier.
This time, not only was there no sense of stagnation, but the wind barrier he produced was also different from before. He could actually control the area of the wind barrier!
It was at this moment that Ian truly reached the level of expert swordsmanship. It was indeed correct; he found that there were inherent connections between his basic skills. Previously, the release of psychic power had led to an advancement in his swordsmanship skill, and now, the advancement in his Nen training skill had allowed his swordsmanship to become fully integrated.
Of course, through continuous experimentation, Ian also discovered some drawbacks of his current psychic diffusion. He was still unable to expand the psychic force field too far, because spreading it too wide would cause a massive consumption of his psychic power.
Ian crushed a few Ice Tear Stones and tested it, finding that maintaining the psychic diffusion within a range of about five meters in diameter was an acceptable scope. Within this range, Ian's psychic power consumed about 5 points per minute. With his current psychic power value, if he simply maintained the force field, he could sustain it for a long time.
A five-meter diameter was basically the range for face-to-face combat with an opponent. Similarly, even against long-range attacks, such as bullets, once they entered his perception range, the five-meter distance gave Ian enough time to react.
Of course, the larger the psychic force field, the better. A larger perception range meant more reaction time for Ian, but this would have to wait until his psychic power value increased further to sustain the consumption.
Just as Ian was still experimenting, he suddenly sensed someone appearing outside his door, seemingly raising a hand to knock. So he directly called out, "Come in!"
Standing outside the door was Tina. Hearing Ian's call, she was a bit surprised, not understanding how Ian knew she was about to knock. Nevertheless, she pushed the door open and entered.
As soon as she came in, she saw Ian with his eyes closed, moving his steps and swinging his sword in the cramped room.
Tina was knowledgeable. After watching for just a moment, she noticed something astonishing: Ian was walking around with his eyes closed, yet he didn't bump into anything at all, as if he had memorized the layout of every object in the room.
"What are you doing?" Tina couldn't help but ask.
"Oh, I'm experiencing my Observation Haki!" Ian said calmly. "I just awakened it!"
The most lethal thing was an invisible flex. Tina's cigarette fell from her mouth with a clatter: What did he just say!?
I saw you just an hour ago, and now you're telling me that in that time, your Observation Haki has awakened!?
Are you kidding me!?
Even Tina felt a moment of mental chaos. This was too absurd!
"Little brother, this joke isn't funny at all!" Tina steadied herself, lit another cigarette, and said.
"Want to spar with me and find out?" Ian replied with a smile, his eyes still closed.
"Good idea! Follow me to the deck!" Tina glanced at him, thinking this was a good opportunity to truly understand Ian's strength.
So Tina led the way, with Ian following behind. However, during the entire journey from the cabin back to the deck, Ian kept his eyes closed. Tina noticed this and couldn't help but feel amazed, because throughout the walk, Ian didn't stumble once!
Only when they reached the deck did Ian open his eyes and look at Tina.
"Watch out!" Tina didn't waste words and directly attacked Ian, extending her right index finger and striking at him with a Finger Pistol at incredible speed.
Ian stood still. Just as Tina thought her Finger Pistol would hit his chest, he made a light sidestep, letting the Finger Pistol graze past his chest.
Tina refused to give up. After the Finger Pistol failed, she immediately lifted her leg to kick Ian, but the same thing happened—just as the attack was about to land, Ian dodged it with the simplest of evasions.
Tina kicked several times in succession, but each time, she couldn't touch him at all. Frustrated, she directly used a Tempest Kick against Ian.
However, facing the force of the Tempest Kick, Ian instantly drew his sword and unleashed a sword qi to cancel it out.
After dozens of consecutive attacks, none posed any threat to Ian. Tina even used the Shave technique from the Six Powers, trying to change her attack angle, but Ian still sensed it and dodged.
By this point, Tina truly believed that Ian had indeed mastered the use of Observation Haki.
When she stopped, slightly out of breath, Tina gritted her teeth and said to Ian, "You monster!"
The awakening of Haki was widely recognized: the earlier it awakened, the greater the future achievements. Of course, this was under the condition of proper guidance. Tina had also awakened Haki, but she only knew one type—Armament Haki. When she had fought Ian before, she had already sensed that he also possessed Armament Haki. Now, in the blink of an eye, Ian could also use a second type of Haki. And yet, Ian was so much younger than her, which immediately gave Tina a sense of defeat.
Ian smiled and said nothing. He had long been prepared for his psychic power to be mistaken for Haki due to the similarity in application.
In his exchange with Tina, he also gained some insights. The perception and prediction brought by psychic diffusion were indeed identical to the effects of Observation Haki. However, the key factor still depended on one's own speed. If Tina were faster, even if Ian could sense her attack trajectory, he wouldn't be able to dodge if he couldn't move in time.
Thus, by extension, between two Observation Haki users, the competition essentially came down to who was faster.
This "fast" encompassed three meanings: attack speed, movement speed, and reaction speed.
Ian's current speed value was mostly derived from his cards. This was because both of his four-star cards were speed-type cards, giving him this effect. His own speed training, on the other hand, was minimal.
This made Ian consider whether he should also prioritize physical combat training.
Speed was mainly related to physical combat training, and based on the mutual influence between basic skills, if physical combat skills were also developed, it would indirectly affect his swordsmanship and Nen training skills.
The sparring session with Tina gave Ian a new understanding of his strength. Now that he could achieve psychic diffusion, if he didn't consider Devil Fruit abilities, he could basically remain undefeated against a typical Marine Headquarters Captain. However, against Vice Admiral-level officers, it wasn't certain, because officers at that level had usually achieved significant results in Haki training. When Haki and his psychic power clashed, it was hard to say who would win.