50. A Noble Soul (7)
Redertrix VI Black Thunderstorm No. 7.
That was the nickname of the airship favored by Magic Society Chairman Aryumun Bleusun.
An airship cost an astronomical amount just to build a single one, and its upkeep was so expensive that it felt like something no individual could ever possibly own—but that only applied to people below the very highest class.
Aryumun did not particularly enjoy accumulating wealth, but when it came to collecting airships, he was quite serious.
Wooooooong…!!
The noisy roar of the heavily tuned mana engine rang through the docks of the Third World Tree, Namuhwaran.
Pshhhhk—!
Because the elves had heard the airship’s signal and reported Aryumun’s arrival in advance, Namuhwaran’s elder, Suhaksan, was able to receive him in time.
“Hoh hoh, Aryumun. It has been a long time.”
“Suhaksan old man. You’re still in good shape.”
“I am glad to see you arrive so suddenly, but to be honest, I’m more bewildered than pleased.”
“Ah, right. Sorry I couldn’t give you advance notice.”
With a face worn down by fatigue, Aryumun walked over and offered him a handshake.
At that, Suhaksan’s eyebrow twitched.
‘He’s still an irritating bastard.’
The handshake was a typical human custom spread by humans.
The proper thing would be for the visitor to conform to elven culture, and yet Aryumun, as always, showed no respect for the other party’s customs.
Because the great mage Aryumun Bleusun thoroughly believed in human supremacy.
Of course, there was some logic to his supremacist beliefs.
Humans comprised the highest proportion of living 8-Class mages, and historically, more than half of the mages who had reached the godlike domain of 9-Class had also been human, while it was even presumed that the “progenitor mage” had been human as well.
Besides…
Aryumun himself was one of the fewer than ten 9-Class mages on the continent, so Suhaksan had no choice but to accept the handshake without a word.
“What brings you here?”
Still, that was separate from the matter at hand.
If Aryumun had come because he had heard news of the World Tree’s contamination, Suhaksan had no intention whatsoever of asking for his cooperation.
He could not dare allow a human into matters concerning the sacred World Tree.
Fortunately, it seemed Aryumun had come for another reason.
He handed Suhaksan an official document requesting cooperation in an anti-dark-mage magical search.
“Hm!”
Seeing a request that was somewhat outside his expectations, Suhaksan let out a low sound.
Presenting that document in such a public place made it effectively the same as openly saying, “Looks like there’s a dark mage around, so we’re going to search your territory.”
When there was clear evidence, the Ministry of Magic held absolute power regarding the search for dark mages, so refusal was impossible.
All races had agreed to that provision,
so no matter that Suhaksan was the elder of Namuhwaran, he could not reject it…
but there were limits.
To stir up a sacred World Tree just to catch a single fly was something he could never permit.
“I shall review it carefully.”
Suhaksan accepted the official document and slowly read through its contents.
…And not long afterward, his eyes flew wide open in shock.
“This… is this truly true?”
“Yes. I know very well that what we’re doing is extremely rude. But I do ask for your cooperation. Things are very troublesome right now.”
The dark mage Cheollibeon.
That very legendary dark mage who had left tens of thousands dead before disappearing decades ago had now suddenly appeared here?
‘No, not confirmed yet. The circumstances merely point that way. But…!’
If the contents of the official request were true, then Cheollibeon had almost certainly headed for Namuhwaran’s Orchard.
There was a strong chance that even now, he was already hiding somewhere in this place.
‘This is…’
The danger had become greater than expected.
This was not an issue he could refuse just to preserve pride.
“…Shall we move somewhere else and speak?”
At Suhaksan’s heavy words, Aryumun nodded readily.
Time was pressing, and fortunately things were going more smoothly than expected.
Silence.
It felt as though cool shards of glass were floating through the air, repeatedly pricking at my skin.
I sat down properly in front of Iphanel, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath.
To be exact, it would be more accurate to say that I was operating the Taeryeong Heart Method with even greater delicacy.
I had already thrown off the gas mask long ago.
If someone asked whether that was dangerous, I could say without hesitation that it absolutely was.
My lifespan might already have shortened because of it, and I might not last much longer before collapsing.
But there was a reason I had to go this far.
[Analyzing the density of mana in the air…]
The Jikbakguri Glasses were not all-powerful.
When trying something completely new, “I” as an existence had to come into contact with it first.
The reason they had been able to analyze magic all this time merely by looking at it was because magic’s foundation lay in “magic circles” and “rune words.”
Those could be interpreted just by seeing them.
But certain advanced spells could only be analyzed not by sight alone but through direct magical contact,
and this dense mana spread throughout Iphanel’s garden was that kind of case as well.
It was impossible to analyze it merely by looking while wearing a gas mask.
On the other hand, breathing it in myself was dangerous too…
but…
‘With the Taeryeong Heart Method, it’s possible.’
Take mana into the body, then let it flow back out again.
If I could use my body like a waterwheel and keep the poisonous mana from melting into me, then I could breathe it as much as I liked.
“Hoo….”
The Taeryeong Heart Method required at minimum several dozen seconds just to activate as a skill, and if I tried to use it in the middle of movement, it could take whole minutes.
Did that mean maintaining it was easy?
Not at all.
It demanded such extreme concentration that the moment stray thoughts entered my head, the Taeryeong Heart Method would break.
That burden had eased to some extent after receiving the Blessing of Crimson Spring March.
In fact, even during that chaotic battle with the witch, it had not broken a single time.
But…
‘What is this feeling?’
It was not merely that maintaining it had become easier.
Come to think of it, since gaining the Blessing of Crimson Spring March, had I ever seriously trained the Taeryeong Heart Method?
Of course, I had continued daily discipline, but that was only repeated habitual practice, not actual research aimed at improvement.
And yet today, as I desperately wrung the Taeryeong Heart Method dry in order to regulate the density of this foul mana, I began to feel something little by little.
Even with my eyes closed, the flow of mana felt almost visible, as though I could grasp it in my hand,
and on top of that, I found I could mix a little of my will into it.
When I came to my senses, I realized that without noticing it, I had risen to my feet.
I reached out into empty air.
Where had I left my sword?
I could not remember, so I merely made the motion of gripping a sword with my bare hand.
I did not possess any special sword art.
Simple slashes, thrusts, downward cuts.
The only swordsmanship I had.
But that alone could not defeat a mage.
Ha Taeryeong from the distant past, the man who had passed this heart method on to me, had said as much.
‘The essence of fighting mages is distance control.’
To retreat beyond the range of a spell, then step back in and strike a vital point—that was the true essence of mage combat.
I had no sword art, but I did have tactics.
To use that method, Ha Taeryeong had said he drove his Mana Leak Physique to the limit and honed his footwork.
But how fast could the steps of an ordinary human truly become?
They were much slower than the leaps used by Knight-type mages, and their burst speed was weaker than a Power Jump.
Ha Taeryeong had been forced to overcome that through endless battle and experience…
but I did not need to.
Because I possessed a unique art that no mage had ever had.
‘I just need to be able to activate the Taeryeong Heart Method whenever I want.’
Until now, the preparation time had been too long, so the moment battle began, I was inevitably at a disadvantage.
But if, with the help of Crimson Spring March, I could slip into the mental world without restraint, then that would not be so impossible.
‘Maybe… it might even be possible to maintain the Taeryeong Heart Method at all times.’
If I could engrave the Taeryeong Heart Method into one corner of my mind and turn it into my ordinary breathing itself.
Then not only would I be able to move freely through spaces full of this kind of foul mana…
I might even be able to attain the “immortality” Ha Taeryeong had dreamed of.
Not that I particularly wanted to live that long, of course….
‘Urk!’
Had I concentrated too excessively?
I passed beyond the mental world…
and plunged into an even deeper, more distant world of consciousness.
As though I had fallen into the deep sea in the middle of the night, I could see nothing, and could not even tell direction from direction.
‘This is… dangerous.’
With the feeling that if I sank any farther I might truly never be able to come back, I desperately swam toward the surface.
‘I have to wake up.’
Holding on to that one thought alone, I pushed frantically upward toward the sky—
Grab!
Someone caught hold of my collar.
It was not a strong grip.
The touch was weak enough that I could have shaken it off.
But something about it snagged at my mind, and I lowered my head to look into the depths of the sea within the mental world.
‘…Iphanel?’
There, in the form of a young girl, was the divine spirit.
With an ambiguous expression, one too vague to read clearly, she moved her lips, but I could not hear her voice well.
But even before that, the question struck me first.
‘Why is Iphanel here?’
Was this not my mental world?
Then I remembered that she and I had once been connected by our souls.
‘If it’s here…!’
Here, I could ask why she had become like this.
I grabbed both of her shoulders and shouted with all my strength.
‘Iphanel! Answer me! Who did this to you?!’
But perhaps she could not hear my voice, because Iphanel merely tilted her head and moved her lips.
I could not hear.
‘Damn it. Do I have to go farther down?’
I abandoned the thought almost immediately.
Iphanel had clearly come up from somewhere deep, deep in that abyss, and if I went any farther down, it felt as though I might lose the way back up entirely.
‘That is…’
At the farthest edge of the endless deep sea, something like a tiny violet butterfly flickered.
That place was…
Iphanel’s mental world.
If I merely swam toward that butterfly, I could enter her mind.
…I couldn’t do that.
Slowly, I let go of Iphanel’s hand.
I wanted to take her out with me right away, but there was nothing more dangerous than forcibly waking her while she had fallen into dark corruption.
‘I’ll come get you soon.’
I mouthed the words to Iphanel, and perhaps she understood somehow, because she gave a faint smile—a rare expression on her.
Then she fell backward into the void, sank down into that deep abyss, and waved her hand lightly,
and the sight of it, like a child innocently seeing someone off, stayed in my heart.
Blub blub!
Leaving Iphanel behind with effort, I forcibly tore my way out of the deep sea of the mental world and rose above the surface—
and in that instant, my eyes flew open and awareness returned.
“Hooooo…!”
My entire body felt refreshed.
If I had maintained a seated posture for that long, my leg muscles ought to have been numb, but instead I felt as refreshed as if I had just woken from sleep.
[Analysis complete.]
[Reporting the results.]
Just as I was about to slowly read through the analysis from the Jikbakguri Glasses, another message caught my eye even more.
“Huh?”
Not from the Jikbakguri Glasses—
but a pure system message assigned directly to me.
Notifications were flooding it.
[The level of the skill ‘Mana Leak Physique’ rises!]
[Your overall stats rise significantly.]
[You are now able to handle strength with greater delicacy, your body becomes more nimble, and your mind grows clearer.]
[Your vision clears, allowing you to see objects with greater sharpness.]
[Your senses sharpen, allowing you to perceive things you could not perceive before.]
At this kind of message—something I had never seen before—I could not help but feel dazed.
“What on earth is going on…?”
It seemed that until now…
I had not been making use of even one percent of the blessings of the Twelve Divine Moons.
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