#23 A Day in Beltsmets (2)
We decided to hole up at the base for the time being.
We'd made a decent haul of cash, so now it was time to focus on training we'd been neglecting.
Improving Han Seohyun or Kim Jaeho's skills was important, of course, but the real priority was honing my own power to a razor's edge.
Unlike before, when my growth had hit a wall, I still had plenty left to work on. It had been ages since I'd felt this fire roaring inside me.
And now, I had a specific goal.
"Making it a three-stroke combo."
━That won't be easy.
I nodded at Ray's words.
"Yeah, it probably won't be a walk in the park. But like I said before, affinities that mesh well should be doable even if it's rough around the edges."
I'd discovered several perfect matches over time. Fire and wind, water and lightning. Darkness and gravity had an oddly harmonious vibe, and gravity paired smoothly with telekinesis since they ran in similar veins.
The element with the most combo recipes was water.
Water blended decently with just about anything. And the destructive potential was endless. Water and lightning packed the biggest punch, but water and ice could double the output for the same mana investment—something like that.
The water-ice combo produced results nearly identical to pure ice affinity. But crafting an ice spear with both amps the destructive force way beyond using ice alone. And it actually used less mana.
If ice affinity gives you an output of 2 for an input of 2, water and ice together crank out a 3 from two inputs of 1 each.
I'd uncovered several combos like that.
Spotting more would let me wield mana way more efficiently.
Of course, the real key was getting my body to handle three mana circuits at once.
I activated the mana-boosting bracelet. Output at about 10 percent. The fireball I summoned ballooned to an overwhelming size—but everything stayed under my iron control.
And now, one more.
I closed my eyes and focused my mind. The mana circuits woven through my body came into sharp view.
Ray's help played a part, but my own efforts had let me visualize parts of them.
I hadn't slacked off even in China. Every night, I'd analyzed and memorized my circuits.
There were absurdly many, but daily prodding and dissection let me sort them into rough categories. Like mapping family trees.
Now, I could clearly see which circuit to target.
Right next to the active fire-affinity line—like a tree branch—the wind circuit I wanted sat at the tip.
All I had to do was channel mana there.
Slowly. Carefully.
I eased my mana into the circuit, but it rejected it outright. The stray mana rampaged through my body.
"Gahk."
The gut-wrenching agony crushed the air from my lungs. Blood surged up my throat. Internal damage. I spat it out and immediately drew up more mana to settle the chaos.
"Ngh."
Fire and wind—a natural pairing—and it still failed.
I wiped the blood from my hand and sank back, deep in thought.
"Why isn't it working?"
Guiding the mana to the circuit? Nailed it. The right amount? Perfect. But activation? Nothing. What was the holdup?
The path to success lay right there, taunting me. It only made me hungrier.
━I told you not to rush it!
I exhaled slowly at Ray's scolding. Fair point. Haste like that just got me wrecked again.
But this time, there was progress.
Unlike before, when I couldn't even touch the circuit, I'd actually injected mana. It just bounced back.
Sure, I'd taken a beating, but I'd glimpsed possibility.
And each attempt edged me closer. Keep at it, and success had to come eventually.
━This brute-force crap. You planning to bash your head against it till it cracks?
'Body heals, no big deal.'
Ray tsked in disapproval at my reply.
'But we're making steady gains, right?'
━That's the most ridiculous part.
I stood. Recovery would take time anyway. No sense wasting it.
"Jaeho, over here."
Kim Jaeho ambled over at my call.
The kid had freakish physical specs. Muscles like coiled springs, joints flexible as a cat's. Senses sharper than any normal human's, no doubt.
So even without training, just moving made him a wrecking ball.
Like how he'd pulped those lab researchers' skulls.
But his true talent? Stealth and infiltration, leveraging that body. Those catlike joints made him the ultimate assassin. Right now, though, he was just bulldozing around.
I led him to a clearing littered with fallen leaves.
"Move without making a sound."
Kim Jaeho's glare screamed obscenities.
"Eh, you can do it."
Crack, crunch.
Leaves shattered underfoot. He stomped them deliberately.
"Protesting or what?"
He narrowed his eyes and shook his head.
"How."
"Huh?"
"How. Move."
Beats me. He'd done it naturally in the past. I scratched my head.
"Wanna just keep trying till it clicks?"
His glare darkened.
"Alright, let's figure it out."
Kim Jaeho hated boring stuff. He had the will to train, but it was feather-light. To get him serious, I had to match his energy.
"Make it a game."
"Game?"
"Yeah. Hide-and-seek style."
I pictured him playing with the kids. He'd moped after they vanished—probably missed the fun.
Time for something similar.
"Run circles around me. I'll track you by sound alone and lob ice chunks your way. You sneak up and tag my back without getting caught."
Still nursing wounds, but tiny ice shards were no sweat.
I blindfolded myself. Tracking him like this wasn't hard anyway.
━Ask me, and I'd tell you exactly how he's moving. Kinda cheating, no?
Ray whispered, but I felt no guilt.
'I'll track by sound as much as I can. Just got an ace up my sleeve.'
Reserves were fair game in a contest, right? Though I wouldn't straight-up ask Ray to spot him—just check for fouls.
Crunch.
Thwack.
Kim Jaeho got nailed and stepped lighter, growling—but no dice.
Crunch.
Thwack.
Crunch. Crunch.
Thwack-thwack.
Crunch.
Thwack.
He snarled, hating it. So far, total domination on my end.
But yeah—his footsteps were softening, bit by bit. We drilled it for ages.
And finally.
When the leaf-crunch faded to near silence.
"Stop."
Kim Jaeho stood behind me, face the picture of injustice.
"Pick it up tomorrow."
Internal injuries healed.
Sorry, kid—my training first.
While Kim Jaeho obsessed over silent movement, Han Seohyun kept drilling skeleton control.
The skeletons moved decently now.
"Lately, I've sparred with Jaeho-hyung a few times."
"Hold your own?"
"Yeah, but they get smashed every time."
Still, PvP felt solid now, he said. Plus, he'd been experimenting with black magic variants.
"I can wield black mana, right? Skeletons are just resummoned reconstructions."
True—the current skeleton was made from... Han Jo-hee. But it didn't match her build at all.
"Remade with my mana mixed in. That's why they regenerate on destruction."
I nodded at his explanation.
Not idle chatter.
"So, what'd you figure out?"
He drew up mana. His pupils ignited black. The skeleton shifted—blades sprouted from plain bone arms, like mantis sickles.
"Hah... hah... Turns out I can morph 'em like this with mana. Brutal without extra materials, though."
Sweat beaded thick on his brow—he'd poured it in.
"Pure mana, no ingredients?"
"Yep."
Necromancers needed corpses to shine. Reshaping with raw mana alone? Impressive.
"Hm. Battle-ready for sure."
"Can't hide in the back forever."
Seemed my intel-gathering assignments had bruised his pride.
Fair. Treating a growing teen like dead weight? My bad.
━Doesn't mean drag him into killing.
'Quit whispering like you're my conscience.'
━I am your conscience. I call out your bad ideas every time.
I cleared my throat awkwardly.
Still, after all this effort, sidelining him felt wrong. And he'd followed me for revenge on his brother.
Young or not, with a clear goal, kid gloves were off.
"Good work."
I ruffled his hair.
He beamed—rare for him—like my praise hit home.
Time for a black market run soon. Necromancers needed proper materials.
'How much cash do I even have left?'
Make a pile, watch it vanish. Barely scraping by, and now another hole in the wallet.