Mana Thread

Flash—!

The chill vanished, and the lobby's faintly warmer air pressed in to take its place. Where the charred goblin had been, Hunters now stood.

Eleven points, the clear reward for the Tower's first floor. Not many. I would have to see what they could buy.

Right. The status window first.

It was real. Killing a single goblin had carried me to level 20, and Fireball's skill level had climbed to 20 right along with it.

Does that even make sense?

Were they shoving this hard because I was a dead man anyway? At this rate I might master the fire attribute before bedsores finished me off...

"Huh?"

I caught myself and ran through the branches in a hurry.

Master fire first. Then water, earth, wind, and ice, in that order. Get that far, and elemental magic itself would be ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mastered. And once elemental magic was mastered, learning an entirely new branch of skills became possible as well.

Then I could acquire the Holy line, too.

If I did, I might be able to heal this body. No—I would be able to. With a skill-acquisition cheat this absurd, healing had to be within reach.

"Well... I'll be a hundred percent dead before then, though."

Possible in the structure of the logic. Impossible in practice. It was high summer, the room stifling with the air conditioner off, and the body on the bed was already rotting from the inside.

"...Hah."

Sunk by a reality that hadn't changed in the slightest, I went over to the skill merchant.

Fortunately, there was a skill I could buy for ten points. Mana Thread. I had heard the name a few times, and as I remembered it, the verdict was merciless.

A trash skill. A lump of filth not worth learning. A vermin skill that made even ten points feel wasted. Some Hunters didn't hesitate to say it dirtied the status window.

I learned it anyway. What was the point of keeping the points? I was going to die regardless.

I checked the skill.

I lifted a hand to use it—and the world before my eyes flickered.

My time in the lobby was up. It was time to return to reality.

The instant I was back, I tried to move. As expected, I didn't budge. Of course not. Awakening was hardly some absolute cure.

Bzzzzzzzzzt!!!

Flies had already gathered. The stink of rotting meat was beginning to rise, and it was unmistakably coming off Lee Hee-ja's corpse.

I remembered that vicious face, the one that had spat curses at me out of habit. I couldn't even understand why. A woman with no particular ability of her own had been paid close to ten million won every month simply for looking after me. Shouldn't she have been flat on the floor in gratitude?

Then again, maybe the bowing was reserved for Lee Tae-sik.

Thought of that way, it made sense. The one paying was my uncle, Lee Tae-sik, and I was nothing but a slab of meat. Filthy. The whole arrangement.

Bzzzzzzzzzt!!!

At least the adjustable bed's backrest was raised, so I wasn't staring at nothing but the ceiling. That much was less suffocating. I could see Hee-ja's corpse, the blood that had dried stiff, and the flies drifting through the air.

Noisy. The flies.

Could Mana Thread drive them off?

It was supposed to be a rotten skill, so I didn't expect much. Still, a fly might be within its reach. Thinking so, I called the skill to mind, and from roughly where my palm ought to be, a thread came wriggling up.

It was terribly thin. The bluish cast was probably the mana. It looked so feeble it seemed fit for nothing more than chasing flies. I cast it on will alone, and the thread stretched out long.

Crunch!

"...Huh?"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Something I hadn't expected happened. The thread that flew in didn't chase the fly. It crushed it.

The reason was simple. The fly never perceived the Mana Thread. It hadn't even been flying fast, and still it was pressed against the thread, burst, and died.

They can't see it.

It was visible to my eyes alone. Hunters who wielded mana might be another matter, but ordinary ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠creatures could not detect Mana Thread at all.

That was when it happened.

Ah... right. Now that I thought about it, Mana Thread was a skill like any other. Of course Transcendence applied.

So. What changed at level 20? I drew the thread out.

Shrrk!

A sound like something being pulled free—and five strands of Mana Thread shot out before my eyes. I let out a short laugh. Five strands. I could kill flies five at a time.

Then I flinched. From the lower edge of my vision, more blue threads came crawling up. Not five. Hundreds. Thin as a jellyfish's tentacles, they writhed in the empty air in front of me, exactly as if they were waiting for an order.

My god...

I had to see them properly. I wrapped the tentacles around my arm and carefully lifted it, and the sight that followed was profoundly shocking.

Hundreds of threads rooted in my palm. Two hundred, at the very least. Add the other hand, and it was easily four hundred.

And there was something stranger still.

I can feel it.

Since the accident—through all of the last eight years—I had not once felt anything touch my skin. Through the Mana Thread, that sensation came through whole.

I was certain of it. Astonishingly, Mana Thread was operating on a mechanism entirely unlike my severed nerves.

Hope set my heart pounding, and not merely because I had felt something after so long. Was it because the skill had reached level 20? Contrary to everything the community claimed, Mana Thread performed far better than I had imagined. Used properly, maybe...

I might not die...?

I had thought I would lie on this bed and die with no way to stop it. I was wrong.

I would still need to take a closer look at the situation, but if I put Mana Thread to proper use, my odds of surviving looked considerably higher.

I had to test it. Scorned as a trash skill, a level-20 Mana Thread that had likely never existed even once in history—how perfectly could I control it?

A detached house, set deep in the woods.

Whoosh!

Flame rose. Mana Thread flung Lee Hee-ja's corpse into the fire, and the blaze swallowed that filthy body with a crimson tongue. In moments the sinner's body was powder, scattering somewhere on the wind until it was gone.

Fall to hell.

I spat the curse once, inwardly, and decided to forget her. There was a sliver of room for gratitude. If that woman hadn't collapsed from a concussion, I never would have awakened—and even if I had, I wouldn't have gained a power this monstrous. She had lived like garbage. At least, in dying, she had done one decent thing.

Whoosh!

Watching the flames, I sank into thought. The good news was plentiful enough.

First, I had burned Hee-ja's body clean before it could rot to pieces. Second, level-20 Mana Thread meant I could keep myself alive. And last—the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠third piece of good news—the bodily reinforcement from leveling had applied to me in full. The instant I felt along my body with the threads, I knew. The nerves were severed, but the body itself was an Awakener's solid frame.

Creak!

Which was why I was sitting now in the rocking chair out in the yard. Without the Awakening I couldn't have imagined sitting there, but there was nothing wrong with the body. With Mana Thread I could even haul myself upright, and I could walk. Wrap the threads completely around me, and the sensation itself came to resemble the real thing, at least in part. I shuffled like someone whose body didn't quite obey—but I could walk. I had lived shut in a room for a full eight years. That alone was enough to move me.

First, let me look over the house.

A detached house ringed on every side by thick forest. Nothing of the outside could be seen. A narrow path a single car could barely squeeze down ran out from it, and the interior came to roughly eighteen hundred square feet. Far too large for two people to be living in.

There were four rooms in all, and each of them was big. Mine, the one with the bed, was the largest. Right beside it was Lee Hee-ja's bedroom.

Whoosh!

I burned every last one of her revolting belongings. Seize them with Mana Thread and throw—that was all it took. Flames kindled by Fireball were nothing like ordinary fire. The heat was so fierce it melted even glass. Nothing remained.

The third room was a bathroom. An enormous tub, and a dry sauna besides. Unbelievable. She had treated me like an insect, and right next door she had been living in luxury.

The fourth was a dressing room of sorts, packed with clothes and cosmetics. Those, too, I gathered with Mana Thread and burned.

The shed outside the house was crammed with household goods. Anything that looked like hers met the same pyre. I kept only what I needed.

Creak.

I opened the door with the threads and returned to the bed. Even the bloodstains had been wiped clean, and the bedroom was comfortable now. It finally felt real—the fact that in all this wide house, I was the only one left.

What do I do now?

The thought from a moment ago came back to me.

Master every elemental magic. After that, I could acquire the Holy line. There might even be a skill capable of regenerating nerves.

It would take a great many points, of course. It might not even be an ordinary skill book sold in the skill shop, but a rare one obtainable only from a specific monster.

So long as I didn't die, it would be possible someday. And if it was—if I could move this body again...

Lee Tae-sik. The man who had betrayed my father and cast me into the gutter. With my own hands, I might yet take revenge on him.

Let's do it.

It was far better than before the Awakening, when I hadn't even possessed the right to die. Die to a monster in the Tower, and you lost your life in reality as well. So now, at least, I had something like the right to die.

Thinking so, I set straight to the next thing that had to be done. My only attack magic. It was time to thoroughly explore the Fireball skill, shining at level 20.