C-Class (1)
A sinister sky glowed a bruised purple. The earth was rotting, frothing bubbles, and atop grotesquely twisted, withered dead trees, four-legged crows sat and watched me. Mindful of the edges of my vision — hazy, as if veiled in fog — I looked around, and the only living things were those four-legged crows perched on the dead branches.
A truly ominous place. The kind that belongs in a nightmare and nowhere else.
Then, on what looked like a hill along the horizon, I found a black castle. It was deeply gloomy, the sort of sight that soured your mood the longer you looked — spires jutting up like awls, the whole structure sharp enough to stab. It was far off, and with that wicked red sun at its back I couldn't make out its exact shape. Even so, backlit by a blood-red sun and radiating an ominous aura, the sight of it was deeply unsettling.
……Who am I, to be standing here?
Me? My name is Seoha. Jung Seoha.
A capable guy, with Franc, Hwayeon, and Yeongeun for girlfriends.
So why am I standing here?
……I don't know.
The moment I looked again at that ominous black fortress standing tall, the world before my eyes warped like a kaleidoscope, swirling and changing. My mind reeled so violently that I shut my eyes.
"Seoha?"
"……Mm?"
When I opened them, Franc was there, hands on my shoulders, shaking me gently. A trace of worry lingered on her face.
"Are you all right?"
I looked around. The night sky was still dark, and the boss's corpse — charred black by Judgment Lightning — reeked of rancid rot right in front of me.
"Uh…… yeah. I'm fine. No problem."
What was that scenery just now?
When I recalled that place, thick with malevolent energy, as if it might surface the moment I closed my eyes, the feeling was…… not bad. Not good, either. Just strange.
What is this.
Uneasy, I checked the Phase Power inside my body and found it at exactly 300,000. Even after confirming I'd reached C-Class, the disquiet in my chest refused to fade. Because of that lingering wrongness, the joy of climbing to C-Class had all but vanished.
I let out a heavy sigh and swept the surroundings with Spatial Perception, but everything was exactly as it had been while I was absorbing Phase Power. I turned to Franc and found a question mark over her head…… It had been a long time since I'd seen that. She was looking at me with a question mark floating above her.
"How much time has passed?"
"Pardon? Ah — it's been about three minutes since you spread your arms and absorbed all the Phase Power."
Not long at all……. I was staring blankly at the Elephanturos boss's corpse when Franc broke into a bright smile, threw her arms around my neck, and whispered.
"Congratulations on becoming C-Class!"
"Thanks."
I turned, wrapped my arms around her waist, and buried my face in her full breasts, breathing in a deep lungful of apple scent.
Forget it. For now, just forget it.
Franc seemed to sense something off in how little joy I was showing despite having become C-Class, and she looked at me with worried eyes. I was about to explain what I'd seen — a hallucination, or something else — when…….
Dududududu……. Suddenly the earth began to shake and heave.
"What's this shaking?"
"C-could it be an earthquake……?"
Wondering what was happening, I turned to look around, and by chance my eyes landed on the summit of Elephanturos Mountain.
"Hey, Franc. Take a look at the mountaintop."
"Yes? ……Aaah?!"
"I'm not the only one thinking that, right?"
A moment later the ground shook vertically…… Th-this was bad! From the lava cavern underground, lava began surging upward with terrifying force!
"The volcano's about to erupt!! Franc, run!!"
"Yes!"
Startled by the signs of eruption, I spun Mana Sieve hard into a physical-reinforcement type and bolted — and the instant I did, the scenery began whipping past at a terrifying speed, as if these legs weren't even mine!
"Ghk?!"
"S-Seoha?"
The unfamiliar speed wrecked my balance and nearly sent me sprawling, but I somehow recovered and ran at full power again. Had my physical ability just jumped? For now — just run! I didn't feel that fear prickling at the nape of my neck, but an eruption could fling volcanic bombs, and getting buried in ash was dangerous too. Get as far away as possible!
Franc's eyes had gone wide as a startled rabbit's at my sudden speed, and together we sprinted north.
Rrrumble…… KWA-GWAGWAGWANG—!!!
When we'd covered five kilometers in a short span, a heavy sound that shook the air erupted behind me — a roar like the combined blasts of a dozen of my Mana Cannons. I glanced back as I ran. Through clouds torn to shreds around the mountain, the majestic sight of pitch-black volcanic ash soaring from the peak of Elephanturos Mountain all the way into space filled my entire field of vision.
Kurururu…… TU-KWAAANG……!
The tremors gradually intensified, and then, with a short, heavy boom, crimson lava burst like fireworks through the black smoke.
"Aaah……."
The blast was so powerful that lava shot above the clouds, all the way to the edge of the sky. Once, twice — every time the lava erupted, red was painted over the ash clouds, and with the night sky lit by lava, I couldn't help thinking that place was hell itself. And boulders — volcanic bombs — shot up along with the lava, then…….
Came pouring down this way!!
"Waaaaah?!!"
"Kyaaaaah!"
We'd stopped to watch the eruption, and now we took off running like mad again. Clods of earth and volcanic bombs were hammering down all around us, but thanks to Spatial Perception, calculating their fall paths wasn't particularly hard. That didn't mean it wasn't dangerous.
How many times had I lived through natural disasters an ordinary person might witness only a few times in an entire life — and all within a mere three months? A great flood. An avalanche. And now a volcanic eruption……. Dodging the bombs that thudded down around us, Franc and I ran north without pause.
I'd sprinted at full power for only ten minutes, and yet I reached the tree where Franc and I had rested during the day, and quickly climbed it. The eruption was so immense that even from fifty kilometers away the sight was crystal clear — lava spewing from the crater, and volcanic lightning bursting one after another through the gaps in the pitch-black ash clouds.
Seriously brutal.
Thunder rumbled without cease. At the same time, lava began heaving down the mountainside in streams, and where it met the year-round snow it triggered an enormous steam explosion. That set off a landslide, and a moment later a boom loud enough to split eardrums slammed past the tree where Franc and I were hiding.
Lava that burns everything. A landslide that buries everything. A horrific natural-disaster combo.
"Doesn't look like the volcanic bombs are reaching this far, right?"
"Right. But I'm worried embers might blow over and start a forest fire."
"True…… Then let's not go deep into the forest. We'll wait here and watch how things develop, so even if the woods catch fire we can escape straight to the hills."
We watched volcanic bombs of every size — from no bigger than a fist to as large as a house — rain down on the hills.
"The ash is something else. It just keeps climbing without end? It's got more mass than smoke, so it should be hard for it to rise that high."
"The fallout worries me a little. At this scale, the affected area would span well over a thousand kilometers……."
"What are you worrying about? This is the Phase World. It's not like anyone lives around here, and once we return to reality, that's the end of it. We've hit the goal of C-Class, so let's just run an overall ability test and head back right away."
"……Yes!"
At my words, Franc set her worries aside. She quietly came over, rested her head on my shoulder, and went back to watching the eruption. I drew her waist close and let out a small sigh.
This third round seemed to have gone pretty luckily, too. I'd taken down a proper High-Rank Variant more easily than expected, and thanks to Mana Sieve I'd climbed from D-Class to C-Class by killing only two of them. Honestly, I'd expected at least a month to reach C-Class.
Compared to the thing that had been in that lava, I wasn't even a tenth of it — a C-Class ability user with a mere 300,000 Phase Power. But when I thought about how C-Class was the requirement for forming a raid team, it was clear I'd at least left the ranks of ordinary ability users behind. They say that if you add up everyone from S-Class — of which there is only one person in the entire world — down through E-Class, the total comes to fewer than four million.
C-Class was about sixty thousand worldwide, wasn't it? To be among sixty thousand out of a global population of over six billion, and with an ability that transcended common sense — I could fairly call myself unique among uniques. A legend, even.
"Franc, you used a ridiculous amount of TP when you fired that lightning at the boss earlier, didn't you?"
"Ah, yes. I got angry for a moment and gathered as much as I could before letting it fly. I'm sorry."
"No, no! If it weren't for you, I couldn't have finished that thing off. More than that — a cornered rat bites the cat, right? It might have had a trump card, and the right move is to smash it before it can even use something like that. In that sense, your call was the best possible play."
When I praised her, gently stroking her waist, Franc smiled faintly and cradled my arm against her chest.
"Anyway, that Judgment Lightning was every bit as terrifying as the name of the technique."
"……Ugh."
Heh. She seemed pretty embarrassed about having shouted the technique name as she brought the lightning down, covering her face with both hands and letting out a mortified groan.
"B-but you can launch an attack far stronger than mine, Seoha!"
"The Phase Power I can use at once is only 300,000. You burned through two million TP in a single attack just now. I don't even come up to the tip of your toe."
When I shot back her not-quite-a-defense with a sly grin, her face went red. Cute.
"Anyway, the Soul Stone's Phase Power is down to 100,000. Lightning's banned for a while, until I recharge it for you."
"Okaaay."
Sitting high in a tree with the woman I love, watching a volcanic eruption in the middle of the night — the mood was pretty extreme. They really are right: the best seat for a fire is across the river!
While taking in a fireworks display of raw nature that no fortune could buy a ticket to see, something felt missing, and I tilted my head. Franc was right beside me, so why did it feel empty…… Ah. The claw sword.
Only then did I notice it was gone from my belongings. I looked around, but of course it was nowhere to be seen. Where had I put it? I'd definitely been holding it when we first arrived at Elephanturos Mountain. Had I dropped it fighting the Elephanturos herd?
If so…….
I looked at Elephanturos Mountain, where crimson lava was flowing down like ketchup.
"It's probably melted."
"Yes?"
"Nothing. Just a stray thought. Talking to myself."
I pulled Franc close by the waist as she turned to look at me, and decided to let it go. I probably wouldn't be fighting in close quarters anymore, and if I set my mind to it I had the money for a weapon far better than that. No need to cling to the foreleg of a mere No-Head Mantis.
The eruption didn't stop until morning. Only the lava had ceased; the ash was still billowing up in heaving clumps of gray smoke, like a devil's cloud.
Despite the eruption, I found a puma aberrant that hadn't fled. When I approached, it bared white fangs and growled a threat. I ignored the warning and kept closing in, and with a cute roar — kyaang! — it lunged at me. Watching it come, I flicked a finger, and in that instant—.
Twing.
Unlike a Mana Bullet, whose mechanism I understood and used on purpose, an overwhelming sensation whose principle I couldn't even grasp rose between my brows. Phase Power drained away with a swoosh, and rippling waves spread outward, centered on the puma aberrant that had leapt high.
In the blink of an eye, the puma — whether it had been struck by Spatial Manipulation or had leapt into it, I couldn't tell — died on the spot. It crashed at the same speed it had been flying and splattered, crushed flat with a wet thud. The corpse was considerably grotesque. Like someone had stuffed jelly inside a hide. Swept up in the distortion of space, everything except that tough, flexible skin had been reduced to something that looked like it had been run through a blender.
I grabbed the tail and slowly lifted it, and thick liquid poured from its muzzle. A Phase Stone the size of a thumb rolled out of the mess, and I fished it up with a stick.
"It's a Mid-Rank Variant with a Phase Stone, and it died this easily."
"Mid-Rank Variants can't even resist a Mana Bullet. Still, it does feel like a technique that consumes 35,000 TP. Activating instantly, with no warning — even if you knew it was coming, it would be very hard to dodge."
As Franc said, long-range Spatial Manipulation manifests the instant I will it. Flicking my finger earlier had just been for style…… ahem. Anyway, I confirmed that the long-range version consumes exactly ten times the TP of close-range Spatial Manipulation. Recognize the spot, decide to use it, and a spatial distortion occurs there without even a slight delay.
Organic matter hit by that distortion, if it has no Phase Power, becomes a crushed lump of meat. Things that do have Phase Power generally die with only their hide left, turned to liquid. An incredible ability — but that wasn't the important part. The important part was that if I applied Spatial Manipulation, I could use it as a defensive technique!
Increase the TP spent, and I could extend how long the ripple held. And unlike a Mana Bullet, Spatial Manipulation had no effect on me at all.
Wiiiiing.
In other words, step inside the ripple like this, and it becomes a perfect barrier!
It looked similar to an elemental ability user's Elemental Field, but the effect was completely different. On the defensive side, an aberrant died the moment it touched the barrier, inorganic projectiles couldn't even pass through the ripple and were disintegrated, and organic matter lost its form on contact and became a lump of meat. What surprised me most was that I took no damage at all even from Franc's lightning. I'd asked her to shoot at me to test the technique I'd named Spatial Barrier, and I'd taken bolts up to 1,000 TP, so I was certain.
Lightning that touched the shimmering barrier flowed along its surface this way and that before scattering across the ground, and from that I figured I could block an elemental ability user's attribute shots without taking a scratch. The lightning Franc fires is about ten times as powerful as an ordinary attribute shot, and the barrier hadn't so much as flinched at 1,000 TP. I'd had a hard time coaxing and soothing her — she hated firing lightning at me for the experiment — but the satisfaction more than made up for the trouble.
"Um, Seoha. If it was a test, couldn't you have just deployed Spatial Manipulation in the air and then dropped the lightning on it?"
"……You're right?"
"Honestly! Seoha, you're an idiot!"
Franc exploded in frustration and started pinching me.
After getting thoroughly pinched, I set about researching how to actually use the Spatial Barrier. In its current state, all I could do was stand inside a shimmering ripple. After half a day of testing this way and that, I found that if I raised a ripple centered on myself, then spread a barrier of Phase Power over the surface of my body with Mana Sieve and moved, the ripple would be dragged along with me.
"Wahahaha! Success! Franc, I did it!"
"Congratulations. I believed you would succeed, Seoha!"
I was hopping around in delight when a strange feeling hit me. I lifted one leg to check the sole of my shoe, and saw that a barrier had been cast beneath my feet as well.
"Huh? There's a barrier under my feet too, so why am I standing just fi—aaaaaah?!"
"Kyaah!! Seoha?!"
As if the ground had dropped out from under me, my body plunged — swoosh — straight into the earth. Startled by the weightless lurch of the fall, I released the Spatial Barrier. I caught with a jolt and the fall stopped, but in that brief moment I'd been buried nearly ten meters underground.
In a suffocating claustrophobia, I thrashed, desperate to get out. Maybe because of that, the soil above collapsed, pouring down over my head and sealing the hole that had opened.
"Hieek?!"
Is this what claustrophobia feels like?! Buried alive, I was so shocked my heart nearly stopped. I hastily pushed Mana Mode to its limit, dug a tunnel like a mole, and crawled back up to the surface.
"Puhwaaah! Th-that startled me!"
I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Cold sweat ran, and my hands and feet trembled. I sat sprawled on the ground, covered in dirt, and Franc — apparently as shocked as I was — approached with a pale face and stroked my cheek with trembling hands.
"Ah, I'm fine, okay? I've got Spatial Perception, and Mana Mode too. Even if I'm buried alive, I can get out whenever I want."
Not that Spatial Perception had even crossed my mind. I'd been so startled by the ground dropping out that my heart nearly stopped.
After barely calming Franc down, I analyzed why it had happened, and figured out the reason quickly.
"Aha. So it only blocks or erases what I recognize."
Come to think of it, every time I used the ability I'd been recognizing the target with Spatial Perception, hadn't I? When I killed the puma, when I took the lightning — and earlier, the moment I recognized the ground, I fell. Spatial Manipulation is an ability that triggers at a place I've recognized, so this seemed right.
Calming my pounding heart, I looked into the Spatial Barrier's traits. Deploying it once used 60,000 TP, and it lasted about thirty minutes. The more attacks it took, the shorter the duration, and I had a rough sense that one of Franc's 500,000 TP lightning bolts would drop the barrier in a single hit.
"Interesting. Is the Spatial Barrier linked to Spatial Perception? Put the barrier up, and Spatial Perception checks the remaining time on its own."
"I can't tell with the Spatial Perception I use. It seems only yours can see it."
Deploying the Spatial Barrier meant I couldn't see outside from within, because of the ripple, and it only blocked what I'd recognized — those were drawbacks. But I had Spatial Perception, so that part shouldn't matter. I could also release the barrier whenever I wanted, and I liked that withdrawing it recovered a certain amount of TP.
My precautions for safety in a fight had been lacking, but this put my mind considerably more at ease. I probably wouldn't die a pointless death fighting something stronger than me. There'd been a moment in the middle that scared the hell out of me, but anyway, I successfully wrapped up the barrier test and checked what had changed in my other abilities.
First, Mana Mode. Another ring had been added to the annual-ring pattern of Mana Mode, the foundation of my combat power, making it seven layers.
"Every time my class goes up, one more line gets added to the annual-ring pattern."
"Elemental ability users exert stronger power as their class rises, and it seems Mana Mode is the same."
As Franc said, Mana Mode's base physical ability had risen from F-Class level to E-Class, and in the accelerated state it had climbed from E-Class level to D-Class. Mental acceleration had grown stronger too — roughly…… a feeling of the world around me slowing by as much as sixty percent compared to normal.
Sixty percent is just a way of putting it. It means I can move nearly one and a half times faster than other people. Add Mana Mode's physical reinforcement on top of that, and I figure my reflexes and speed alone might surpass C-Class and reach somewhere around B-Class.
TP consumption had dropped as well. Mana Mode - Acceleration, which had been burning six percent a minute, had been cut in half to three percent a minute, so factoring in recovery I could now hold it for over fifty minutes. Maximizing Mana Mode into a physical-reinforcement type, that premature-ejaculation mode — which still couldn't last ten seconds even with my Phase Power full — remained the same. But I also confirmed I could briefly pull it up to B-Class level.
"Not that it means anything for someone like me."
"Ahaha……."
What use is it for a klutz like me to put out B-Class physical reinforcement for ten seconds? I'd rather throw a Mana Cannon or fire off Spatial Manipulation in that time.
Mana Bullet…… the range and flight speed were the same, but I had a vague hunch — a feeling of a feeling — that its disintegrating power had gone up. I'd be sure if I practiced on a Mid-High Grade aberrant, but there were no aberrants around…….
Franc seemed to realize something, and spoke while clapping her hands once.
"Mana Bullet is following the operating principle of attribute shots, too."
"Yeah?"
"An elemental ability user's attribute shots get stronger as the user's class rises, right? If Mana Bullet didn't work on the Mid-High Grade Elephanturos because there was a one-class gap between you and it, then it makes sense."
"Then now it should inflict hitstun on High-Rank Variants too, and show some real effect."
Mana Cannon's compression limit had increased further, so I could now condense it up to 15,000. I test-fired one, and an explosion effect that stirred instinctive fear no matter how many times I saw it traced across the empty air before vanishing.
"……The blast radius looks about 1.6 times wider, doesn't it?"
"I-it's a little scary. The power should have grown along with the cost, and the range grew too……."
Mana Laser was showing off the full dignity of a true optical weapon, and Healing Wave could now spread a blue wave by consuming up to seventy percent of my Phase Power — but the effect…… I don't know. I'll have to set aside some time, linger around the emergency room at Dad's hospital, and deploy it when a trauma patient comes in.
After confirming every ability I could use, I gained the confidence that I could take down even High Grade ones. Thinking of the Spatial Barrier and my strengthened means of attack, I figured there was nothing I couldn't catch. It would be a little dangerous, but fighting aberrants was never going to be safe in the first place.
Hmm. And I should be more careful with aberrants that had formed a Phase Stone in their heart. Those ones seemed stronger than the rest.
"Whew. That should be everything."
It wasn't even night yet, but it was dark, and when I looked up, ash clouds were covering the sky overhead. When had the wind shifted northeast?
"You've worked hard. We ought to return before the fallout starts coming down, shouldn't we?"
"Yeah."
I drew in a long breath and let it out slowly. I'd reached the point where I could take down a High-Rank Variant on my own, and I'd gained a defensive technique. At this level, maybe I didn't need to go around deliberately hiding my ability.
I didn't know who had attacked me. I didn't know what they wanted. They had come after me when I'd done nothing wrong, so it was easy to guess that if they learned I was still alive, they would attack again.
So I would find the ones who had attacked me.
Find them…… and kill them.
Moving northeast from Elephanturos Mountain in search of a Return Point, I noticed something like ash powder beginning to fall from the sky. I tore the lining from my school uniform — a mess of dirt, dust, and blood — and made a mask to cover my mouth and nose. It was a shabby thing, but the lining was high quality and tightly woven, and it seemed to serve well enough.
I had Mana Mode running, and thanks to Mana Sieve my regeneration and recovery were both heightened, so a little fallout wasn't going to kill me. Still, there was no need to deliberately breathe in something bad for the body.
As I moved, traces of water appeared at the very edge of my Spatial Perception. At first I figured it was just a puddle, but the farther I walked, the larger it grew. At that size, it was practically a lake.
"There's a lake to the west. Let's go that way."
"Yes."
I hadn't properly washed in all this time, and I'd never looked more like a beggar. I ought to clean up a bit before returning to reality.
"Wow, the lake is incredibly clear. Oh, there are so many fish!"
The moment we reached the shore, Franc flew over the surface of the water, delighted. A lake large enough to slip beyond my Spatial Perception — and the water was so clean it was nearly indigo. You could see the lakebed clear through.
I looked down at myself. The uniform was a ruin of dirt, dust, and sweat. Lightning had scorched it in places, and dried blood had left black marks here and there. I caught my reflection in the mirror-like surface and startled.
Is this seriously what a person looks like…….
Washing myself in a lake this clean stirred a pang of guilt, but once the fallout came down it would be a dead lake where nothing could live. No need to be polite about it.
"Seoha?!"
When I stripped off my uniform jacket and walked into the lake with a splash, Franc startled and pulled at my arm.
Hm? Ah — is it the trauma?
"My clothes and body are a bit dirty, so I was going to wash. It's fine."
"Aau, you startled me……."
At that, the startled look finally left her face, but she still held my arm and hesitated.
"If I were afraid of water, I couldn't have showered at home either. Don't worry."
"Th-that's true, but……."
Smiling, I stroked Franc's head, slipped my hand free, and started on the uniform. Every time I scrubbed hard underwater, muddy water bloomed out in a cloud. The fortunate part was that, perhaps because Mana Mode's physical reinforcement had cut down on body waste, the clothes I'd worn for ten straight days weren't as grimy as they should have been. Good thing I wasn't too ashamed to be seen by Franc.
After washing the jacket well enough, I stripped off my shirt and pants and was splashing around when Franc let out a small sigh.
"Seoha? I'll wash them for you, so please hand them here."
Franc practically confiscated the uniform, sank into the water, and began laundering the clothes with careful hands. She had a body now, but its foundation was still that of a spirit, so her dress didn't so much as dampen when she entered the water. A shame. I'd been picturing the kind of thing where wet cloth clings and shows off every curve.
……Wait. Then I just need to put real clothes on her, don't I?
"Franc. When we go back, I'll buy you pretty clothes."
"Yes?"
Franc, hand-washing my uniform, turned and asked again. She must not have heard over the water.
"When we return to reality, I'll buy you pretty clothes. Don't reshape your body anymore — wear clothes, and go around like that."
"Ah…… yes!"
She must have been quite happy that I was going to buy her clothes. A smile filled Franc's face as she went back to washing the uniform. I watched her humming, then washed my face, neck, arms, and legs as well.
Kraah. So this is what a physical-reinforcement body feels like.
When I was an ordinary person, a single sleepless night would have grease pouring off me, and I couldn't get clean without soap. Now a splash of water left my skin soft and fresh as a baby's. When I'd finished washing and slicked my wet hair straight back, Franc — done with the laundry — stared at my face with round eyes, then flushed faintly across the cheeks. Seeing that, my heart and my third leg both started pounding.
"Ahem! F-Franc?"
"Y-yes?"
At my heated gaze and trembling voice, Franc began looking at me with heated eyes of her own. Emboldened by the desire in that look, I spoke.
"Now that we've achieved the goal, too…… right?"
"Th-that's right…… since you've accomplished your purpose……."
I hadn't finished the sentence, but call it a meeting of hearts — Franc nodded shyly as well. My eyes kept being drawn to her moist lips as I crept closer, and Franc swallowed hard and lifted her face, as if waiting for a kiss.