The Decisive Battle of Breast Mountain (1)

The trinity Franc and I had put our heads together to build—Spatial Perception, Physical Enhancement, and Attribute Manipulation—we gave the name Mana Mode.

While we were measuring how steeply physical ability climbed against TP spent, we happened on a way to fold thought-acceleration in as an option. Being able to loose Mana Bullets even in a physically enhanced state was a joy in itself, and so was learning to call up, on purpose, the acceleration of thought we had named Mana Mode - Acceleration.

Switch Acceleration on, and physical ability rises to twice what Mana Mode alone provides. On top of that, every motion around me—enemies included—feels slowed to as little as eighty percent. Look at it one way and it is a mere twenty percent. Look at it another, and it means I can think, and commit to an action, a full twenty percent faster than anyone else. For a head as cluttered with stray thoughts as mine, that edge would be enormous.

The synergy of physical enhancement and accelerated thought, in particular, was sharp enough that I could follow with my own eyes the path of a lightning bolt Franc fired. I cannot begin to say how glad I was to confirm it. It meant my odds of dying in a fight against an Aberrant of comparable strength had dropped sharply. …If my analysis ability were still with me, I would not even have to worry about this.

When I fought the zombie penguins yesterday, I had cranked Acceleration as high as it would go without a second thought. Once Mana Mode was developed, I realized just how wasteful that had been. I had burned through most of my TP in under twenty seconds—that said it all. Still, my physical ability had climbed nearly to E-Class… hmm.

The harder I pushed Acceleration, the more monstrous the TP drain per second became, and the more my physical ability spiked with it. After working through the sweet spot with Franc, we concluded that spending 0.1% TP per second was the most efficient. At that rate, thought runs twenty percent faster than standard Mana Mode and physical ability rises to twice Mana Mode’s level, while the state holds for a thousand seconds—sixteen minutes. Of course I could not spend all sixteen. Mana Bullets ate plenty of TP on their own, and dragging physical ability any higher pulled consumption up with it. Franc advised me to plan on about five minutes for a proper fight.

Last of all, the results of the analysis Franc and I ran on physical ability and Mana Mode.

The faster I spun Phase Power through the Mana Sieve, the higher the Physical Reinforcement multiplier climbed—but TP consumption climbed with it. When I pushed it to ten times, an estimated C-Class Physical Reinforcement user’s level, my TP vanished in two seconds, and a savage headache dropped me rolling across the ground for good measure. I figured thought acceleration had sped up just as much as the body had.

“Still, ‘Mana Mode’ is painfully chuunibyou…”

“I-is it? It seemed perfectly fitting to me…”

No point hiding it. Franc was the one who had proposed the name. Watching her flush and fail to meet my eyes, I shrugged. I was the one who had signed off on it, granted.

After that I drilled Mana Bullet projection until daybreak, and by the time the sun rose I had achieved the feat of a hundred shots, a hundred hits—a firing success rate of one hundred percent. As the motion grew familiar and the repetitions piled up, the cooldown shrank as well, until at the end I could cut the firing time down to three seconds. Alternating hands, that worked out to one shot every second and a half.

And then another technique popped out of nowhere. Add spin when projecting a Mana Bullet, accelerate it further, and pour in a heavy dose of TP, and the bullet transformed into something like an optical weapon. When I saw the laser firing in a continuous beam, a cheer tore out of me before I knew it.

Zzing! Zzziiing—!

“Whoa! It’s like a ray gun!”

“Heavens…”

A short, colorless, transparent laser no thicker than a pencil, bending the space around it and punching clean through everything it touched—there was something in that sight that stirred a boy’s heart. The drawback was range, which dropped so sharply that past fifty meters it might as well not have existed. In exchange, I realized that if I kept feeding it TP it turned into an actual beam saber, and I laughed like a madman. A beam saber! That is a man’s dream! Usefulness could sit in the back!

Watching rock and tree shear apart with a crisp snick-snick, as if a high-frequency blade had kissed them, I capered in delight—and then it hit me.

“Ah. This thing burns an absurd amount of TP. Three seconds of fire and eight hundred TP just evaporated.”

Eh, it’s fine! It costs a little more ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠TP, but I believe it will hit just as hard in return!

“This one’s getting called Mana Laser!”

My Phase Power had not changed, but developing several techniques and locking down real combat strength in a single day filled me with a pleasant fullness of satisfaction. With power like this, I felt I could take all four of the Silver White Wolf family at once and win. I would not actually try it, of course—being surrounded was its own kind of danger. I could exploit the attacker’s advantage and pick them off one by one in a guerrilla war. No need to slam in headfirst like a brute.

Franc and I sat side by side at the water’s edge—coast or lakeshore, I was not sure what to call it—and watched the red sun climb out of the horizon.

“Let’s rest a few hours, then start. While we’re cleaning up, I’ll look for this thing called a Return Point. If there isn’t one, we move.”

“You will take the mountain’s master as well, will you not?”

“Yeah. I’ll bring it down before we leave and pocket the Phase Stone.”

Perhaps because I had spent the night raising thunder and explosions, Spatial Perception showed me the mountain’s master at the peak, along with his females, all of them wary of this direction. The other Aberrants reacted much the same. They either sent hostility my way, or they fled far off. Spatial Perception had kindly marked the ones radiating killing intent, so I decided that the moment my Phase Power recovered, I would kindly punch them an express ticket straight to the underworld. Watching the Silver White Wolf family glare this way through that sense, I ran the fight against them through my head.

Grrgle.

“Ah—now that I think of it, Seoha, you have eaten nothing since that single fish yesterday morning.”

“Y-yeah.”

Fish, huh… my appetite vanished on the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠spot. Franc did not seem to share the feeling. She popped to her feet, pointed at the lake, and tugged my hand.

“Then let us go and catch some fish!”

“Huh? Uh, sure.”

“Come, make haste!”

Ugh. Sashimi was one thing, but tearing into raw fish was something I was really starting to want to decline…! Being a man who could not refuse, I searched out where the fish were at her request, and retrieved the two nameless fish she had stunned.

Wearing a reluctant face, I dressed the catch and headed back into the forest my rampage had laid waste. All the while, Spatial Perception’s alarm kept blinking. Killing intent streamed in without pause, in real time, and I had the feeling the proficiency of the ability was climbing because of it. Cowards, the lot of them. If you are going to throw killing intent around like that, at least come at me. Not one of them wanted to die badly enough to step inside a three-hundred-meter radius.

The fish were the real problem, though… Could I light a fire now? Grilled, they would at least be edible. While I fretted over it and gathered a heap of moisture-leaves to rinse my mouth, Franc asked me to wait a moment.

“Seoha, might you hold the fish like so, just for a moment?”

“Huh? Like this?”

As she had asked, I skewered the fish on a thin, sharp twig and held it up. She set her fingers to its head and tail, and then… Whoa. The fish was cooking. What?

Checking with Spatial Perception, I saw the Soul Stone’s Phase Power ticking down a steady 0.07 per second. Curious, I studied Franc’s pale fingers and found current running between them, cooking the fish caught in the middle. Steam curled up as the flesh blanched white. After spending about two Phase Power over thirty seconds to cook it, Franc glanced at my face and pointed at a gray grass.

“Tear this gray grass fine, sprinkle it over, and then try it.”

I hesitated, then did as she said, shredding the gray grass—it looked like an orchid—into fine strips before taking a bite of the appetizingly cooked fish.

“…Incredible.”

“Is it to your liking?”

“It’s amazing! Whoa, what is this. The flesh is so moist and springy, and that spicy, clean-bitter bite just wakes the appetite right up. This is the best!”

“I am glad it pleases you.”

At my fussing, Franc let out a small sigh of relief. She had drawn on the Soul Stone’s Phase Power to cook the fish—that must have been why. I briefly wondered whether I ought to say something or just let it pass, but pointing it out every time would only sour things between us, so I let it go. The only real way to keep this from happening was for me to find a way to recharge the Soul Stone, and soon.

“Franc, you’re seriously the best! Thank you! I’ll eat well, Franc!”

Instead I fired off thumbs-up after thumbs-up and piled on the praise. Three compliments for every scolding, I figured, ought to be acceptable enough. I crunched straight through the crackling bones and crisp scales and demolished the fish in a flash, and Franc, smiling as if she were happy, set to cooking the remaining one. She looked so much like a lovely new bride that my appetite only sharpened. Enough that I wanted to eat Franc up along with it.

I shredded the grass that gave off that spicy, clean-bitter taste, topped the fish, and wiped it out in an instant. Franc, who had been watching me eat from a formal kneel, worked her fingertips together as if delighted.

“That was really good. Best fish I’ve ever eaten in my life.”

“Hehehe. You flatter me.”

“No, I mean it.”

Mom had tried every dish imaginable to get me to eat fish, and I had forced it down every time, but I had never once thought it tasted good. The fishy reek always hit me strangely hard. Force down anything even a little fishy and the nausea would climb right up… Mom said it was because my palate was too keen, but the fish I had eaten today had been incredible. Was it this gray grass?

Finished with the meal and waiting for my TP to recover, I watched Franc drifting in the air, then reached both hands out toward her.

“…”

A faint blush rose on her face, and she came into my arms. Holding her, I found myself wishing I had grown just a little taller. Awakening had added a bit of height and gotten me out of dwarf country, but I was still about Franc’s height, and a posture like this… did not quite suit. Yeah. In a word, I was too short to tuck her snugly into my arms.

…Damn it.

With that regret sitting in my chest, I stroked Franc’s hair and back, gave that plump, rice-cake softness of a backside a light touch, and turned the Mana Sieve to concentrate Phase Power in my eyes. Her gleaming blonde hair, bright as if it sparkled, and her white skin. Rounded shoulders, a slender waist… and, because she lay angled in my arms, a hip line thrown into even sharper relief. My heart gave a heavy thud. Reach out a hand and I could touch Franc’s breasts, her stomach… her petals.

……

Hold it. I am holding it! The mood is not bad even now, but doing this outdoors…! Nngh!

…Even at home, with my sister and Mom around, anything lewd would be off the table. Maybe once I got back I should take the Time River signing money—five billion won—get a place of my own, and move out? The original plan had been to take that advance and learn a pile of techniques at the skill shop to bulk up my combat power. But now that I had made the Mana Sieve and Mana Mode, maybe I could skip a few of those. With that money I could rent a decent apartment or a studio and get all cuddly with Franc… play at being lovers… ehehe…

I had been turning thoughts like that over when I realized Franc had fallen asleep. Well, I was burning off physical and mental fatigue through the Mana Sieve and through Franc herself, but she could not do the same, so of course she had been tired. She brightened and dimmed by turns, lighting the surroundings like a paper lantern, but there were no Aberrants nearby, so it hardly mattered. I stopped stroking her hair and carefully wrapped an arm around her slim waist.

“Mmm…”

Letting out a small moan and curling in on herself, Franc looked for all the world like a sleeping princess of the woods. A princess without a stitch on. Was there a man alive who would not get worked up seeing this?

Filthy imaginings lifted their heads. To do something wicked to this unstained white nakedness and dye it in my own color—how good would that feel…

No—I am going to get hard!

I have to hold it!

“Seoha…”

Hah. Franc. Whisper by my ear like that and my reason… my hand might do something it should not. The dark dragon of my right hand began to thrash. No—if the seal breaks, if it comes undone…! The trembling hand crept, little by little, toward Franc’s lush breasts, and…

“I… love… you…”

……

I quietly drew the hand back, scratched the nape of my neck, and carefully wrapped an arm around her waist. Then I whispered softly by her ear.

“Thank you. I love you too.”

“All right! Shall we start the hunt for real!”

Three hours later, Franc woke from her morning doze, tilted her head at my energetic self as if to ask what on earth had happened at dawn, then smoothed her expression and spoke with a serious face.

“I am glad you are in good spirits, Seoha, but the time has come to hunt Aberrants. You must stay sharp!”

“Yeah!”

I washed in the cold water at the shore, wet my throat with a few moisture-leaves, and took up the claw sword. The spear-thrower… I would not need that anymore, would I? I could use Mana Bullets now, so the Paleolithic weapons could go.

“While you were asleep I picked out a good spot for sniping. From there, any Aberrant that comes running—or the mountain’s master—will stand out right away, and I can shoot them dead before they close in.”

I meant to kill the mountain’s master with the Mana Laser if I could. Concentrate Phase Power in my eyes through the Mana Sieve, and Mana Bullets all showed as a watery light. The Phase Power diffused through the air was that same faint watery hue, invisible unless I looked for it, and Phase Stones were watery light too—so if my Mana Bullet touched a Phase Stone, I had a feeling it would simply evaporate. A Phase Stone of Phase Power 360, if Hwayeon had it right, ran about five hundred million won including the distributor’s cut. I could not just throw that away for nothing. No—if it got dangerous, Phase Stone or not, I would blow it away! My life was worth more than five hundred million won!

“Sniping is a truly fine means of conve— a fine method, yes!”

…Had she been about to say a fine means of conversation? I looked at Franc in disbelief, and she turned red and pretended to be interested in something else.

“Sniping’s a good way to have a conversation?”

“…Among the regular knights I was close with, there was one who held a sniper’s position, and that person’s pet phrase was simply…”

A woman, right? It had to be a woman. Franc, smiling shyly as if embarrassed, was cute enough that if I let my guard down I would hug her before I knew it. Can’t. I can’t. A fight with my life on the line was about to start, and falling apart like this would be a problem! To pull my head together I slapped my own cheek with a sharp crack, then activated Mana Mode and moved quickly to the spot I had picked out.

Thanks to all the rampaging I had done last night, no Aberrant stood in my way. I crossed the forest fast, and when I reached the destination a somewhat steep, jagged rock hill spread out before my eyes. Up ahead, a boulder three times the size of the others—taller than the nearby trees, big as a house—was the target.

“Hup!”

“When you jump, put strength into your waist and legs. If you release it midway, your balance will collapse, and that is far more dangerous.”

“R-right!”

“When you land, set the ball of the foot down first, then bend through heel, knee, and waist, in that order.”

“Swinging both arms is a bad habit. Keep them close to the body, or extend them forward for balance.”

“Holding the waist straight is good form, but it worsens air resistance, so a modest lean is better.”

As expected of a former knight, Lady Franc was rich in the knowledge of how a body ought to move. Every bit of it was advice that would sink into blood and bone. Coached by her, I packed strength into both legs and my waist and hopped five meters at a bound, moving from rock to rock. Every jump, the wind shearing across my whole body felt good.

“Made it! Whew.”

“You have worked hard.”

“Thanks. Your advice helped a lot, Franc.”

“Ehehe.”

Sweat ran, pleasantly. I wiped my brow with a palm and stood atop the destination—the house-sized boulder—taking the scenery in. It was a view like a deserted island in a vast sea. Thanks to where I stood, the summit of Breast Mountain and most of its middle reaches fell inside Spatial Perception’s range.

“Figures there aren’t many Aberrants left. Looks like a large-scale battle broke out on the far side of the mountain too.”

“How many remain?”

“The west is practically empty, as you can see. East side plus the mountain’s master, all together about thirty. Stress must have been piled sky-high, right on the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠edge of blowing, and yesterday’s mess was the detonator.”

The mountain’s master, perhaps having spotted me closing in, had risen from the boulder he used as a bed and was on extreme alert. A beast, looking down on a person. Arrogant bastard. He and I were about two hundred and fifty meters apart in a straight line. Then I realized that within a six-hundred-meter radius, the only Aberrants were that master and his three wives. From the way the Low-Rank Variants were scrambling to flee, they had sensed a fight was about to break out between the mountain’s master and his challenger.

“Hmm.”

“I believe the mountain’s master is looking at you, Seoha.”

“He’s glaring, all right. Acts like he takes me for a challenger.”

Behind him, the three females were watching me too. Right now, a Mana Bullet might manage four kills in one shot. A one-TP Mana Bullet’s erasure range was generally five meters across. Spend a little more and the range grew, so I could wipe them all at once. The speed was a little slower than an arrow, so they might dodge, but if I sprayed them without mercy, something would land.

But I had to recover the Phase Stones, so I could not loose a Mana Bullet. Even if the mountain master’s Phase Power evaporated, there was still the wind raccoon—but that one was a ranged type too, and if a fight started it would be an artillery duel, one hundred percent. It would evaporate just the same. …Why was I treating it as a given that a Mana Bullet would evaporate a Phase Stone? Should I test it once? No. Those things’ Phase Stones alone were worth two or three hundred million won apiece. Blowing one up as a test was serious money. I would get a chance to confirm it later. This time, recovering the Phase Stones came first.

“Before I fight the mountain’s master, should I clear out every Aberrant around here? If my back feels unsafe, my attention’s going to split.”

“At a time like this, you must act boldly. Those are Low-Rank Variants and Mid-Low Rank Variants at best. They cannot withstand you, Seoha, now that you have secured a means of attack. Yesterday, even in an ordinary attribute-type form, did you not erase a Low-Rank Variant as if blowing it away? And you have Mana Mode as well.”

“…Right. You’re right.”

I had Mana Mode and Mana Bullets now. Even a 0.1 TP Mana Bullet ought to be enough against a Low-Rank Variant. Even so, I decided to blow away the two young Silver White Wolves licking their wounds at the edge of my range first. Mid-Low Rank or not, I absolutely did not want a six-on-one. Looking up at the mountain’s master, who was watching me, I raised both index fingers like twin pistols and aimed them at the two Silver White Wolves I took for his pups.

“Watch closely.”

Ting~~~~ …KABOOM!!!

The Mana Bullets, fired a beat apart, struck the two Silver White Wolves resting prone at the edge of Spatial Perception’s range at the same moment, and the explosions bloomed. They had noticed, but they had not dodged. Not a drop of blood remained. Both were erased.

Awooooooooo~~~~!!

His three wives, with no idea what the explosions meant, panicked and glanced left and right—but the mountain’s master let out a howl thick with rage, then fixed me with a terrible glare. Spatial Perception screamed at a hostility fiercer than anything I had felt before. Glare ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all you want, you bastard. Soon you will be following your pups. Your wives right along with you.

I had meant to go straight into the fight from here, but the sight of Silver White Wolves failing to dodge a Mana Bullet changed my mind. And so, at every Low-Rank Variant inside my detection range—so long as the mountain did not stand between us—I hurled Mana Bullets as they came.

Ting~ ting-ting-ting-ting! Ting-ting-ting, ting-ting!

Thudoom! Kurururung! Kugugung, KWAGWAGWANG!

Mana Bullets flew to a twang like plucked zither strings, and explosions bloomed all through the forest. Every time one went off, an Aberrant was erased from this world. The Mana Bullet TP cost Franc and I had settled on as standard was 3. My Phase Power was 3,700, so it would take 1,200 shots to bottom out my TP—except I recovered 38 a minute. With the delay, though, I could only fire twenty shots a minute, spending 60, which meant I would have to loose 2,600 rounds before my TP actually ran dry.

Firing Mana Bullets from both hands, I erased the dozens of Low-Rank Variants around me in two minutes, then curled the right corner of my mouth and grinned up at the mountain’s master.

“I’m not like that premature raccoon, you know?”

Fear seemed to settle in the eyes of the mountain’s master as he watched Breast Mountain grow noisy with blasts and booms. Behind him, the three females tucked their lush tails between their legs and whimpered like dogs that needed to shit. They must have realized it. That they had come inside my firing range. And the gap in power!

Wahahaha!

…And then I spotted yesterday’s wind raccoon creeping in behind the mountain’s master.

“Looks like the wind raccoon means to hit him from behind?”

Franc, who had been examining the blast marks of the Mana Bullets behind me, looked up at the mountain’s master as well.

“Is it moving to target the mountain’s master?”

“Yeah. From the direction, looks like it. But that mountain master is so fixed on me he can’t watch his back. Keep that up and he’s going to eat one.”

You mutt. This is not the time to be looking at me. Watch your back—your back! I signaled hard with my eyes, but a dog is a dog. He never caught on, and he let the wind raccoon take him from behind. Not him. His females.

Thwoom! Bwup!!

Kheung?! Awooooooo!

From far off came the sound of hide bursting, and two of the females howled loud! One died with a wind bullet punching clean through her from anus to snout. She had had the least Phase Power and the smallest frame, but her coat had been sleek and beautiful—and with the wind bullet detonating at the head, the sight was nothing short of horrific. The headless corpse of a Silver White Wolf collapsed in a heap. Blood and pulped organs poured in streams from the hole where the head had been, and from the rear hole as well.

Kwaoooooooo!!

The enraged mountain’s master charged the wind raccoon at once, and the females—down to two—began to flank it.

“We’re going too!”

In Mana Mode I ran the pathless, steep mountain as if it were a downhill road, and the blasts and the beasts’ rough cries drew steadily closer.

Tukwang! Kwang!

Aoooooooo!

Shaaaaak!

Bwup! Kwakwang!

Kheuong, keong! Keong!

The mountain’s master and the wind raccoon chased and fled like a game of tag. Whenever the raccoon, running, spun and fired a wind bullet back, the master cut a sharp zigzag, hopping left and right to dodge. The two females joined in, trying to cut off the wind raccoon’s path, but whether it was a trait of the wind attribute, its speed matched a Physical Reinforcement user, and no encirclement could form. Watching the four beasts fight through Spatial Perception, I closed to fifty meters and hid behind a tree.

“They haven’t spotted me. If I play the Mana Laser right, I might sweep all of them.”

The boulders at the summit and the ground near the peak had already been half-flattened into a stretch of nearly a hundred square meters, but the wind bullets the raccoon kept firing were blowing holes everywhere, and with four beasts moving like mad things, the dust was kicking up something fierce.

“I can barely see past the dust, so they can’t see me either, right? None of the four has spotted me, which means a Mid-Low Grade’s detection range doesn’t even reach fifty meters.”

At my words Franc gave a small, tense nod, then spoke carefully.

“If possible, I believe it would be best to take the wind raccoon first. And if you can, the two Silver White Wolf females who have no Phase Stones, together with it.”

“Got it. Then let’s get ready.”

I had told her never to step in front of me when I fired Mana Bullets or the Mana Laser, because it was dangerous—and perhaps because of that, Franc rose high into the sky and began looking down on the summit. I looked at her once, then closed my eyes and prepared Mana Mode - Acceleration.

“Hoo… All right.”

The moment to charge was the instant the mountain’s master and the wind raccoon locked together. In that instant I would sprint at full power and split them with the laser! Claw sword gripped in my right hand, I waited.

And…

Now!