Clearing the Underground Waterway Residues (1)
The iron door leading to the old school building's underground waterway creaked open with a shrill skreeee. A chill air rushed out to greet us—something utterly unimaginable in the school during daylight hours. This wasn't just cold from a drop in temperature. Every time that unpleasant, viscous mana brushed against my skin like something licking the back of my neck, the hairs on my body stood on end.
The deeper we descended the stairs, the stronger the damp, moldy stench of the sewer grew, mixed with a fishy, rotting odor that stung my nostrils.
"Ugh, that smell."
I reflexively raised my right hand to pinch my nose against the assaulting stench. Beside me, Chaeyeon pulled her school uniform collar all the way up to her nose, her face scrunched in disgust. Tiny blue sparks of electricity crackled around her legs, pushing back the darkness.
The stench of unpleasant mana is vibrating all around us.
Jinny, tucked inside my butt, didn't seem to be enjoying the environment either.
Get me out of here for now.
"Uh, yeah... just a second."
Still tense, I rubbed my butt with one hand. Golden mana smoke billowed up near my rear, and Jinny popped out with a soft poof.
"You never know when or where something might jump out."
Han Seungwoo, who had been silently leading the way, adjusted his glasses and spoke. His voice was colder than the sound of flowing water echoing through the waterway.
"Stay alert."
He lightly spun the massive silver scissors materialized from his mana and stared into the darkness ahead. The eyes behind his glasses were steady and dead serious.
In truth, Seungwoo had been carefully observing Jinny from the moment we started. As the student council vice president and an awakener with the Brothers Grimm's Tailor ability, an Original spirit was a fascinating subject he'd only encountered in theory. He thought to himself:
'Baek Gangjin... that first-year has an enormous amount of mana...'
His sharp gaze alternated between Jinny and me as he analyzed us.
'But his mana control is still lacking.'
His eyes settled on Jinny as she floated through the air.
'That spirit is autonomously rearranging the vast mana that her host, Gangjin, can't control on his own.'
Seungwoo, lost in thought, locked eyes with Jinny, who had been teasing me.
'So the spirit itself functions as a precision processing unit and amplifier, huh?'
"What are you thinking about?"
Jinny casually spoke to the silent Seungwoo.
"Just that it's a rare opportunity to travel so casually with an Original spirit."
Senior Seungwoo gave a slight smile, then turned his gaze back to the path ahead.
"We're here. This should be the spot."
The moment he finished speaking, he snapped his scissors together in the air. Snip— The sharp metallic sound echoed off the waterway walls like a bell signaling the start of battle.
The boundary separating 'safety' from reality split open. Dozens of red eyes glowed in the darkness, silently surging toward us.
Kiiiieeeee—!
Indistinct black shadows slid across the water's surface, charging at us. They were residues. Monsters formed from condensed scraps of mana, driven purely by the instinct to devour living mana.
Chaeyeon reacted first.
"They're coming! Fall back!"
The instant her toes kicked off the water's surface, a massive wave of lightning swept through the entire waterway. With a grating skreeeech, several residues were instantly reduced to ash and scattered.
But the residues were endless. More shadows poured in to replace their fallen comrades, crawling along the walls and ceiling.
I braced myself against the wall and rubbed my butt. There was no room for embarrassment in front of comrades who already knew my secret. Golden mana erupted explosively from my lower body, and Jinny's form swelled to the size of a house.
"Everyone get out of the way! It's my turn!"
Jinny swung her massive fist, smashing the residues into oblivion. Golden mana brilliantly painted the waterway, and the overwhelming firepower sent the residues flying like leaves in a storm.
But I felt something off. Every time Jinny attacked, the surrounding mana density would suddenly thin out before surging back again.
"These things are more persistent than I thought?"
Jinny, who had been clearing out the swarming waves of residues, glanced at me.
"No matter how much mana I pour out, they don't seem to decrease at all."
She was right. Jinny was hitting enemies that could be handled with 10 percent power using 100 percent instead. It looked flashy, but it felt like an enormous waste of mana.
At that moment, Director Lee Cheolsu's image from the dojo earlier flashed vividly through my mind.
'Wait a second... didn't Jinny say earlier that the old man's mana is at best B-class?'
I shuddered.
"Jinny! Stop for a second!"
The old man definitely only had B-class mana capacity, yet he'd blocked every attack from Kang Taeyang—an A-class werewolf awakener from Cheonmyeong High—without so much as a flinch. It wasn't because he had more mana.
"Remember what the old man said earlier, and what you analyzed?"
I shouted at Jinny over the noise of battle.
"He didn't spread his mana out wide! He compressed it into an ultra-high density in that tiny area around his shoulder at the exact instant the attack connected!"
Jinny, who had been attacking indiscriminately, started listening to my words.
"That's how he could overwhelm an A-class with only B-class mana!"
Jinny's eyes lit up.
"Ah...! That shoulder thing?"
She stretched like she was loosening up her body, then...
"That makes sense. It was compression—solidifying the mana."
She stared down at her own massive palm.
"You want me to try it?"
I clenched my butt and told her, "I think we can manage efficient mana control like that too."
Jinny clenched her fist tightly, a fierce smile spreading across her face.
"Of course. There's no way we couldn't do it, right?"
With Jinny's shout, an astonishing sight unfolded. Her enormous body began shrinking rapidly. Like a vacuum cleaner sucking in air, the golden mana scattered around us condensed into her body. Eventually, she shrank down to about my height.
But the density of her mana was on a completely different level from before. Sharp mana waves rippled around her like metal scraping against metal, and she emitted a brilliant glow so intense it was hard to look at directly.
"What? Why did Jinny get smaller? Did she run out of mana?"
Chaeyeon asked in confusion, but Jinny's fist provided the answer instead.
Kwooooooo—!
Jinny lightly thrust her fist into the chest of a massive residue charging straight at her. A tiny thud. But the instant her fist connected, the ultra-dense mana compressed inside her body exploded like a nuclear blast within the residue.
Kwaaaaaang—!
The explosion shook the entire waterway. The residue's body was torn apart at the molecular level from the inside out. The aftershock of mana that punched straight through it shot down the sewer tunnel in a perfect straight line, vaporizing dozens of residues in its path with a single strike.
"Whoa..."
I was once again stunned by the power of an Original spirit.
"You didn't need to make yourself huge at all! By condensing the mana only at the point of contact and releasing it all at once, the destructive power jumps dozens of times over!"
In response to my excitement, Jinny began dancing across the water's surface like she was having the time of her life.
"That was some sharp feedback, Gangjin!"
Now there was no waste in Jinny's movements. She was learning the optimal mana control—maximum destructive power with minimal motion.
Chaeyeon watched the scene in awe, then looked down at her own legs.
"Condense the mana only at the point of contact... and release it all at once?"
She carefully examined the lightning flowing around her legs. It seemed she'd gained some insight from watching Jinny's change.
After thinking it over, Chaeyeon began gathering the recklessly scattered blue lightning into a single tiny point near her ankle. As the mana condensed, the space around her feet seemed to burn black with an optical illusion.
Crackle—!
"Jinny! I'll clear a path, so you take care of the ones coming from behind!"
At Chaeyeon's shout, Jinny grinned and replied, "Alright, let's sync up our breathing!"
Hearing Jinny's answer, Chaeyeon shot forward like a bolt of lightning. Every time her kick sliced through the air, crackling thunderbolts engulfed the residues. Jinny followed right behind, pulverizing the survivors with her condensed punches.
I stood behind them, desperately clenching my butt to supply mana. It felt like my rear was burning up, but strangely, I felt absolutely amazing.
Chaeyeon's lightning and Jinny's heavy golden mana crisscrossed perfectly inside the waterway, creating flawless teamwork.
"Isn't the mana supply running low? Jinny's punches are getting weaker!"
"What are you talking about? Ignore her and match my pace!"
"Both of you shut up! My butt feels like it's about to explode right now."
The waterway became a lively mess filled with our shouts, the monsters' screams, and the sounds of exploding mana.
Seungwoo, who had been watching everything from the back, paused the scissors in his hand. His eyes shone with undeniable admiration.
'To fundamentally overhaul their mana control method like that...'
A very faint smile appeared on Seungwoo's lips.
'These first-years have real potential.'
But the easy fight didn't last long.
From the deeper parts of the waterway, from the edge of the invisible darkness, a massive, damp wave of mana—on a completely different level from the residues we'd faced so far—slowly rolled toward us.
Grrrrrrrr—
A low, heavy growl. It was the presence of the master that had ruled this underground waterway until now.
"Everyone focus. A heavy one has woken up."
Seungwoo's cold voice echoed through the waterway. Our high spirits instantly turned into cold tension.
In the darkness, massive tentacle-like shadows writhed as they began closing their encirclement around us.
"Ugh. What the hell is that? It's gross-looking."
The playfulness had completely vanished from Jinny's voice.
"This one's in a completely different weight class from those black mutts earlier."
I swallowed hard and clenched my butt once more.
"It really smells like it's at least A-class."