The Fruits of Training
The results of my training. After finishing those hellish squats, I returned home. Even opening the front door was a massive challenge. My fingers trembled as I entered the passcode on the door lock.
When I stepped inside, Mom, who was peeling fruit in the living room, and Dad, who was watching TV, both turned to look at me.
"Gangjin, you're home?" Mom was startled to see me shaking like a newborn calf. "Oh my, what's with your walk? Are you hurt somewhere?" She jumped up in alarm.
I leaned against the wall, barely managing to kick off my shoes, and forced an awkward smile. "I'm back... I started exercising today."
"Exercise? What's gotten into you? School classes should be exhausting enough." Dad set his newspaper down and studied me over his glasses.
I took a deep breath and carefully told my parents what had happened that day.
"There's a dojo near school called Central Taekwondo... The master there agreed to help me control my mana."
I gave my battered butt a pat. "As you know, my awakening spot is my butt, so he said ordinary methods wouldn't work."
"Central Taekwondo? You're saying that master knows how to handle mana?" My parents took the news with complete seriousness.
When I shared the master's explanation about Originals and Fragments, along with the training I'd received, their eyes sparkled in unison.
"Good heavens, you met such a valuable person! Gangjin, no matter how hard it gets, you have to endure and keep going!"
"Mom will have to make you some nourishing food!"
Their passionate encouragement felt both embarrassing and reassuring.
I dragged myself to my room and collapsed onto the bed. My thighs burned like they were shooting sparks, and my butt throbbed as if it had grown its own heartbeat.
"Your parents are really positive!" Jinny said, looking down at me sprawled on the bed.
"But that mana assimilation the master mentioned—you need to take it seriously."
"Mana assimilation...? That feeling from today?"
From inside my butt, Jinny spoke in a tone far more serious than usual. But I was utterly exhausted. Idle chatter was the last thing I wanted.
"I don't have the energy to chat with you right now..."
"Hey, this isn't chit-chat. This is a life-or-death mechanism explanation! Listen carefully."
I was dead tired, but I couldn't ignore Jinny when she started explaining with such a grave expression.
"The pinnacle of my power—the Three Wishes—isn't some fairy-tale thing where wishes just come true if you ask nicely."
Why not? In the story, I clearly remembered Aladdin rubbing the lamp and making wishes right away...
"Those are three massive seals suppressing my original mana."
According to Jinny, every time I made a wish, one seal would break and her mana would flood into my body like a waterfall.
"The problem is, if you release a seal by making a wish before your butt is strong enough..." Jinny grimaced as if picturing a catastrophe. "Your butt won't withstand the pressure. It'll explode from the inside."
She mimicked the squat position I'd been doing. "So the ridiculous exercise the master assigned you is training your muscles to endure my mana."
It was the first time I realized that physically training my butt had a direct connection to mana control.
"To use my power without making wishes, mana assimilation is absolutely necessary."
If I compared it to a game, it was like a mastery skill. Thinking of it as a passive called Mana Assimilation made it easier to understand.
"The stronger your muscles become, the more I can send my mana into your nervous system in tiny, thin streams."
It meant I could spread the mana starting from my butt throughout my whole body at a controlled intensity.
"That way, I can convert part of my authority into power through mana without overloading your body."
She shot me a sideways glare, then poked my nose hard with her index finger. "Got it? So tomorrow, be ready to do four thousand squats if you have to!"
Four thousand? My knees would be ruined.
"Okay, okay..."
I fell into a deep sleep amid the storm of muscle pain, using that terrifying explanation as a lullaby.
The next morning, the walk to school was still pure torture. My legs wobbled the moment I stepped out the gate. I barely reached the classroom and collapsed into my seat when Bora, the vice president, came over and set a cool sports drink on my desk.
"Gangjin, are you sick? You look awful."
Bora's eyes behind her glasses were full of gentle concern. For someone as shy as her, offering such warm worry must have taken real courage. She calmly organized my papers so I could rest.
"Thanks, Bora. I'm really lucky to have you."
"Tell me if you need anything! I'm the vice president, after all." Bora gave a small smile and returned to her seat.
"Oh, Bora!"
She turned her head toward me from her chair. "Yeah?"
"Thanks for worrying about me."
Bora smiled brightly and nodded. She was quiet and reserved, but she really was a good friend.
When lunch arrived, my classmates swarmed over, snickering.
"Hey, class president! You walked home with Lee Chaeyeon from Class 2 yesterday, right?"
"Ooh, ooh!! What the hell? Are you two the school's official couple already?"
"Chaeyeon hanging out with an S-class like you paints a pretty picture. You guys actually dating?"
These cheeky troublemakers. If they'd done three thousand squats at Central Taekwondo, they wouldn't be cracking these jokes.
"No, we just happened to be going the same way..."
They had no idea about my awakening area or the hellish training I'd endured yesterday. They were only excited about the meeting of the popular class presidents from Classes 1 and 2.
I breathed an internal sigh of relief, but my face burned as I remembered rubbing my butt at the dojo the day before.
Deokgu, sitting beside me, smacked my desk. "Hey! Gangjin! Today's lunch is stir-fried pork. You coming?"
The temptation of that ultimate guy food was strong. But I couldn't even imagine walking to the cafeteria.
"Sorry, Deokgu. My legs are shaking too much... Go ahead without me."
Deokgu looked at my trembling legs and smirked. "Even the almighty stir-fried pork is just a chunk of meat in front of S-class Gangjin~"
After he ran off excitedly, I was left alone in the classroom, staring out the window.
How should I handle the training from now on? To claim Jinny's power, I'd have to endure even worse pain than this. Could I really handle the Original spirit living inside my butt?
If I achieved mana assimilation with her, what wish should I make? Maybe a physical enhancement wish to prepare for fighting residues?
Wait. If I could just wrap her mana around my whole body, that might actually be possible.
My unfocused gaze drifted across the scenery outside and stopped at an old, rarely used storage building behind the school.
"...Huh?"
Something was there. At first I thought it was a large black plastic bag blowing in the wind. But it was moving. A giant black shape—at least two meters tall—was crawling up the warehouse wall. It had eight legs and bizarre patterns on its back. A massive spider.
"...What?"
I rubbed my eyes and looked again. The spider had vanished.
"What was that? Did I imagine it...?"
It seemed Jinny had sensed the mana of the giant spider I'd seen.
"Jinny? You saw it too?"
My butt grew slightly warm, as if Jinny wanted to come outside.
Jinny's serious tone felt strangely unfamiliar.
My heart sank. Stories about powers that wandered the boundary and tried to possess awakeners came to mind. Among them were clumps of fragments that failed to find a host. This spider had to be one of them.
I couldn't just ignore an unidentified giant spider roaming the school.
Forgetting my muscle pain, I stood and headed for the storage building. To be precise, I didn't exactly run.
"Ugh, my legs hurt..."
Still, I moved as quickly as I could, dragging my trembling legs toward the warehouse.
— Creeeak!
The old iron door of the rarely used gym storage shed groaned open.
"Is anyone in here...?"
I looked around, but the storage building itself seemed normal. The interior was fine.
However... suspicious spider webs stretched clearly along the outer wall, leading into the forest on the back mountain.
"Spider webs...?"
They had an unnatural stickiness and a faintly unpleasant smell.
I took out my phone and photographed the webs. It felt like preserving evidence in case things escalated. Then I sent the picture to someone in a message.
"Let's keep going."
Maybe yesterday's training had given me courage I never knew I had. I was acting like someone worthy of the S-class title.
I couldn't tell if she was teasing or genuinely complimenting me.
The Original of the magnificent spirit Jinny resided in my S-class butt. If this were a novel or manga, I might have claimed the protagonist's role.
"This spider web is dragging along the ground."
I followed the sticky trail that looked like it had been deliberately laid out. The web crossed the school fence and continued into the back mountain. Without hesitation, I climbed over and kept moving.
The deeper I went into the forest, the heavier the air grew.
Pushing through the bushes, I found the scene I'd been looking for.
The scene I'd been looking for...? Honestly, it was on a far grander scale than I'd imagined. My earlier courage suddenly felt pointless as a flicker of fear hit me.
Dense spider webs stretched between the trees, and from them hung countless cocoons. Through gaps in the sticky threads, I could see the faces of students from our school.
They were alive, but their mana was being sucked toward the center through the webs.
And at the center, eight red eyes gleamed, staring straight at me.
"Hey, watch out!"
At Jinny's urgent cry, one of the giant spider's legs shot toward me. I reflexively dodged and rolled across the ground.
Crack!
The sharp leg carved a deep wound into the tree behind me, then split the entire trunk in half, sending it crashing down.
"This thing—I saw it at the boundary... It's the Original of Arachne!"
Arachne...? The name sounded familiar. I was pretty sure it came from Greek and Roman mythology—the woman turned into a spider for her arrogance before the gods.
Its enormous size and grotesque appearance were terrifying, but I wasn't running away anymore.
Believing the master's training had made today's me stronger, I clenched my butt, put strength into my palms, and rubbed vigorously.
"All right... Let's do this."