The Spider That Collects Gold Coins: What Is a Ring?
After the age of myths ended and countless gods were branded as constellations—stars beyond the sky—the concept of Rings became known as humanity’s exclusive domain. No one could say who first established the system, but whether one was a mage, warrior, or archer, the boundary was defined with crystal clarity by the amount of mana one could handle within the body. It had nothing to do with the weapon in one’s hand.
Yet while the Ring itself served as a clear measure of rank, its exact definition differed wildly from person to person. Some called it a circle of mana accumulated inside the body. Others described it as the traces of a lifetime’s worth of living. Still others claimed it was a staircase leading toward ascension. Every superhuman who had stacked those Rings held their own philosophy.
Explaining the concept with a single definition was therefore meaningless, but if I had to add something… it was the process of building a tower.
“It’s the process of building a tower,” I told Beatrice as I stepped up onto the empty training ground.
Even though definitions varied, if there was one thing everyone tried to express in common, it was that a Ring was ultimately the act of stacking something. Scholars tended to think of it as constructing a tower.
Beatrice nodded slowly, as if she had only just understood. Watching her, I let out a deep internal sigh.
The things I just said were theories any Ring practitioner should already know by heart. Even without reaching superhuman status, one naturally came to realize them while climbing the ranks. She might not have known the specifics, but hearing the explanation should have at least drawn a reaction that said Ah, so that’s what it feels like.
Instead, Beatrice had responded with the pure, innocent look of someone who had never stacked a single Ring in her life. It meant she had zero actual sensation of what “building up” truly felt like.
Should I be happy about this… or should I cry?
I clutched my throbbing head. Beatrice was a 5-Ring superhuman. The fact that she had no tactile understanding of this concept at all—I couldn’t decide if it was an advantage or a fatal flaw.
Viewed positively, it meant she possessed enough talent to reach the 5th Ring without ever being conscious of the stacking process. Viewed negatively, it meant her senses were so dull that even after reaching the 5th Ring she still couldn’t feel it. Considering her growth environment and the unique nature of manipulation-type magic, it probably wasn’t the latter, but still…
Why did I ever agree to tutor her?!
After signing a one-month preliminary contract with Beatrice, we left the south and headed for the main headquarters of the merchant group where she usually stayed. She had suggested the location because it would allow us to conduct lessons without exposing me to the outside world.
Once we arrived, I immediately began her first tutoring session. But…
“Wait, you don’t even know this? How a mage should respond when a warrior closes in?”
“Isn’t a situation where a mage specialized in long-range attacks ends up in close quarters with a warrior something that should never happen in the first place? The very fact that such a situation could occur is already incomprehensible to me…”
“…Then what about countermeasures when your mana runs dry?”
“Hmm. Drink a mana potion? That kind of situation shouldn’t happen to begin with, so.”
I slowly opened my mouth toward Beatrice, who was answering with perfect nonchalance.
“Beatrice.”
“Yes?”
“Didn’t you say you were taking my lessons because your life was in danger?”
“I did say that, didn’t I?”
“And yet you’ve never learned a single one of these things?”
At my question, Beatrice seemed to ponder something for a moment before nodding as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“That’s right.”
“If a mage ever runs out of mana and is forced into close combat, that’s already the moment of failure. For a genius like me, such a situation would never—”
Listening to Beatrice’s continued explanation, I could only sigh repeatedly in my mind. It seemed I had accepted the wrong tutoring student.
Still, it wasn’t a sigh of surrender. I had never been particularly fond of giving up—something I’d already proven during my time with Princess Arlea. On the contrary, when I saw someone like this, my competitive spirit simply caught fire.
No matter who it was, watching them change their mindset and grow stronger gave me a certain pride in the positive influence I could have. …Even if that had once led to the normalization of the apocalypse.
Anyway.
“You said such a situation would never happen, correct?”
“Thaaat’s right?”
“Then if such a situation were to occur even once, you would understand the importance of these countermeasures, wouldn’t you?”
Beatrice tilted her head slightly at my question before answering slowly.
“Such a situation won’t occur, but… yes, I suppose so. If it did happen, I would be able to accept the practical value.”
“Good. In that case…”
After hearing her answer, I glanced down at the training ground floor and stamped my foot. The stone surface cracked violently under the mana-infused strike.
Beatrice’s eyes widened in shock at my sudden action. I muttered quietly,
“Both situations—I’ll create them for you personally.”
**
“Haa… haa…”
“Hup.”
When the near-real-combat sparring ended, Beatrice lay sprawled on the floor, breathing harder than I had ever seen her. Rough, ragged gasps escaped her lips.
“This… this barbaric…!”
“Sometimes the straightforward method is the simplest correct answer.”
Unlike Beatrice, who looked ready to collapse at any moment, Kyle—aside from a tiny scratch on his cheek—remained perfectly fine. Even considering the difference between a mage and a close-combat fighter, the gap felt excessive. Moreover, while Beatrice had used her manipulation magic until her mana ran dry, the mana inside my body still looked like it had barely been touched.
The difference in their levels was obvious in every way. That was why Beatrice ended up saying the same thing Kyle’s enemies had said most often until now.
“This… doesn’t make sense…”
“Your skills weren’t as bad as I expected.”
Kyle approached the exhausted Beatrice where she lay on the training ground, brushed the dust from his hand, and offered it to help her up.
“When I created this situation, there were exactly two things I wanted to confirm from you. How a mage responds when a warrior closes in, and what kind of improvisation you would use when your mana was nearly depleted.”
“……”
“Considering you claimed such situations should never happen, your performance wasn’t bad at all. Especially the way you used a mana thread to target my face at the very end—that was arguably the best possible choice.”
As he helped Beatrice to her feet, Kyle recalled the spar that had just taken place.
Manipulation-type mages fundamentally differed in level depending on what substances they could control. While the manipulation attribute itself was rare, without growth it was limited to simply changing the shape of things like stone or dirt. However, high-Ring manipulation mages could control materials far beyond solid forms.
For example, the bodily manipulation ability Beatrice had displayed earlier.
A technique that went beyond manipulating inanimate objects to control even living, moving creatures according to the mage’s will. It did have the drawback of requiring an invisible mana thread to connect to the target, but that didn’t diminish the terrifying advantage of being able to control an opponent at will.
“Against a superhuman of the same Ring, you would likely have a high chance of success with your manipulation techniques.”
Kyle muttered as he severed, one by one, the mana threads Beatrice had wrapped around his ankle. The purple threads—matching the color of her eyes—snapped and fluttered in the air.
Watching her own mana threads get repelled, Beatrice glared at him with a look of pure indignation.
“Don’t you think the fact that you can even see mana threads is already a cheat?”
The mana threads produced by manipulation techniques—especially Beatrice’s purple ones—were normally invisible even to superhuman eyes. A 5-Ring superhuman shouldn’t be able to perceive their color, let alone their very existence. She must have assumed Kyle couldn’t see them when she embedded those threads in his leg.
In that sense, her complaint was perfectly understandable. However—
“It’s nothing but an excuse.”
Kyle casually dismissed her protest.
“Your threads would only work against someone at the 5th Ring. And even a 5-Ring superhuman, while they might not see the threads, would still be able to sense them. Have you never seen a superhuman who reacts to something invisible and dodges or blocks the threads?”
“……”
It seemed she had. Kyle continued speaking as Beatrice closed her mouth.
“A superhuman’s senses aren’t determined by sight alone. Stealing their vision is certainly an advantage, but if your technique only works by disappearing from sight, you’ll never win a fight between superhumans.”
“Then how exactly should I use the mana threads?”
Beatrice puffed out her cheeks at his explanation. No matter how uninterested she was in Rings, she had still considered this problem. Ever since her threads were first blocked by superhuman senses, she had been pondering it constantly. Yet she had never found a more efficient method than what she was already using.
That was one of the reasons she had applied for Kyle’s tutoring. Realizing this, Kyle slowly moved his fingers.
“If the foundation of manipulation techniques is the act of grasping and moving something—”
Thin, faint lines began to flow from his fingertips. They were delicate and nearly invisible, yet they were unmistakably mana threads—the same kind that allowed Beatrice to use her manipulation techniques even at long range.
“—then there’s no reason that ‘something’ must be limited to the concept of physical matter.”
The mana threads extending from Kyle’s fingers fluttered gently in the air before beginning to intertwine with one another. As they tangled and stretched, they formed an oval-shaped disk. At its center was a black hole drawn over pure white lines.
When Kyle tossed a fragment of the shattered training ground into that hole, the debris was instantly sucked inside.
A hole floating in empty space, devouring matter.
Beatrice was momentarily at a loss for words at the sight of a technique that seemed to manipulate not merely the category of spells, but the very foundational concepts of the world itself.
“…This is insane.”