Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Mana (2)
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Johan’s eyes went wide at the extraordinary speed of mana flowing into Yuri.
‘He’s already sensed mana? And what’s with this mana absorption power?’
Was it really true that he’d sensed mana?
Or was something else going on?
It was still too early to jump to conclusions, so Johan released mana once more.
The same phenomenon occurred again.
Tssst-.
Mana being sucked into Yuri at a terrifying speed.
‘No doubt about it! This guy has sensed mana!’
With talent like this, even if he wasn’t a genius, he was more than worthy of being called a prodigy.
A moment later.
Huuuk-.
Yuri took a deep breath and opened his eyes, and Johan asked in a slightly excited tone.
“How was it? What’s it like to sense mana for the first time?”
Yuri didn’t answer Johan’s question right away.
At that silence, Johan broke into a pleased smile.
“Ahh, how to put that feeling into words? That ecstatic first sensation… How could human language ever describe it? Heh, I totally get how you feel.”
Yuri stared blankly at Johan, who was rubbing his nose with his index finger, then blinked and asked back.
In a slightly dazed voice.
“So, old man… what… what does mana feel like, exactly?”
“What do you mean? The sensation you’re feeling right now—that’s mana.”
“So what exactly am I supposed to be feeling?”
“Mana!”
“What does mana feel like?”
“…….”
The oddly repetitive conversation made Johan’s expression stiffen.
He spoke in a slightly angry tone.
“Are you messing with me right now?”
“Messing? What do you mean…….”
“Then why are you lying about not sensing mana after clearly sensing it!”
“No, when did I lie! I’m just saying I didn’t feel it because I didn’t feel it—what else am I supposed to say!”
“You little shit, spouting that blatant bullshit! You sucked up my mana like a vacuum, and now you’re saying you didn’t feel it!”
“What are you talking about? When did I?”
“Just now! You sucked up my mana, you punk!”
“This humble one knows nothing of it.”
“You… you bastard… You gonna keep pretending and spewing nonsense!”
“Damn it! If I’d actually sensed mana, I wouldn’t feel so wronged about getting chewed out!”
Yuri fumed.
Catching the panic, regret, anger, and intense self-loathing in Yuri’s eyes, Johan froze.
“You……?”
He stayed silent for a long while before staring straight at Yuri and asking.
“You really… didn’t feel it?”
“Yeah.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“For real? You’re not messing with me?”
“Yeah.”
What was he supposed to do, say he felt it when he didn’t?
Yuri stood tall.
Now it was Johan who looked dazed as he muttered.
“N-No, that can’t be……?”
Even someone with the poorest sensitivity should feel a faint sense of incongruity with the amount of mana he’d released.
Moreover, hadn’t Yuri greedily sucked up his mana like a glutton?
It was downright bizarre that he hadn’t sensed it.
But Yuri’s brazen face showed not a hint of deceit.
If anything, there was only self-loathing from not sensing it.
The flustered Johan stammered.
“L-Let’s try again. I’ll raise the mana density a bit more.”
With that, Johan released mana again.
Yuri sat in the lotus position and closed his eyes.
Tssst-.
Even more mana than before flowed out, and once again, it was drawn toward Yuri.
Johan asked, brimming with hope and expectation.
“You feel something now, right? Right?”
“Hmm…….”
“How is it?”
“Ah!”
Yuri’s eyes shot open wide, as if he’d realized something.
Seeing this, Johan nodded with a ‘See, I knew it!’ look on his face.
“You felt it? You felt it, right? Right?! Of course you did! If you didn’t feel it after all this, you wouldn’t even be human…….”
“…I’m hungry.”
“…….”
“Come to think of it, I passed out and haven’t eaten anything?”
Now Yuri had his eyes open, rubbing his stomach with a vacant expression.
Staring at him in dismay, Johan muttered.
“…You’re not human after all.”
He soon started clawing at his hair like a madman.
“No way… This can’t be happening……?”
He couldn’t sense mana?
Then everything was ruined.
What good was an amazing body if it couldn’t harness mana?
Body techniques without mana were just empty shells.
What use was a powerful avatar if the harmony of body, soul, and energy collapsed completely before he could even wield it, turning Yuri into a corpse?
“It’s over… We’re screwed…….”
As Johan kept muttering nonstop, he glanced at Yuri’s reaction and mumbled.
“How about… we call our deal off? Pretend it never happened?”
New martial arts experiments and all that crap.
What could he teach a guy who couldn’t even sense mana?
“You’re pretty much hopeless…….”
Johan subtly took a step back.
Before he could finish, Yuri’s hand landed on his shoulder.
Clack-.
“Old man.”
Johan felt an ominous vibe from Yuri’s beaming, radiant smile.
“W-What’s up?”
“Raise me.”
“……?”
“Raise me properly.”
“…What?”
“Raise a half-baked guy like me so I can sense mana. Make me useful for at least one person’s worth.”
Was it his imagination, or did this brat’s words sound eerily familiar?
But it wasn’t Johan’s imagination.
“You think you can beat the Sword Lord or whatever with this? I was sooo looking forward to you teaching me some body technique that could take him down…….”
“…….”
“So you’re giving up just because I’m a teeeny bit late sensing mana? Old man, is that all you amount to?”
“…….”
“Tch, tsk tsk. If you’re gonna quit, say so now. I don’t wanna waste time either.”
Johan, who had flung the same barbs at Yuri before, now received them right back.
His face twisted like he’d bitten into shit.
“What’ll you do?”
Beaming, grinning ear to ear.
“Gonna quit?”
The brighter Yuri’s smile grew, almost manic.
The heavier the shadow of dismay on Johan’s face.
“Gonna quit?”
“Khk!”
Yuri’s relentless provocations—though not quite provocations.
Finally, a low mutter escaped Johan’s lips.
“Damn brat…….”
Hearing this, Yuri smiled benevolently and lightly raised his palm.
And from his mouth came a crisp word.
“Reflex.”
“…….”
Johan’s already crumpled face scrunched up even more.
* * *
The passenger ship bound for Niger, having left Cromport, had sailed smoothly for the past ten days.
No storms, not even a single shower in those ten days.
But unlike the smooth voyage, one person was hitting rough seas.
“No! What the hell! Why!”
“…….”
“Why the fuuuuck can’t you sense it!”
At Johan’s wail, Yuri picked at his ear.
“How would I know? Would I be sitting here like this if I did?”
“Guhk!”
At the calm response, Johan pounded his chest like his robes were about to burst.
He exhaled the breath he’d been holding and sighed.
“Phew… It’s over, it’s over…….”
Now Yuri snapped.
“What do you mean over!”
“It’s been ten days already! No progress at all!”
“It’s only been ten days!”
Over the past ten days, Johan had tried every trick in the book to help Yuri sense mana.
But Yuri still couldn’t get a handle on it.
‘At first, I thought this punk was messing with me…….’
Yuri wasn’t messing around.
The guy truly couldn’t sense mana.
His attitude during training proved it.
“Stop moping and let’s try once more, old man.”
“It’s over…….”
“Argh! Don’t give up and try again!”
Yuri feigned nonchalance, but his eyes betrayed anxiety and desperation.
He probably never imagined he wouldn’t be able to sense mana.
A guy who’d always brimmed with confidence in himself must be pretty shocked now.
At first, it was panic.
Then disappointment and self-loathing toward himself.
And now, he was more desperate than anyone.
Yuri’s burning desire for strength was hot even in Johan’s eyes.
Given the situation, Yuri was now the one pushing harder for mana sensing training than Johan.
Johan obliged his demands.
‘Well, even if we split here, where’s he gonna go in this vast ocean…….’
Even if they parted, they were still on the same ship.
Where could he run?
But that only lasted another three weeks or so.
‘If he still can’t sense mana by then…….’
Johan planned to cut him loose cleanly then.
It hadn’t been part of his plans from the start.
A bit of a waste of the effort so far, but better than pouring time into a lost cause.
‘Plus, if he can’t sense mana, he’ll die soon anyway.’
No point clinging.
Johan gazed intently at Yuri, who sat in the lotus position.
‘A being who can’t sense mana…….’
Accepting mana into the body was a separate issue, but with external help, anyone could sense it—even ordinary folk with no talent.
In a world where those who couldn’t sense mana were exceedingly rare.
Yet Yuri couldn’t.
And from long experience, the odds of someone who couldn’t sense it ever doing so later were practically zero.
‘Well, even so…….’
Johan sighed inwardly.
‘Like the kid said, it’s too early to give up.’
Just ‘ten days,’ as Yuri put it.
Plus, Johan had his own puzzle to solve.
‘This guy definitely sucks up my mana ravenously the moment the density hits a certain level.’
At a ferocious speed, no less.
The bizarre part? No trace of accumulated mana in Yuri’s body.
A phenomenon Johan, with decades handling mana, had never seen.
It piqued his curiosity.
‘There’s definitely something here.’
Johan’s eyes narrowed slightly as he eyed Yuri.
Then he frowned at Yuri tapping the floor impatiently, urging him to hurry.
“You think I’m your mana dispenser? Quit nagging like a creep.”
“Hurry up!”
“Tch, brat, what a temper.”
Grumbling all the while, Johan released mana again.
Thus, Yuri’s mana training resumed.
* * *
Two weeks into the voyage.
Cumulus clouds appeared before the steadily sailing passenger ship.
Soon, the ship tossed wildly in the raging waves.
The rocking was so bad it was hard to keep one’s footing.
But Yuri was so focused on sensing mana that he didn’t even notice.
‘Why… why the hell can’t I sense it!’
He’d brushed it off casually every time Johan asked, but no one was more curious about the reason than Yuri himself.
His mind was a tangled mess.
‘Am I… unable to sense mana?’
If so, what should he do now?
Would his vow to surpass Johan fizzle out before it even started?
Could he surpass Johan without mana?
Without mastering mana, his body would eventually collapse—he wouldn’t live long.
The gap between ideal and reality tightened Yuri’s chest.
But he pushed the frustration aside.
Instead, he focused even harder on his senses.
‘I can do it. Don’t give up.’
Per Johan, the sensation of sensing mana wasn’t in the realm of normal senses.
People often said you feel it with your skin, but that was bullshit from ignorant fools!
…or so he’d said.
‘Sensing mana transcends physical senses—it’s in the realm of higher perception.’
That’s why Johan called the sense for mana the sixth sense, intuition.
‘If I can suppress the five senses, maybe I can grasp the sixth more easily.’
The simplest way to suppress the five senses was to block them directly.
Blindfold the eyes, plug the ears.
But that had clear limits.
Even with eyes closed, you’d see the darkness from your eyelids.
Even with ears plugged, you couldn’t block sounds traveling through your body—like swallowing or heartbeat.
So Yuri chose a completely different approach.
Sound, smell, sight, touch, taste.
He forgot them all.
He immersed himself utterly in the question ‘What is the sixth sense?’—wiping away all thoughts of the other senses.
Johan, watching from the side, went wide-eyed.
‘Huh?’
Blink blink-.
No matter how he looked, it was clear.
‘This crazy bastard……?’
Johan, knowing exactly what Yuri was doing, could only chuckle in disbelief.
‘He’s entered No-Self?’