Chapter 15
Chapter 15
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Mana (4)
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Yohan's expression shifted at the changes unfolding around Yuri.
‘This guy's finally...?’
The mana fluctuations happening right now weren't something he'd caused.
They were changes Yuri had triggered on his own.
The implication was straightforward.
‘He's awakened to mana!’
And that wasn't all.
Unlike before, the kid was now gathering mana through his own will.
The erratic, unstable absorption rate proved it.
It was clearly the clumsy work of a total beginner absorbing mana for the first time.
Yohan let out a small sigh.
‘You've passed the hurdle.’
Most people could sense mana, but only a select few could actively draw it into their bodies.
In other words, sensing mana was something anyone could do, but absorbing it was reserved for the chosen.
Of course, from Yohan's perspective, even absorption was just the prep work.
This was where the real deal began.
He spoke to Yuri, who still had his eyes closed.
"Listen carefully to what I say from now on."
His voice flowed in calmly.
"Mana naturally disperses easily by its nature. Even if you draw it into your body, it'll scatter right away. So now, you need to condense it within your flesh. In mana body arts, we call this a... core."
Core.
Crafting that tiny seed was the true first step of mana body arts.
"The properties of a core vary wildly depending on which mana body art you practice. Or more precisely, the core's function changes based on the art you cultivate."
Heart, solar plexus, head, arms and legs, feet, and so on.
Depending on the mana body art's characteristics, the core's structure, position, and even number could differ.
And the spot where the seed forming the foundation of the mana body art Yohan would pass down to Yuri needed to take root.
Right at the navel.
The body's center, where mana flow balanced most freely.
Not only the Redner family mana body art that Yohan had learned, but even the one he'd created himself hinged on forming a core there.
"Don't be startled."
As he spoke, Yohan's hand touched Yuri's back.
"My mana will now guide yours. Remember this well. This is the path of mana you'll hone for the rest of your life."
At the same time, Yohan released his own mana, pushing it into Yuri through his back.
Observing another's body with one's mana was a feat impossible without profound mastery.
Soon, everything happening inside Yuri's body vividly unfolded in Yohan's mind via the hand pressed to his back.
Yohan was slightly taken aback.
‘Fast!’
He'd noticed it last time, but Yuri's mana absorption was abnormally quick.
A closer look revealed it wasn't just absorption.
‘Accumulation rate, permeation rate, transmission rate... all top-tier!’
The three key mana efficiencies far exceeded average levels.
‘On par with me... no, maybe even better.’
Comparing his own childhood to Yuri now, Yohan was convinced.
Yuri's mana talent was at least equal to his own, if not superior.
It was ridiculous.
‘Heh heh.’
He'd thought the kid was a dud who couldn't even sense mana at first, but peeling back the layers revealed a monster pup.
The corner of Yohan's mouth twisted up.
The grin was just like when he'd first seen Yuri use incarnation.
‘Monster pup!’
Expectation swelled in Yohan's chest once more.
What else would this young monster show him?
What other surprises lay in store?
He was eager to find out.
Holding that anticipation, Yohan directed the mana.
In response, a stream of clear mana began carving a path through Yuri's body.
‘Come on, follow it!’
The world held countless mana body arts, each with its own signature "mana road."
Operating a secret mana road produced a matching core.
What Yohan was now imparting to Yuri was born purely from his iron will to crush the Sword Lord.
The product of obsessive research, yet never once had it formed a seed...
A new system's mana road—one even Yohan hadn't mastered—was etching itself into Yuri's body for the first time.
Yuri's mana followed Yohan's guidance, swiftly memorizing the path.
‘That's it!’
Though it was the mana road's debut, Yohan had no doubt it would birth a core.
He'd poured over a decade into creating it.
With the time he'd invested, failure wasn't an option.
‘Be honored! To become the master of this mana road!’
Just as Yohan believed, the mana road etched itself ever more clearly into Yuri's body.
The mana raced unimpeded to Yuri's navel area—its destination.
The birthplace of the core.
‘Finally!’
After long years, the moment the first fruit would ripen.
‘Show yourself!’
It had to.
The fruit should have formed...
‘...?’
Yohan's thoughts froze.
‘Huh?’
All that remained was for a tiny core to form near Yuri's navel.
But...
‘W-where is it?’
No core formed.
Not only no core—Yuri's internal mana had vanished clean.
‘N-no way! This can't be!’
Stunned, Yohan suppressed his panic and ran the mana road again.
Having etched the path once, the mana flowed faster and more precisely.
The second attempt ended.
‘W-where?’
Same result.
No core, and the mana circulating the path had disappeared without a trace.
Yohan tried cycling mana along the road several more times in dismay, but no core coalesced.
Time passed.
Yohan pulled his hand from Yuri's back and muttered blankly.
"It was there... gone? It was there... gone!"
At Yohan's wail, Yuri asked innocently.
"What?"
"The mana! Where'd you sell off that mana from earlier, you punk?! Where'd it sneak off to?!"
"Oh, that?"
Yuri grasped Yohan's question instantly.
How could he not?
It had happened in his own body.
Yohan had guided the path, but he'd moved the mana himself.
So he knew.
Except...
"No clue. Heh heh."
The problem was, Yuri didn't know why the mana had evaporated from his body either.
He'd just felt it vanish.
Yuri scratched the back of his head with a grin, and Yohan pounded his chest like he was about to explode.
"What the heeell! Why can't you just be normal like everyone else?! Nothing goes smoothly with you, you cursed brat! What's so damn finicky about making one lousy mana core?!"
He'd only tried to teach mana once, and unforeseen variables kept piling up—ones no one could predict.
Yohan looked utterly fed up.
Yuri stood tall in response.
Shoulders back.
Gut out.
"There's an old saying for this."
"..."
"Trials befall the genius."
"Genius can go die in a ditch! Shut up and spill where you stashed the mana, you lunatic!"
"How'm I supposed to spill with my mouth shut? Idiot?"
"Just spill it!"
Yohan grabbed Yuri's collar and shook him roughly.
Yuri looked wronged.
"No, I really don't know!"
"Why not?! Why! It happened in your own body!"
"How should I know?! Maybe the mana circulation method you taught me was wrong?"
"You punk—do you even grasp what that is before flapping your trap? Anything but that could've gone wrong!"
"You sure? Can you prove it? Shouldn't bet on unproven stuff."
"Sure or not, if that mana road was flawed, one of your limbs would've twisted off by now! Proof? You're standing here fine—that's the proof, you little shit!"
"...You crazy old coot?! You should've warned me before jamming that into my body! What kinda stunt is this!"
"Why should I?"
Yuri and Yohan bickered heatedly for a while.
They eventually agreed to keep trying until they tracked the missing mana, then sat back down promptly.
From then on, it was endless repetition of cycling mana along the road.
As time wore on, Yuri's mana control grew smoother, but still no sign of a core.
After a dozen or so attempts, Yohan realized one thing.
‘The mana isn't leaking out.’
That made it all the more baffling.
If all that mana wasn't escaping externally, how had it vanished so completely inside the body?
‘It's been ages since I last felt this pissed. Ha ha.’
Veins bulged on Yohan's forehead.
If the mana was vanishing somewhere inside Yuri, he'd find it no matter what.
Yohan focused every sense.
More intensely than any day in the past decade.
Did his effort pay off?
‘Gotcha, you bastard!’
Dozens of mana cycles.
As Yuri began complaining of mental strain from the cycling, Yohan finally caught a trace of the vanished mana.
In the next round, he successfully tailed the mirage-like mana.
In the following attempt, Yohan pinpointed where the mana was going.
A hard-won discovery, with Yuri exhausted from cycling and Yohan drained from analysis.
But Yohan couldn't rejoice.
He was too shocked by the truth he'd uncovered.
Where Yuri's mana had vanished.
It was none other than...
‘Th-this... cra, crazy?!’
The spirit blood.
And inside it.
The reason mana wouldn't accumulate in Yuri's flesh.
The culprit sucking up Yuri's gathered mana before a core could even form!
‘Ha ha...’
Confronted by the reality, Yohan laughed like a madman.
‘...This is insane.’
He had no choice.
For inside Yuri's spirit blood sat the very core he'd so desperately wanted to create, plain as day.
‘In the spirit blood... spirit blood... a core's embedded?’
This was unprecedented.
A place where no core should exist.
A place no one had even imagined could host one: the spirit blood.
‘Is this even possible?’
But how could he doubt with such clear evidence before his eyes?
The knowledge and common sense he'd built becoming a master crumbled at Yuri's feet.
Yohan's gaze twisted as he stared at Yuri, his inner thoughts spilling out.
"...What kinda freak is this?"
It was heartfelt sincerity, deeply felt.
Followed by one more line.
"Should I... dissect this little shit?"
Yohan's eyes gleamed wildly.
Yuri shivered at the intensely serious stare.