Chapter 247: The Path to the Heart (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 247: The Path to the Heart (4)
Hot breaths and tongues tangled, weaving in and out of each other's mouths.
The sensation that had threatened to incinerate every nerve in my body the moment our lips touched began to subside, and my eyes, which had been closed, slowly fluttered open.
The movements of our lips and tongues were hopelessly clumsy.
“Haahng… Haa… Heut… Haup…!”
But wasn't it strange?
This sloppy, awkward kiss was more thrilling than any I’d ever had before.
Was it because death was staring me in the face?
Or… was it the sense of depravity that came from kissing the woman who was once my sister-in-law?
Just as I was wavering, caught between the initial, electrifying pleasure and a deeply penetrating confusion…
[User ‘Han Ju-yeon’s’ sub-trait ‘Sacrifice of Purity’ has been activated.]
[All stats will be doubled for 5 minutes.]
[Time Remaining: 04:59]
The message window that appeared before me made my head spin.
A sense of euphoria filled my entire body.
Then, Ju-yeon’s face, which had been pressing forward so boldly, pulled back, and our lips parted.
“Haa…!”
“Hoo.”
As I let out a short breath, a long, thin strand of saliva between us snapped.
“Ju… No, Teacher.”
I caught myself just as I was about to call her by name, correcting myself with a title that reflected our current relationship. She smiled shyly and shook her head.
“Don’t ask anything right now.”
She then pointed toward the severed wall.
There, the Kraken clone was thrashing its four pairs of arms like whips, pounding against the barrier.
It seemed that being in this isolated space had even blocked out the thunderous noise of its assault.
Well… I probably wouldn't have noticed even if it hadn't.
“Is it possible now?” Han Ju-yeon asked, her shy smile still in place.
I clenched and unclenched my fists, gauging the power surging within me.
At this level… am I about as strong as Son Si-woo was in his early thirties?
The stats were probably similar, but I was likely stronger now. Unlike back then, when I was still technically unrefined, I now had more experience and a younger body.
[Time Remaining: 04:45]
After checking the timer, I looked at Ju-yeon and nodded confidently.
“Please step back.”
“You can’t get hurt… okay?”
As she slowly backed away, her face filled with worry for me, I made a bold declaration.
“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”
If my prediction was correct… there was no way I’d get hurt.
Probably.
The Wall of Severance, its duration short to compensate for its overpowered ability, began to fade.
“Kukakakakakakak!”
Finally facing its enemy once more, the creature let out a roar that could have been either joy or rage.
“Yeah, nice to see you, too.”
I drew the sword from my hip, layering it with coats of mana.
A black aura materialized over the sword, burning like a flame.
“…Black?”
The changed color of my aura caught my eye.
It was definitely blue when I was Son Si-woo.
Well… it wasn’t so strange for my aura’s color to change now that my body had. It was just that black was a color no one had ever managed to produce before, which made it fascinating.
I decided to look into it later.
“Kaaahk-!”
The creature charged, letting out a savage roar from a mouth that split open so wide it nearly reached the back of its neck.
As if to prove it was a squid, its four pairs of arms—all except the legs it stood on—stretched out, whipping toward me from all directions.
It was a rather dangerous and tricky attack to dodge, but…
Slice.
“Ta-da. You just have to slice them all up like this.”
Of course, that wasn't easy either. You had to prioritize which of the tentacles flying in from every direction to cut first, and you needed the speed and power to slice through them all without a single misstep.
The severed tentacles writhed and flopped on the fleshy walls.
“Kiiii…!”
The Kraken clone let out a low growl of fury as it regenerated its severed limbs.
With every shift in its emotions, the three hearts hanging on its chest began to beat faster, pumping out and circulating even more mana at a quicker rate.
Supplied with more mana, its body accelerated even further.
Crunch.
KWAAANG-!
The mere act of its thick, muscle-bound feet kicking off the ground produced a tremendous sonic boom.
Its speed was a notch—no, two notches—faster than mine, even with my stats doubled.
“Kigigik-!”
It was a storm of tentacles, so overwhelming that the sight alone was suffocating. The hundreds of afterimages combined with the real limbs made me feel as if I were trapped within four solid walls.
But there was no need to panic.
It was only my eyes that felt overwhelmed.
The sensations on my skin, the thick scent emanating from the real tentacles, the ghastly noises piercing my ears…
I had plenty of ways besides sight to distinguish the real from the fake and find a way to break through.
The moment I dodged its all-out attack, the time for a counterattack arrived.
The amount of mana boiling inside my body was extraordinary.
Let’s start with something light.
「Fire Rain.」
A downpour of flames, formed by gathering and compressing the surrounding mana, rained down.
FWOOSH!
Sizzzle…!
Each and every bolt that struck the ground surpassed the power of the intermediate magic ‘Fire Spear’. This advanced magic was unleashed with ridiculous ease, as if the established ranks of basic, beginner, intermediate, and advanced meant nothing to me. It was simply natural.
“Kraaaaaah-!”
The Kraken clone thrashed its tentacles in agony as they were scorched black by the flames.
But not a single one touched my body.
No, there was no way they could.
“It’s just too obvious…”
The creature’s body, compressed to the point of ignoring the laws of physics, was monstrous. Its stats were also several levels above mine, even with the twofold boost from the mysterious ‘Sacrifice of Purity’.
The reason I could so easily evade its attacks was because it was too straightforward.
“The hardware is great, but the software seriously sucks.”
The mind controlling this monstrous body was simply too lacking. It had no idea how to handle its own body to utilize it to its absolute limit.
In a way… right.
“It’s on the same level as that guy.”
That foolish bastard who obtained the unprecedented SSS-rank trait ‘Equivalent Exchange’ only to gain the body of a middle-aged man.
They were both alike, fucking around with something incredible without understanding its true value.
Their stupidity was deplorable.
But I didn’t want to blame them.
Thanks to these two idiots, I was reaping all the benefits without a single loss, wasn't I?
[Time Remaining: 02:30]
I glanced at the timer and rapidly drew in more mana.
My composure was restored, and my control over mana had increased with the larger pool.
These two factors shattered the old mold in my mind. I broke free from fixed forms and linear flows, stepping into a more creative domain.
What I created was none other than a giant bird.
「Frozen Bird.」
A translucent bird sculpted from pure white ice, scattering snowflakes with every flap of its wings in the air. Though made of solidly fixed ice, its movements were utterly free.
And that freedom began to torment the Kraken clone relentlessly.
SKREEE!
My bird, a mere construct born of magic, even let out a shriek as it soared through the air.
No, calling it ‘bird’ felt a bit impersonal…
“Yeah, Bing-dak-i sounds good.” [T/N: Bing-dak-i is a portmanteau of "bing" (ice) and "dak" (chicken).]
It even has something like a chicken’s comb on its head, so it’s perfect.
With a flap of its wings, Bing-dak-i turned toward the Kraken clone, and a massive blizzard raged toward the creature.
WHOOOSH-!
WHOOSH-!
The snowflakes carried on the fierce wind blanketed the four pairs of arms covering its body.
SKREEEEEEE!
“……”
For some reason, that shriek sounded like it was protesting its new name… but surely not, right?
Bing-dak-i charged toward the creature, which had hardened its guard. The moment its long beak, moving so fast it left a thick afterimage in its wake, touched the monster…
CRACK-!
With a clear, sharp sound like shattering glass, Bing-dak-i’s entire body exploded into sharp daggers that embedded themselves all over the creature’s body.
Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!
THWACK-!
“Hah… nice firepower.”
It flew around as if it had a will of its own, blasting wind everywhere, and then finished with a self-destruct.
The creature’s body was torn to shreds, an unbelievable outcome from the work of a single bird.
Of course, thanks to its monstrous regeneration, it was recovering quickly.
“That’s not so bad, either.”
Regeneration isn't some Divine Authority that comes without a cost.
In fact, every time its body returned to normal, the amount of mana produced by its hearts dropped significantly. That meant it was consuming a great deal of mana to regenerate its body.
Just as you can’t draw water by throwing a bucket into a dry well, the creature’s pumping would eventually run dry.
“Kukukuku…!”
A laugh-like sound of rage echoed eerily.
At the same time, the creature looked at me and curled its four pairs of arms into a circle in front of its body. Just as I was wondering what it was doing, its three hearts began to emit an enormous amount of mana.
KWAAAAA-!
A waterfall of blue mana poured out, gathering at a single point indicated by the eight curled tentacles. The image was reminiscent of a Kraken absorbing the ocean’s mana to unleash a breath attack in a single blast.
No, it was a breath attack.
“…It’s going to fire that from its own body?”
This was an unexpected variable.
I immediately dropped a massive bolt of lightning on its head.
「Giga Lightning.」
An anti-personnel magic, created by cramming all the mana required for an advanced spell into a single bolt, fell upon the crown of its head.
KRRR-RUMBLE-!
A blinding flash of light and a deafening roar.
Even as its body was charred black, the creature’s eyes were still fixed on me, and the mana at the tips of its tentacles was steadily growing in size.
“……”
It was a hair-trigger situation.
Where on earth was it drawing all that massive mana from?
The moment I stared at the three hearts with that question in mind, I finally began to see it.
The source of its endless supply of mana.
“…It was this entire body.”
The answer was the Kraken’s giant corpse.
The Kraken was greedily devouring the ambient mana from the outside. Then, the clone was absorbing that mana, which had gathered inside the body, through its hearts.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
That sight… it looked familiar somehow.
Watching the hearts greedily suck in mana, I was seized by a strange sense of déjà vu. The mechanism was slightly different, but the way it absorbed mana was just like…
“…Like me?”
It was similar to my past self, back when I used ‘Mana Absorption,’ an ability I lost as my traits evolved.
In that instant, an absurd thought flashed through my mind.
All that mana it’s constantly sucking from the giant body… can’t I stick a straw in there, too?
A message window immediately gave me the answer.
[The conditions for using the ability have been met. The sub-trait ‘Gluttony (貪食)’ will be unlocked.]
Apparently, I could.