Chapter 48
Chapter 48
Chapter 48 Master of Black Magic.
'But I feel like I'm forgetting something...'
Something felt extremely empty. It was like something that should definitely be here was missing?
"Ah. That's right. Eve!"
I had said I'd call her right away, but the 4th Floor trial was a week-long one, and the environment was so harsh that I had completely forgotten. It definitely wasn't because I forgot due to the elixir.
I immediately opened the subspace and called her, and Eve walked out from inside.
"Yeong-min! I waited so much! I thought you forgot about Eve... But I endured and worked hard!"
Whether it was long or short, that time period. She hadn't spent that time idly, as her aura had changed.
Except for sleeping and eating time, she had invested time only in martial arts, and it showed that she had become familiar with martial arts.
Her words about working hard weren't lies.
"Sorry. The trial went on for a whole week."
I wanted a retainer who followed me with their heart, not one who was forced to follow due to Retainer Transformation.
So I apologized instead of just brushing it off, and she nodded and accepted it.
"It's not like you did it on purpose, so it's okay! But... I want to receive what you promised!"
She definitely had child-level intelligence, but she also possessed the ability to understand and consider others, as well as the cleverness to use situations to get what she wanted.
A smart retainer was several times better than a stupid one, so even that aspect was pleasing to me.
"Good. I'll do it right away."
First, I boiled a tremendous amount of ramen for us to share.
'Yeah. This is what food is.'
Having eaten only demon beast meat for a whole week, I had missed this taste. Though on one hand, I did feel a bit disappointed that my resistance wasn't increasing.
It felt like my head had gone strange due to the abnormal structure of the Tutorial 4th Floor trial, where growth was possible just by eating.
"As expected, what Yeong-min makes is the most delicious!"
"Yeah. Eat a lot. Tell me if it's not enough."
Seeing her eating deliciously beside me naturally brought a warm smile to my face.
After finishing the ramen, I checked Eve's condition. I needed to know what level she was at to be able to educate her.
"Can you show me how much you've grown during the week?"
"Got it!"
She strengthened her body with the Threefold Heart Method and began to unfold Taijiquan, actively utilizing the mysteries of gentleness.
'She's already at this level...?'
Surprisingly, she had mastered the basic martial arts I had taught her - the Threefold Heart Method and Taijiquan.
No matter how basic the martial arts were, reaching the mastery level this quickly was impossible.
But with the peak-level mana manipulation techniques she was born with, the experience of having encountered divine arts even if briefly, plus her talent on top of that, it became possible.
It wasn't just me who had grown explosively during the week. My retainer had also earnestly moved forward.
"You must have worked really hard? Then as promised, I'll tell you about the next stage."
"Good!"
Passion for learning, desire for strength, and shining talent that didn't fall behind her passion and desire at all.
It had been a long time since I found a child fun to teach. She was a child who made me want to teach her more things.
I wanted to create customized divine arts for her right away, but when it came to Eve, I couldn't approach it that way.
'There's too much mana in her body.'
Through the elixir, the amount of mana I had increased ridiculously, but Eve still had more than twice the mana I had.
If she carelessly learned divine arts, there was a risk that just performing the Small Heavenly Circuit would tear her meridians and injure her body.
Since she had regenerative abilities, growing in that way could increase the size of her meridians faster and make her stronger more quickly, but was there really a need to go that far?
Of course, if it were me, I would have done that, but Eve wasn't me. There was no need for her to become stronger while feeling the pain of her entire body being torn apart just for a bit of efficiency.
Like with Baek Ryeon, if growth was impossible without divine arts, I would have considered it, but that wasn't the case either.
'Actually, I'm not even sure if she could understand divine arts right away with her intelligence.'
So I was thinking of having her follow the normal growth route from basic martial arts to intermediate martial arts, and from intermediate martial arts to divine arts. It was the orthodox faction's method.
It was truly contradictory that I, a human, learned martial arts through the demonic sect's method, while Eve, a monster, would learn martial arts through the orthodox faction's method.
"Now. Close your eyes and concentrate again. I'll transmit a heart method to you."
When she sat down, I also sat behind her and skillfully flowed energy through her back.
I recited the formula of intermediate martial arts, repeated breathing, and had her learn the flow of energy through her body via the Small Heavenly Circuit.
It was a martial art called Tyrannical Power Advancement that I had created in the tutorial, targeting Ogres, and since it was an intermediate martial art with high versatility, it would be convenient to transition to divine arts later.
It seemed like it would suit Eve, who was a monster, particularly well, and as if my expectation wasn't wrong, she was becoming familiar with Tyrannical Power Advancement at a fast pace.
So I let go and allowed her to learn on her own.
"You remember everything I just taught you, right? Can you do it by yourself? If not, tell me."
"I remember everything! I can do it alone!"
Self-directed learning was important. If I spoon-fed her everything, it would become difficult for her to walk her own path.
I had learned this clearly through the case of Baek Ryeon.
Of course, she was an amazing disciple who reached the Harmony realm just by following me, but I didn't want to create another person who was excessively obsessed with me.
I would no longer dye someone else's life entirely with my color.
'Actually, I didn't intend for Ryeon to be like that either...'
So I was thinking of being even more careful. I couldn't have a second Baek Ryeon. I would bestow just the right amount of teaching and affection. Though I didn't know if that would be possible.
Steeling my heart and watching Eve sitting in front of me, working hard to learn the intermediate heart method, I couldn't just sit still either.
After gaining the Master of Black Magic ability, I began to directly use the black magic that had started to be engraved in my mind.
Since there was no suitable target to use it on, I was experimenting directly on my own body, but there were really many absurd points.
'I can just use it without incantation.'
Originally, to use magic, an act called incantation was absolutely necessary. Incantation took the place of the magic circles I used when using Magical Engineering.
The more familiar you became with a particular magic, the fewer words needed for incantation to use that magic, and when you became completely familiar with it, it was also possible to use it without incantation.
You reached the level where you could implement the effects of magic circles with only imagination and will.
But Master of Black Magic provided knowledge about black magic just by breathing, and it didn't take long to reach the level of no incantation the moment I learned new black magic.
From necromancy to curse magic, blood magic that dealt with blood, and various black magics that dealt with elements or debuffs - the spectrum of positions I could take was getting wider and wider.
Necromancer or curse mage weren't on the list of jobs I had imagined, but having gained these abilities, not using them would be a huge loss.
'I would have been in big trouble if I hadn't eaten all the demon beasts.'
It was only because just some bone fragments remained that the Demon Dragon was limited to using bone magic, but if the corpses had remained intact, I would have had to face an undead demon beast army.
There were even black magics that, instead of receiving penalties after use, had greater enhancement effects than holy arts.
What if it had advanced an undead demon beast army while buffing them, continuously casting various curses and debuffs on me while continuously shooting Black Dragon Breath?
It would have been like a living nightmare. That's what an intelligently fighting Demon Dragon was.
The fact that it hadn't been long since it gained intelligence and its combat intelligence was low, plus the fact that there were no corpses nearby, were the reasons I was able to victory over it.
'Friend. Don't worry. I'll carry on your will.'
And now I had become an existence who could perform all the acts I had just imagined. I could only handle a small number of black magics for now, but time would solve that.
"Wait, but isn't this kind of utilization also possible?"
If the opponent was someone like me with high resistance to curses or debuffs, the utility of black magic would inevitably drop.
But what if I cast black magic buffs on such a person instead?
Of course, they would become harder to deal with during the duration, but when it ended, they would get a kind of debuff through the penalty.
To check if such utilization was possible, I directly cast a black magic buff that increased strength on my own body.
Checking the enhancement level, it was definitely much greater than ordinary-level enhancement holy arts.
I waited until the duration ended and felt a debuff being applied to my body normally.
It was proven that even resistance couldn't defend against penalties from buffs.
Well, this wasn't really a negative effect but rather a 'just price' paid for using buffs.
If I could just endure for the duration, I had gained the ability to forcibly inflict debuffs even on opponents with very high resistance.
While an ordinary black mage would find it difficult to endure while even buffing their opponent, for me black magic was merely auxiliary - my essence was a martial artist who had reached the peak of Harmony.
Having several regenerative abilities, enduring for the duration of a buff was no problem at all.
Of course, there was no law saying I had to use buffs only on enemies.
It was a method I could use on opponents with high resistance like me, but I wondered how many people who had built up resistance like me actually existed.
'Now I can also work as a supporter and debuffer.'
When my divine authorities returned, I would be able to use Odin's magic and Yahweh's holy arts again, so triple-stacking buffs on others would also become possible.
How strong could someone become with buffs using magic, black magic, and holy arts all together?
Since I knew Yoo So-eun had no talent for black magic, I had become capable of better supporting than Yoo So-eun.
There was no jack-of-all-trades like this jack-of-all-trades.
I had checked black magic sufficiently, and next it was time to try the Demon Dragon's Breath.
The waiting room would probably get pretty destroyed, but it would be restored anyway so it was fine.
I put up a barrier that blocked sound with mana in front of Eve so as not to interfere with her training, gathered mana in my mouth, then shot it forward in an instant.
Perhaps due to the difference in mana I possessed, it was weaker than what the Demon Dragon had used, but its power was beyond imagination.
Everything touched by the breath was miserably destroyed and erased.
If I had had this ability during the 3rd Floor trial, I could have carried out a massacre even without the Demon King.
Eve, who had finished training, got up from her seat and came over the sound barrier, smiling purely at me and saying:
"Yeong-min! You became even more monster-like in just a week! Really amazing! I want to become like Yeong-min too!"
Now even monsters were calling me a real monster.
The fact that those words contained no malice but pure praise and admiration made them stick in my heart even more.
'Please don't say that...'
It hurt my heart even more that I couldn't deny it.
Even I thought this was monster-like.