Palamus's Mansion
The mansion was steeped in a heavy, oppressive aura. Visibility remained stubbornly unclear, and the air felt so thin it was as if they had been dropped into the void of space. An unexpected encounter sent waves of primal fear coursing through Bagan's body.
Dragons possessed an innate presence known as pressure. As biologically supreme beings, they naturally exuded an aura that dominated anything beneath them. Even a beastman mage nearing the 7th circle would be reduced to nothing more than an insect in a dragon's presence.
For several seconds, silence reigned—no sound of breathing could be heard.
Then Barret spoke, her voice filled with awe.
"Ooh! My master, the great Palamus. I behold your countenance. Are you in good health?"
She was overjoyed that Palamus had come out of his room on his own. For whatever reason, he had been skipping meals, and now he had finally shown himself.
"I merely stepped out to clear my head," Palamus replied without much force, his crimson eyes still fixed on Bagan as though observing him.
"So, how was the magic?"
"W-what do you mean?" Bagan couldn't grasp Palamus's intent. Simply maintaining his composure was already overwhelming.
"Merely experiencing magic has infused your body with mana. Can you use it?"
Unlike his earlier exchange with Barret, this question carried genuine curiosity.
"I cannot use it yet. As you can see, no circles have formed."
Bagan told no lies. He couldn't. Palamus's gaze made it clear he already knew everything.
"Hmm. A pity. It would be better if you awakened magic on your own. No need for reconstruction, then."
Palamus's words presupposed that Bagan was merely a vessel. From the very beginning, he treated Bagan not even as a pet, but as an experimental subject—nothing more.
"Enough. My head is sufficiently clear. I shall return inside. Barret, showing magic is fine, but see to it that he comes to no harm."
Though he spoke as if concerned, Bagan knew there was an ulterior motive. He fought back the urge to retch.
"Yes, Master."
Barret answered. Without acknowledging her reply, Palamus turned and slowly made his way back to his room, one deliberate step at a time.
Once Palamus departed, the mansion's atmosphere shifted as though they had entered another world. The crushing air returned to its proper place, and everything that had been compressed sprang back like taut rubber.
"Well done. Lord Palamus is a great being, after all."
Barret approached Bagan, who was patting his chest in relief and exhaling the breath he had been holding.
"I need to calm down."
At Bagan's words, she offered her ears. He recalled something she had mentioned before.
She said she often touches her ears.
Deciding to test it, he reached out and touched them. Like magic, her ears brought him a sense of peace. The soft fur, the gentle warmth, the steady rhythm of her pulse—his own heartbeat began to sync with hers.
"Is that enough?" Barret asked, looking up at him with a blank expression after quietly offering her ears.
"Uh, yeah."
Barret stood a full head shorter than Bagan, and the sudden closeness startled him.
She's way too close.
As if she had read his thoughts, she spoke.
"Please refrain from any strange notions. I shall prepare your bathwater."
She slipped away from his touch and, noticing he was drenched in sweat, headed toward the bath.
***
After a refreshing bath in the water Barret had heated, Bagan stopped drying his hair with a towel and spoke.
"You don't want to teach me magic, do you?"
No matter how he thought about it, simply firing spells at him didn't seem like proper instruction. But perhaps the question was too absurd. Barret gave no reply. Instead, she used Wind on his still-damp hair, sending a gentle breeze through it.
"So that's a no..."
He took her silence as refusal. Then—
"This is an image of mana being manipulated to create wind."
She had used Wind with the intention of teaching him the basics of elemental magic. Bagan responded with eager interest.
"I see. An image, huh? So as long as you have mana, you can manifest anything you imagine?"
Barret gave a small nod. Confirming her affirmation, Bagan closed his eyes and focused, recalling her words. Mana from the monsters he had absorbed already resided in his heart, so he had more than enough to attempt magic.
An image of wind blowing...
He pictured it—the force of wind striking his face while running at full speed. The power of wind sweeping across a fixed distance as though it had legs of its own. Concentrating mana into his hand as he visualized it—
Whoosh!
Wind gathered in his right hand, forming a Wind spell. But—
"W-wait, it's... bigger than I thought?"
It was enormous. Even Barret, whose expression rarely changed, reacted with alarm.
"Are you trying to blow the mansion away?"
Bagan realized he had to do something about the rapidly growing spell.
It's been amplified by Release.
Of course the spell had grown massive—Release magic was three times stronger. And because he wasn't used to controlling mana, he couldn't stop the flow.
Feeling the weight of the expanding Wind in his right hand, Bagan supported it with his left. If this continued, he really might destroy the mansion. But—
I have Absorption too.
He absorbed the massive Wind hovering above his palm, just as he had absorbed the power of monsters. Gradually, the Wind shrank. Bagan continued absorbing with full concentration until the spell finally faded completely.
Barret watched the dissipated magic with suspicious eyes.
"You claimed you couldn't use magic, yet you just did. Were you asking me to teach you anyway?"
Under her sharp gaze, Bagan struggled to find an excuse. He didn't want her to know about his traits, so he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
"I think I awakened after you shot so many Fireballs at me earlier. People grow stronger in crisis, right?"
She stared at him for a few more seconds before looking away and walking ahead, clearly annoyed. Bagan hurried after her, but she only quickened her pace. He offered a sincere apology.
"I'm sorry, Barret. That really was my first time using magic."
"It's fine. Just hurry up and follow."
Her rather firm personality left Bagan trailing behind her like a drenched puppy as she led him to his room. Though he didn't fully understand what had upset her, he resolved to apologize properly once time had passed.
***
After entering his room and being told to call if he needed anything, Bagan found himself unable to rest as instructed.
"I need to study Absorption and Release further."
He had used the traits separately before, but combining them seemed to multiply their effectiveness. He wanted to explore everything the two traits could accomplish together.
"I still don't know their limits."
What Bagan knew of Absorption and Release came mostly from how they were used in the game.
"If things outside the game's system are possible too..."
He scanned the room for the sturdiest material he could find, intending to test a hypothesis. The strongest thing present was the steel pillar supporting the ceiling.
Bagan immediately placed his hand on it and attempted to absorb as he had planned.
Absorb the hardness of steel.
But nothing happened. His body didn't become harder.
Guess I won't be getting iron arms like in the movies.
Disappointed, he removed his hand from the innocent pillar.
"So it's the same as in the game..."
Or so he thought. But when he focused, he sensed something foreign within him. Though no circles had formed, Bagan could perceive the mana he had obtained from monsters.
"This is...?"
The mana's movement had changed. At times it became hard as steel, at others soft and flexible, and sometimes it flared like fire. Its constant shifting made it impossible to define.
"That's not in the game."
The strangeness made him acutely aware that this place was reality.
If I release even a little of this through my skin...
Since he could feel the energy, releasing it wasn't difficult. He overlaid only the steel-hard property of the mana onto his skin. After coating his left arm and examining the result—
"Nothing visible."
Yet something had changed. His skin tissue had become as hard as steel. Just to be sure, he tried it on his muscles as well. Though they hardened, movement became restricted, so he decided against using it that way again.
Having confirmed Absorption's potential, Bagan gathered his focus in his feet to test Release. The trait's range extended to anything he wore, so wearing shoes didn't seem to matter.
What he intended to do was—
"Release like this."
Whoosh!
A small impact erupted from his feet, and his body lifted into the air.
"One more time."
Without stopping, Bagan released again while airborne.
Whoosh!
Another shockwave propelled him higher. Like the sky-walking technique from a famous pirate manga, he could now tread on air.
"So this kind of application works too."
Bagan continued researching Absorption and Release until no new ideas came to mind.
"Starting tomorrow, it's back to training. To defeat that damned dragon."
With his resolve renewed, he ended the day.
***
Palamus had recently noticed that Bagan was acting differently. It wasn't enough to interfere with his research, but it had piqued his interest.
What is he doing now?
As the pinnacle of mana manipulation, a dragon could instantly detect mana usage even hundreds of meters away. Thus, nothing that happened in the mansion escaped his notice. Though the movements were minute, they hadn't evaded his senses.
Yet now he felt something clever—something that slipped past his perception entirely. It intrigued him, but he had other matters to finish first and couldn't afford to focus on it.
You're different, aren't you?
Muttering the cryptic words, Palamus returned to reading the parchment he had been examining. His room was a chaotic mess of countless scattered parchments, some inscribed with indecipherable text in the dragon tongue, others marked with magic circles.
Leaning one arm on his desk with his chin propped up, he alternated his gaze between a luxurious tray on his right and the parchments. In stark contrast to the disorder around him, a neatly arranged sheet of paper hung there, bearing the words: soul, transference, vessel, capacity, absorption, sophistry, black magic. At its center was a portrait of Bagan—clearly torn from somewhere.
"Everything is proceeding according to plan."
Palamus's crimson irises gleamed as he closed and opened his eyes, his expression one of anticipation—unlike before. With a look suggesting he had some hidden scheme, he resumed studying the disorganized parchments.